Day of woke up late

Not too late, but a bit later than originally planned. So I ran a bit short this morning. 10.7km. Pleased to say I ran it in just under 5min/km. Really really just under (ie. 4:55km). But still. It feels good to get my lungs working hard. I have to keep reminding myself to keep my feet fast. I tend to drift off sometimes and lose focus, and then notice I've slowed the pace.

But this running experiment seems to be working so far. Run hard, run as fast as I can for as long as I can. Push the limits.





I'm up to 45.7km this week, so far.

Day of get up and run

It's such a good idea to run immediately upon rising. With only about fifteen minutes between rolling out of bed and running down the street. No time to think about the tough hour ahead, no time to fiddle around or procrastinate. I ran my 12.2 km route again this morning, again aiming for 60 minutes. It felt easier this morning, probably because it wasn't as hot as on Saturday, and also because I tend to have more energy first thing in the morning.

But I was foiled by traffic this morning. The time on my watch was 61 minutes, 40 seconds. But I had been stopped by several traffic lights on the way there and back, which made me stop, of course, but also threw me off my rhythm. Annoying. I think the time on my watch could have been under an hour without those lights.

Another reason to dislike cars.

I'm hoping and planning to do this run as often as I can. Over time, I may be able to go further in that amount of time. An hour of exercise seems doable to fit into the schedule. And why not make it a hard hour of exercise rather than a loping hour of exercise? Why not push hard? This run reminds me of the spin class. It's a tough push, but feels very rewarding when it's over, and it will get easier over time. And then I'll be able to push harder and go even faster.

I've run 35 km since Thursday. Not bad.

Day of no long run

Did not get my long run in today. My husband and I were so exhausted, we slept in until nearly 9. We spent yesterday on the soccer field watching our eldest daughter's soccer tournament, in which two games went into overtime, and one to penalty kicks. A loss meant automatic elimination. And our daughter is the team's goalie. It was agonizing. And exhilarating. (They won all three games).

Luckily, between the first and second games, we had about two hours to spare, so we came home to rest and relax, and I ran for an hour. I wanted to meet my goal of running 12km in an hour (ie. 5 min/km), and I came really close: 61 minutes, 20 seconds, for 12.2km. Yay! It was tough, but it felt great. I hope to start doing that run on a regular basis, so that 10km at an even faster clip will feel doable, and short.

I will keep you posted.

Day of needing to run

I'm giving up on the numbers. They're not right anyway. But I like the Day to begin the title of each post. I'll keep that.

It's been awhile since I posted. I did not update this blog while on holiday, but I must note that I swam virtually every day, twice a day, in a lake. Every day was a bit different, but I estimate that I went at least 800 metres on my morning swims, and longer on my afternoon swims. I also kayaked a fair bit. So fun. I really noticed the improvement in my navigation skills by the end of the week: I was getting accustomed to looking up and ahead in order to stay on course. I felt fast and strong. But I also felt nervous in the deep water, and did not like the feeling of fatigue while in deep water. I never went out too far unless I was being spotted by someone in a kayak (usually my sister-in-law), but instead swam parallel to the shoreline. But still. It's easy to get into trouble in the water, even for experienced swimmers, so I stayed cautious. I probably never let myself get as fatigued as I normally would in a pool work-out.

Back home, I've been going crazy. Failed to schedule in work-out times this week, and therefore have ended up with very little. A good reminder: take the time to make the time.

I ran on Tuesday morning with a friend.

And I ran tonight, thank heavens. I was going stir-crazy. Kids around all the time, tons of canning and freezing this week, errands, holiday laundry, and me ... with a mind that felt fuzzy and incompetent at times. Or just plain overwhelmed. It hit me today. Forget the triathlon training. I need exercise to keep me sane, and on solid footing. The muscles are just a lucky by-product (and the chlorine hair an unlucky one). What I discovered during the triathlon training is how much happier I am, just generally, when I'm running or biking or swimming or yoga-ing regularly. Every day, ideally.

