August 31, 2012
Another night of cheer leading practice and another opportunity to run in the country. This time I knew what to expect and I was better prepared. This time I brought along my sun glasses but I still haven't figured out a way to carry water without spending a bunch of money on a belt of a backpack that will weigh me down. I've to figure this one out because I've decided that running without water SUX!!!! BIG TIME!!!! Actually, I have a small backpack that I could carry an old Diet Coke bottle, one of those ones that you get at gas stations. If you fill one of those half way with water, stick it in the freezer and let it freeze then fill it with water you end up with a nice cold bottle of water that stays cold as it melts. I suppose I could do that and use that small backpack. I just don't want to carry that on my back and be more sweaty than I get. I'm also afraid it would get heavy. I don't want to add more weight to myself as well. I'll have to think about it.
So, anyway, I set out on my run again tonight after a couple of delays. I had to give my daughter insulin at practice since NaNa took the kids to McDonald's and dropped my daughter off to practice and she hadn't been able to get her insulin. Then I had to go back home and get her tennis shoes since she'd worn flip flops out to eat and needed tennis shoes for practice. When I was finally able to set out I'd almost talked myself out of the run! But I decided to go ahead and get it done. I started out and tried to be more aware of my pace when I started out. On Tuesday when I started out I was running @ a pace of 10:42 which made me super tired by the time I got farther along and hit hills, etc. I tried to be more aware of just how fast I was running. I didn't want to wear out and have to walk again. Walking feels like failure to me and I don't like failure.
Tonight's run was better than Tuesday night's. It felt better; there were less cars so there was less running in the grass but then again, I decided to just stop and wait for the car to pass instead of trying to run in the grass. It's just not worth the chance of stepping into some clump of dry dirt pile or hole and spraining my ankle. I do like the feel of the road beneath my feet and I like this route but it's just not worth it since the road seems to be busy. I won't run this route again unless my daughter has cheer practice at the gym again. I'll stick to the courthouse run or the "trail" at the sports complex where cheer practice is normally held.
I didn't have to stop or walk once tonight which made me very happy. It was still rough. I'm still running without water which as previously stated SUX BIG TIME! I do need to come up with some way to carry water. I'm probably going to have to break down and either buy a belt of just accept the fact that I am going to have to carry a backpack. I have a belt that I carry my cell phone and my driver's license in and I've tried to hook a water bottle to it but so far I've not come up with a way to do it and my engineer husband hasn't weighed in with any ideas. I guess it's going to have to be the small backpack. At any rate, I've talked enough about carrying water and need to get back to the run itself. It was a rough run but I felt good at the end. No knee pain, no back pain, no foot pain and I didn't keel over dead so that's all good, right? I am pretty happy with this run. The hills are still hard but at least I ran up them and didn't have to walk. YAY!
Tonight I ran 3.12 miles. It took me thirty-eight minutes and my average pace was 12:06. This is a tiny bit better than Tuesday. I ran a full 5k distance and my pace was just slightly better. I'll take those extra hundreths, thank you very much! I'm satisfied with this run all in all and would like to go back to that route and conquer the hills but it just doesn't seem safe with the cars and such. I have a lot going on at home tomorrow with the kids tomorrow so I guess I'll hit the treadmill tomorrow. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.
Happy Running!
KEA
Friday, August 31, 2012
Country Roads, Take Me Home....
August 28, 2012
My youngest daughter had cheer leading practice tonight at the local gym so I decided to gather my running gear and go run while she learned how to stand on the other girls' shoulders. The gym is on the outskirts of town and there's a back road out there so I decided I would see where it led. I found out that it is half a mile from the gym to the skating rink and from the skating rink to the old folks' home is another half mile. Another half mile then I turned around and came back to give me a full three miles today.
This was really rough because even though it was evening it was still really hot. On top of that this road is super hilly and a couple of the hills are rather steep. I ended up having to walk for quite a bit as I was worn out; I didn't have anywhere to stop for water and I wasn't carrying any. I was super thirsty and super tired. I felt like one of those cartoons where they crawl across the desert going "Water......water.......water....." It wasn't a pretty sight, that's for sure!
There's not a whole lot I can say about this run. It was really hard and I had to stop and walk. I liked the route but at the same time I didn't like it because there were no sidewalks so I had to run on the road. I didn't think that the road would be busy that time of night but it was and every time a car came I would have to get off the road and run in the grass. That was a little difficult because the ground is super bumpy with dirt clots and hidden holes, etc. I kept twisting my foot or stumbling on stuff. So I'd run in the grass until the cars passed then I'd go back to the road and run a pace. Then another car would come and I'd have to get back in the grass again. Blah, blah, blah.....didn't like that. I like the way the road feels under my feet but I guess I prefer running on a sidewalk because I don't have to keep getting in the grass.
I was exhausted when I was done but I did do a full three miles and even though I had to walk it took me just a minute or two longer than my standard three mile time. This is because when I started off I started off with a faster pace. I'm pretty sure that's what contributed to my running out of energy too quickly too.
All in all a good run. I ran 3.03 miles. It took me 37 minutes and my average pace was 12:10. That looks a lot better than it felt!
On to the next run!
Happy Running!
KEA
My youngest daughter had cheer leading practice tonight at the local gym so I decided to gather my running gear and go run while she learned how to stand on the other girls' shoulders. The gym is on the outskirts of town and there's a back road out there so I decided I would see where it led. I found out that it is half a mile from the gym to the skating rink and from the skating rink to the old folks' home is another half mile. Another half mile then I turned around and came back to give me a full three miles today.
This was really rough because even though it was evening it was still really hot. On top of that this road is super hilly and a couple of the hills are rather steep. I ended up having to walk for quite a bit as I was worn out; I didn't have anywhere to stop for water and I wasn't carrying any. I was super thirsty and super tired. I felt like one of those cartoons where they crawl across the desert going "Water......water.......water....." It wasn't a pretty sight, that's for sure!
There's not a whole lot I can say about this run. It was really hard and I had to stop and walk. I liked the route but at the same time I didn't like it because there were no sidewalks so I had to run on the road. I didn't think that the road would be busy that time of night but it was and every time a car came I would have to get off the road and run in the grass. That was a little difficult because the ground is super bumpy with dirt clots and hidden holes, etc. I kept twisting my foot or stumbling on stuff. So I'd run in the grass until the cars passed then I'd go back to the road and run a pace. Then another car would come and I'd have to get back in the grass again. Blah, blah, blah.....didn't like that. I like the way the road feels under my feet but I guess I prefer running on a sidewalk because I don't have to keep getting in the grass.
I was exhausted when I was done but I did do a full three miles and even though I had to walk it took me just a minute or two longer than my standard three mile time. This is because when I started off I started off with a faster pace. I'm pretty sure that's what contributed to my running out of energy too quickly too.
All in all a good run. I ran 3.03 miles. It took me 37 minutes and my average pace was 12:10. That looks a lot better than it felt!
On to the next run!
Happy Running!
KEA
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
3.166......Torture
August 27, 2012
Today was a flop day to start with. I didn't sleep well last night. Went to bed around 2:00 which I keep telling myself I will stop doing (and look at me now, up late again....) so when it came to getting up today it was rough. Got up to get kids ready for school and then went back to bed because I just wasn't feeling well but I couldn't sleep. My sister in law texted me this morning and then I got to thinking about what she was texting me about and finally fell asleep. I slept until 1:30 OMGoodness I did NOT intend to do that. I then remembered that I had to get my daughter's test strips refilled at the pharmacy. My husband asked me to stop at the doctor's office to pick up a sports physical form for his son who wanted to go out for cross country and had to have the form to school by today. So, I stopped at WalMart, dropped off the prescription then headed to the doctor's office. Went back to WalMart, picked up a few things and the prescription. Drove to the school, dropped off the form, picked up an insurance waiver form, found out my husband's son forgot to take the check to pay for cross country. Went to the car, called my husband to tell him I would come back home and pick up the check since I didn't have a checkbook in my purse, found out he was on his way to the school on his bicycle so I just headed home....already I felt like I put in a full day even though I really hadn't. Got home, put a load of laundry in the dryer and sat down to recap on my plans for the day. So far in my day nothing had gone to plan. Kids got home from school and we realized my husband's son (after all that running around to get all the ducks in the row so he could go to practice today) had come home and not gone to cross country practice. UGH! So.....after all this I remembered I wanted to get a run in sometime.
It was getting late and my daughter was hungry so I decided to go ahead and cook some supper. I had planned on having cube steaks, butter noodles, blueberry muffins, and corn but the cube steaks turned out to be bad so I had to go with Plan B. I found some hamburgers in the freezer, fried them up and decided to hit the treadmill. Unfortunately, my iPod was on the fritz and it was low battery so I plugged it in to charge it up and wait for my daughter to finish her supper so we could give her insulin. By this time it was almost 8:00 and I was feeling like skipping my run altogether but something in me kicked and wouldn't let me skip since I've already skipped two days and have been feeling guilty about it. So I begrudgingly got up out of my chair and dragged the treadmill out and fired her up.
My intention was to run four miles at 5.0 MPH and figured it would take me 48 minutes since I know that pace at 5.0 MPH is 12:00 which means I'm running a mile in twelve minutes so four times twelve is forty-eight minutes. That was my plan.....yeah, right. I got on there and quite frankly, I wanted to quit at half a mile. What? How did I get so out of shape? I was out of breath and I just wanted to quit. But I'm not quitter so I figured I'd have to use some pretty distracting mental tricks. Unfortunately, I was fresh out of those and the only thing I could do to keep myself distracted was to count. I counted seconds, I counted tenths of a mile, I counted anything I could think of to count. There's several different minute counts: There's the actual count the seconds in a minute minute count. Then there's the how many minutes do I have to go minute count. There's the how many minutes left to run a mile, how many to run half a mile minute count. Then there's the count to one hundred to calculate the mile. So much counting but the whole thing is to distract myself from the torture of this run. It was awful....just awful and I wanted to stop so badly but I didn't. I'm glad I didn't. I just couldn't let myself off easy.
