11 minute mile!

Today I ran 4 miles in 44 minutes (I pushed through at the very end, even though I was exhausted, to finish in 44 min, so I could be at an 11 min mile).

I did my 3.2 miles (where I pass my house) in 35 minutes, which is down 1 minutes from last week's 36 min.

Did I mention I ran 4 miles? :)

And it felt good. It didn't really feel like I could go much/any faster and I'm not sure how much farther I could have gone, but I enjoyed it. It was a gorgeous day (a bit warm when running in the sun) and lots of people were out on their porches. I waved and said hi to them all (if they were looking in my direction). People don't do that much in Toronto, at least not younger people and I think I probably surprised most of the people I said hi to. But if made the run more enjoyable--you know, a frolic through the neighborhood.

This week I have a baseball game on Wednesday and I leave early Friday morning to drive to Baltimore for a baseball tournament, so I'm not going to run Friday-Monday. Maybe I'll do something short on Tuesday and something a bit longer on Thursday, although I don't think I'm going to go for anything longer than 4 this week, since I'm going to have so much baseball over the weekend. I'm thinking more like 2 on Tuesday and 3 on Thursday.

PPM

When I was on the cross-country team in high school (they let anyone join; you didn't have to be good), we would sometimes do workouts called Pace Per Mile (or PPM). Our coach would give us a particular pace to hit for a mile, then we'd get some break, and then we'd do another one at that same pace, and so on. It was a way to get our body used to running faster than we could run for an entire 3 or 5 miles.

Tonight I went to the gym with Sarah and did my own PPM on the treadmill (although since I have a baseball game tomorrow night, I didn't want to over do it, so I only did 2 miles). The first mile I did at 6 mph (10 min mile). Then I walked for 5 min. Then I did my second mile. I started at 6mph but couldn't keep it up for more than a few min, so I did a few min at 5.5mph (11 min mile) and then finished it off with last few at 5.7mph.

Tomorrow night's baseball! We won Monday's game and I was 3 for 3 (a double and two singles) with 4 RBI. :)

Farther and faster

Obviously that's the goal (farther and faster) in a running training program, but it's nice when it actually happens.

Today was my long run day, which just means it's me adding distance to whatever the farthest I'd run before was. My previous farthest was 3.2 miles. Today I went 3.53 miles (and I didn't die or have to walk).

I ran the same route as my previous 3.2 run (the one I complained and complained about last week because running was so hard) and then added three blocks on the end. So I got to check my watch as I flew (ok, maybe not quite flew) by the end of that 3.2 run (my house). Last time I ran it in about 39 minutes. Today I ran it in 36! I shaved 3 minutes off my previous time (and since it wasn't the end of my run I hadn't even done my last block or two 'kick'). I finished the 3.53 miles in 39.5 minutes. Bringing my average speed to 11.2 minutes per mile!

The thing is that I actually much prefer running a bit faster (in the 11 min mile range) rather than a bit slower (in the 12-12.5 minute mile range) because running too slowly actually feels like more work; it's as if I have to make myself pick up my feet each stride. Maybe it's just that it's so much closer to a fast walk that it's easier for my body to almost just fall into the walk? I'm not sure. What I did today, though, was tell myself that I would just run at that slightly faster pace until I needed to slow down and then I would, but then I just kept running at it. About halfway through my lungs had a little issue but they overcame it.

Anyway, this next week is going to be a weird one because baseball season starts. I have practice tomorrow, a game Monday night, and a game Thursday night. Maybe I'll do light run Tuesday (loosen up from the game), day off Weds (well stretching, of course!), game Thursday, and then, depending on how I feel, either a longer run on Friday or Saturday. Or maybe a shorter run on Friday and a longer run on Sunday.

I'm going to have to get to the point where I can run 4 days a week, even with baseball, but for right now, I'm going to try to give my body a chance to adjust to all this new activity.

Have you missed me?

It seems like so long since I last blogged. I'm sure that there are thousands of readers who have been anxiously sitting on the edges of their seats, hardly able to sleep lest they miss a middle of the night post from me. Well, my apologies.

Monday night was baseball practice. I pitched a lot, sprinted some, and squatted to play catcher for someone else and now I'm sore in all new places. Yesterday I did twenty minutes on the elliptical that I have in my room that's a piece of crap, but I thought I could at least do something to get blood flowing and what not since I'm trying to give myself more days in between running.

This evening I went out for a light jog. I could definitely feel the baseball soreness and some leg fatigue. I did about 20 minutes jogging and then 20 minutes walking. I just have to remind myself that taking it easy now will pay off in the next couple of months as my body gets used to being a runner.

Our first baseball game is Monday night. Now that I have baseball games starting up, I have to figure out how to work my running days around my baseball schedule so I'm not wearing myself out for baseball games. It'll probably be a week-by-week thing because our away game nights change each week.

My plan now is to do a long run (as in something over the 3.1 I've done so far--maybe 3.5?) on Saturday and then not run Sunday (we'll have baseball practice, so that'll be something). I guess I'll do a short, easy run on Friday (maybe 2 miles).

I'm getting faster!

This evening I did a 5K (3.1 mile) route again. I decided to do some walk-jog-run intervals to make it more interesting, get my heart rate up, and help my body get used to running faster.

I jogged for about 6-7 minutes to warm up, then I did 1 minute walk then 1 minute jog then 1 minute run (which means jog faster) intervals 3 times. After the third time, I got a really bad side stitch so I walked for two minutes and then jogged the rest of the time. Most of the second half of my run was a bit faster than my usual jog pace, I think. And the running times made up for the walking times. So I ended up finishing the whole thing in about 37 minutes, which is just under 12-minute mile pace.

