Thursday, July 05, 2007
Feel the Heat
Today's Run: 4.97
Run Time: 1:02:27 (12:34 minutes per mile)
Total Miles to Date: 556.5
Thoughts on the Run:
Another run this week. I can't say it was easy.
Last night we had a great celebration. We are building a new office downtown, but the old office is close to the main downtown area and has a deck on the roof. This provides excellent viewing of the local fireworks displays. The weather was just cool enough to make it pleasant as we watched the explosions come from all points of the compasses (we had a vantage point to see the displays for several suburbs of Atlanta). After this, we had our own little display and returned home.
Today I had a shorter day in the office. Most of the developers were working from home or taking the day off. I took care of a few items and then returned home early for a date with my daughter. She wanted to spend some time at the pool and then go to the coffee shop. I negotiated and asked if I could jog in between.
We had a fun time swimming for about an hour. I returned home and threw on my jogging clothes and stepped out.
I've got a new philosophy with these runs. For some reason the strict schedule seemed to be driving me nuts. I had it all mapped out but, contrary to my own advice in I Can, I Can't, if I missed a workout I'd let it throw my entire week.
So, no mileage, no pace, nothing but stepping out and seeing how my body feels. It was tough just going 2 miles the other day as I have been doing "not much" for too long. Today, however, I stepped out and began jogging and felt like I could go a bit more. I ended up on a main strip near my house that usually provides me with a good "out-and-back" opportunity. Again, I was going by feel but decided I could do a loop.
I also did not bring fluids. I decided to experiment and find a baseline to see just how much fluid I really lose on a run. I've measured based on my drinks but haven't really run longer distances without taking in any during the run. As explained in The Long Haul, you can compute your fluid needs by simply weighing yourself before and after a run (we have a Fluid Intake Calculatr).
Before the run? Let's put it on the table. It was an embarrassing 218 pounds (100kg). I wish I could say it's muscle but that would be a lie. I've been maintaining for years at 210 so the month of inactivity had a toll. While some of this is more likely water weight, the rest I take responsibility for ... I have my work cut out for me!
So I was on the run. It was hot. I was sweating and I knew I was losing a lot of fluid because my fingers swelled up like sausages. This is also an indication that I'm missing electrolytes, we'll work on those later. I really feel like in my prior runs I was making it too complicated worrying about the right drinks, etc. So this time I am keeping it simple: baseline, first, then I'll address the fluid loss by bringing water, then after I see how that impacts me, I'll address the electrolytes. I managed this run by having water afterwards and a salt pill.
The run was rough. Again, I decided to do it "in flow." I did not look at my watch ONCE during the entire run. I chose a comfortable pace. When I got dizzy, I walked. When I recovered, I jogged. I wasn't pushing the pace but I also knew in my heart I'd go the distance and finish.
I found some ridiculous self-talk as I listened to my thoughts. I had a problem before with running too fast so I'd coach myself mentally to run slower. Unfortunately, the phrase was something like this: "Slow down, we're not trying to break any records." Think about that ... "It's not like we're trying to break a record" ... what a negative thought to bounce around for hours at a time! So, I consciously flipped the thought around ... "I'm breaking my personal records ... I'm having fun, doing this outside of the box, and staying consistent." Much better. No need to rush, but no need to limit myself, either.
The "I Can, I Can't" is perhaps an illustration of how thoughts can impact action. I may lose some of you on this and if I do and you haven't already listened to the Weight Loss Mindset series then I encourage you to do so now. Basically, there were two thoughts that governed my previous training season:
1. Pavement injures me
2. I must get all of my runs in or I'll fail
The first is a thought process. Doesn't pavement pound harder than trails? Sure. But research also suggests that this type of impact running can actually strengthen joints and build muscle. I wanted to run trails but I set myself up by repeating a thought in my mind. I believe this planted the seed for the excuse that manifested point #2.
Point #2 is more interesting because we know it's not true. Plenty of people have run races without preparation. I decided 7 weeks before my first half marathon that I was going to run it, and I did fine. I trained during a period in my life when my confidence was high and I was in flow, and I chose not to consider injury as an option ... and I trained injury free.
This time with a little more chaos in my life, I don't manage the negative thoughts as well and so when I'd run pavement instead of hills I'd use that excuse in the back of my mind. So, when I started missing workouts, this created the perfect excuse to create an injury. First, I fell short in the marathon ... that was heat exhaustion, I still ran 20 miles farther than some people ever will. But I let that plant itself in my mind and while I had the perfect opportunity to overcome it again with another marathon in May, I let that fear of failure manifest as an injury that kept me out.
So, this time, I'm approaching it all differently. I'm not being so hard on myself. I'm not stressing over fluids. Yes, I'll bring them but I don't have to be so religious about it. I'm not thinking, "Injury" when I know I can do this season injury free and break a lot of personal records.
So, I pushed myself through the heat and pain and finished almost 5 miles. I wasn't trying to reach a "round number" so it happened that when I stopped a few blocks from my home, I finally looked at my watch and it was 4.97. It wasn't a blazing pace but I finished it. When I weighed myself afterwards, I had lost 4 pounds - that's 1 pound every 15 minutes! Seems I have quite high hydration needs ... that's two bottles for an hour run. Next time I'll bring the water and try it without electrolytes first, then finally get back to my electrolyte drink mixes and see where that leaves me.
All in all it was a fun experience and I'm happy to be back in the game again. As you can see I'm like the cobbler with broken shoes ... but now I'm creating the time and eliminating the excuses to fix them.