So I ran 11 kms in 56 minutes tonight. My goal is to run 12 kms in an hour flat, comfortably. Something to work toward. Then I could run shorter distances even faster (that's my theory anyway). I ran hard tonight and was hoping I'd gone just a little further, but overall, I was happy just being out there and running hard and hearing myself breathing hard, and working hard. I didn't even think about anything. I didn't need to. I just enjoyed the feeling of running itself. It clears the mind. It really really does. I'm so thankful I can do it. And that I discovered it.

Plan to rise early for yoga. I'm stiff as a board and haven't been to yoga since before the holiday. And so, to bed.

378: Too Long Run

I went too far today. The reason I know it was too far, is because I suffered for it afterward with stomach cramps, soaking sweats, and the feeling of being really and suddenly ill. Yuck. Which makes me glad I didn't sign up for any half-Ironman races this season! Next year, maybe, and I'll train hard to get there.

Meanwhile, I think the 25km trail run in six weeks will be enough for my system to handle. Today, I ran 25.5km in just under two and a half hours, which puts me at a pace of about 5 minutes, 45 seconds/kilometre. Not speedy, but it's not supposed to be either. I felt comfortable until about two hours on, when I started to feel not so great. My legs were really sore and tired. It was a struggle.

Maybe the marathon plan will just be too hard. Next long run, I'm definitely going shorter.

377: 12 kilometres/hour

To squeeze in some extra running, I've been wearing my running gear to my daughter's soccer games, on Thursday evenings, and running while her team warms up, so I won't miss the game. I can report that the field she regularly plays on, in our home town, is my favourite place to run, hands down. Tons of steep hills, trails, and shade. The Kitchener field is not bad either: it was connected to a series of long, though rather deserted, trails, and made for good running. But Fergus. Ah, Fergus. That's where I ran yesterday evening. There were no trails. I was quickly out of the small town and into the country. The road had virtually no shoulder. It was heavily travelled. But it was also quite residential, and the speed limit was fairly low, for a country road, so it also had a cool device to show drivers how fast they are actually driving, in comparison to the speed limit. As I ran toward the device, I watched with interest to see how fast those cars were passing me: 61 km/hour; 70 km/hour.

And then I saw an odd number flash on the screen: 12 km/hour. It popped up to 13 km/hour. I broke out in a huge grin--it was measuring my speed! And I was running at about a 5-minute/km pace, or slightly better, exactly what I was aiming for.

Too funny. Okay, Fergus, you're not my favourite place to run, but you did put a smile on my face.

375: Quick Pace

Started this morning with a run, on my own, so I decided to push my pace. I was wearing a watch and following a route that allows me to do loops of 2 kilometres, which made it easy to keep track of my pace. I kept it to just under 5 minutes a kilometre, and did 6 kilometres, which added up to 28 minutes. Should I be pleased by that? Or not? Because it was a struggle to keep the pace, and I didn't feel like adding on another 2 kilometres, though I probably should have. I certainly wouldn't want to try to keep that pace for an entire marathon. Good grief! I probably need to be doing more mileage for the marathon training, ie. pushing the pace for an entire 10 km run.

But that was all I could do this morning.

Why do I like to push myself? I could go for a nice pleasant 6 kilometre run without feeling distressed or out of breath in the least, just by slowing down to about 6 minutes a kilometre. Or even 5 and a half minutes per kilometre. But I want to go faster.

I was thinking that in the early stages of training, it's easy to see progress. But the further along one gets, and the fitter, it's much harder to see increments of improvement. And it's also possible that I'm slipping in the opposite direction. I haven't biked for several weeks now, and haven't been swimming for most of August.

In the winter and spring, I did my speed runs (usually going about 5 kilometres) AFTER doing an hour-long swim. So this should have felt easier ... or that's what I felt. When I probably should have gone: Yeah! Six kilometres in 28 minutes! Early on a Wednesday morning! And for no particular reason or reward!

