Early in the Morning

Running early in the morning is so nice. You can run uninhibited by those around you, because there really is no one there. When I woke up this morning, it was still freezing outside and last night's snowfall still covered the ground. By the time I left the gym after my workout and shower, nearly all of the snow that had fallen last night had melted and it was significantly warmer. It's cool to think that in so short a period of time the weather could change so much.

But I digress. Running in the morning is just the best. Fewer people. Fewer cars. Less sound. Fewer distractions. Running in the gym is similar in that there are few, if any, college students willing to wake up and go to the gym at 7:00 am. This morning was a good run for me (I usually don't run on Thursdays but as I couldn't yesterday...). Two girls, who looked more like twigs, got on the treadmills next to me and started running about a minute before I did (I took a minute or so to stretch). I was so proud of myself for the following reasons: I was able to run at a constant speed for 20:00, and then I pushed myself to complete the 24:00 to finish up 2.0 miles. The girl directly next to me ran for about a mile, walked for 5:00 and then she ran faster than she was capable and soon had to slow down to her original speed. I know I shouldn't be paying attention to other people and their runs, as they really have nothing to do with me, but it helps me reaffirm my runs in some ways.

Firstly, just because I'm fat doesn't mean I can't be in good shape. When I started, my max runs were only 1.0 miles and on rest days I had to push myself to do 0.5 miles. With those girls running next to me, it helped me to remember that I shouldn't care what I look like versus what they look like: at the end of the day, I have better endurance than they do. Now, my average run is 20:00 instead of 12:00. I think that's pretty cool. Secondly, I know my limits. I'm okay with running 5.2 mph. I know I'm not a super-fit-103-pound-cross-country athlete. I'm okay with that. I'd rather be able to run for an extended amount of time at my pace than burn myself out at someone else's. That's important to remember, as well. So thank you, skinny girls. You helped me learn an important lesson today.

I realize that I have no goal for the moment, and I really should. My next goal will be to run 25:00 at 5.3 mph. I'll step it up a notch and challenge myself, but I know how far I can feasibly push myself. I'd like to transition to have 24:00 be my average run time.

Also, just as a side note, I am completely in love with my spandex. New water bottle is cool, but the spandex were definitely the better investment.

Spandex...

...are completely wonderful. I went for my run today (sadly, though temperatures have gone up, I was still inside) and had ZERO pain on the inside of my legs because there was absolutely no chafing! Stupendous. I was completely and utterly thrilled. They're also awesome because all of my shorts tend to ride up when I run, which is such an annoyance, but since I was wearing spandex, I didn't pay any attention to the shorts I was wearing on top of them.

Anyway, I was a little bit sore after my long run yesterday, but I really wanted to run. In addition to the spandex, I got a CamelBack water bottle and I just couldn't wait to Monday to test them out. Today was supposed to be my rest day, but I'm making it tomorrow instead. Anyway, since it's the beginning of a new week, and I've spent two weeks on 5.1 mph, I decided to move up to 5.2 mph, which really wasn't a huge change at all. I ran for 15:00, walked five, and then finished up with another 9:00, totalling my mileage to about 2.0. Good way to start my week, if I do say so myself! Tomorrow I'll only bike and row and Tuesday I can get back into running for the week!

I made cookies last night at my roommates' urging, which was bad for me. I ate too many! I'm letting them eat most of them, though. Baked goods really are my demise. I wonder how much I weigh? I haven't stepped on a scale since the very end of December. I wonder if I've lost any weight? I hope so, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I hadn't. I can run 3.0 miles!

Building Endurance

Today I semi-reluctantly headed out the gym. Part of me didn't want to run - I think I was afraid of not performing well. I hopped onto the treadmill and set it for the usual: 12 minutes with a 1.5 incline at 5.1 mph, giving me a distance of just over a mile. This is the way I normally do my workouts. I set the treadmill for 12:00 because running a mile is usually pretty simple for me, but sometimes I really have to push myself to run just one mile. By setting the machine for 12:00, it allows me to feel out my run so that I'm not let down or disappointed in myself because I wasn't able to run the 2.0 miles I'd wanted to. Usually I add a few minutes as I near the 12:00 marker when I have a good grasp of how my run is going. By the way, I completely forgot I'd planned to do intervals today. I think that I may be over eager.

Anyway, today I decided to try something new during my run. On a treadmill, I find it very difficult to focus on anything BUT the digital numbers in front of me. I don't listen to music when I run and I don't cover the treadmill with a magazine or a towel. I don't know, part of me feels like that's cheating. So I've always had this internal struggle: how do I overcome the mental obstacles that keep me from running as long as I can? I know that my body is capable of running 30:00, I proved that this summer when I went for my daily runs.

As of a couple of weeks ago, the longest I had run on a treadmill was 15:00 minutes. Then one day I wowed myself with a 2.0 mile run (24:00). Earlier this week I realized that I had met this goal without even noticing, and set a new goal for myself: run for 25:00. Yesterday I just kept running. And running. And then 25:00 minutes was over. Today, I had the aspiration of running a mile, and if it was going well, 1.5 miles. As I started my run, I got to thinking about how this mental monster was keeping me from achieving my goals, and how I wasn't okay with that. Blocking the numbers in front of me wouldn't help me overcome my problem, it would only act as a surface solution. I decided to try something new. I was on a treadmill in front of a window, so I started counting as people went by. This gave me a task and kept my mind busy and focused, something I found incredibly difficult to do on a treadmill. Every time 15 people walked by, I would allow myself to look down and check on my progress - if I thought I could hold out for a while longer, I would up it to 30 people.

