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[adventuresintraining-blog]

Back At It

So I ran yesterday, but it wasn't really part of the training program so much as a gauge for me to see where I'm at after many weeks off, or half-off, or whatever. Either way, I ran for real today. I couldn't remember what week to do, so I actually started on week 6, which is to run a 1/4 mi, then walk a 1/4 mile. It was supposed to be for three miles but unfortunately I didn't have enough time available so I did 2.5 miles instead. I really didn't find it to be that bad, some of the 1/4 mi stretches got rough towards the end, but 1/4 mile walking was more than enough recovery time inbetween.

Looking at my schedule going forward I might have to be running on a Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun instead of Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat. Soccer starts up again next week on Fridays, and I really don't think running and soccer on the same day is going to be a great long-term plan. 

That's my story. 

-JJ

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Distractions (aka: Life)

I haven't been running much (okay, at all) the past few weeks. Life has been crazy, with 80-90 hour work weeks, new friends, boy trouble (gotta love the single life), and trying to find a new place to live. Running got back-burnered, seeming to be less important than the 'crises' that came up elsewhere. One of the things I've realized, however, is that although running takes time out of my day, it also has benefits. When I run my head clears, I don't worry about stuff, and when I'm done, I'm at least somewhat relaxed. So, I have renewed my commitment to training, and ran today.

Aside from falling behind in training, my lack of working out has been problematic for my shoulder. I needed to have been doing PT-type exercises for my arm in order to build the muscles around the ligaments I tore and help stabilize my arm. I have not been doing that. Currently my arm pops out of place on a daily basis. So clearly I need to be doing more consistent work on that end. Let's see how it goes.

- JJ

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Motivation

So apparently I don't do well with long-term motivation. Or with vacations.

Right now I'm back in the saddle, because I have a marathon to run in a month. Have your attention NOW? Okay, I'm only running 4.5 miles of the marathon, since it's a team relay. 

Whew!

I'm on week 4 currently, and I've run several times in a row. I'm appreciating the Zombies, Run app, as it's helpful for keeping me interested and giving that little push.

I'll have a month to train for this team relay thing, and then a month after that is the Run for your Lives race that we're running. I think I need to find something to run over winter break so I can keep motivated. It's kind of expensive motivation (races are usually around $50), but it really works.

I'm trying to strengthen my upper body during this time, too, as well as really work on my calves and shins so that they don't wimp out on me again.

--JH

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Week...3? 4? 17?

I have no idea what week we're on at this point, based on time off for injuries, travel, general lazines (that'd be my main excuse), etc. I only ran one day last week, but I did it outside the program so I just ran like I usually do and didn't time it, or do interval jog/walking. I just went. Honestly I enjoyed it, sometimes I get lost in the training aspect and forget the joy of just moving for moving's sake.

That being said, I'm back on board for this week and will be running after work today. I've finally reached the point where, although I don't completely love it, I'm looking forward to the run. I'm not sure if running is growing on me, or if I'm just having that bad of a day at work that anything, including getting hot and sweaty and sore and tired, seems like a better way to spend my time. Either way, here we go again.

- JJ

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Der

I took a week of rest, and did strength training stuff. It's hard for me to have motivation right now, and the pain didn't go away after that week. I didn't run again this week, but I did walk several miles. 

I never did sports in high school or anything, so I'm honestly not sure what's healthy and natural and to work through, and what's a sign that you need to STOP. I had my annual checkup at the doctor today, and asked her, and she said that what I'm feeling is muscular, and that I should take a bunch of ibuprofen for two days to get the inflammation to go down and then resume training. So I'm going to try that, because I'm really feeling like I want to get in this good habit and make a cool difference and feel strong and have a new skill.

But I'm frustrated with my body, and with my brain right now. I got a new Jillian Michaels DVD (Ripped in 30; I own 30 Day Shred), and I'm hoping that'll be nice for strength. I've heard intense things about it! 

Are there any physical therapists/coaches out there who want to take on JJ and I and write a thesis on it? ;) I'll obey anything you say!

-JH

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Week 3

Week 2 went well, except for that Saturday, or Day 3, I had severe calf pain halfway through the run. I stopped and stretched, and then continued, but had continuing pain that got worse. I walked for a long time after I got home and stretched, but still: OW.

So I've taken this week off, and am just working on kettlebell workouts, walking, and any other activity than running in order to build strength and keep moving, and not die of running. (Can you tell running isn't my natural state?)

I'm working on building arm and core strength right now. 

And I'm going to go do a workout while watching Grey's Anatomy. Multi-tasking, it's where it's at.

