3 joy filled Monday

Today I researched how to use flight vouchers from last year to buy the tickets to Sweden.  The delta website wouldn't let me book a group with multiple vouchers.  After buying two pairs of tickets I ran into a road block trying to book what the computer thought was an unaccompanied minor. I called customer service and had a great conversation with a very helpful fellow who booked the last two tickets and helped me fix a mistake I made, with the help of the website, in using one of the vouchers. 

Juneathin started with the very thought, ugh. I have to do something.  Beside making multiple meals, working all day, doing several laundry loads, talking to colleagues, and buying the above tickets.  Oh, and making dinner, 

What I love about running is you just need to put on your shoes and start running.

Granted it is 3 June but I ran in my ski coat this evening.  And enjoyed the sunset.  I will upload the garmin later to running free online. Which likes to post to facebook and wow my friends.  Not. Nth else are not impressive runs.  They are walks with sudden and short lived bursts of speed,  well, not really speed. But faster than walking. 

I will come back and add some guaranteed lovely photos.  I took them with an incompatible device. 

Janathon 2011

Join the fun. Get or stay fit in January.  Maybe win something. Look here for details.

W20 Wednesday = learning to drive

Today's workout was supposed to be a tempo run. Monday I couldn't keep my heart rate low enough. Today, I couldn't get it consistently high enough.  I am learning how to run again. I had to really pick up the pace. I ran home from the office and it wasn't til I got home and picked Odie and sprinted a bit that I got my heart rate higher. I ran 40 minutes (4.8 km), including a 5 min w/u and my Av HR was only 111.   I feel like I am learning to find the throttle and the carburetor on a race car.  I feel kind of relaxed about this. I'll figure it out. There's lots and lots of workouts ahead.  While running, I practiced quick turnover.  Plus paying attention to heart rate means I didn't listen to music. Just breath, feet and flesh.

Target heart rate	124-134 beats per minute
Run duration	40  minutes
Workout importance	High
Workout pointers	High aerobic run. Time to pick up the tempo. Stay close to upper range of target heart rate.

Food was a little loose today. I get a tiny bit complacent when I see success on the scale, I think.   I need to get some containers. My avo mashed on the dishes and one of the lids leaked. So balsamic vinegar all over everything. Plus I need to eat more.  I was hungry by the time I finished my morning meeting and walked straight into a pastry and coffee.  Then diet coke and chocolate in French class at 7:00PM. The thing is these foods didn't taste as good as fresh food.   The rest of the day was fine: apricot coconut smoothie with protein powder; ostrich and spinach, big salad with peking duck rice pancakes, banana, HB egg.  Milk.  and something for dinner. 

 I'm so excited to be training. The rest of the day went fine. Now I need to eat something, stretch and go to bed. Cycle tomorrow.

getting started

My friend Julie asked me how to get started running. I gave a cheeky answer:

Lace up your shoes. Go out the door. Run.

I forgot the first step actually, which is to believe in yourself.  I started running regularly in the late fall of 2008. In what seemed like a fit of madness at the time, in December 2008, I signed up for a  10k race through my gym, which was offering a weekly group run to train for the race over three months.  I could not have imagined that I would run a marathon. Ever.  I enjoyed the 10k race so much, I continued to set bigger and bigger goals.  Every time the schedule called for me to run further than ever before, I had to break down a mental barrier and open my mind to the possibility and then the reality that I could do it.

Need help finding a race?  Check out the Guide to marathons.

My friend Tom put together a great list of tips for beginners on his blog, Running my way thin.  Some other resources I found helpful:

Jeff Galloway's website and books offer a wealth of information, training schedules and advice.  I have enjoyed Jeff's e-coaching program over the last year. Jeff teaches a philosophy of enjoying every run and trains runners conservatively to avoid injury.

Hal Higdon offers a free learn-to-run course with instructions delivered by email.  Here's his website.

I run three times a week. In the beginning, I was suffering from knee pain. Jeff recommended limiting the frequency of my runs. I've eliminated the knee pain by increasing my leg strength (squats, lunges, weight loss) and taking regular walk breaks.  I also prefer running barefoot on hard-pack trails.  However, when the weather got cold, I put my shoes back on. I went through 3-4 pairs of different brands before I found some that worked. I really like Mizuno Wave.

