Its bee a couple weeks since I last posted. My training has increased somewhat since then, but the eating is stayed pretty much the same as has the weight at around 230. The week I just finished was a new PR for weekly distance at 17 miles. 3 4 milers and a 5 miler today, Saturday.
I’m trying to get more specific with a training plan as the idea of running a half marathon gets closer and more real. Its just 17 weeks away and I feel I have a log way to go even though I have made and am making good progress from the couch to 5K program I completed a couple moths back. I’ve been looking at and very loosely basing my training on the Hal Higdon HM training plan for beginners but I started looking around at some other plans this evening. I am also realizing that I need to get serious about treating this like a training program and not just a loose guideline of how many miles I’m going to run each day/week. I need to run on the days I’m supposed to run, rest on those days and cross train on those days. And I really need to get the eating under plan as well. I need to make sure I’m giving my body what it needs to accomplish what I’m asking it to. I think I’m building mental and physical strength with some of these runs. When I feel like quitting at the beginning of a 4 or 5 mile run but finish them all and try to have good paces on runs where I just wanted to stop at the beginning, that shows I’m building up some mental and physical toughness. I also feel like HOW I’m running; the gait I’m using is starting to be a factor. I know this because on a run early this week, my shins were hurting almost before I started running on the warm up walk and each step was a little torture. Although I’d been trying to land more softly on the ball of my foot, at about the 1.75 mile mark, I try to over due it almost landing on my toes and almost immediately the pressure on my shins let up and it made a huge difference in the run. I relaxed and wasn’t tense anticipating the shock on each step. I feel really sloppy on most days when i start and very clunky. It’s like Frankenstein running down the street with those big heavy platform shoes. Only after i have been going for several minutes do I feel like I’m starting to lessen the shock on each step and start to feel a more smooth rythym. I keep replying through my mind some advice I got from my old buddy Matt Condron who is an ultru runner now. Take short steps and feel like I’m trying to push the tread of the treadmill back with my feet. Its a great analogy and reminder. The other thing I was working with the last couple runs was to try and keep my foot on the ground for as little time as possible. As soon as it lands, try to get it back up again. This should help with speed and it seems to take some of the pressure off each landing.
The bottom line is that I am trying to do more each week and the more time I spent out on the road running, the more important in becomes that I’m not going about it in a half assed manner. I need to make plans and stick to them. Avoid doing something stupid because I wasn’t thinking which causes an injury or is counterproductive to my ultimate goal. It’s time to get with the program!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
5 Months (and 5 miles) Later
It has been 5 months and one day since the last time I posted to the blog. The good news is that I'm still running and have made good progress on my goal. I finished the couch to 5K plan in late February and have been going ever since. I wasn't running as regularly after I completed the plan as I would have liked, and came close to giving it up when I went about 9 days without running at all, but the last month has been real good and I have been enjoying the progress I've been making.
Now when I don't run, I miss it and I look forward to getting out on the road. One of the keys has been keeping track of my running in a running log and watching those miles keep going up. As I write this post, I've got a total of 167 miles with almost all of them in 2010. Last week I ran 15.5 miles and did my first 5 mile run yesterday. I ran it just under 52 minutes for a pace of 10:24. That is something I simply could not have done only five months ago. In May, I ran 46.6 miles; again this is amazing.
My original goal was to run a marathon on October 17th in Des Moines. I've decided that I'm going to make that a half marathon. Now that I have been running for over five months, I have a better idea of what a challenge a full marathon really is. Even a half marathon is a pretty aggressive goal for a new runner, but I do think I will be able to do it. For a long time, I was running a certain amount of time for each run, slowly working my way up from the 30 minutes that I did in the last week of the couch to 5K program. I had gotten up to 36 minutes and pretty much stayed there for almost two months, during the period when my running got a little sporadic. When I decided to get more focused on training for the HM, I decided to start running for distance instead of time and looked around online and found a training program which I'm basing my current running on. The plan is by a well known running teacher named Hal Higdon and is meant for beginning runners who want to attempt the half marathon. Its a 12 week plan, but since I've got (and need) more time than that to train, I'm going to do most weeks twice. I'm also not following it exactly though pretty close. The big part of it that I haven't been following is that it includes cross training which up to now I have not been doing. I'm going to remedy that this week by joining the local gym that just opened up and start some strength training. We've also been talking about getting some bikes which would be another fitness option that would be lower impact and something to do on those days I am not running.
One area where I have not been doing nearly so well is in my eating habits. I've continued to eat very poorly and subsequently, even though I have been running quite a bit, my weight has not changed. Its amazing to think about all the calories that I'm burning running 12-15 miles/week and that I'm eating enough to off set that exercise. More important than the weight though is that not eating right makes the running that much harder. I'm reaching the point where I am going to HAVE to eat better or I may not be able to sustain the kind of training that I'm pursuing. And its just time that I stop letting food make me feel bad and control my behavior. But I'm not going to get down about it. I have made an amazing change in my attitude toward exercise and running and taken a big step in changing my lifestyle. I know that I can do this one additional step with food. And now is the time.
Now when I don't run, I miss it and I look forward to getting out on the road. One of the keys has been keeping track of my running in a running log and watching those miles keep going up. As I write this post, I've got a total of 167 miles with almost all of them in 2010. Last week I ran 15.5 miles and did my first 5 mile run yesterday. I ran it just under 52 minutes for a pace of 10:24. That is something I simply could not have done only five months ago. In May, I ran 46.6 miles; again this is amazing.
My original goal was to run a marathon on October 17th in Des Moines. I've decided that I'm going to make that a half marathon. Now that I have been running for over five months, I have a better idea of what a challenge a full marathon really is. Even a half marathon is a pretty aggressive goal for a new runner, but I do think I will be able to do it. For a long time, I was running a certain amount of time for each run, slowly working my way up from the 30 minutes that I did in the last week of the couch to 5K program. I had gotten up to 36 minutes and pretty much stayed there for almost two months, during the period when my running got a little sporadic. When I decided to get more focused on training for the HM, I decided to start running for distance instead of time and looked around online and found a training program which I'm basing my current running on. The plan is by a well known running teacher named Hal Higdon and is meant for beginning runners who want to attempt the half marathon. Its a 12 week plan, but since I've got (and need) more time than that to train, I'm going to do most weeks twice. I'm also not following it exactly though pretty close. The big part of it that I haven't been following is that it includes cross training which up to now I have not been doing. I'm going to remedy that this week by joining the local gym that just opened up and start some strength training. We've also been talking about getting some bikes which would be another fitness option that would be lower impact and something to do on those days I am not running.
One area where I have not been doing nearly so well is in my eating habits. I've continued to eat very poorly and subsequently, even though I have been running quite a bit, my weight has not changed. Its amazing to think about all the calories that I'm burning running 12-15 miles/week and that I'm eating enough to off set that exercise. More important than the weight though is that not eating right makes the running that much harder. I'm reaching the point where I am going to HAVE to eat better or I may not be able to sustain the kind of training that I'm pursuing. And its just time that I stop letting food make me feel bad and control my behavior. But I'm not going to get down about it. I have made an amazing change in my attitude toward exercise and running and taken a big step in changing my lifestyle. I know that I can do this one additional step with food. And now is the time.
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