-JH

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Epiphany

I had an epiphany today, regarding how the training program relates to my life. The time that works best for me to fit in runs is right after work. I'm the epitome of not a morning person, so trying to wake up and run pre-work never pans out (I choose the snooze button every time), and if I try to go later in the evening after I've settled at home I generally don't go. If, however, I go straight from the office, I find it works best. The problem though, is that my job is stressful. We're talking wanting-to-punch-holes-in-things stressful. In the name of being professional, and wanting to stay employed, I hold my frustration in. Then when I get to the gym my instinct is to go all out, balls-to-the-wall, and run til I drop. Which is what I did, for years. The gym was my way of dealing with pent up frustration, aggression, stress, and the like. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does prevent progress when training for distance. 

See, when distance training, the body needs time to get stronger. It needs to build gradually so that your lungs, bones, muscles, heart, and systems in general, have time to learn to work at increased capacity. To build up the body, sometimes you have to slow down. I've been struggling with the training program here in the early weeks because it tells me to run 60 seconds and then walk 90. I can run more than 60 seconds...a lot more. But I can't run 13 miles. The temptation, I find, is to go out there, sprint until I'm dying, and be done. But that's not going to get me to where I need to go. Instead I have to force myself to slow down, to not push to maximum capacity at all times, but rather to go steady and give my body time to catch up. Already on week 3 I find the 2 miles easier than at first, because on some of the runs I cheated. I ran longer than 60 seconds at a stretch, but by the end of my run I was bright red, gasping for air, searching for my inhaler, and generally looking and feeling like death. Slowing down feels like cheating because I can push my body harder, but I would never last. And as the mileage increases, I would hit a wall physically, and eventually give up.

I ran today after work and it wasn't until just a few minutes ago, as I was thinking about tomorrow's work day, that it really hit me: I'm living my life the way that I used to approach running - balls-to-the-wall, all out sprinting until I feel like I'm going to pass out, and then I curl up and quit. And the thing is, that while in certain situations (deadlines, etc), this tactic is needed, just like in running there are times that sprinting is what's called for, it's not a long-term recipe for success. I'm pushing myself too hard, for too long, and getting exhausted. I'm burning myself out in life, and the race isn't even close to over. 

I haven't fully thought about how this is going to apply to my life, or what changes I can make, but I know that the changes need to be there. Somehow I need to find a way to slow down, to build myself up over time, to take "rest days", and to not burn out. Because the race of life is long, and sprinting isn't going to get me to the end, and it certainly won't get me there happy and healthy.

- JJ 

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Back At It

Yesterday after work I started week 2 again (since I didn't really do any of it last week, and with JH out, we decided a re-do was in order). My 2 mi time was 23:45, not including my 4:30 minute warm up.

The next thing on my 'to-do' list for this process is going to be finding something good I can do on non-running days. I can't participate in the push-up work outs, or a whole lot of upper body anything due to my shoulder injury. I am doing some mild weight training and stretching for at-home PT for my arm, but I'd like to be doing something more also, I just don't know what yet.

- JJ

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Giddy-up

(That's cowboy speak for hoping that I'm back in the saddle. I'm from Montana, I can use it.)

Today I went to the high school track to run Week 2 Day 1, and promptly realized I had no idea how many laps were in a mile (my excuse is that I haven't ran on a high school track since the last time I had to do the mile in 10th grade). Thankfully my sister saved me and it was on to warm up and do 8 laps at running for 60 seconds, walking for 90. 

I'm having a problem where my pedometer doesn't recognize my actual distance since I take longer strides than average for my height, so I am really appreciating the track. To motivate myself I did the first mile on the outside lane and the second mile on the inside lane. 

I started at a 14:00 mile pace, but ended the workout at 26:20 (total 35:00 with warmup and cooldown). I was proud of myself for picking it up and finishing strong. I also did Week 1 Day 3 of 100 pushups today. I can't do a full pushup, so I do them from the arm of the couch, because that's harder for me than from-the-knee pushups, so I feel like I'm working out more.

Last week I was having a big problem with motivation, feeling as sick and hot and exhausted as I was, and this morning I almost let that continue, but I decided to just do it. I do much better with doing things if I don't think about it, but just go. At the Warrior Dash, there was an obstacle where you climb up a simulated rock wall, and then at the top there were fire poles to slide down. The poles felt REALLY TALL, and were about three feet away from the top of the obstacle, so you had to jump onto the pole. People all around me were getting really panicky (because I run with the non-athletic pack, thank goodness) and I knew that I would back out if I thought about it, so I just got up there, reached out, and jumped. I squeaked all the way down and almost tore out my shoulder because I don't have great pole technique (that's right, boys), but I DID IT. I can practice technique, but I'm not sure I can practice guts. 