Keeping a training log helped me watch my progress.  Gmap pedometer can tell you how far you ran. Map My Run is also a great free resource and offers an on-line training log.   I treated myself to a Garmin GPS watch last fall. It's helped my training a lot, since it provides me with pacing information.

The last point I wanted to offer is to keep going.  Often I find the first 20  minutes of a run are uncomfortable. Walking 5-10 minutes first seems to make the transition from sitting still to running easier.  But sometimes it seems like my legs forgot how to run during the first 15 minutes.  I think a lot of people quit running too soon. When I press on, my body adapts and I start to really enjoy it.  I've found the sweet spot for my running is longer than 45 minutes. 90 minutes is even nicer.  If you decide to train for a marathon, I recommend following Jeff Galloway's advice and running the full distance at a much slower than race pace.  I think it would have made my marathon easier if I had been able to complete the last long run (42). Every time I've run further than ever before, my body knew when I stepped into "new territory" and that part of the run is easier next time.

Good luck and enjoy every run!

POSE running links

Consider these words of wisdom from John Parker’s Once a Runner, a cult classic novel about

a collegiate miler:
A runner is a miser, spending the 

pennies of his energy with great stinginess, constantly

wanting to know how much he has spent and how much

longer he will be expected to pay. He wants to be broke

precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.

The Pose

POSE:  work with, rather than against, the natural forces at play in nonsprint running. Gravity, ground reaction, muscle elasticity, muscle contraction, torque, and momentum are the key factors. 


checklist:
1) posture (hips forward, arms close in, up, shoulders over hips)
2) fall (movement is the destruction of balance)
3)  pull (squeeze the orange

POSE drills
Body Weight Perception
Hill Running
Basics
Romanov explains the method

Swimmer learns to run:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Running as a wheel

Don't land in front of a forward moving body:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7zEruVUwr4

2x800

I have proved once again that planning at the dining room table doesn’t ensure I’ll get it right on the run. Nevertheless, I am pleased by my 2x800. I put it in the middle of a 5k run. My assignment was to run two 800 meter laps in five minutes each.

My walk break between laps was supposed to be three minutes. I took a 1 ½ minute break – mistaking my turn-around time with the length of the whole break!

Odie spoiled one of the last 100m segments by lunging at another dog. Getting his attention and running around the other dog added about 10 seconds. I felt really angry at him at first, and then reconsidered. He's a dog, doing dog things. I can teach him how to run with me and when to ignore other dogs. My anger faded. Oh well, I told myself.

I ran too soon after eating lunch. I ended up feeling like I had been punched in the stomach after I finished the run.

WARM, CLEAR 85 degrees (too hot for how I dressed)

12 minute warm up to the course (1:1)
1 36.0
2 35.9
3 37.4
4 34.6
5 48.1 (includes 30 sec walk break)
6 35.0
7 35.2
8 34.2
800m total 296.4 sec 4:56 min

1:35 walk break between laps

1 36.3
2 36.8
3 37.5
4 32.6
5 52.0 (includes 30 sec walk break)
6 38.1
7 47.4 (includes my dog lunging at another dog)
8 41.8
800m total 322.5 sec 5.:22


Looking at this month in review, I am really pleased overall. I've started running longer distances than I ever thought I could. I've lost nine pounds. I've learned a lot about nutrition and portion sizes. I feel healthy and happy. Everything's right in my corner of the world. I'm wondering though where to buy a face mask for everyone I know.

Ready Set Run

To prepare for my Saturday long runs (which start at 8:15 when my buddy shows up at the front door), I make sure I drink all my 80 oz of water in the day before ~ no point trying to catch up the next day & slosh around while running.

I get up early (by 7 am) and eat Low Glycemic ~300 calorie balanced breakfast (30F-40C-30P) - usually a raspberry & strawberry fruit smoothie with whey protein powder and fish oil (can't taste it - I swear) - even though some say to avoid the fiber. I have a wand mixer that makes this very easy.

I also have two espresso's with a little milk - even though some say don't eat dairy before a run....I like the caffeine.

I drink 8-10 oz of water as soon as I am standing in front of the stove to make the coffee.

Getting up early gives my body time for its morning "toilet" routine, so I don't feel the call of nature on the run.

I bring sports dextrose tablets with me on the run - they're like lemon sugar wafers. I eat one about every half hour. They're about 15 cal each. More frequently towards the end of the run, if I'm feeling a little low. They dissolve. They're not sticky - not gummy bears or hard candy (blech...). This helps me avoid bonking.

