Category: Running

What is happening to me?

I have been continuing on my regular exercise and eating program. Basically I exercise 4 to 6 days a week and eat whatever sounds good. Probably could do a bit better on the diet than I do, but I don’t really eat that poorly.

This week I have gained almost 10 lbs in one week! Today was the first day that my weight was the same as the day before. Previous to this I had gained at least a pound a day for several days in a row. I thought that the batteries in the scale must be at fault, but my wife has been using the scale and has not seen any change in its behavior.

I did my normal Tae-Bo workout this morning and then this evening I ran for an hour. Hopefully that will help me see some drop in weight. I am not really starving myself trying to get to a certain number, but you would think with all the work I put into this I could at least maintain my weight instead of gaining back several months worth of losses in just a week.

Tuesday Long Run

Aren’t long runs supposed to be on the weekend?

My tennis partner had to postpone our game from this morning to the weekend. So we are set to play Saturday morning. That left Tuesday morning free to run. I put in 7.38 miles this morning at a pace of 11:15 per mile. Nothing blindingly fast, but my longest run since my half marathon.

I was disappointed with something I discovered today though. About 3 miles into the run I was just about wiped out. I decided to try and make it to the 3.5 mile mark where there was a store that I could buy a Coke at. I was feeling really wiped out. I had pretty much started working out an exit plan to make it back home without finishing the run. It would still have been over a 5 mile run just to get home from there.

I sat on the curb and listened to TWiT on my iPod and sucked on my Coke bottle. Because of the time change, the sun was up a bit higher and I know that was having an affect on me. After I finished my seven minute Coke break, I started running again. First came the burping for a block or so and then the energy boost. I had to run about a half mile just to get to where I could make the cutoff and go home. By the time I got there I decided to go on to a different cut off. Well, that continued until the fastest way back home was the way I had planned to run for the day. I got home and felt great.

So, why do I say I was disappointed? I have been haunted since my half marathon because of a deviation in my plan. I really did not run that well in the half and know I could have done better. The deviation was that I did not stop for a Coke during the half. My plan was to stop around 4.5 miles in and get a Coke. Since I have no gels or sports beans available, I had trained with Cokes to provide the energy boost I needed. But, I deviated from that plan during the race. Today confirmed to me that I would have done much better had I stopped for a Coke as planned. I did not think it would make that much difference on race day. But now I know it would have.

Evening run

I am trying to get some running in during the evenings. Though I am not an evening exerciser, I have fallen into about 3 hours of extra time in the evenings. I have about an hour and a half on Monday and Friday nights now that I did not use to have free. When my son goes to chess class, I used to go with him. But now I have found a park nearby his chess class that is great for running. There are several people there running at night and it is somewhat well lighted.

Last Friday I ran there and got soaked from the rain. Normally it would be from sweat, so I figured it was no big deal. But because of that, I really was not motivated to run a long run on Saturday with rain soaked shoes. So I bowed out of the Saturday run.

Tonight I ran some intervals at the track. They have a very nice 400 meter dirt track at this park. There are no lane markings, but for my purposes, it is fine.

If you have Google Earth you can copy and paste these coordinates into your search bar and it will show you my new park I have found. 20.975291 N, 89.656806 W

October Running Summary

No record month here. But I am not disappointed. This was planned. I wanted an easier month after the half marathon and definitely after the record month of September.

I ran 42 miles this last month (40 miles fewer than in September). That included the 13.1 Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon in which I placed 269 out of 298. So, I was not one of the faster runners. But that race was not about winning, it was about running the distance.

Total mileage for the year is 494 miles. Since this is my first year running, this is a record. 200 of those miles are on my new shoes, which I guess are not so new any more.

As I am working out a new plan for my training, I don’t have a projected mileage for the month of November, but it will probably end up being around 60 miles.

Lazy runner

I have determined that I am a lazy runner. I hardly ever arrive home from a run feeling like I gave it my all. And, although I realize that not every run is a race, I should at least feel like I am working.

Therefore, I have my goal. I am going to focus on getting my 5 Km. time down. I currently run a 28 min. 5 Km. I would like to get that down to under 25 and would love to flirt with 20 minutes. Since I have finished my training for the half marathon, I need a focus. I will work on the shorter race.

I will still run longer runs each week. I think 8 miles is a good long run for me. 6 almost seems too short to call a long run and 10 is too long to do every week. So, 8 will be the long ones.

I will have to do some research to see how I am going to tackle this plan of mine, but I will get my times down. This feeling of being a lazy runner has been bothering me since before my half marathon in early October, but I did nothing to change it back then. Now that I need some motivation, this is the thing to work towards.