Here's planning to do it again Wednesday! 

-JH

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Bump

I've been sick ever since we got back from vacation. Ear pain, congestion, loss of balance, really messed up. I've decided to take it easy those days. Today I finally lost it and needed to do something, so I started week 1 of 100pushups (I really need to get my arm strength up), and did a kettlebell routine, as well as several sets of bodyweight squats, all of them paying attention to form very closely. 

During vacation I hiked every day at a high altitude, stayed hydrated, and did some pushups, as well as hauling luggage through airports. I'm not feeling very strong right now, but I am feeling positive about the fact that my body is becoming more responsive to what I ask of it. 

I'm definitely going to be re-doing week 2 next week, since I didn't even fully finish week 1. My big dietary worry is getting enough protein. I think I might need to add some protein powder to my morning green smoothies. Anyone have protein powder recommendations? 

-JH

[adventuresintraining-blog]

So Close...

Yesterday after work I went running, intending on doing the 2 mi + warm up/cool down that is on the schedule for the day. Unfortunately, I was running at the gym on a treadmill during a thunderstorm, and 1.45 miles in we lost power, bringing my run to an abrupt stop. (I'd run about 12:30 mins at that point).

I'm going to try and run again today, in part because we don't seem to be expecting storms and yesterday's run was disappointing, and in part because with tomorrow being the 4th of July I'm not entirely sure when I'm going to be able to fit a run in.

- JJ

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Hiatus

Last week JH was traveling for a wedding, and I was ridiculously ill (one of those damn summer colds/sinus infection + allergies + asthma...I was just miserable), so neither of us did a whole lot on the running plan.

Today that changes! (At least for me). I'm still under the weather slightly, but am going to go running after work. The big question I've been debating is whether I should re-do week 1 or continue forward as though I had actually run three times last week. I think that for me, the plan is going to be to try and do week 2 today. That means that I will run in 60 sec intervals, spaced with walking, instead of 30. If this gets overwhelming or I feel like I'm gonna die, I'll go back to the week 1 plan. Not sure what JH's plan is at this point.

Injury Update:

I separated my shoulder about 10 weeks ago, second degree, and was supposed to be pretty much healed by now. In fact, I participated in a Warrior Dash three weeks ago and didn't experience any re-injury or pain. Over the past couple of days, however, my shoulder has been very painful again. I think I may have popped it out of place, or jarred it in some way without realizing it. Currently the plan is to just take it easy on the arms and continue with the PT exercises and such, but I'll be monitoring it closely and updating here periodically.

Happy Running.

- JJ

[adventuresintraining-blog]

We Have to do This How Many Times?

Well, I started C2HM yesterday as well. I'm posting this a day late because I had to squeeze running in between the end of the work day and an evening committment so there was no time to update.

To get the basics out of the way, I ran a total of 2.2 mi (counting a .2 warm up), and my time was 26:30 minus that warm up (29:00 with). I found two major struggles during my run, one of which I will simply have to deal with, and the other that I might be able to find a solution for. The first problem was that it was ridiculously hot. In general if given the option I prefer to run outside, however a wave of very serious thunderstorms created a situation in which I had to run indoors at the apartment gym. The not-airconditioned gym. Despite the best efforts of two industrious ceiling fans, that place got real hot, real quick. Sadly hot weather is simply a product of the climate I live in and the current time of year so I'm just going to have to hydrate and deal with it. The other issue that I found was pacing. Running on a treadmill it was difficult, I found, to make the switch from walking to running and back, because you can't simply slow down or speed up, you have to change the belt speed, and that takes a few seconds. On the upside, this forced me to pay more attention to the machine I was on and helped make the time go by faster. On the downside, it's difficult to hit stride that way. It's something I'll be working on solving in the future.

During the run I found myself wishing I had some additional information about what 'walk' and 'jog' constitute speed-wise. I think I may have been going faster than the plan intends. However, I didn't feel that I'd exerted myself to a point of injury or sheer exhaustion so I suppose it's okay. Either way, I got it done.

Today is my off day from running. I've been focusing on muscle strengthening on my off days, in a large part due to the fact that I'm coming back from a fairly serious injury to my shoulder and need to strengthen the surrounding muscles to help prevent re-injury in the future. As such, today I will be doing core, leg, and arm building. I'll try to through some cardio is as well, but I'm not sure what form that's going to take just yet.

- JJ

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C2HM: Week 1, Day 1

I ran completed the first day of the couch to half marathon training program. I went a total of 2.5 miles in 33:30, which included warm up and cool down. I feel good about it. I was really grumpy about having to go (and I really need to find a track to use before I go much further, instead of trusting my fitbit), but once I got out there it was nice. 

