Running Chick

I wrapped up the fifth week of my training plan with a seven mile run this morning that was about as sucky as they get. I don’t know what was wrong with me, my head just couldn’t get in the game.  It could have had something to do with nearly being run over by some asshole in a Maroon Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck on his way to the transfer station. That dumbass cut the corner on his turn toward the transfer station from Gundlach Road and was probably watching the giant semi tractor maneuvering around in the transfer station driveway instead of being on the lookout for anything else, such as the girl decked out head to toe in high-visibility running gear. I took a giant leap to the right to avoid him and let out a string of expletives  and hand gestures that would have made a bystander blush. I came very close to going back to the transfer station to yell at him, but figured it wasn’t worth my time. Then it got me thinking that if I were to take a picture of his license plate and go to the police station with a complaint, would they go to talk to him about it? I should ask.

The rest of my run was thankfully uneventful, aside from the nuclear meltdown that was going on in my head. I am well skilled at running through physical pain (although I’m pretty sure that’s not something to brag about), but I am the worst at being able to ignore the negative thoughts running through my head telling me that it too far, it’s too hard, I’m a bad runner, bla bla bla. So I end up stopping, mad at myself for caving in and telling myself to suck it up and get moving.  In the last three miles, I stopped six times, three of those times were between 5.5 and 6.0 miles. I was pretty disgusted with myself, but on the bright side, I had a pretty decent run, finishing in 1:09. In case you’re wondering, I do stop my watch when I stop with meltdown issues. I figure why add insult to injury and end up with a shitty split.

My previous runs this week, along with today’s were 3 miles @ 9:46, 3 miles @  9:42 and 7 miles @ 9:59.

I have a easy 3 miler to do tomorrow, which will bring me up to a total of 16 miles this week. Last week I ended with 13 miles @ 9:52. I should have done 16, but the weather was so sucky on Sunday I decided to do a trainer ride instead.

In other news, I made some banana bread this afternoon and just as I was about to press the shutter button, somebody stuck their face in the frame, ruining my perfect shot. Bad kitty.

Oh, and somebody else got a fancy new musical instrument.

Any guesses? Bonus points if you can guess the brand of my shoes in the background.

We hit 50 degrees today and I was able to run in a baseball hat & light shirt. I almost broke out the shorts, but I didn’t want to scare everybody with my alabaster legs.  Turns out, of the six runners I did see, I was the only one not wearing shorts. Maybe that means I’m old. Hrmph.

Anyhoo, my legs are feeling lots better (maybe just a smidge tight still) thanks to the yoga, stretching, icing & drug routine I’ve been following since Sunday.

I knocked off three miles on the Canal Road in 29:14 -

My first mile was slow because I got stuck waiting for traffic crossing M-26. Aside from having to slow down and/or stop a couple of times because my heart rate was heading into the stratosphere (high 180s), I felt like I was running at a pace that I could hold for three miles but I would definitely say that pace was not conversational. So, I'm starting to wonder if I should be approaching my mid-week runs in the manner that I have - one to two minutes faster than my long run pace for the given mileage. Maybe it would be better if I did some sort of interval or tempo runs on those days? Or make one day a hill day? As much as they hurt, I'm kind of enjoying running hills now that I'm in decent shape. Sure, I feel like puking when I reach the top, but that's only about half of the time now instead of all the time. I'll have to do some research I guess.

I ran a very short distance on the snowmobile trail at the end of my run. I figured it'd be all hard packed and icy but found out differently when I stepped in a spot that looked firm and I sunk up to my ankle in icy cold slush. It was at that point when learned that my shoes aren't waterproof. Oh well. Shortly after I got back on pavement, four snowmobiles slowly came through. I sort of felt bad for them, but not really.

<rant>

Almost forgot. During my Sunday run, I came around a corner and out of nowhere, two little yapping dogs charged at me. Now, even though I’ve had cats for the last several years, I consider myself a dog person. One day, when I move into a bigger house with a bigger yard, I plan on having a dog that I can take running with me. Every now and then (okay, weekly) take stroll through the Copper Country Humane Society’s website to see what dogs they have up for adoption. There’s been a couple that I came very close to going to see, but my house situation isn’t the best for a dog, so I reluctantly put my doggie plans on hold. But, one day I will have a dog. A useful dog. A dogs that isn’t meant to be an accessory. A dog that doesn’t require a sweater to take outside. A dog that does dog stuff. I will not have a little yappy dog like the ones that came after me on Sunday. Crimeny, how I hate those useless little things. No doubt, had these little furry rats been off their leash, I would have had no problem punting them back into their yard and then yelling at the owner for letting them outside without a leash. Anyway, they were on their leash so they didn’t get too close to me, but I’m surprised my ears didn’t start bleeding from the extraordinarily loud barking. Seriously, how can two little things be so blasted loud? Little rats.