So here's the breakdown because I just don't want to talk about this horrible run anymore. I ran on the treadmill tonight because it was getting late and I knew if I ran outside I wouldn't do a full three miles. I ran with the treadmill incline set at 2.0, running @ 5.0 MPH. My pace was 12:00 and I ran a total of 3.166 miles. It took me 38 minutes exactly. I would've stopped at 3.1 miles but it was an odd number and I prefer to stop at a round even number. Silly, I know but there it is...another one of my quirks. I'm glad to be done with this run, both running it and talking about it. I prefer to never think about this one again but I know that wouldn't be very productive because it's runs like these that help me remember not to quit so I won't have to start all over again and have to go through the awfulness of how this felt again.
Happy Running!
KEA
Today was a flop day to start with. I didn't sleep well last night. Went to bed around 2:00 which I keep telling myself I will stop doing (and look at me now, up late again....) so when it came to getting up today it was rough. Got up to get kids ready for school and then went back to bed because I just wasn't feeling well but I couldn't sleep. My sister in law texted me this morning and then I got to thinking about what she was texting me about and finally fell asleep. I slept until 1:30 OMGoodness I did NOT intend to do that. I then remembered that I had to get my daughter's test strips refilled at the pharmacy. My husband asked me to stop at the doctor's office to pick up a sports physical form for his son who wanted to go out for cross country and had to have the form to school by today. So, I stopped at WalMart, dropped off the prescription then headed to the doctor's office. Went back to WalMart, picked up a few things and the prescription. Drove to the school, dropped off the form, picked up an insurance waiver form, found out my husband's son forgot to take the check to pay for cross country. Went to the car, called my husband to tell him I would come back home and pick up the check since I didn't have a checkbook in my purse, found out he was on his way to the school on his bicycle so I just headed home....already I felt like I put in a full day even though I really hadn't. Got home, put a load of laundry in the dryer and sat down to recap on my plans for the day. So far in my day nothing had gone to plan. Kids got home from school and we realized my husband's son (after all that running around to get all the ducks in the row so he could go to practice today) had come home and not gone to cross country practice. UGH! So.....after all this I remembered I wanted to get a run in sometime.
It was getting late and my daughter was hungry so I decided to go ahead and cook some supper. I had planned on having cube steaks, butter noodles, blueberry muffins, and corn but the cube steaks turned out to be bad so I had to go with Plan B. I found some hamburgers in the freezer, fried them up and decided to hit the treadmill. Unfortunately, my iPod was on the fritz and it was low battery so I plugged it in to charge it up and wait for my daughter to finish her supper so we could give her insulin. By this time it was almost 8:00 and I was feeling like skipping my run altogether but something in me kicked and wouldn't let me skip since I've already skipped two days and have been feeling guilty about it. So I begrudgingly got up out of my chair and dragged the treadmill out and fired her up.
My intention was to run four miles at 5.0 MPH and figured it would take me 48 minutes since I know that pace at 5.0 MPH is 12:00 which means I'm running a mile in twelve minutes so four times twelve is forty-eight minutes. That was my plan.....yeah, right. I got on there and quite frankly, I wanted to quit at half a mile. What? How did I get so out of shape? I was out of breath and I just wanted to quit. But I'm not quitter so I figured I'd have to use some pretty distracting mental tricks. Unfortunately, I was fresh out of those and the only thing I could do to keep myself distracted was to count. I counted seconds, I counted tenths of a mile, I counted anything I could think of to count. There's several different minute counts: There's the actual count the seconds in a minute minute count. Then there's the how many minutes do I have to go minute count. There's the how many minutes left to run a mile, how many to run half a mile minute count. Then there's the count to one hundred to calculate the mile. So much counting but the whole thing is to distract myself from the torture of this run. It was awful....just awful and I wanted to stop so badly but I didn't. I'm glad I didn't. I just couldn't let myself off easy.
So here's the breakdown because I just don't want to talk about this horrible run anymore. I ran on the treadmill tonight because it was getting late and I knew if I ran outside I wouldn't do a full three miles. I ran with the treadmill incline set at 2.0, running @ 5.0 MPH. My pace was 12:00 and I ran a total of 3.166 miles. It took me 38 minutes exactly. I would've stopped at 3.1 miles but it was an odd number and I prefer to stop at a round even number. Silly, I know but there it is...another one of my quirks. I'm glad to be done with this run, both running it and talking about it. I prefer to never think about this one again but I know that wouldn't be very productive because it's runs like these that help me remember not to quit so I won't have to start all over again and have to go through the awfulness of how this felt again.
Happy Running!
KEA
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Inspiration 3
August 26, 2012
Here I am, up late again. I know I should go to bed but I know that if I do I will just lie there and toss and turn. I want to sleep but I won't so I might as well share another (the last) round of inspirations. I'll just dive in with no further ado...
"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." Bill Bowerman I have shared how I am amazed at what my body is capable of. This inspiration expresses that amazement. A couple of weeks ago I was working on a new training program that I have since dropped for reasons (excuses) previously blogged about but will take up once again in the very near future. When I was reading about the program I was floored at the requirement....sixty minutes, running? Seriously? But I got up on the treadmill and I did it. I DID IT! Running! YES!!!! While it was a test of my ability to play the mental game that running is to me, it was also a test of the ability of my body. And while that's not my heart specifically it's close enough. And that's if we interpret this inspiration literally. Let's talk about what we mean when we say "the heart". When we say "My heart belongs to so and so" we don't mean that person literally owns the physical organ that pumps blood through our veins. That would be creepy. We mean that we love that person with the very core of our existence. Right? So when we say running tests the limits of the heart we mean it tests what we are made up of, deep in the core of our being. How much can you stand? How much can you push yourself through? How strong are you, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually? That's what I like about this inspiration. It gets at the very essence of the mental game that running is to me. It tests my ability to push myself though.
"Run Hard & Be Nice To People" Okay, so this isn't really an inspiration; it's more of a moral code. Well, not the run hard part. That part just reminds me to be strong and keep going. The be nice part is the moral code part. I realize being nice has nothing to do with running, unless running helps you be nice to people but as a person, living my life day to day I strive to be nice. I firmly believe if more people were dedicated to being nice this world would be a better place to live in. Let me give you an example. My husband and I went to Tunica for a weekend get away a few years before we were married. My husband is a professional poker player so when we go away for a weekend get away we often go to Vegas or Tunica or somewhere he can play live since he plays mainly online. At the casinos and hotels with casinos you can often sign up for a card that looks somewhat like a debit card that you use when you play the games at the casinos or buy something from the hotel shops. You give the dealer your card (or swipe it in the slot machine) and it collects points that you can then trade in for goodies at the casino or hotel like free dinners or whatever. My husband was signing up for one of these cards and the woman behind the counter was in a cranky mood and while she wasn't rude or mean to us we could just tell that she was having a bad day. I began talking with her and discovered that her small son was sick with the flu and she had been up with him all night. She also had to work late that night and wasn't able to be home with him. She was tired and worried about her son and that made her cranky. Just by talking with her and sharing that I understood how she felt we were able to cheer her up and when we left her counter she had a smile on her face. Just by being nice. If more people took the time to think about things from someone else's point of view we might be able to understand what makes each other tick and we might be more apt to be more tolerant of people and their point of view. In lieu of the upcoming elections and the dissonance between Republicans and Democrats with the polar opposite view points this particular "inspiration" is something we all want to think about. You don't have to agree with someone or even like their opinion or point of view but let's try to understand each other and just plain be nice!
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today was your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass. There is no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." John Bingham I love this. This gives me permission to call myself a runner even though I've only been doing this for less than a year and even though I've stopped and restarted so many times I've lost count. I am a runner. John Bingham says so, LOL!!!! This makes me feel better about my low mileage and my slow pace. I am a runner! I don't have to join a club. I don't have to take a test or join a gym. I can run anywhere. I can run any time. I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself. I don't have to go to some bureau to take a physical test or a written test. I can call myself a runner no matter what. This is so simple and so beautiful in its simplicity! I am a runner.
The last one I want to share with you is this:
I mean, who doesn't love pie? Seriously though....this one reminds me that I need to reward myself once in a while for good behavior because you must reward yourself. :-)
Happy Running and let's have some PIE!
KEA
P.S. That is NOT me in the picture; I don't know who she is but she is pretty and I would certainly trade looks with her!
Here I am, up late again. I know I should go to bed but I know that if I do I will just lie there and toss and turn. I want to sleep but I won't so I might as well share another (the last) round of inspirations. I'll just dive in with no further ado...
"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." Bill Bowerman I have shared how I am amazed at what my body is capable of. This inspiration expresses that amazement. A couple of weeks ago I was working on a new training program that I have since dropped for reasons (excuses) previously blogged about but will take up once again in the very near future. When I was reading about the program I was floored at the requirement....sixty minutes, running? Seriously? But I got up on the treadmill and I did it. I DID IT! Running! YES!!!! While it was a test of my ability to play the mental game that running is to me, it was also a test of the ability of my body. And while that's not my heart specifically it's close enough. And that's if we interpret this inspiration literally. Let's talk about what we mean when we say "the heart". When we say "My heart belongs to so and so" we don't mean that person literally owns the physical organ that pumps blood through our veins. That would be creepy. We mean that we love that person with the very core of our existence. Right? So when we say running tests the limits of the heart we mean it tests what we are made up of, deep in the core of our being. How much can you stand? How much can you push yourself through? How strong are you, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually? That's what I like about this inspiration. It gets at the very essence of the mental game that running is to me. It tests my ability to push myself though.
