Man, I Hate Running

So today was the 20 miler. The first one! After barely finishing, I soaked in some ice water and took a nap. I’m up, but I still don’t feel like doing much.  So basically the run took up the whole day.

My feet hurt. My legs hurt. And I just spent ten minutes filing down two malformed toenails with a rotary trimmer made for dog claws.

In addition, I’ve lately been losing circulation in my toes at around the 4-6 mile mark. I think I may need to go up a size in shoes (which means my feet have grown a whole size in the past year). There’s a hundred bucks. Wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t just bought a pair about a month ago.

I sort of remember this from last year. It’s kind of fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I stopped running altogether except for the long training runs on the weekends.

So sitting here feeling all jaded, I remember our awesome fundraiser at Global Fayre on Friday night. Chris ran a marathon on a treaadmill out in front of the store and $1 from every purchase for the day went to World Vision. We had 9 children get sponsored and brought a lot of publicity to the store. And then afterward, Chris had to go and tell us all how proud he was of us and how we’re making such a huge difference in Africa.

I wanted to slap him. As soon as I decided that all this wasn’t worth it, Chris has to get all passionate and motivate me to keep going. I guess that’s why I’m on a team and not trying to do this on my own.

So I suppose I’ll keep training, try to lose a little weight, and see how the marathon goes. I only hope I can manage to raise some more funds. I’ve only got 140 bucks in so far. Please help me out. Hop over to my fund raising page and make a contribution. Time is running out!

• Distance: 20 mi.
• Time: 3:50
• Pace: 11:30/mi.

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I Did It! … finally, sheesh …

I don’t know why it freaks me out so much, but the thought of running the 8.5 miles to work just seems insurmountable. Or it seemed like it until today.

(short pause while I pat myself on the back)

Anyway, I’m not too high on my horse because I was scheduled to run 10 today, but it still felt great, freeing actually, to finally make the run. It was my fifth opportunity according to the training schedule. Of course, the thunderstorms this afternoon kind of made me wonder if I would be riding my bike home in the rain, but it all worked out.

17 miles on Saturday. 8.5 today. And it seems like the quality and mental focus are getting better. Maybe I’m getting over the difficulty of it all, or maybe I’m just starting to really believe in what I’m doing.

• Distance: 8.54 mi.
• Time: 1:23:19
• Pace: 9:46/mi
• Max HR: 166

Faster than a Speeding Enoch

As I rounded the corner for the finish line, I mustered every ounce of energy I had and took off at an all out sprint. I blew past the last water stop and came to another corner. And then another corner. And another… HOLY COW! Where’s the finish line!

By the time I came to the hill that led to the “actual” finish line, I was ready to pass out. I had done my sprint to the finish about a mile too soon. How cliche.

Anyway, the Y Not Run race was a good time this weekend. I did manage to set  a new personal record for my 10k, 57:11. Hey! Stop laughing! That’s pretty good for me!

• Distance: 10k
• Time: 57:11
• Pace: 9:13/mi
• Weekly Mileage Total: 26 mi

Oh, and I have pictures:

Me Appearing Energetic for the Finish

The Team

Chris Miller, Team Captain, won 1st for his age group!

Oh Em Jee. Even Slower and Heavier

Maybe I don’t get this whole training thing. It was my understanding that as you train, you will get better at running. You’ll lose weight. Your apetite will increase.  I am apparently opposite man. My appetite has decreased. I’m getting slower. And I’m gaining weight. At least two people have commented, “Well, maybe it’s muscle weight.” That is actually a small comfort when I still have this donut bouncing around my waist. Now I have even more of me to propel as I run. Chris mentioned that the same was true for him for years but that he recently dropped a bunch of weight. So if I keep this up for one more year, maybe I’ll see some more results! 11:40 average. At least if I can keep that up for the marathon, I’ll knock off half an hour from my time last year. I was really hoping for more.

• Distance: 15.1 mi (35.3 total for the week)
• Total Time 2:56:10
• Pace: 11:40/mi
• Max Heart Rate: 154

The Training Blog

Effed up Friday

Half a mile into my run this morning (keep in mind it was 6:30 a.m.), I came across a drunk man who shouted “OURA!” (I’m assuming that bit was to get my attention) “F!@#ed up Friday!” I acknowledged him with a quick “Guess so,” and kept – on – running. It occurred to me that he was within stumbling distance to my house and the front door was wide open, but -eh- he was on Kearney, so not likely.

I tried to time out my run, which should have worked and has in the past, but apparently I was running r e a l l y s l o w l y this morning. Holy cow. Funny thing about running first thing in the morning, warming up seems to be essential. Things aren’t working correctly. I must make a mental note of that next time I attempt a long run in the morning. Oh wait, that’s tomorrow.

• Distance: 7.56 mi
• Pace: 10:24/mi
• Max Heart Rate: 156

Lactating in Tempo

So according to my training plan, a tempo run should be 88-92% of your max heart rate or 30 seconds per mile slower than your 5k race pace. So apparently I suck. That would put my 5k race pace at 8:17. I guarantee that isn’t going to happen. As far as max heart rate, my max was 163, but I lingered around 150. According to formulas, my max should be closer to 190, so my tempo runs should be at 170ish. Holy freakin crap. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard if I weighed 20 lbs less.

Anyway, they say these are to increase my “lactic threshold,” whatever that means. I feel like if I push myself any further, I may actually start lactating. Either that or my nipples will start bleeding. However, I am glad to report that I have successfully completed my first tempo run (sort of). I did run for 40 minutes, but I had a couple of breaks. Maybe if I had done my 30-minute and 35-minute runs, this wouldn’t have been so excruciating.

• Distance: 4.56 mi
• Time: 40:00
• Average: 8:47/mi
• HR Max: 163

8 Miles in the Middle of the Night

I have all but given up on running first thing in the morning. I am simply not a morning person. I hit the road at 9 o’clock and finished up at 10:30 exactly. 9:36 per mile average. And while I am quite happy with myself, here I am blogging at midnight thirty instead of sleeping. This kind of mileage is going to kill me.