The Training Blog of newbierunner

A 5K! It feels great to have come back this far, and also weird to think how far I have to go. Right before surgery in August, I was running fair distances and feeling good. Once I’d gone under the knife, I couldn’t get my own socks on and off. This marks my first 5K since those days. It’s a little unsettling to have this level of afterburn in my muscles with a run of this length, but then…why do any of us engage in endurance sports? Is it a mad need to prance around in skin tight running gear? A compulsion to rack up a monstrous collection of race tees? Alright, that’s one that spurs me a lot…but I think most of us have some need that runs along the same vein…the adrenaline buzz is what many call it. The need to push, to achieve, to see just what we’re capable of. What bigger rush than to strive for that next level, and have your efforts greeted with success? “Yeah, I *can* do this!” My little setback gives me a chance to relive those earlier milestones. That’s not such a bad deal. I think I’ll keep running the 5Ks for a couple weeks until I get better acclimated, and then start training hard. The marathon is in June!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 10/03/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:31:00.00
• Distance: 3.1 miles
• Average Pace: 10:00/mile

Well, today was a royal kick up the jacksey! On August 11th, I had surgery that left a belt incision around my waist, so I knew running would be out of my picture for a while. Back in my heavyset days, this would have been a glorious excuse to loaf for a few weeks. As much as my doc tells me to take it easy, I can feel that little devil on my shoulder, prodding me to turn back to my old, sluggish ways. I felt that a solid act of rebellion was in order, so today I hit the treadmill, huzzah!
OK, I wasn’t a total fool about it. I used to cool down at 3.5 miles an hour, so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to knock out 1.5 miles at that pace. My heart and legs weren’t taxed very much at all, but my sutures are mighty snuuuugggg. I feel like a sudden bend at the waist in any direction would make the stitches just bust open! Sorry if that’s TMI, but I wanted to illustrate my biggest obstacle right now. And keep focused on the prize…the reason for this surgery was losing a bunch of weight, I had the skin trimmed up! All the more reason to keep moving! That’s the thing about losing weight…it’s a race with no finish. I suppose it’s not too different for thin people trying to maintain.
So that’s it for today. I think tomorrow will be martial arts, I don’t want that to slip either. I’ll just go slllooooowwwwww!

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 08/28/2008
• Time: 22:37:24
• Total Time: 00:25:30.00
• Distance: 1.5 miles
• Average Pace: 16:59.83/mile

Well, surgery happened Monday, and things went fine. Now for the business of getting better! The doc said no serious exertion for about six weeks…*not* what I wanted to hear! I was hoping to be back in martial arts classes in four weeks, maybe starting to run. Well…maybe not so much in four weeks. One thing positive….the old me, who was 100 pounds heavier, would have said “six weeks without exercise, hallelujah! Can we stretch it to eight?” The new me wants to find a way around restrictions. I know, do what the doc says…at the same time, I need to stay in this headspace, where I’m getting a little tweaky cause I can’t run, swim, jump kick, whatever.
Like so many of us, I have an addictive personality. I was stuck on food for many years, and for a stretch, I was also hooked on nicotine. Scientists have started making claims that using drugs, alcohol and overeating stimulate the same pleasure centers in the brain. Ironically, those pleasure centers can also be roused by the endorphins released during exercise. The trick is to make exercise the addiction. I need to stay in this headspace, where the activity is what I want, even when I can’t have it.

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 08/14/2008
• Time: 22:24:32
• Distance: 1 miles