"Run Hard & Be Nice To People" Okay, so this isn't really an inspiration; it's more of a moral code. Well, not the run hard part. That part just reminds me to be strong and keep going. The be nice part is the moral code part. I realize being nice has nothing to do with running, unless running helps you be nice to people but as a person, living my life day to day I strive to be nice. I firmly believe if more people were dedicated to being nice this world would be a better place to live in. Let me give you an example. My husband and I went to Tunica for a weekend get away a few years before we were married. My husband is a professional poker player so when we go away for a weekend get away we often go to Vegas or Tunica or somewhere he can play live since he plays mainly online. At the casinos and hotels with casinos you can often sign up for a card that looks somewhat like a debit card that you use when you play the games at the casinos or buy something from the hotel shops. You give the dealer your card (or swipe it in the slot machine) and it collects points that you can then trade in for goodies at the casino or hotel like free dinners or whatever. My husband was signing up for one of these cards and the woman behind the counter was in a cranky mood and while she wasn't rude or mean to us we could just tell that she was having a bad day. I began talking with her and discovered that her small son was sick with the flu and she had been up with him all night. She also had to work late that night and wasn't able to be home with him. She was tired and worried about her son and that made her cranky. Just by talking with her and sharing that I understood how she felt we were able to cheer her up and when we left her counter she had a smile on her face. Just by being nice. If more people took the time to think about things from someone else's point of view we might be able to understand what makes each other tick and we might be more apt to be more tolerant of people and their point of view. In lieu of the upcoming elections and the dissonance between Republicans and Democrats with the polar opposite view points this particular "inspiration" is something we all want to think about. You don't have to agree with someone or even like their opinion or point of view but let's try to understand each other and just plain be nice!
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today was your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass. There is no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." John Bingham I love this. This gives me permission to call myself a runner even though I've only been doing this for less than a year and even though I've stopped and restarted so many times I've lost count. I am a runner. John Bingham says so, LOL!!!! This makes me feel better about my low mileage and my slow pace. I am a runner! I don't have to join a club. I don't have to take a test or join a gym. I can run anywhere. I can run any time. I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself. I don't have to go to some bureau to take a physical test or a written test. I can call myself a runner no matter what. This is so simple and so beautiful in its simplicity! I am a runner.
The last one I want to share with you is this:
I mean, who doesn't love pie? Seriously though....this one reminds me that I need to reward myself once in a while for good behavior because you must reward yourself. :-)
Happy Running and let's have some PIE!
KEA
P.S. That is NOT me in the picture; I don't know who she is but she is pretty and I would certainly trade looks with her!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Inspiration 2
August 24, 2012
It's been a couple of weeks since I started sharing about my inspiration so I thought I would continue where I left off. I will share another three of the pictures with words of inspiration that I've posted on my Facebook and share why they inspire me and/or what I get out of them.
"BE A HILL SEEKER. Most of us try to avoid hills, but what's so good about flat? Think about it: flat tires, flat hair, flat returns and the ultimate - flatlining. Life happens on the hills. They are opportunities to prove to yourself that you're stronger than you imagined. If you never attempt the ascent, then you'll never know the thrill swooshing down the other side." Now, as I have shared many times the hills are what get to me. It's on the hills that I want to give up and choose an easier route or go back to the track or even the dreaded treadmill. But let's face it, it is on the hills that you prove what you are worth. It's on the hills that we find that reserve of energy or that extra push that we need to get us to the top and when you are at the top, you feel that sense of accomplishment, the knowledge that you did it and how far does that go to keep you moving? Yeah, you know it! The hills are goals to me, both in running and in real life. Life situations that are tough or unpleasant or down right unbearable are like hills. You keep climbing because, well, because what's the alternative? Giving up? Nope, not for me. I will keep climbing. I will seek the hills and I will conquer them.
"The voice that is in your head that says you can't do this is a liar." This one is very important to me. This is the one that I turn to so often because that voice is very loud in my head. It screams at me in almost every life situation and I have to constantly tune it out. Mark Schultz, a Christian singer/song writer, wrote a song called "Child of Mine". One of my favorite lines in this song says "When I am alone at night, that is when I hear the lie, you'll never be enough." This is a feeling I have to fight almost constantly. That is why I turn to this inspiration more often than any of the others. I have a BIG fear of failure because I feel like I've not accomplished much in my life and well, sometimes it just feels like everything I touch turns to poop. I know this isn't the case but sometimes when I look back on things I've tried to do and have failed at it makes me want to not try. It makes me afraid to try. Like writing....why I won't sit down and write that book that so many people have told me to write. Like running. This is why running is so important to me, why this blog is so important to me. In a way it's my way of tuning out that voice that says "you can't do this and you'll never be enough." If I could have mural of any one of these inspiration painted on my wall it would be this one because it reminds me that yes, I can; and yes, I will and yes, I am
"This is where I take out my frustrations, my fears, my sadness, my insecurities. This is where I run to find my faith, my hopes, my dreams, my happiness. This is where I belong." Let's take this one in two parts. The first part about taking out frustrations, fears, sadness & insecurities is something we actually used to teach our clients when I was a counselor for people with chronic mental illness. One of the coping skills we taught was exercise. It's no big secret that exercise releases endorphins which can lead to a sense of well being. But let me take that a step further. Running allows me time to think. I posted a blog a few weeks ago about running after a fight with my husband. When I returned from my run I wasn't magically cured of my anger or my sadness. A run or any form of exercise won't solve problems or anything miraculous like that. What it did do was give me the opportunity to calm down and to think more clearly about the situation and to be more open to solutions when my husband and I were ready to discuss them. I wasn't as angry as I was to start with and I was more prepared to discuss the situation in a civil manner. This is what running does for me. Now the second half, the bit about finding faith, hope, dreams and happiness. While I haven't conjured up the winning lottery numbers (Okay, yes, I do dream about that....so who doesn't?) this does confirm that other people feel that same sense of spirituality that I do while running. There's just something about being out in the air, whether you are running on the street or in the woods surrounded by God's creations that brings you closer to God and closer to your inner spirit. Call me crazy if you want but try and you'll see. Even when I'm running with my headphones on there's just something about feeling my body move and feeling what my body is capable of that makes me feel more about myself. That's the best way I can describe it. And my happiness, well, aside from the things that are truly important to me, my husband, my children, my grand daughter, my family, yes, my happiness is running. Take that away from me and I would feel a little like nothing more than just a nobody. Yes, running is my happiness; it's one piece of who I am and yes, that is where I belong.
Those are three more inspirations that help me focus on my running and well, and on life too because it isn't all about running. It's also about living life to the fullest and being everything I can be in every part of my life, isn't it?
Happy Running!
KEA
It's been a couple of weeks since I started sharing about my inspiration so I thought I would continue where I left off. I will share another three of the pictures with words of inspiration that I've posted on my Facebook and share why they inspire me and/or what I get out of them.
"BE A HILL SEEKER. Most of us try to avoid hills, but what's so good about flat? Think about it: flat tires, flat hair, flat returns and the ultimate - flatlining. Life happens on the hills. They are opportunities to prove to yourself that you're stronger than you imagined. If you never attempt the ascent, then you'll never know the thrill swooshing down the other side." Now, as I have shared many times the hills are what get to me. It's on the hills that I want to give up and choose an easier route or go back to the track or even the dreaded treadmill. But let's face it, it is on the hills that you prove what you are worth. It's on the hills that we find that reserve of energy or that extra push that we need to get us to the top and when you are at the top, you feel that sense of accomplishment, the knowledge that you did it and how far does that go to keep you moving? Yeah, you know it! The hills are goals to me, both in running and in real life. Life situations that are tough or unpleasant or down right unbearable are like hills. You keep climbing because, well, because what's the alternative? Giving up? Nope, not for me. I will keep climbing. I will seek the hills and I will conquer them.
"The voice that is in your head that says you can't do this is a liar." This one is very important to me. This is the one that I turn to so often because that voice is very loud in my head. It screams at me in almost every life situation and I have to constantly tune it out. Mark Schultz, a Christian singer/song writer, wrote a song called "Child of Mine". One of my favorite lines in this song says "When I am alone at night, that is when I hear the lie, you'll never be enough." This is a feeling I have to fight almost constantly. That is why I turn to this inspiration more often than any of the others. I have a BIG fear of failure because I feel like I've not accomplished much in my life and well, sometimes it just feels like everything I touch turns to poop. I know this isn't the case but sometimes when I look back on things I've tried to do and have failed at it makes me want to not try. It makes me afraid to try. Like writing....why I won't sit down and write that book that so many people have told me to write. Like running. This is why running is so important to me, why this blog is so important to me. In a way it's my way of tuning out that voice that says "you can't do this and you'll never be enough." If I could have mural of any one of these inspiration painted on my wall it would be this one because it reminds me that yes, I can; and yes, I will and yes, I am
"This is where I take out my frustrations, my fears, my sadness, my insecurities. This is where I run to find my faith, my hopes, my dreams, my happiness. This is where I belong." Let's take this one in two parts. The first part about taking out frustrations, fears, sadness & insecurities is something we actually used to teach our clients when I was a counselor for people with chronic mental illness. One of the coping skills we taught was exercise. It's no big secret that exercise releases endorphins which can lead to a sense of well being. But let me take that a step further. Running allows me time to think. I posted a blog a few weeks ago about running after a fight with my husband. When I returned from my run I wasn't magically cured of my anger or my sadness. A run or any form of exercise won't solve problems or anything miraculous like that. What it did do was give me the opportunity to calm down and to think more clearly about the situation and to be more open to solutions when my husband and I were ready to discuss them. I wasn't as angry as I was to start with and I was more prepared to discuss the situation in a civil manner. This is what running does for me. Now the second half, the bit about finding faith, hope, dreams and happiness. While I haven't conjured up the winning lottery numbers (Okay, yes, I do dream about that....so who doesn't?) this does confirm that other people feel that same sense of spirituality that I do while running. There's just something about being out in the air, whether you are running on the street or in the woods surrounded by God's creations that brings you closer to God and closer to your inner spirit. Call me crazy if you want but try and you'll see. Even when I'm running with my headphones on there's just something about feeling my body move and feeling what my body is capable of that makes me feel more about myself. That's the best way I can describe it. And my happiness, well, aside from the things that are truly important to me, my husband, my children, my grand daughter, my family, yes, my happiness is running. Take that away from me and I would feel a little like nothing more than just a nobody. Yes, running is my happiness; it's one piece of who I am and yes, that is where I belong.
