Saturday November 20, 2010

Workout: 7.36 miles
Time: 1:12:20
Pace: average 9:48
November total: 45.38/60


Went out at 1:00 in the afternoon.  It was somewhat chilly and pretty windy heading to the East.  I did well for most of the run, but had decided kind of early on that I would take a short walking break after every 5 songs.  Songs 6-10, though, had a few breaks in there because it was a lot of hills during that point.  But the last part of the run was especially good.  I feel like I really get my groove going around mile 4, which kind of sucks :)


I also feel like I'm in a rut.  Like donating blood disrupted my flow.  But not only that, my legs are tired and sore.  My right foot has pain near the bottom of my toes.  I'm considering taking a running break during December, but am worried about losing my fitness.  I can't get as good of a workout on the bike or the eliptical at the gym.  But I guess it will be like starting training from scratch.  Or maybe I just need to significantly cut down my mileage this month.  Perhaps taking on this 60 miles in November goal was a bit too much...  I didn't cut down hardly at all after the half in September.  I ran nearly 70 miles in October, which is an awful lot of miles for not training for anything.


And I think I might need new shoes already.  Which bugs me because the shoes I ran in yesterday - my newest pair - have less than 100 miles on them.  I don't have the money to go out and buy a $100 pair of shoes right now.  But my knees hurt while I was running yesterday and my ankles are really sore and tired afterward.  Maybe its just more of an overtraining issue and I need to calm down this month and start up from scratch on December 28th for the 5/3RBR.  I'm going to get my 60 miles this month and then figure it out.  I should also get back into weight training and cross training.  And should actively try to lose 5 pounds.  And try to get my cholesterol lower (was 265 when I donated blood - ouch... hasn't been that high since 1999).

Wednesday November 10, 2010

Workout: 6.91 miles
Time: 1:17:15
Pace: 11:11
November total: 13.69/60


Wow was this a horrible run.  Worst in over a year, at least.


I got out at 6:30.  Was initially planning to run in the afternoon, but I woke up at 6 and wasn't going to fall back to sleep.  I really didn't WANT to run in the afternoon because by the time I run and shower and change my time to myself - and time to do work around the house - is basically gone.  BUT I also didn't want to get up at 5:15.  I also didn't want to run in the afternoon because I have some errands that I need to do and if I ran in the afternoon I'd have to do errands with Georgia in the morning, which isn't a big deal, but it was her birthday yesterday and I didn't think it would be nice to go away all morning so she couldn't play with her birthday presents.  SO anyway... when I was awake at 6, it was a good deal.


I did the same route as I did the last time I ran outside.  I don't think I strung together even a whole mile of running.  It was pretty brutal.  By the end, I just opted to run a song and walk a song and running even a whole song was incredibly hard.


I donated blood a week ago and it ALWAYS affects my running for a week or two.  I had noticed this a while ago, but any time I mentioned it to people they kind of laughed it off like it was in my head.  However, when I was donating I talked to one of the nurses and she said that it ABSOLUTELY would affect running because red blood cells carry oxygen through your body and when you donate blood you are removing red blood cells.  So there it is - PROOF!  That is the reason I took last week off - because I knew it would be harder to run.  I just didn't realize it would still be so hard.  It was terrible - I felt like I couldn't get into a breathing rhythm or get enough air and like I was laboring the whole time.  But I pushed on and got the miles in at least :)


I'm catching up - Jason is at 17 miles for the month so far.  I have a little catching up to do.  I was initially planning to cut the route off at about 5 miles, but then decided that it sucked already so I might as well just knock off some mileage.  The more I can knock off this week, the shorter my routes can be for the rest of the month:)  I've done 13 this week so far... I'll do 4 miles of intervals tomorrow and then do a run in Hudsonville on Saturday morning, so I'll have at least 22 in for this week.   I may try to do a few more than that so I'm a little more ahead for the month.  I'm too competitive with myself.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Weight: 125.4
Workout: 4 miles

My run was really, really good this morning. Oh man does it feel good to be good at it again. I ran the entire 4 miles without a break and did it at 6.0 (I think I ran the first song at 5.9). Four miles in 40:35, which works out to a 10:09 mile. Awesome! This makes me so happy!

My heart rate was at 166 bpm around 2.75 miles so I would assume that was the case throughout. I ran the last .10 miles at 6.7mph (I think it ended up being about 30 seconds) and my heart rate got up to 174. I'm happy with 166. I felt like I was close to a conversation pace. I was trying to sing along to my music and I was almost able to do so.

I finally have hope that I could possibly get my running back up to 6.3/6.5 mph for at least my steady M/W runs. I was thinking that I would never get back to that. I really think that donating blood impacted my running.

Weight was up again this morning. I ate super salty smoked turkey soup and some cheese its last night for dinner, so I'm not surprised. Gonna have to hit the water hard again today. I wonder if my body is so sensitive to water retention due to the weather. During the summer my weight did not fluctuate this badly from day to day.

Feels good to be good again. Makes me look forward to running rather than dread it. Can't wait until I can get outside again!

Monday, February 8, 2010

As a brief catch-up... Cornbread and I are signed on for a half-marathon in Indianapolis on May 8th. We are training. I made a training schedule that began on January 4th, so we're a little over a month into it. We run 3 days/week with a long run on Saturdays, circuit train on Thursdays (which totally sucks), cross train and weight train on T/F.

Weight: 126.0
Workout: 3.5 miles

Ran on the treadmill this morning. It wasn't quite as bad as Saturday's run, but I think part of it had to do with the fact that I was running in front of people - who probably weren't paying any attention to me - and didn't want to be the sucker on the treadmill who has to stop every couple of minutes because she can't handle it. I wanted to stop several times but forced myself to get through. I think I stopped twice.

I had been running really, really well up until the end of last week. I was running my miles continuously without any breaks and was feeling very confident about it. And then I donated blood on Wednesday and have sucked since then. My heart rate prior to Wednesday was between 160-170, after Wednesday it has been 180-190. I HAVE to assume that donating blood is affecting this, there really is no other logical explanation for the difference in heart rate. BUT I have no information to support my theory.

So this morning was alright. I struggled to get involved in my music, which leads to me expending a lot more energy... I have to step to the beat of the music right now, otherwise I'm laboring - physically and mentally. It all has to gel. As I go through the training and build up my mileage and endurance, this will change (slightly), but right now I have to have the exact right music to run well.

Weight has been up slightly. I had gotten as low as 123.4 last Thursday, which would bring me back to my pre-holiday weight. Everyday it has gone up 1/2-1 pound, which indicates to me that it is water retention. I haven't been eating poorly either, so I'm not concerned. I'll hammer the water this week and see where I get.

With blood donation, Lifesource does a cholesterol test. Mine was a non-fasting test because I forgot that they did that. I checked my results on Thursday and was astonished to find that it was down to 197! I have never seen my cholesterol below 204. The first time I ever had it tested - fasting - it was 288. I was 22. It has never been that high again, but it has always hovered around 210-237. I'm excited - this is validation that the eating changes I have made are helping and are benefiting my body in ways that I can't feel. Also gives me encouragement to continue.

"Plant first" will continue to be my thought before choosing what to eat.