I keep myself on a low-glycemic, moderate protein (~80 grams a day), No-White-Food (skip the wheat & white rice, mainly), calorie-deficit diet (trying to burn excess fat...). So I consider the tablets to help me guard against low blood sugar and make up for glycogen depletion while running. This could be pseudo-science on my part, but it works for me.

My running buddy carries these little water bottles on an elastic strap. I have some somewhere in a box I haven't unpacked yet.... But at the mid-point of my run, I'll drink about 6 oz - or what I'm thirsty for.

When I finish the run, I go to the kitchen and refuel within 30 minutes ~ a good carb selection with some protein - usually fresh grapefruit fruit juice and cheese sticks or a boiled egg, deli meat, whatever I can rummage in the fridge. There you go.

First Long Training Run 11 April 2009

I ran 13 or 14k Saturday. It was fun. Only thing was I ran 5k on Friday since my mid-week runs got off by a day - so my knees were still a little sore even this morning - just going up the stairs. They were fine when I took a spin with a friend who hadn't been on her bike since Oct. Easy 27k. Earn those chocolates! Odie slept a lot today. He ran both Fri & Saturday and was, well, dog-tired.


Weekend Workout Assigned: 10k
Actual: ~13.5k
Time 1:47 HRM 148 average; 168 max
Pace: ~ 10k/60 min. I took walk breaks when I felt like it. First one after about 15 minutes. More frequent after the first hour. I stopped to chat with my husband and son, who had camped on the beach overnight to get a good storage spot for the Hobie Cat at the sailing club. Stopped at the end to chat goodbye to running buddy. I subtracted chatting time to arrive at the estimate, using a pace of 10k/60min (my last race pace - probably a bit generous); actual time minus ~20 minutes standing around talking. A lot of walking towards the very end.

Comments
I estimated the distance because I ran on the beach, without obvious landmarks. I based my estimate on a comparable pace on other runs where I know the distance. I realized Saturday morning that the GPS I wanted to carry lacked fresh batteries. I commit to better prep & planning for next week.

Weather & Temperature: clear and sunny; 20C - probably cooler when I started out.

Aches & Pains? My knees were a little sore immediately afterwards. They were tender climbing stairs on Sunday morning. Took 200mg advil & extra dose of fish oil. Felt fine during & after my bike ride on Sunday. My mid-week training schedule was off by a day due to family committments. So I ended up running my second mid-week run on Friday morning, rather than on Thursday. Next week I won't run the day before the weekend run.

Questions for the Coach:
1. I do not know how to pace myself using a time/distance metric. I have always trained with a heart rate monitor and by adapting to my current physical condition - perception of effort, breathing, fatigue, etc. Do I need to carry a GPS? Run somewhere else on a pre-measured route?

2. I want to increase my pace. The woman I am running with on Saturdays can run faster, but has been satisfied with my pace so far. I'd like to try to speed up. When/how do I work on this? Once a week on my mid-week run, I have been adding high intensity intervals - short sprints followed by walk recovery.

3. The Paris race features a huge hill. How should I prepare for it, considering I live in "the low country"? I have been running up a hill near my house and running up a long flight of stairs in the Dunes. Is this enough? Add in treadmill with incline?

Next Week's Planned Workouts

Sunday - 26K bike ride (done)
Monday - easy row - weights (when I get done with this post!) (DONE - skipped the weights)
Tuesday - 30 - 45 minute run (at least 5 K) HIIT - Swim laps
Wednesday - easy row & weights
Thursday - 30 - 45 minute run (at least 5 K)
Friday - easy row & sauna (rest before run)
Saturday - assigned training run - 5k

Begin with the end in mind

I've decided to run my first half-marathon. I had so much fun running my first 10k in March, the City-Pier-City in The Hague, that I immediately started looking for my next goal. A half-marathon seemed impossible. So I picked a 16 K race, La Grande Classique in Paris in September. Then some of my colleagues at work talked up the Amsterdam Half-Marathon. So I set a new goal and will use the Paris race as a training tool.

I am using these goals to help me achieve my ideal body weight. I will use this blog to share my training plans, my progress, and my trip across the finish line. To help me meet my goals, I've enrolled in e-coaching with Jeff Galloway.