Those are three more inspirations that help me focus on my running and well, and on life too because it isn't all about running. It's also about living life to the fullest and being everything I can be in every part of my life, isn't it?
Happy Running!
KEA
And So It Begins......Again
August 23, 2012
Here I am hanging my head in shame. It's been probably about two weeks, if not longer, since I last put foot to pavement or even stepped on the treadmill. I've thought about it but my get up and go seemed to have got up and left town....or maybe even the country! I have even neglected to write which is just as bad because if I don't write my brain will atrophy. See, I have this theory that if you don't use your brain, it will atrophy just like muscles that don't get use. So the less you do, the stupider you get. Well, okay, so that was a bit harsh, but come on, it was a little funny, wasn't it? Okay....I'm digressing. I do tend to do that once in a while. My point is, I've not wanted to have anything to do with running for a while and now I'm feeling thoroughly ashamed. I do have some excuses though. Would you like to hear them?
1) The house has been full of kids and our schedule has been completely off. Every summer my husband's son who lives in another state comes to stay with us for the second half of the summer. That puts us at having four kids in the house and quite frankly that's a lot of kid chaos. Plus this summer we somehow got our days and nights mixed up so we were sleeping super late in the day (and I mean SUPER late like two or so in the afternoon!) and we were all up super late at night (as in until three or four in the morning!). So everything was all topsy turvy and mixed up. If you think that doesn't do something to your system, try it for a while and see. I had absolutely NO energy. Hmmmm.....wait a minute. Perhaps I should list that as one of my excuses. Yes, I think I will.
2) Over the summer we got our days and nights mixed up. See sentences four through seven of the previous excuse, or I could reiterate. Let me reiterate. When I'm sleeping late in the day and up all night it messes with my system. I felt incredibly drained and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't even want to do household chores, let alone get out and run three miles.
3) No air conditioning in the house means no cooking means no good food. The only air conditioning we have in our house is two window units in our dining room. These are used to cool the entire downstairs which is where we all live in the summer. Since it's the only air conditioning we have we do everything we can to keep the house cool. It's an old house, over a hundred years old, so the walls are very thick and it does stay cooler than most houses but we try to avoid things like heating up the oven or even cooking on the stove. It does tend to increase the temperature in the house and we try to avoid that at all costs. So, we don't eat real meals in the summer. Without proper nutrition my body feels crappy and I'm sure that contributes to the lack of energy.
3) School just started. School started last Friday. This led to a frantic scramble to get ready, buying supplies, etc. I can't believe how unprepared I was for this event! It's like I've been in a dream state for three months and all of sudden I was rudely awakened. What a strange feeling. I'd been so disorganized and sluggish then all of a sudden reality came screaming back. BAM! School's in session again!
4) All of sudden we got really busy. Right before school started my youngest daughter started cheer leading practice and then school started and all of sudden we have places to be and things to do. Which in reality is one of the things that brought me back to running.
So, there's my excuses. And here's what made me lace up the Addias again. Cheer leading practice and the Popeye Picnic Annual 5k. Okay....so you've heard so much about this silly little 5k but to be honest, it's what's gotten me back up out of my chair. Well, that and my daughter's cheer leading practice. The girls practice out at the place where all the baseball and soccer fields are. Around the fields is this "trail" of sidewalks. It occurred to me that the race is coming up quickly; it's September 8 and if I don't prepare I won't be able to finish let alone beat my husband. And we all know how important it is for me to beat my husband, don't we? LOL! So it occurred to me that while my daughter is practicing her cheer leading "G O Stinger let's go!" I could be getting some miles in and preparing for this upcoming race. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what I did tonight.
My computer said it was 92 degrees at around 5:45 this evening but I was determined. I need to get in shape and I've neglected running for so long I knew it was going to be tough. I've talked repeatedly about how running is mental for me and to me the first mental game is getting myself up out of my chair and into the run. I almost gave up today. The kids get home from school around 3:15 and I was in the middle of a painting project. I ran out of primer and needed to run to the store to pick up a gallon. I also needed to get some dinner going and done since we had to leave at 5:50 to get to cheer leading practice on time. I was cutting is super close and by the time it was time to leave my daughter wasn't finished eating. We hadn't given insulin and we were rushed. We forgot our cold drinks and had to go back and get them and I was about to just forget the whole thing but I'd gone to so much trouble to get everything together that I wouldn't let myself. See, mental games again. If you put a value on how much trouble you've gone to in order to do something then it's more important to you to accomplish what you've set out to do. After all, it took you so much time to prepare for it, you might as well get it done. We got to the fields and realized we'd forgotten the diabetes bag. I've spent a couple of weeks watching cheer practice and decided that cheer practice wasn't so active that it would cause a major dip in blood sugar and I had my phone with me so I decided to go ahead and run before I decided not to do it altogether.
I started out. It was hot. It was super hot. And I was out of shape. Super out of shape. I've said it before and I will say it again, it's amazing how quickly you lose the gains you've achieved. It's incredible. On top of that I started out too hard and too fast. I believe my pace was about 10:50 when I first looked at my Garmin. Holy cow! I knew I needed to slow down or I was going to bust. I tried, I really did but when I hit the first hill I put on a burst of speed (had I lost my mind or what?) and pushed on. UGH! I made it to the next hill which wasn't much further from the first and this one was steep and continual. I kept going. I knew I had to keep going but it was hot. It was super hot. And I didn't have anything with me to drink. I left my water in the car because I really didn't think there would be anywhere to put it and I was right. On top of that, there's no water fountains along the "trail". It was rough going but I made it around the first round and felt very pleased with myself until I realize that I had made one and a quarter rounds and still hadn't put in even one mile. This was going to be some form of torture. And it was. I found a fountain by the bathrooms of one of the fields but it didn't work and had to satisfy my thirst with water from the bathroom faucet. I splashed my face and took a few drinks of water and headed back out. I was determined to get in two miles at least. The more I ran the more parched I became and when my Garmin beeped my second mile I knew I had to quit. I intended to walk another mile but I was just too hot and too thirsty and I wanted to check on my daughter so I walked from where I was to where cheer practice was being held. I grabbed my keys from where I'd stashed them with my daughter and walked to the car and then back to the tennis court (where practice was held) and set up my lawn chair, collapsed and drank my fill of ice cold water. I did forget to turn off my Garmin for a couple minutes so that time was added to my run. Oh well. I was tired and thirsty.....I have forgiven myself for forgetting.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about this run. There was another runner on the trail and several walkers. I found myself trying to compare myself to her. She was much faster than me and I had to remind myself not to be upset about that. I haven't run since August 9. I'm out of shape and out of practice. I have to give myself time to rebuild and get back in the swing. I also had to remind myself not to be aggravated with myself about my pace which I felt was a walk with a bounce. My Garmin calculated my overall pace at 14:32 which is really poopy but to be honest that is an average and includes the walking. My average running pace was 12:32. Yes, it is slower than my treadmill pace, well, it's slower than my courthouse run pace as well but again, I've not run since August 9. It was hot; this was an unfamiliar course and it had hills....killer hills. I need to cut myself a break. So while I'm not happy with the overall (I should say average) pace, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm going to congratulate myself for getting back out there. I'm going to be pleased that I've got no pain in my knees and ankles and I'm going to get back out there again.
Some thoughts on the new route. I didn't like the sidewalk. I don't know why. I'm sure it's psychological. It's not much different than running on the sidewalks to the courthouse and back, only smoother without having to watch for sidewalks cracked and sticking up wanting to trip me and make me twist my ankles but I just didn't like the feel beneath my feet. I'm going to have to get used to them. I wish the trail was longer. I wish one time around was at least a mile. When I'd made it around one circuit to the place I had started I had only run about .7 miles. I'm going to have to figure out how far one mile is exactly. It's another one of the mental games I play with myself. I need to know where the mile mark is. It helps keep me going. Finally, it's like running on the track again. It's basically a circle even though it's more of a flattened square. It's just a loop around and around and around. It's kind of boring....well, it's boring with hills thrown in for a bit of torture. Joy. I'm going to have to get used to it. I am going to be spending a lot of time out there during cheer leading practice season. I might as well find something to like about it. I will be looking for something to like about it.
Here's the breakdown: I ran 2.54 miles. My average pace (with the walking included - walking from the bathrooms of the closest baseball field to the tennis court, into the tennis court to get my keys, then to my car and back to just outside the tennis court) was 14:32. The pace makes me unhappy but it was a rough run. I'm glad I got out there and got it done.
I want to end with one final thought. One of my friends on my running website posted this comment: "I love running. Running, I love you and I hope to never leave you." I couldn't agree more and when I read this comment I realized this sums up my feelings for running. I love to run. I never want to stop running. I never want to stop running even for two weeks again. I don't want to stop for even two days. I want to keep running...especially since getting back in running shape is so rough when I do stop!
Happy Running!
KEA
Here I am hanging my head in shame. It's been probably about two weeks, if not longer, since I last put foot to pavement or even stepped on the treadmill. I've thought about it but my get up and go seemed to have got up and left town....or maybe even the country! I have even neglected to write which is just as bad because if I don't write my brain will atrophy. See, I have this theory that if you don't use your brain, it will atrophy just like muscles that don't get use. So the less you do, the stupider you get. Well, okay, so that was a bit harsh, but come on, it was a little funny, wasn't it? Okay....I'm digressing. I do tend to do that once in a while. My point is, I've not wanted to have anything to do with running for a while and now I'm feeling thoroughly ashamed. I do have some excuses though. Would you like to hear them?
1) The house has been full of kids and our schedule has been completely off. Every summer my husband's son who lives in another state comes to stay with us for the second half of the summer. That puts us at having four kids in the house and quite frankly that's a lot of kid chaos. Plus this summer we somehow got our days and nights mixed up so we were sleeping super late in the day (and I mean SUPER late like two or so in the afternoon!) and we were all up super late at night (as in until three or four in the morning!). So everything was all topsy turvy and mixed up. If you think that doesn't do something to your system, try it for a while and see. I had absolutely NO energy. Hmmmm.....wait a minute. Perhaps I should list that as one of my excuses. Yes, I think I will.