Le sigh, le bummer…Today was the last race I’ll be part of for a while, and probably the last of the year for the kids. Monday I go in for surgery, so it will be late september before the doc gives me the ok to power walk, let alone tear up the roads. As someone who used to be very heavy, it’s strange to realize how much I will miss both the running and martial arts. Who’d have thought?
The kids ran too, as I mentioned…my girl did well, as professed by one race volunteer “your daughter flew through here!” I tried not to let my chest puff up too much! As for the boys…sigh, hehe…my older son has begun the struggle with his weight, and with this comes some indifference towards athletic pursuits. He goes along, but just isn’t that into it. How much do you push? I don’t want to make running a chore. My littlest guy poses even more challenges. While his weight isn’t an issue, he is young, and autistic. I’m not sure how much he even understands about being in a race, though I want to keep him involved in family stuff. Getting him through a race has consisted of “Mommy’s gonna getcha!” and chasing him. He wasn’t going for that today, so I carried him for about half the distance! Maybe two miles was a little ambitious. So while my girl rocketed past Daddy’s snapping camera, the boys and I took up the last three places. Ah well…we did what mattered…everyone finished (learn about goals, my dumplings!), no one got hurt, and we all had fun commandeering the playground afterward, woohoo!

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 08/09/2008
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 00:40:00.00
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average Pace: 20:00/mile

Tempo run today. I have to research more about what my max pulse should be. Turns out I’m not 18 anymore (oh crap, when did that happen?)
:0)

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/06/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:35:05.00
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Pace: 8:46.32/mile

How the mind dictates what the body can do…as I’ve slowly gone further and further distance running, I find that getting into the right headspace is as important as warming up the legs. If I set out to run three miles, then I gasp and huff across the three mile mark. If I run twelve miles, then that’s when I huff and moan (so I’m a drama queen, sue me!), and I barely notice the three mile mark. But there is another facet to the mental part of endurance sports, something my kids have taught me.
I love the little things dearly. We feed and clothe them, read to them, spend the day at the fair with them, and get them involved in running. We do our best by them, but dangit…when Mommy is on the treadmill, Mommy needs to pay attention to what she’s doing! Bless their little hearts, we usually spend the first 30 minutes or so of a run with little squirts walking right by Daddy to bring Mom such emergencies as fort building, crayons, and fighting over the remote. Augh! Most of the time it’s not a big deal, but there are days when there is no peace to be had! After three or four interruptions, I find that it’s hard to get my head back where it belongs.
I know…one day I’ll miss all this. They are interrupting because they are sweet, busy little things, and they forget that running time is Mom time. I just keep reminding them, and try to keep my mind on my run.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/02/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:37:25.00
• Distance: 10 miles
• Average Pace: 9:44.42/mile

Tempo run….hope I’m doing this right! I keep picking up the speed and looking for the upper limit. Don’t want to increase too much too fast.
The kids are training for the two mile run in a couple weeks. So cute!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 07/30/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Distance: 3.41 miles
• Average Pace: 8:47.86/mile

Well, Jen  and I met up this morning and ran the park!  It wasn’t a showstopper by any stretch, as she was getting back into running, and I had done my long run yesterday, so neither of us was 100%.  It was fun to get out, though…we took a route that I had run on a couple 5K races, but went a bit further.  Good times!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 07/27/2008
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 00:37:00.00
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Pace: 9:14.7/mile

Well, the big race is done, and training continues for the next big race! I’m shooting for a full marathon next June, so increasing my distance is going slower now. I had decided to run the half marathon with *just* enough time to train for it. Made for a bit of pressure, but it was worth it! Now there is lots more time, so I’ll mix the distance running with more speedwork and hill runs. Still, it feels good to log a new distance record.
I wonder…is it a good idea to have one weekly run of near-marathon distance as an ongoing thing, or is that too much for the average runner? Anyone out there with input on that one? I was thinking about working up to 20 miles and running that distance once a week or so over the winter.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 07/26/2008
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 2:28:00.00
• Distance: 15 miles
• Average Pace: 9:52.11/mile

Made it through, though it went a little rough today. Not quite feeling myself! My daughter is working on running two miles, though. The local track club has a youth thing for running…they list a handful of local races, and kids get medals, depending on how many races they run. How cute is that! She’s been kind of focused on the finisher medal that I got, so if she could win one of her own, I think that would be just the bomb! I’ll try and get my son involved too, though he’s not as warmed up to running as Princess and I are….I’ll keep working on him….

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 07/23/2008
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 00:27:28.00
• Distance: 3.1 miles
• Average Pace: 8:51.76/mile