Take care,
Run Time: 1:02:27 (12:34 minutes per mile)
Total Miles to Date: 556.5
Thoughts on the Run:
Another run this week. I can't say it was easy.
Last night we had a great celebration. We are building a new office downtown, but the old office is close to the main downtown area and has a deck on the roof. This provides excellent viewing of the local fireworks displays. The weather was just cool enough to make it pleasant as we watched the explosions come from all points of the compasses (we had a vantage point to see the displays for several suburbs of Atlanta). After this, we had our own little display and returned home.
Today I had a shorter day in the office. Most of the developers were working from home or taking the day off. I took care of a few items and then returned home early for a date with my daughter. She wanted to spend some time at the pool and then go to the coffee shop. I negotiated and asked if I could jog in between.
We had a fun time swimming for about an hour. I returned home and threw on my jogging clothes and stepped out.
I've got a new philosophy with these runs. For some reason the strict schedule seemed to be driving me nuts. I had it all mapped out but, contrary to my own advice in I Can, I Can't, if I missed a workout I'd let it throw my entire week.
So, no mileage, no pace, nothing but stepping out and seeing how my body feels. It was tough just going 2 miles the other day as I have been doing "not much" for too long. Today, however, I stepped out and began jogging and felt like I could go a bit more. I ended up on a main strip near my house that usually provides me with a good "out-and-back" opportunity. Again, I was going by feel but decided I could do a loop.
I also did not bring fluids. I decided to experiment and find a baseline to see just how much fluid I really lose on a run. I've measured based on my drinks but haven't really run longer distances without taking in any during the run. As explained in The Long Haul, you can compute your fluid needs by simply weighing yourself before and after a run (we have a Fluid Intake Calculatr).
Before the run? Let's put it on the table. It was an embarrassing 218 pounds (100kg). I wish I could say it's muscle but that would be a lie. I've been maintaining for years at 210 so the month of inactivity had a toll. While some of this is more likely water weight, the rest I take responsibility for ... I have my work cut out for me!
So I was on the run. It was hot. I was sweating and I knew I was losing a lot of fluid because my fingers swelled up like sausages. This is also an indication that I'm missing electrolytes, we'll work on those later. I really feel like in my prior runs I was making it too complicated worrying about the right drinks, etc. So this time I am keeping it simple: baseline, first, then I'll address the fluid loss by bringing water, then after I see how that impacts me, I'll address the electrolytes. I managed this run by having water afterwards and a salt pill.
The run was rough. Again, I decided to do it "in flow." I did not look at my watch ONCE during the entire run. I chose a comfortable pace. When I got dizzy, I walked. When I recovered, I jogged. I wasn't pushing the pace but I also knew in my heart I'd go the distance and finish.
I found some ridiculous self-talk as I listened to my thoughts. I had a problem before with running too fast so I'd coach myself mentally to run slower. Unfortunately, the phrase was something like this: "Slow down, we're not trying to break any records." Think about that ... "It's not like we're trying to break a record" ... what a negative thought to bounce around for hours at a time! So, I consciously flipped the thought around ... "I'm breaking my personal records ... I'm having fun, doing this outside of the box, and staying consistent." Much better. No need to rush, but no need to limit myself, either.
The "I Can, I Can't" is perhaps an illustration of how thoughts can impact action. I may lose some of you on this and if I do and you haven't already listened to the Weight Loss Mindset series then I encourage you to do so now. Basically, there were two thoughts that governed my previous training season:
1. Pavement injures me
2. I must get all of my runs in or I'll fail
The first is a thought process. Doesn't pavement pound harder than trails? Sure. But research also suggests that this type of impact running can actually strengthen joints and build muscle. I wanted to run trails but I set myself up by repeating a thought in my mind. I believe this planted the seed for the excuse that manifested point #2.
Point #2 is more interesting because we know it's not true. Plenty of people have run races without preparation. I decided 7 weeks before my first half marathon that I was going to run it, and I did fine. I trained during a period in my life when my confidence was high and I was in flow, and I chose not to consider injury as an option ... and I trained injury free.
This time with a little more chaos in my life, I don't manage the negative thoughts as well and so when I'd run pavement instead of hills I'd use that excuse in the back of my mind. So, when I started missing workouts, this created the perfect excuse to create an injury. First, I fell short in the marathon ... that was heat exhaustion, I still ran 20 miles farther than some people ever will. But I let that plant itself in my mind and while I had the perfect opportunity to overcome it again with another marathon in May, I let that fear of failure manifest as an injury that kept me out.
So, this time, I'm approaching it all differently. I'm not being so hard on myself. I'm not stressing over fluids. Yes, I'll bring them but I don't have to be so religious about it. I'm not thinking, "Injury" when I know I can do this season injury free and break a lot of personal records.
So, I pushed myself through the heat and pain and finished almost 5 miles. I wasn't trying to reach a "round number" so it happened that when I stopped a few blocks from my home, I finally looked at my watch and it was 4.97. It wasn't a blazing pace but I finished it. When I weighed myself afterwards, I had lost 4 pounds - that's 1 pound every 15 minutes! Seems I have quite high hydration needs ... that's two bottles for an hour run. Next time I'll bring the water and try it without electrolytes first, then finally get back to my electrolyte drink mixes and see where that leaves me.
All in all it was a fun experience and I'm happy to be back in the game again. As you can see I'm like the cobbler with broken shoes ... but now I'm creating the time and eliminating the excuses to fix them.
Take care,
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