2) Over the summer we got our days and nights mixed up. See sentences four through seven of the previous excuse, or I could reiterate. Let me reiterate. When I'm sleeping late in the day and up all night it messes with my system. I felt incredibly drained and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't even want to do household chores, let alone get out and run three miles.
3) No air conditioning in the house means no cooking means no good food. The only air conditioning we have in our house is two window units in our dining room. These are used to cool the entire downstairs which is where we all live in the summer. Since it's the only air conditioning we have we do everything we can to keep the house cool. It's an old house, over a hundred years old, so the walls are very thick and it does stay cooler than most houses but we try to avoid things like heating up the oven or even cooking on the stove. It does tend to increase the temperature in the house and we try to avoid that at all costs. So, we don't eat real meals in the summer. Without proper nutrition my body feels crappy and I'm sure that contributes to the lack of energy.
3) School just started. School started last Friday. This led to a frantic scramble to get ready, buying supplies, etc. I can't believe how unprepared I was for this event! It's like I've been in a dream state for three months and all of sudden I was rudely awakened. What a strange feeling. I'd been so disorganized and sluggish then all of a sudden reality came screaming back. BAM! School's in session again!
4) All of sudden we got really busy. Right before school started my youngest daughter started cheer leading practice and then school started and all of sudden we have places to be and things to do. Which in reality is one of the things that brought me back to running.
So, there's my excuses. And here's what made me lace up the Addias again. Cheer leading practice and the Popeye Picnic Annual 5k. Okay....so you've heard so much about this silly little 5k but to be honest, it's what's gotten me back up out of my chair. Well, that and my daughter's cheer leading practice. The girls practice out at the place where all the baseball and soccer fields are. Around the fields is this "trail" of sidewalks. It occurred to me that the race is coming up quickly; it's September 8 and if I don't prepare I won't be able to finish let alone beat my husband. And we all know how important it is for me to beat my husband, don't we? LOL! So it occurred to me that while my daughter is practicing her cheer leading "G O Stinger let's go!" I could be getting some miles in and preparing for this upcoming race. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what I did tonight.
My computer said it was 92 degrees at around 5:45 this evening but I was determined. I need to get in shape and I've neglected running for so long I knew it was going to be tough. I've talked repeatedly about how running is mental for me and to me the first mental game is getting myself up out of my chair and into the run. I almost gave up today. The kids get home from school around 3:15 and I was in the middle of a painting project. I ran out of primer and needed to run to the store to pick up a gallon. I also needed to get some dinner going and done since we had to leave at 5:50 to get to cheer leading practice on time. I was cutting is super close and by the time it was time to leave my daughter wasn't finished eating. We hadn't given insulin and we were rushed. We forgot our cold drinks and had to go back and get them and I was about to just forget the whole thing but I'd gone to so much trouble to get everything together that I wouldn't let myself. See, mental games again. If you put a value on how much trouble you've gone to in order to do something then it's more important to you to accomplish what you've set out to do. After all, it took you so much time to prepare for it, you might as well get it done. We got to the fields and realized we'd forgotten the diabetes bag. I've spent a couple of weeks watching cheer practice and decided that cheer practice wasn't so active that it would cause a major dip in blood sugar and I had my phone with me so I decided to go ahead and run before I decided not to do it altogether.
I started out. It was hot. It was super hot. And I was out of shape. Super out of shape. I've said it before and I will say it again, it's amazing how quickly you lose the gains you've achieved. It's incredible. On top of that I started out too hard and too fast. I believe my pace was about 10:50 when I first looked at my Garmin. Holy cow! I knew I needed to slow down or I was going to bust. I tried, I really did but when I hit the first hill I put on a burst of speed (had I lost my mind or what?) and pushed on. UGH! I made it to the next hill which wasn't much further from the first and this one was steep and continual. I kept going. I knew I had to keep going but it was hot. It was super hot. And I didn't have anything with me to drink. I left my water in the car because I really didn't think there would be anywhere to put it and I was right. On top of that, there's no water fountains along the "trail". It was rough going but I made it around the first round and felt very pleased with myself until I realize that I had made one and a quarter rounds and still hadn't put in even one mile. This was going to be some form of torture. And it was. I found a fountain by the bathrooms of one of the fields but it didn't work and had to satisfy my thirst with water from the bathroom faucet. I splashed my face and took a few drinks of water and headed back out. I was determined to get in two miles at least. The more I ran the more parched I became and when my Garmin beeped my second mile I knew I had to quit. I intended to walk another mile but I was just too hot and too thirsty and I wanted to check on my daughter so I walked from where I was to where cheer practice was being held. I grabbed my keys from where I'd stashed them with my daughter and walked to the car and then back to the tennis court (where practice was held) and set up my lawn chair, collapsed and drank my fill of ice cold water. I did forget to turn off my Garmin for a couple minutes so that time was added to my run. Oh well. I was tired and thirsty.....I have forgiven myself for forgetting.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about this run. There was another runner on the trail and several walkers. I found myself trying to compare myself to her. She was much faster than me and I had to remind myself not to be upset about that. I haven't run since August 9. I'm out of shape and out of practice. I have to give myself time to rebuild and get back in the swing. I also had to remind myself not to be aggravated with myself about my pace which I felt was a walk with a bounce. My Garmin calculated my overall pace at 14:32 which is really poopy but to be honest that is an average and includes the walking. My average running pace was 12:32. Yes, it is slower than my treadmill pace, well, it's slower than my courthouse run pace as well but again, I've not run since August 9. It was hot; this was an unfamiliar course and it had hills....killer hills. I need to cut myself a break. So while I'm not happy with the overall (I should say average) pace, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm going to congratulate myself for getting back out there. I'm going to be pleased that I've got no pain in my knees and ankles and I'm going to get back out there again.
Some thoughts on the new route. I didn't like the sidewalk. I don't know why. I'm sure it's psychological. It's not much different than running on the sidewalks to the courthouse and back, only smoother without having to watch for sidewalks cracked and sticking up wanting to trip me and make me twist my ankles but I just didn't like the feel beneath my feet. I'm going to have to get used to them. I wish the trail was longer. I wish one time around was at least a mile. When I'd made it around one circuit to the place I had started I had only run about .7 miles. I'm going to have to figure out how far one mile is exactly. It's another one of the mental games I play with myself. I need to know where the mile mark is. It helps keep me going. Finally, it's like running on the track again. It's basically a circle even though it's more of a flattened square. It's just a loop around and around and around. It's kind of boring....well, it's boring with hills thrown in for a bit of torture. Joy. I'm going to have to get used to it. I am going to be spending a lot of time out there during cheer leading practice season. I might as well find something to like about it. I will be looking for something to like about it.
Here's the breakdown: I ran 2.54 miles. My average pace (with the walking included - walking from the bathrooms of the closest baseball field to the tennis court, into the tennis court to get my keys, then to my car and back to just outside the tennis court) was 14:32. The pace makes me unhappy but it was a rough run. I'm glad I got out there and got it done.
I want to end with one final thought. One of my friends on my running website posted this comment: "I love running. Running, I love you and I hope to never leave you." I couldn't agree more and when I read this comment I realized this sums up my feelings for running. I love to run. I never want to stop running. I never want to stop running even for two weeks again. I don't want to stop for even two days. I want to keep running...especially since getting back in running shape is so rough when I do stop!
Happy Running!
KEA
Monday, August 13, 2012
Inspiration
August 13, 2012
So last night, or rather early this morning, I was working on a Facebook page for this blog and I was uploading a bunch of pictures that have inspirational sayings on them. I began to think about inspiration and what inspires me. I was looking at the pictures I added to the page and thinking about what I wanted to say in the description portion. The description portion of a Facebook page picture doesn't give you enough space to really explain why you like the particular saying or rather what about that particular saying inspires you. So I thought I'd use the next few blogs to explain exactly what inspires me about each one.
"No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch." This one just makes me feel better about myself because it really is true. One thing that bothers me about myself is that I'm slow. For me being slow feels like failure and I'm very hard on myself. This keeps me balanced and reminds me that being slow isn't failure; it's beginning. Even if I am slower than I want to be, I'm faster than anyone who is still sitting on the couch. If I can inspire anyone who is still sitting on the couch, that would inspire me.
"Keep calm & run on" This reminds me that running is one of my favorite forms of destressing. A couple weeks ago when I was upset after an argument with my husband I grabbed my running shoes and hit the streets. When I returned from my run, my head was clear and I was able to think without my emotions getting in the way. I believe that running can be something spiritual if you can understand what that means. If you can't understand it, let me see if I can try to explain it a little better. When you think of spirituality you immediately think of religion. And since I'm a very religious person I would normally agree. But when I say spiritual in this case I'm talking about the feeling that you get when you are doing whatever you do when you worship. That feeling of peace when you pray or sing or read your Bible. For me, running is one way to bring me closer to God. I know that probably sounds kind of corny but I feel like when I am trying to improve my body I am bringing myself closer to God. I don't feel like I'm explaining how I feel well but I'm trying. Running, you are alone in your head, even while you are listening to music. You are in tune with your body and being that connected to your thoughts and the physicality of your body is a very personal and introspective experience. That is spiritual to me.
"I guarantee that if you give up now, you will give it another shot someday. Maybe in a month. Maybe 6 days. Maybe even 14. But I know you want this and you won't stop until you get it. So don't stop NOW. Because when you start again you're going to look and think "Why the hell didn't I keep going?" It'll be hard now or it'll be hard later. YOU PICK." This might seem self explanatory and quite frankly, it is. You know how you feel when something is hard and you want to give up? Yeah, thought so. So I do. I am going through it right now. You want something but it's hard and you don't like hard and you want to quit. Hard isn't fun.....well, yeah, it isn't fun but you want this. You WANT this. You know I'm right. So why quit now? You're just going to start again and let me tell you something. It's not just going to be hard later; it's going to be a lot harder later. Wanna know how I know this? I'll tell you! I've stopped before. And you would be amazed at how quickly you lose what you've gained once you stopped. When I stop it's always twice as hard to start up again. When I stop, then I'm one of the ones who are on the couch and who's lapping me? I don't want to be the one being lapped. I want to be the one doing the lapping. I always regret when I stop because it does feel like failure and failure to me is not an option. The lesson here? Don't stop; keep going. This is what inspires me about this one.