I think giving my body more time off has served me well. I need to keep stretching, keep taking days off of running, and keep doing things to bring up my speed. (Oh I suppose I have to start adding distance so I can eventually get up to 10 miles farther than I'm currently going!)

Tomorrow night is baseball practice.

So, Tuesday I'll plan to run again.

Officially registered for the half-marathon!

Whoop! Whoop!

Dear Healy,

Thank you for registering for the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon on Sunday October 17, 2010.
Please print and save this email as it contains your registration confirmation.

Your Registration Details are as follows:

Event:

Half-Marathon

Early morning run with Adinne

This morning I met up with my friend Adinne at the park at 6:20 am for a run. Yup, we're that hardcore. (It was chilly but the sun was already well up. It felt crisp and oddly like an appropriate time to be up and about--although that was definitively not how I felt when my alarm went off.)

Adinne is doing a training program for a 5k that currently involves doing 90 second runs mixed in with 2 minute walks. I wanted to join Adinne because 1) running with someone else is more enjoyable and 2) because it's a run-walk combo, the running part is faster than I ever go when I'm just running for 2 or 3 miles. So, I thought it would be good to train my lungs and legs on that faster pace.

It was a nice change of pace (literally and figuratively) to do this interval program and I think I will try to meet up with Adinne once a week if she'll have me.

Yesterday I was going to run, but when I got up to my alarm, my back was not feeling it and I decided to give my body more of a break. The day before I did some yoga and a bit of biking.

I've also been better about stretching. I'm sure I could still be better about it, but I am doing a lot more of it.

Hmm, now I kind of feel like going back to sleep . . .

Have I mentioned that running is hard?

I know. I'm being a big, complaining baby about this. But running is hard. And I'm not running fast, either. I'm running slower than a 12 minute mile and three miles seems like an impossibly long distance.

Last night, I found myself, through a series of website to website meanderings, looking through old write-ups of our track and field meets at Williams. I realized two things (or rather, was struck by re-realizing two things). 1) I used to spend about 3 hours a day training as a thrower. Hard core lifting, plyometric, core strengthening, and technique workouts. 2) The 10k runners on our track and field team ran their 10ks in less time than I run a 5k.

In my midnight stupor, did that re-realization make me think--what the hell am I doing training for a half-marathon, clearly I'm a shotputter not a runner? No. It made me think, if I could do what I did in shotput and weight throw, then I can draw on the athlete in me to do what it takes to run this thing. Ah, the things we think in the middle of the night . . .

Today, post 'run', I'm more in the 'what the hell am I doing?' camp. It was slow, it was hard, it was painful in parts. (Fartleking didn't work out so well for me. I think I'm going to have to do some run-walk speed conditioning for a while and then return to fartleking in the future.) The only good things about the run were 1) I finished, 2) it turns out I ran 3.2 miles not 3.1 miles today--making my 39 minutes actually closer to 12 min per mile than 13 min per mile, and 3) I made myself a delicious fruit, soymilk, and protein powder smoothie afterwards.

Also, just to make this complaining blog post complete, my body (especially my knee and my back) seem to be having some issues with the new high-impact adventure I'm taking them on. So, I'm going to take cross-training more seriously (especially things like yoga, core strengthening, and weight training) and am going to make sure I give my body adequate rest days (hence me running today rather than yesterday). After all, I don't want to just get through this thing because I Dared myself to or because I'm raising money for incredible grassroots organizations. I also want to get through it in a way that makes me healthier and happier. And part of that for me has to be 1) not killing my knee, 2) making my back better not worse by doing core strengthening, and 3) increasing my flexibility and the versatility of my muscles.

Ok, now for a shower and then comps reading!

Fartleks

So, I did my two miles tonight, as promised, despite having marched today for May Day and having done some reading (for comps!) when I got home and so not actually heading out until almost nine when the sun was quickly vanishing. The only reason I actually did it is because I said I would.

That being sad, it was a beautiful night and it was nice to run despite the fatigue in my lower legs for most of the second mile.

I ran slowly (25 min for 2 miles), thought Dupont street was never going to come (when I had to run to it midway through the second mile), and then kicked it up a couple of notches for the last few blocks to finish stronger and with my heart rate actually elevated.

As I was finishing at that faster pace, I thought about how good it felt not to be lumbering along. Running slowly can be really boring. And repetitive. But running faster feels good. It also wears me out, so I can't keep it up. But I was thinking, what if I ran faster for certain portions of my run and then ran extra slowly if I needed to to recover from it? It would be kind of like intervals, but less structured--I'd just do it when I wanted to for as long as I wanted to. Good idea, I thought to myself. Maybe this will make things more interesting and also help me pick up my pace per mile.

After my run, I swung by the Loblaws to pick up a few groceries and I decided also to buy a copy of Runner's World magazine. Then I came home and started reading it. I learned a lot. And one of the things I learned was about fartleks. Turns out fartleks was exactly what I was thinking I could do (the psuedo-randomly picking up the pace thing) and they recommend doing it once or twice a week!

So, tomorrow is a no-run day because I have baseball practice (and because I'm supposed to take days off). Monday I'll do three miles and try fartleking! (And if fartleking makes it too hard to complete 3 miles, then I'll let myself walk some of it, but then I'll start running again.)