371: Long Run

Went for a long run this morning. Haven't been getting up early to exercise nearly as often this summer, and when the alarm went, I did not know immediately what it was. Right. Not part of a dream sequence. But I dragged myself up, ate a bowl of cereal with banana, and headed out with some gatorade and sugary beans. It was early, and I was hesitant to head out on my usual trails, but decided to go that way anyway. But first, a detour to the rec centre bathrooms! That's never happened before. Glad I stopped, because the rest of the run was easy and pleasant. I must have been going slightly faster than I thought, because I expected that my planned time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, would put me at about 20.5km, but instead, when I got home and mapped out my route, I discovered I'd gone 22km, which is more than that half-marathon!

Woot!

Maybe that means I can really do a marathon this fall. And maybe all these short but more frequent runs are adding up helpfully. I was pretty sluggish for the last twenty minutes, but tried not to let that slow me down. I reminded myself to lift my knees in order to avoid shuffling along. And I ran as often as possible in grass, even when it was hilly or rough. I'll be ready for that trail run, that's for sure. I could run it tomorrow, I think, without too much pain and suffering.

Now to go enter this data into my new spreadsheet ...

Day 370: Spreadsheet

This morning, I got up and created a spreadsheet to keep track of my training. I find the days are blurring together, and it's hard to recall how many times I ran during a week. It's also useful to have a visual reference for the work I'm doing.

As I said to my husband last night, I'm not sure whether I'll do more races. But I still like training. I ran last night at my favourite park, with tons of hills and trails (and shade, thank heavens); my daughter's soccer team was playing at the same park, and I always feel like a bit of a dork showing up in my running gear, heading out for a run while the team warms (last night I went for forty minutes, as consistently fast as I could go), and then returning to the field drenched in sweat, still in my running gear, to watch the game. But hey. I have to squeeze these runs in when it's possible.

And during the summer, early rising is just not possible on a regular basis because there's no naptime! Naptime is what made the early mornings possible. Without it, I'm a grumpy zombie with four children in my care.

I'm hoping either to run or to swim this evening. I've hardly done anything but run all week, so a swim would be a good addition. And I haven't biked since forever!!!! I need to get the darn thing tuned up and tires properly pumped. I'm wasting precious summertime days and light by not biking outside right now.

Day 368: Tired

More running on the weekend, as was the plan. We were camping at a family camp, so in addition, I swam in the pond, which was pretty small, but still allowed me to swim lengths on four different occasions. Two evenings, I also played soccer with a bunch of kids and a few other adults. I think the soccer was harder physically than anticipated. Stopping, starting, turning, sprinting. FUN! But for some reason, my legs felt really tired on my second early morning run at camp ...

I ran twice with my friend, a lovely road and beach combo run, probably about an 8 kilometre route, maybe a touch more. Yesterday, our first day home, I was so stiff (soccer??? was that you?) that I decided not to run in the morning, and instead to go to a 90-minute hot yoga class, which felt so good. I knew that I needed to stretch.

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed, not even that early, to run on my own. I went 5km at a not terrifically fast pace, feeling sluggish and weary. No swimming this afternoon, as originally planned. We're having two extra kids for a sleepover extravaganza, and I don't want to leave my husband home alone with six kids. Over the supper hour. Hope to get out swimming at the outdoor pool sometime this week.

I've been contemplating attempting the half-Ironman that's run nearby. There's still room to sign up. The swim isn't crazy, only 1.9km, which makes me think I can do it. But do I want to put myself through the experience? That is the question. Still, it does seem to be motivating to be signed up for events. I know I would have skipped this morning's run if I hadn't been thinking about the 25 km trail run in my not-so-distant future. It helps me to have those goals in mind.

Today I'm too tired to really think seriously about signing up for anything more.