So, these are the first three inspirations I wanted to share with you all. What inspires you?
Happy Running!
KEA
So last night, or rather early this morning, I was working on a Facebook page for this blog and I was uploading a bunch of pictures that have inspirational sayings on them. I began to think about inspiration and what inspires me. I was looking at the pictures I added to the page and thinking about what I wanted to say in the description portion. The description portion of a Facebook page picture doesn't give you enough space to really explain why you like the particular saying or rather what about that particular saying inspires you. So I thought I'd use the next few blogs to explain exactly what inspires me about each one.
"No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch." This one just makes me feel better about myself because it really is true. One thing that bothers me about myself is that I'm slow. For me being slow feels like failure and I'm very hard on myself. This keeps me balanced and reminds me that being slow isn't failure; it's beginning. Even if I am slower than I want to be, I'm faster than anyone who is still sitting on the couch. If I can inspire anyone who is still sitting on the couch, that would inspire me.
"Keep calm & run on" This reminds me that running is one of my favorite forms of destressing. A couple weeks ago when I was upset after an argument with my husband I grabbed my running shoes and hit the streets. When I returned from my run, my head was clear and I was able to think without my emotions getting in the way. I believe that running can be something spiritual if you can understand what that means. If you can't understand it, let me see if I can try to explain it a little better. When you think of spirituality you immediately think of religion. And since I'm a very religious person I would normally agree. But when I say spiritual in this case I'm talking about the feeling that you get when you are doing whatever you do when you worship. That feeling of peace when you pray or sing or read your Bible. For me, running is one way to bring me closer to God. I know that probably sounds kind of corny but I feel like when I am trying to improve my body I am bringing myself closer to God. I don't feel like I'm explaining how I feel well but I'm trying. Running, you are alone in your head, even while you are listening to music. You are in tune with your body and being that connected to your thoughts and the physicality of your body is a very personal and introspective experience. That is spiritual to me.
"I guarantee that if you give up now, you will give it another shot someday. Maybe in a month. Maybe 6 days. Maybe even 14. But I know you want this and you won't stop until you get it. So don't stop NOW. Because when you start again you're going to look and think "Why the hell didn't I keep going?" It'll be hard now or it'll be hard later. YOU PICK." This might seem self explanatory and quite frankly, it is. You know how you feel when something is hard and you want to give up? Yeah, thought so. So I do. I am going through it right now. You want something but it's hard and you don't like hard and you want to quit. Hard isn't fun.....well, yeah, it isn't fun but you want this. You WANT this. You know I'm right. So why quit now? You're just going to start again and let me tell you something. It's not just going to be hard later; it's going to be a lot harder later. Wanna know how I know this? I'll tell you! I've stopped before. And you would be amazed at how quickly you lose what you've gained once you stopped. When I stop it's always twice as hard to start up again. When I stop, then I'm one of the ones who are on the couch and who's lapping me? I don't want to be the one being lapped. I want to be the one doing the lapping. I always regret when I stop because it does feel like failure and failure to me is not an option. The lesson here? Don't stop; keep going. This is what inspires me about this one.
So, these are the first three inspirations I wanted to share with you all. What inspires you?
Happy Running!
KEA
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Under the Moonlight
August 9, 2012
As I was running tonight I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about in tonight's blog. I'm tired of writing the basics about my running and I'm beginning to think it's boring to read. I've talked about my training and my mileage and the tricks I use to keep my mind occupied and how many times can I talk about the run itself? It's boring but the bottom line is this is a blog about running and it's kind of my daily running diary so it looks like I'm stuck writing about running. However, I can share the things that go through my mind as I'm running.
So tonight's training called for thirty minutes of "easy." I'm still a little having a little trouble with easy. The book I'm reading says "conversational pace." I run alone so to determine if I'm at conversation pace every once in a while I sing a bit to make sure I can sing and run without losing anything....breath, lunch, tune, whatever. For me that's a pace of about 13:00. This running at easy pace is still hard for me. I want to be fast. To me a pace of 13:00 isn't fast. But the book was written by someone who knows running and knows running fast so I'm trusting he will improve my time if I follow his advice. Since I'm a beginner I'm trusting the expert.
This blog is temporarily interrupted to express a intense love and adoration to my husband sitting in the chair next to me. I was happily typing along and somehow deleted EVERYTHING I had just typed and was in the process of having a small little moment of frustration when he calmly says to me "Didn't CTRL Z bring it back?" I hit CTRL Z and miraculously everything I had typed reappeared, magically before my very eyes. I looked at him with adoration and said "I love you." He made kissy faces at me and all is well in the blogging world and I learned a new trick to save me when I accident delete everything I type. Yay! We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog!
So, as I said before I so rudely deleted my typing, today's training called for thirty minutes at an easy, conversational pace. I put my run off for a very long time today. I don't know why I was dreading it so much. I think because I was originally planning to do this on the treadmill. The treadmill is in the living and right now the kids are living in the living room. See, we don't have central air right now (that is another story altogether and I will share it another time); we only have two window units in our dining room cooling off the entire lower level of our house. We have four children and they are sleeping on the couches in the living room. They spend all their time in the living room, playing video games, watching TV, etc. and the living room and despite parental intervention the living room is almost always one step away from being a complete and total disaster area! This makes for an unpleasant running experience and reminds me that tomorrow we need to have a serious clean up! So after putting off my run for a very long time (which also may or may not have something to do with House Hunters, Property Brothers and My First Place being on HGTV earlier this evening) before I knew it, it was 8:00 PM. I looked out the window and it was looking a little dark. I didn't realize it was starting to get dark early so soon! I thought about it and went outside to check the temperature. It felt wonderful so I got out the Garmin and set it up to go for an outdoor run.
I set out and felt pretty good except for a little pain in my left knee although after a while it went away. I took the usual court house run with the run around the back. By the time I got to the court house and was heading around the back it was a little darker than twilight. I found out though that I really like running at night. Unfortunately it's not really safe for a woman to run alone at night, even in a small town. I think I've said that on the way back I always head back on the opposite side of the street than I start on. Well, I must tell you that this just may be a mistake. You see on the opposite side of the street is all the shops and such that line the main street of the town. One of the businesses that is on that side of the road is a restaurant that has recently opened. It's a sort of Italian type restaurant. One of the local families' sons went to culinary school and came back home and opened this restaurant. We've eaten there once and the food was pretty good. The problem here is that when I run by the restaurant it smells delicious! I want to stop and chow down! Perhaps I should change my route? LOL!!!
So all in all this was a good run. I felt good aside from the slight pain in my knee. I ran 2.34 miles in thirty minutes. My average pace was 12:50 which as I've said makes me unhappy but I have to keep in mind that this training isn't about speed, well, it IS about speed but it's more about endurance in order to improve speed. So I have to keep that in mind while I'm recording my mileage and pace. So, I've learned tonight that I really enjoy running at night. It feels like I'm on an adventure but I probably shouldn't do this very often. It's just not safe to run by oneself at night even in a small town. Tomorrow's training calls for a thirty minute jog or rest. I do believe I will opt for the jog even though tomorrow is trivia night. I will have to find a way to fit it in.
Happy Running!
KEA
As I was running tonight I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about in tonight's blog. I'm tired of writing the basics about my running and I'm beginning to think it's boring to read. I've talked about my training and my mileage and the tricks I use to keep my mind occupied and how many times can I talk about the run itself? It's boring but the bottom line is this is a blog about running and it's kind of my daily running diary so it looks like I'm stuck writing about running. However, I can share the things that go through my mind as I'm running.
So tonight's training called for thirty minutes of "easy." I'm still a little having a little trouble with easy. The book I'm reading says "conversational pace." I run alone so to determine if I'm at conversation pace every once in a while I sing a bit to make sure I can sing and run without losing anything....breath, lunch, tune, whatever. For me that's a pace of about 13:00. This running at easy pace is still hard for me. I want to be fast. To me a pace of 13:00 isn't fast. But the book was written by someone who knows running and knows running fast so I'm trusting he will improve my time if I follow his advice. Since I'm a beginner I'm trusting the expert.
This blog is temporarily interrupted to express a intense love and adoration to my husband sitting in the chair next to me. I was happily typing along and somehow deleted EVERYTHING I had just typed and was in the process of having a small little moment of frustration when he calmly says to me "Didn't CTRL Z bring it back?" I hit CTRL Z and miraculously everything I had typed reappeared, magically before my very eyes. I looked at him with adoration and said "I love you." He made kissy faces at me and all is well in the blogging world and I learned a new trick to save me when I accident delete everything I type. Yay! We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog!
So, as I said before I so rudely deleted my typing, today's training called for thirty minutes at an easy, conversational pace. I put my run off for a very long time today. I don't know why I was dreading it so much. I think because I was originally planning to do this on the treadmill. The treadmill is in the living and right now the kids are living in the living room. See, we don't have central air right now (that is another story altogether and I will share it another time); we only have two window units in our dining room cooling off the entire lower level of our house. We have four children and they are sleeping on the couches in the living room. They spend all their time in the living room, playing video games, watching TV, etc. and the living room and despite parental intervention the living room is almost always one step away from being a complete and total disaster area! This makes for an unpleasant running experience and reminds me that tomorrow we need to have a serious clean up! So after putting off my run for a very long time (which also may or may not have something to do with House Hunters, Property Brothers and My First Place being on HGTV earlier this evening) before I knew it, it was 8:00 PM. I looked out the window and it was looking a little dark. I didn't realize it was starting to get dark early so soon! I thought about it and went outside to check the temperature. It felt wonderful so I got out the Garmin and set it up to go for an outdoor run.
