beautyfoodnerdrunningshoptravel

March 19, 2012

"too much to do" or "too lazy to do"

i've fallen off the treadmill, not literally thank goodness. what started out as a solid 3 weeks of sticking to a training plan of 4 days a week, has become a mad scramble to try to go 2 times a week. why the drop in momentum, let's try to figure that out.

first there was the valentines week that totally threw off the sched. i swapped days due to date plans and then unexpected commitments popped up. i got back on track for a week and a half, then the beau moved apartments. i helped (meaning i packed everything) to get him moved out over the week so we could take some out of town friends to vegas last weekend. i did put my foot down at 10:30pm one night and stormed to the gym. that was the hardest 2 miles i've ever run.

2 miles? you ask, wasn't i on track to 3 miles just a week ago? why yes, yes i was. and like the weekend after valentines when i was a bit under the weather, missing the week to pack up an apt totally kicked my ass. i have to take responsibility, i could have told him to do it himself, even he admits i went above and beyond. i am taking responsibility for it and reminding myself that i have a 10k in may and if i have to spend the hour after it sprawled out on the ground, i'm gonna finish it.

i knew going into this that the physical strength wasn't going to be my biggest problem, it was my mental strength. that's part of the reason i ordered a giving key with "strength" on it, to remind myself to have it. i have an incredibly short attention span and running on that treadmill is damn boring. the weather should warm up soon and i can start changing up the scenery. until then i'll just have to search for additional inspiration. wouldn't you know it, every time i need a little, the tar heels give me a boost. (i'll try to keep this love fest short)

March 6, 2012

"finally making it" or "much to learn"

this past weekend my parents came to visit and totally tried to keep me on track with this whole "training" thing. i took a day off from work and went for my first outdoor run since i started. i figured out a 2 mile block around my neighborhood, started off and before i knew it, was a little tired and way further along than i had expected. while waiting for the stop light to change i looked at my handy dandy runkeeper app. i had finished 1.5 miles at a pace of a 10 minute mile, no wonder i was exhausted.

i've been varying my pace on the treadmill a bit, starting at 4.7 for a song, 4.9 for a song and 5.2 for the rest. i'm averaging a 12.5 minute mile. so what happened? clearly i have no idea what a 12.5 minute mile feels like. i've been working on a machine that does the ground moving for me so i just get in rhythm with it. now i have to figure out how to pace myself before i keel over on the side of vineland from exhaustion. as my ironman athlete lady friend told me as we watched unc tear down dook, when you're running a long distance, it's all about pacing. (yes, i had to give a unc shout out)

how will i learn to pace myself when the treadmill is not around? there are a few options; one is cheap the other is not. i have the handy dandy run keeper app on my phone: it tracks gps, keeps time and pace of each mile and easily saves to my online runkeeper account. the draw back? i don't run with my phone readily available when outdoors, i keep it in my little run bag with my house keys. i don't use my iphone as an ipod when i run outdoors, i have a shuffle for that and don't feel like moving to a bulkier arm band. i'm left with the following option, some heart rate monitor / pacer combo.