I recently bought an armband, and it was very helpful to run with that holding my phone instead of tucking my phone in my bra or a pocket, neither of which are very secure. Now I just need to figure out someplace to put my keys! I wish I could run at the private college track up the street--I could warm up on the way there and cool down on the way back, have my distance marked out, and not have to carry keys. Pssh, snobs! (I'm still trying to talk them into it.)

I also could NOT be doing this without Bodyglide. It's changed my life in a number of ways, allowing me to wear shorter shorts and skirts/dresses for treks. It's completely opened up my wardrobe and I am incredibly happy about it! I put some on this morning and tossed on a pair of shorts and I was good to go (aside from picking my wedgie). 

I'm leaving Wednesday morning and flying halfway across the country for a friend's wedding. I'm going to try to do the run Wednesday and Friday, and I'll post about what I do.

-JH

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Recovery, Kettlebells

Yesterday I was very sore from running Wednesday. My right hip had all sorts of soreness. I took fish oil, glucosamine, and my regular multivitamin, and took the day to rest. I stretched a lot (I think I need to start a morning or evening yoga routine for about 15 minutes), and proceeded with my day. 

My husband is a little weirded out because every spare minute I'm running up stairs or doing squats or calf raises or crunches or pushups. I call it interval training. :)

We decided to order Chinese food after seeing it on Big Bang Theory (we're suggestible), and while C went to pick it up I decided to use those 10 minutes to do a quick kettlebell routine: double-hand swing, single hand-swing right & left, halos, side lunges, double hand squats, single hand squats with rotate & punch right & left, single hand squats with a press right & left, bicep curls, lunges, and jackknife crunches. I then ate Chinese with zero guilt. 

JJ and I (and my sister!) signed up for a zombie 5K Labor Day Weekend. This is really good motivation for me to train. I watch a lot of zombie movies, and have a really great imagination. I do NOT want to get caught by (or turned into) a zombie. When completing the Warrior Dash, I had to walk a lot of it. I want to be able to run away from the zombies. JJ suggested that we train Dodgeball style: dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge. We're going to need a lot of the dodge, if you trust the YouTube videos. My subconscious is trying to train for this too: I've dreamed about running a zombie race every night since JJ first sent me the link. I think I'm trying to get less scared of it. 

I'm staying less active today too. Tomorrow I'm volunteering at a Pride Festival, and Sunday I'm going hiking. Monday I start the couch to half marathon training program we found. I'm going to drive by the tracks in the area this weekend to figure out the public hours, since a lot of that depends on distance. 

My local YMCA (which I'm a member of, hurrah student rate) is offering a two-for-one fitness class in July. I'm not quite sure what I'm signing up for yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm thinking one ass-kicking Tuesday/Thursday class to cover the cross-training days, and one class that's yoga or Pilates to strengthen the core and stretch a bit.

-JH

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Mistake

In keeping with the couch-to-half marathon program I decided to go running after work yesterday. The problem was, temps were in the high-90s, and even though I ran indoors, my gym is not air conditioned or well-ventilated. That being said, I did make it two miles. Similiar to what JH said, I pushed myself too hard on the first mile and my time for the second mile was significantly higher (total time for 2 miles was 25:09). The real issue, however, was the fact that when I finished running I very nearly passed out. I was dehydrated and overheated. Halfway through the run I realized heat was going to be a significant factor, but I tried to push through anyways and paid for it. I won't make that mistake again.

Temps today are even higher than yesterday, so I won't be running. I purchased free weights and will do some arms/legs/core with those. I also recently acquired an at-home dance cardio DVD thing that looked like potentially fun. I'm not sure how much exercise benefit it has, but I'll give it a shot (in my centrally air-conditioned apartment) this evening and see how it goes.

- JJ

[adventuresintraining-blog]

Baseline

I ran 1.5 miles today (ran is a misnomer, I suppose...hobbled is more like it). My time for the first mile was 12 minutes. I need to get better at finding a beginning pace--I ran my first half mile too fast and then had to walk. I'm going again tomorrow, just to make it around, and then the following day I'll go with the Couch to Half Marathon training program. I've been periodically doing kettlebell exercises as I get up to go get water or use the bathroom: squats, lunges, ribbon lunges, bicep curls, halos, jackknife crunches, squats with double or single arm extensions. And I'm doing full body pushups (sets of five, really shaky) on the arm of the couch, which is the lowest I can currently go. So far, it's good. The running might be the death of me, though. I'm definitely going earlier tomorrow morning. My heart rate monitor registered ridiculously high today, way over my max, so I need to intersperse running with walking for now. -JH