I set out and felt pretty good except for a little pain in my left knee although after a while it went away. I took the usual court house run with the run around the back. By the time I got to the court house and was heading around the back it was a little darker than twilight. I found out though that I really like running at night. Unfortunately it's not really safe for a woman to run alone at night, even in a small town. I think I've said that on the way back I always head back on the opposite side of the street than I start on. Well, I must tell you that this just may be a mistake. You see on the opposite side of the street is all the shops and such that line the main street of the town. One of the businesses that is on that side of the road is a restaurant that has recently opened. It's a sort of Italian type restaurant. One of the local families' sons went to culinary school and came back home and opened this restaurant. We've eaten there once and the food was pretty good. The problem here is that when I run by the restaurant it smells delicious! I want to stop and chow down! Perhaps I should change my route? LOL!!!
So all in all this was a good run. I felt good aside from the slight pain in my knee. I ran 2.34 miles in thirty minutes. My average pace was 12:50 which as I've said makes me unhappy but I have to keep in mind that this training isn't about speed, well, it IS about speed but it's more about endurance in order to improve speed. So I have to keep that in mind while I'm recording my mileage and pace. So, I've learned tonight that I really enjoy running at night. It feels like I'm on an adventure but I probably shouldn't do this very often. It's just not safe to run by oneself at night even in a small town. Tomorrow's training calls for a thirty minute jog or rest. I do believe I will opt for the jog even though tomorrow is trivia night. I will have to find a way to fit it in.
Happy Running!
KEA
Just Keep Running, Just Keep Running....
August 8, 2012
Well, last week my training got messed up. I went up to watch Poppy on Friday. Friday was supposed to be a rest day anyway and we had dinner with my mom, my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter. We were celebrating my mom's birthday which was the 7th. I had planned on bringing Poppy home with us Friday night but my daughter wanted me to watch her on Saturday and keep her over night so we planned on coming up Saturday morning to pick her up. That meant that I was going to miss Saturday's training unless Poppy gave me the opportunity to get some running in. She didn't. On Sunday which was the day that called for 75 minutes of "easy" running we ended up going up to my daddy's house to go to church and spend time with the family up there. They don't get to see Poppy very often. So the training got off track but I was determined to get back with it this week. Unfortunately, Monday's training was missed because we ended up running errands all day. UGH! It wasn't looking good. I was determined to get with it today!
Tuesday's running on the schedule calls for sixty minutes of "easy" running. I learned my lesson last week and started out this long session with the treadmill set at 4.4 mph. It was feeling too light so I kicked the incline up to 2.0. That felt better. This was a pretty good run. I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be. I believe last time I talked about the mental tricks that I use to keep myself going. Today I divided up my time into ten minute segments. I count down the ten minutes. I try really hard not to watch the numbers on the mill itself but I can't help it. I can't watch TV or look at a point on the wall like some people can. I feel like I'm falling off if I'm not looking at the machine in some way. This is silly but it's one of those mental things again. It also helps me keep track of whether I'm keeping track of time accurately. Yet another mental game I play. I'm always counting down something, be it mileage or time or even how many songs it will take to finish. I always over estimate so I am happily surprised when I have less to go than I figured. This is a classic Star Trek "Scotty" trick. Scotty says to over estimate to the captain so he thinks you're wonderful when you under deliver. Scotty was a genius, yeah? LOL!
So today's run was uneventful and of course since it was on the mill, it was boring. Oh well. It's better than running in the heat. Today I started out with the treadmill at 4.4 mph with the incline set at 1.5 (default setting) but I quickly raised up the incline to 2.0. One of my goals is to keep increasing the incline as well. I know 2.0 isn't that impressive but it's a start, yeah? So I kept the speed at 4.4 mph until the last nine minutes. Then I kicked it up to 5.0. At 4.4 mph the pace is 13:38 and that give me gave me a little under four miles. At a speed of 5.0 mph the pace is 12:00 and that gave me just over half a mile. I ended up running 4.512 miles and I ran for 60:02. I don't like the treadmill (as I think we have established in previous blogs) but I really don't know where I would run for an hour (since running the hills in town is so intimidating) other than the track which I believe would be equally boring and it's still rather hot so for now the treadmill is going to have to be it for the longer runs. Tomorrow's run calls for thirty minutes of "easy" running. Perhaps we will do this outside. I want to find somewhere new to run but I think while I'm in training is not the best time to be exploring new routes. We will stick with the courthouse run I think. Sooner or later I'm going to have to get out there and run the actual 5k route. I think I should probably do that the last couple weeks of August. That will give me a good idea how hilly it is going to be. If I can do some training on the actual route itself I can know about what my time will be. And getting back outside will give me the chance to play with my Garmin again. Have I mentioned how much I love my Garmin? I supposed I have!
At any rate, it's pretty late so I better get to bed.
Happy Running!
KEA
Well, last week my training got messed up. I went up to watch Poppy on Friday. Friday was supposed to be a rest day anyway and we had dinner with my mom, my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter. We were celebrating my mom's birthday which was the 7th. I had planned on bringing Poppy home with us Friday night but my daughter wanted me to watch her on Saturday and keep her over night so we planned on coming up Saturday morning to pick her up. That meant that I was going to miss Saturday's training unless Poppy gave me the opportunity to get some running in. She didn't. On Sunday which was the day that called for 75 minutes of "easy" running we ended up going up to my daddy's house to go to church and spend time with the family up there. They don't get to see Poppy very often. So the training got off track but I was determined to get back with it this week. Unfortunately, Monday's training was missed because we ended up running errands all day. UGH! It wasn't looking good. I was determined to get with it today!
Tuesday's running on the schedule calls for sixty minutes of "easy" running. I learned my lesson last week and started out this long session with the treadmill set at 4.4 mph. It was feeling too light so I kicked the incline up to 2.0. That felt better. This was a pretty good run. I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be. I believe last time I talked about the mental tricks that I use to keep myself going. Today I divided up my time into ten minute segments. I count down the ten minutes. I try really hard not to watch the numbers on the mill itself but I can't help it. I can't watch TV or look at a point on the wall like some people can. I feel like I'm falling off if I'm not looking at the machine in some way. This is silly but it's one of those mental things again. It also helps me keep track of whether I'm keeping track of time accurately. Yet another mental game I play. I'm always counting down something, be it mileage or time or even how many songs it will take to finish. I always over estimate so I am happily surprised when I have less to go than I figured. This is a classic Star Trek "Scotty" trick. Scotty says to over estimate to the captain so he thinks you're wonderful when you under deliver. Scotty was a genius, yeah? LOL!
So today's run was uneventful and of course since it was on the mill, it was boring. Oh well. It's better than running in the heat. Today I started out with the treadmill at 4.4 mph with the incline set at 1.5 (default setting) but I quickly raised up the incline to 2.0. One of my goals is to keep increasing the incline as well. I know 2.0 isn't that impressive but it's a start, yeah? So I kept the speed at 4.4 mph until the last nine minutes. Then I kicked it up to 5.0. At 4.4 mph the pace is 13:38 and that give me gave me a little under four miles. At a speed of 5.0 mph the pace is 12:00 and that gave me just over half a mile. I ended up running 4.512 miles and I ran for 60:02. I don't like the treadmill (as I think we have established in previous blogs) but I really don't know where I would run for an hour (since running the hills in town is so intimidating) other than the track which I believe would be equally boring and it's still rather hot so for now the treadmill is going to have to be it for the longer runs. Tomorrow's run calls for thirty minutes of "easy" running. Perhaps we will do this outside. I want to find somewhere new to run but I think while I'm in training is not the best time to be exploring new routes. We will stick with the courthouse run I think. Sooner or later I'm going to have to get out there and run the actual 5k route. I think I should probably do that the last couple weeks of August. That will give me a good idea how hilly it is going to be. If I can do some training on the actual route itself I can know about what my time will be. And getting back outside will give me the chance to play with my Garmin again. Have I mentioned how much I love my Garmin? I supposed I have!
At any rate, it's pretty late so I better get to bed.
Happy Running!
KEA
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Day Two: Endurance, Endurance, Endurance
August 1, 2012
As I said I started a new training program yesterday. The goal of this training is to increase my speed by increasing my endurance. I posted before that this kind of makes sense but I won't be a believer until I see some improvements in both endurance and speed.
Today's workout called for sixty "easy" minutes. I decided to do this on the treadmill because it was so hot out and I really didn't want to do sixty minutes on the street with the hills. I didn't want to wear myself out and not make the whole sixty minutes. I knew if I wore out I would give up and I wouldn't do all the time. This would feel like failure to me and I didn't want to fail. I decided to hit the mill to avoid the guilt. This is what proves to me that to me, that to me running is just as psychological as it is physical. I can mentally talk myself into being stronger. I wish I could figure out a way to talk myself into being more excited. I guess I'm just in another blue funk.
So, as I said today's workout called for sixty minutes at "easy." I wasn't sure what "easy" meant so I set the mill at my usual 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0. My usual mill workout has me running a 5k distance. I always run the first mile at 5.6 mph and then turn it down to 5.0 for the last 2.1 miles. I keep the incline set at 2.0 for the whole run. That is my usual mill run. Today I wanted to keep it at 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0 for the whole run. I was determined not to switch up the run in any way. I did okay to start with. I knew this was going to be tough. The mill is boring and an hour is a long time when you are used to running only a little over half an hour. I haven't been on the treadmill for an hour since I started working on it back before I got married.....and during that time I was walking, not running. I knew this was going to be boring but I was determined. It started out okay. I did the 5k mileage at 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0 but I was getting tired. I had to keep talking to myself, marking off time in increments, counting down time backwards and forwards and taking it in chunks of ten minutes or half miles, any trick I could think of to keep me going. At a speed of 5.0 mph (12:00 pace) it takes me thirty-seven minutes to run 3.1 miles. After that I had twenty-one minutes left to run. I was feeling the run and I was getting tired. This is the point where my mind games really needed to keep me going. I had to slow down the speed. I set it at 4.0 to see if that would help me recover. That was either too slow or too fast. I still can't decide. At my level of tiredness it was too fast to walk and it was too slow to run. I decided to kick it up. I set it at 4.4 mph and ran it at that for the last twenty-one minutes. It seemed to work.