</rant>

All day today, I’ve been feeling like I have a hangover. Thanks Daylight Savings Time! I suppose it didn’t help that I didn’t get to bed until after 1:00AM and the alarm was blaring at 4:30 so Josh could get his butt to the airport in time for his 6:00 flight to Amherst, MA. At least I got to go back to sleep.

I dragged myself out of bed at 9:00 (which was 8:00 according to my body) and sucked down the coffee until the cobwebs dissipated enough for me to throw on some running clothes and head out the door. My schedule called for a short, easy run, but my body wasn’t too cooperative. I think it was pretty ticked off at me for running five miles on Saturday, and then blowing off my usual post-run stretching routine for a four-hour uncomfortable car ride. Josh and I had spent the previous three days shopping and bumming around Appleton, WI on a short vacation and Josh wheeled and dealed himself a new truck (I don’t want to steal his thunder, so hop over to his blog for the details). We were picking up the truck at 10:30AM on our way out of town, and I had to get my five miler in before we checked out of the hotel, so we were cutting it pretty close by the time we finally got back, thus stretching was skipped. Not the best idea I’ve ever had, today my legs were tight and hurt. Thanks to some ibuprofen, ice packs and 45 minutes of yoga, they’re feeling pretty good now. Tonight I’ll bust out the foam roller and maybe do some very light yoga to get the final kinks out.

I did two runs while we were in Appleton. Three miles on Thursday morning and five on Saturday. Our hotel was close to the mall and the area wasn’t very runner friendly (lots of traffic, no sidewalks) so we headed downtown. Josh drank coffee and used the wi-fi in Brewed Awakenings while I did my thing. Thanks to downtown Appleton having an awesome sidewalk system that was cleared of snow, and (mostly) ice free, I never had to venture out into traffic. Plus, I found lots of interesting things to look at to keep my mind distracted: neat little shops and restaurants along College Avenue, interesting buildings at Lawrence University, tons of other runners and walkers, nesting eagles along the Fox River, and old mills and factories converted into eclectic shopping & dining centers. I use a GPS tracking program called InstaMapper for my iPhone, so Josh was able to stalk track me to make sure I didn’t get stolen. He grabbed a screen shot of my Saturday route. Note that I made seven bridge crossings with two repeat crossings:

That little cluster of yellow dots around the red dot is me doing loops by the coffee shop in order to complete my distance.  Each time I went by, the people sitting in the window gave me strange looks. I bet they were really surprised when, on my third time by, I came in & sat down at Josh’s table. It was cold, with a 30mph wind that I fought the entire way so I bet I looked really purty when I was done. Oh well, I’ll never see those folks again!

Anyway, today’s run marked the end of my third week of half marathon training and here’s what those weeks looked like:

• Week 1: 9.68 miles @ 10:45
• Week 2: 11.55 miles @ 10:23
• Week 3: 12.54 miles @ 10:36

I’m following a random training plan I found on the intarwebs that looked reasonable given my injury situation. The only problem I have with this plan is that I’m struggling trying to figure out the difference between “easy, conversational pace” and “very easy, comfortable pace”.  I run alone so conversational pace, basically the pace at which I could yak to another person without struggling for breath, is tough to define. I’ve tried mumbling a few words to myself while I’m running just to see what it felt like, but that’s only when I was certain nobody else was around. And, I’m too embarrassed to carry out a complete conversation with myself so that’s out of the question. So I’ve sort of decided that I’ll try to run my mid-week runs in the 9:30-10:30 range, my Saturday run in the 10:00-11:00 range and the Sunday run in the 11:00-12:00 range. It seems to be working okay so far, even though I can only hit my mid-week range about half of the time.

Next week is 16 miles. That’s a big jump for my injury-prone legs so I really need to make sure to keep up with my my post-run maintenance if I don’t want to end up on the injured list.