Soon I had been running for 20 minutes, and I realized that the physical hardships that had kept me from running longer durations all came from my mental obstacles. I would have gone further, but I forgot to up the time and by the time I realized, the machine had already gone into cool down. I walked for about 3 minutes and then decided to run for an additional 6:00. This would give me a total time of 36:00 and a total distance of 2.5 miles. Today was officially my longest run in one workout, the longest amount of time I ran in one workout, and the longest span of consecutive running on a treadmill. If I had gotten to the add minutes button soon enough, I could have been my longest continuous run ever, outside or on a treadmill, but I suppose that will have to wait for another day.

The hardest part about today's run was the chafing. I've started to realize that if I run more than 2.0 miles, the frictions really builds up and burns my inner thighs. Today was the worst, but I convinced myself that the pain was minimal and that I should just keep going. It really wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things, but even walking home after my workout caused me a lot of discomfort. I decided that it was time for some spandex, and so I set out to Dick's Sporting Goods with my lovely roommate to find a pair of shorts. While I was there I also picked up a CamelBack water bottle, which I think will be a lot more user-friendly for me while I'm running (Nalgenes are terrible at the gym, and splash guards don't help much).

Today may very well be my proudest running day!

Mini Goal Met

I've been thinking about the goal I set for myself all week. Running 25 minutes straight on a treadmill is daunting, especially when you hate treadmills and haven't been running outside in quite some time. I'm out of shape. Well, I guess I can't be out of shape if I've never really been in shape. But you know what I mean, right? Last summer I was able to run about 25 at a time (I usually fluctauted between 22-28), but I couldn't event imagine running the same distance on a treadmill. The treadmill is my demon!

So all week I've been thinking about running for 25 minutes, and each day that I've been running, I've pushed myself, but never hard enough. I've been running longer intervals (longer than I'm used to with the Couch to 5k program, at least) and pushing myself to get in about 2.0 miles each time I hit the gym. This morning I woke up very tired (I only got 7 hours of sleep, and I know my body needs at least 8), and I had to drag myself out of bed. I procrastinated a little bit, but I got myself to the gym and on the treadmill. My goal for the work-out was to run a mile, at which point I would evaluate how my run was going, and add more time if I wanted. Everytime the treadmill was about to send me to a cool down, I added a minute. Then I had been running for 25 minutes (!) and I allowed the machine to cool me down with a brisk walk. At the end of my walk I decided, HEY! You can run more. You've pushed yourself before, push yourself again. So I added another 5 minutes of running, totalling 30 minutes and 2.5 miles. That just may be the longest and furthest I've run in one workout!

Another exciting thing is that in my past two work outs before today's I've ended with 0.5 miles at 6.0 mph, which is something I've never been able to do before. I think tomorrow I'm going to do 2-minute intervals at 6.0 mph. We'll see how that goes!

Follow Through

This week was sort of a bad one for me in many respects. I let my school work get the best of me - instead of working hard on my studies at a moderate rate, I saved all of my work for last minute and exhausted myself. I had a 10 page paper due on Tuesday and my first project in my hardest class due on Thursday. I sacrificed eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercise for my school work. Now, I know that school is important (if for no other reason than I'm paying tons of money to be here), but it should not keep me from living well. I have to learn to balance my life in a more effective way.

My runs were less than stellar. I'm slowly upping the speed at which I run (this week I moved up to 5.1 from 5.0), which makes my runs a bit harder, but I am nonetheless disappointed in myself. I skipped going to the gym on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and because of that, I only got in 3.75 miles this week, and compared to last weeks 6.67 miles, that's pretty bad. Today I ran 2 miles, which is over half of last weeks total. That's kind of ridiculous. It's okay though, it was just one week.

This week I'm going to focus on getting comfortable with my 5.1 mph runs. It hasn't been too bad, but I'm not nearly as comfortable running at 5.1 mph as I was at 5.0 mph. Today I did a little bit of interval training: 12 minutes at 5.1 mph, walk 3 minutes, run 5 minutes at 6.0 mph, walk 5 minutes, run 6 minutes at 5.1 mph, ending with a 5 minute cool down walk. It was a pretty good work out, and I was proud of myself for pushing myself to run half a mile at 6.0 mph. It was hard, but I could have gone a couple minutes longer. I don't think I could push myself to run a whole mile at 6.0 mph, though. In time! One of my long term goals is to work up to 6.0 mph, which is why I'm slowly increasing my speed.

I'm also having trouble keeping myself hydrated, so I really need to work on that. Especially because I like to run in the mornings, I need to make sure I'm adequately hydrated before I go to bed each night, so that when I wake up I don't have to chug a ton of water and hope that it doesn't slosh around in my belly.

Edit: I was just reading through a post from December and realized that I achieved a goal without realizing it! To run 1.5 miles on the treadmill without stopping. Woo! I've gotten up to 2.0 miles, so that goals been reached. How about running straight for 25 minutes on the treadmill as my next goal? I've done 24 minutes once, but it was hard and I would really have to push myself to go further. Sounds like a plan!