Overall I was pleased with this run. I didn't know if I would have the endurance to run for sixty minutes and I was pleased that even though I had to slow down at the end I was able to run the whole sixty minutes. I stopped the mil at 1.5 miles for a quick drink of water, then again at 3.1 miles for another drink. This is one of the psychological games I play. I give myself a set amount of miles to run before I can have a drink. It divides the time up and gives me a distraction. It's similar to when you are running on the street. When you are running on the street you tell yourself you can make it to the next lamp post or to the next landmark. It's all psychological but it helps you keep going. Anyway, I was pleased with this run. I made it through the whole time with a couple stops for drinks and with only the slight adjustment in mph. The goal here, as with yesterday's run was not about mileage (although I was so close to 5 miles I was incredibly tempted to continue to meet that personal goal) it was about minutes. The plan called for sixty minutes at the easy pace so I kept it at sixty minutes. Besides, I was tired. I felt good despite being tired. I ran sixty minutes, something I didn't think I would be able to do and I proved to myself that I could.
I ran 4.72 miles @ 5.0 and 4.4 mph with a pace of 12:00 and 13:38. This averages out to a pace of 12:42 according to the running website I post my workouts on. I ran for sixty minutes. I felt good after my workout, sweaty and glad to be done with the mill but I didn't hurt and I didn't feel like I wouldn't be able to move tomorrow.
Tomorrow's run calls for thirty minutes of "easy". I can do that at the 5.0 speed.
Happy Running!
KEA
As I said I started a new training program yesterday. The goal of this training is to increase my speed by increasing my endurance. I posted before that this kind of makes sense but I won't be a believer until I see some improvements in both endurance and speed.
Today's workout called for sixty "easy" minutes. I decided to do this on the treadmill because it was so hot out and I really didn't want to do sixty minutes on the street with the hills. I didn't want to wear myself out and not make the whole sixty minutes. I knew if I wore out I would give up and I wouldn't do all the time. This would feel like failure to me and I didn't want to fail. I decided to hit the mill to avoid the guilt. This is what proves to me that to me, that to me running is just as psychological as it is physical. I can mentally talk myself into being stronger. I wish I could figure out a way to talk myself into being more excited. I guess I'm just in another blue funk.
So, as I said today's workout called for sixty minutes at "easy." I wasn't sure what "easy" meant so I set the mill at my usual 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0. My usual mill workout has me running a 5k distance. I always run the first mile at 5.6 mph and then turn it down to 5.0 for the last 2.1 miles. I keep the incline set at 2.0 for the whole run. That is my usual mill run. Today I wanted to keep it at 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0 for the whole run. I was determined not to switch up the run in any way. I did okay to start with. I knew this was going to be tough. The mill is boring and an hour is a long time when you are used to running only a little over half an hour. I haven't been on the treadmill for an hour since I started working on it back before I got married.....and during that time I was walking, not running. I knew this was going to be boring but I was determined. It started out okay. I did the 5k mileage at 5.0 mph with the incline set at 2.0 but I was getting tired. I had to keep talking to myself, marking off time in increments, counting down time backwards and forwards and taking it in chunks of ten minutes or half miles, any trick I could think of to keep me going. At a speed of 5.0 mph (12:00 pace) it takes me thirty-seven minutes to run 3.1 miles. After that I had twenty-one minutes left to run. I was feeling the run and I was getting tired. This is the point where my mind games really needed to keep me going. I had to slow down the speed. I set it at 4.0 to see if that would help me recover. That was either too slow or too fast. I still can't decide. At my level of tiredness it was too fast to walk and it was too slow to run. I decided to kick it up. I set it at 4.4 mph and ran it at that for the last twenty-one minutes. It seemed to work.
Overall I was pleased with this run. I didn't know if I would have the endurance to run for sixty minutes and I was pleased that even though I had to slow down at the end I was able to run the whole sixty minutes. I stopped the mil at 1.5 miles for a quick drink of water, then again at 3.1 miles for another drink. This is one of the psychological games I play. I give myself a set amount of miles to run before I can have a drink. It divides the time up and gives me a distraction. It's similar to when you are running on the street. When you are running on the street you tell yourself you can make it to the next lamp post or to the next landmark. It's all psychological but it helps you keep going. Anyway, I was pleased with this run. I made it through the whole time with a couple stops for drinks and with only the slight adjustment in mph. The goal here, as with yesterday's run was not about mileage (although I was so close to 5 miles I was incredibly tempted to continue to meet that personal goal) it was about minutes. The plan called for sixty minutes at the easy pace so I kept it at sixty minutes. Besides, I was tired. I felt good despite being tired. I ran sixty minutes, something I didn't think I would be able to do and I proved to myself that I could.
I ran 4.72 miles @ 5.0 and 4.4 mph with a pace of 12:00 and 13:38. This averages out to a pace of 12:42 according to the running website I post my workouts on. I ran for sixty minutes. I felt good after my workout, sweaty and glad to be done with the mill but I didn't hurt and I didn't feel like I wouldn't be able to move tomorrow.
Tomorrow's run calls for thirty minutes of "easy". I can do that at the 5.0 speed.
Happy Running!
KEA
New Training Program No Clever Title
July 31, 2012
So....after the last run I have been feeling very apathetic about running. I bought a book to help me learn how to run faster and I decided to implement one of the suggested training programs in one of the first chapters of the book. The premise is that if you increase your endurance you will increase your speed. I understand the concept; it kind of makes sense but I'm not convinced yet. I think this is because I'm still feeling very unmotivated. I wish I could fix that but for now I just don't know what to do about it.
So the first run in the program called for thirty minutes of "jogging". I believe this is supposed to be "race pace". I took the normal Courthouse run with the circle around the back of the courthouse. It was pretty hot and I had originally thought about hitting the treadmill instead of heading outside but I did go ahead and decide to hit the road. I have been told that once you hit the streets you will prefer them to the treadmill. I didn't believe that until I really had hit the streets and now I understand it and I agree. I have been very vocal about how boring the treadmill is so yeah, that's would be me preferring the street to the treadmill. So if there's even a remote possibility that I can run outside I will.
It was hot out but it wasn't completely unbearable. I ran the first mile with no problem but I haven't been out or on the mill for a few days and it's amazing how quickly you fall out of shape. I'm finding that if I miss more than two days I lose what I've gained and I have to start over. I haven't run for several days and with the lack of enthusiasm I've lost quite a bit of my "edge". After rounding behind the courthouse and stopping at the first water fountain I was wearing down and I had to walk. I walked most of the way home. I was worn out. My time suffered and I was feeling upset at myself for having to walk on the first day of training that is supposed to help me increase my speed.
The method of measurement here is minutes, not miles so even though I will be recording mileage and pace, etc as usual, the main focus here is minutes. Here's the breakdown: I ran 2.4 miles. My average pace was 13:22 and I ran for 32 minutes. My fastest pace was 10:57. I stopped twice for water at the two different water fountains in town. I ended up walking the last mile and I was exhausted.
I am completely dissatisfied with this run. I don't know what it is that is making me feel so uninspired about my running. I even delayed posting this blog; even writing about it makes me feel awful. For some reason since my last run I am just feeling so unmotivated. I need to get it in gear because that 5k will sneak up on me and I won't be prepared. Not only do I want to beat my husband (who keeps telling me that I will beat him no problem) I want to improve my time from the last 5k. It is important to me to improve. This is my chosen "sport" and I want to excel in it! I need to figure out what's going on with me and kick it up!
So....after the last run I have been feeling very apathetic about running. I bought a book to help me learn how to run faster and I decided to implement one of the suggested training programs in one of the first chapters of the book. The premise is that if you increase your endurance you will increase your speed. I understand the concept; it kind of makes sense but I'm not convinced yet. I think this is because I'm still feeling very unmotivated. I wish I could fix that but for now I just don't know what to do about it.
So the first run in the program called for thirty minutes of "jogging". I believe this is supposed to be "race pace". I took the normal Courthouse run with the circle around the back of the courthouse. It was pretty hot and I had originally thought about hitting the treadmill instead of heading outside but I did go ahead and decide to hit the road. I have been told that once you hit the streets you will prefer them to the treadmill. I didn't believe that until I really had hit the streets and now I understand it and I agree. I have been very vocal about how boring the treadmill is so yeah, that's would be me preferring the street to the treadmill. So if there's even a remote possibility that I can run outside I will.
It was hot out but it wasn't completely unbearable. I ran the first mile with no problem but I haven't been out or on the mill for a few days and it's amazing how quickly you fall out of shape. I'm finding that if I miss more than two days I lose what I've gained and I have to start over. I haven't run for several days and with the lack of enthusiasm I've lost quite a bit of my "edge". After rounding behind the courthouse and stopping at the first water fountain I was wearing down and I had to walk. I walked most of the way home. I was worn out. My time suffered and I was feeling upset at myself for having to walk on the first day of training that is supposed to help me increase my speed.
The method of measurement here is minutes, not miles so even though I will be recording mileage and pace, etc as usual, the main focus here is minutes. Here's the breakdown: I ran 2.4 miles. My average pace was 13:22 and I ran for 32 minutes. My fastest pace was 10:57. I stopped twice for water at the two different water fountains in town. I ended up walking the last mile and I was exhausted.
I am completely dissatisfied with this run. I don't know what it is that is making me feel so uninspired about my running. I even delayed posting this blog; even writing about it makes me feel awful. For some reason since my last run I am just feeling so unmotivated. I need to get it in gear because that 5k will sneak up on me and I won't be prepared. Not only do I want to beat my husband (who keeps telling me that I will beat him no problem) I want to improve my time from the last 5k. It is important to me to improve. This is my chosen "sport" and I want to excel in it! I need to figure out what's going on with me and kick it up!
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