OK - sorry this is coming so late! I’ve been busy (well, as unemployed life goes) these past few weeks. The report on the running is that I’m not making the progress I wish I was - that is to say, I’m doing the “slow and steady” bit, and so far, am not improving time-wise, but seem to be improving endurance. This is great for the long haul, but I wish my success was instantaneous. The good news is that I’m still doing at least three sessions per week, and I’m mixing it up with some inclines because this is Seattle, long flat stretches just don’t come often, and get boring after awhile.
I’m considering entering a 5k fun run at the end of the month, just to give it a shot. I know that I might end up walking part of the way, but maybe I should just do it. I’ll consider it after next week.
This week I paid a lot more attention to my heart rate monitor, and less to the distance. This means that the day after yoga, I was a lot slower. Yesterday (see above) I went farther than usual thanks to my accidentally setting a program on my heart rate monitor. Instead of it beeping at me when I was at 76% of my max hr, it was waiting until 84%, which was a lot harder on me. I’m happy that I got a good distance at the end of the week, but it was exhausting and not terribly enjoyable. I set my hrm back to the moderate pace, so next time I hope to not be so strained.
I was thinking of switching my running to 3x/wk instead of 4, but I think I’d miss it. I also want to do yoga at least 1x per week, if not 2, but I need to get my body warmed up to that idea. Then there’s scuba, which I’d like to do at least once every two weeks. We did a brief dive on Saturday, but the viz was horrible and at 68 ft, when it started to clear up, it was dark enough to need a light (this was during midday).
So this week, I try another yoga class, continue to jog with my hrm and train a bit better, and mostly just try to relax.
75 minutes of yoga is powerful stuff. I went to my first real yoga class in many years last night at a local studio, 8 Limbs Yoga. I was able to do a lot more than I feared, and came out feeling fantastic. My muscles were a little sore today, but felt good. I decided to do my regularly scheduled 30 minute jog and found that I went the shortest distance I’ve done in a month.
I was a bit annoyed by the short distance, then I came home and read up on using my heart rate monitor for training, realizing that I maybe just need to throw this distance thing out of the window once and for all. Here’s another clue - my muscles were sore BEFORE I went out. Maybe going a shorter distance was expected by my body, if not exactly what it needed. Then there’s the thought that maybe I should have skipped my jog today because right now, I hurt!!
Today’s lesson, in sum, is yoga is a lot tougher than it seems and overworking my muscles does nobody any good.
Now that I’m over half-way into this walk/run program, I thought I would reflect a moment on where I am right now with running.
It’s unbelievable, in some ways, that I’m going out of the house, four times a week, and instead of hiding on an eliptical trainer in the corner of a gym, jiggling and jogging past neighborhood people for thirty minutes. Even better, I’m doing this with shorts that show my flabby thighs and shirts that expose my flabby arms. This, I’m finding, is the side-effect of weight loss. Much as with my venture into scuba and the wetsuit, I respond to my fears of judgment from others with a, “Well, I don’t see YOU daring to do what I’m daring to do.” What I’m choosing to do isn’t easy - either diving or running. People much thinner than me can be just as unable or fearful to be out in the world and do what I’m doing.
I’m finding that sometimes, on my “off days” from running, I really just want to go out there anyway. I jogged yesterday, and I try not to run two days in a row except on Saturday and Sunday just to give myself a rest. The thing is, though, is that I enjoy going out and going around the neighborhood. Yesterday I tried a new route. It’s tricky to find a mostly flat route in Seattle, but luckily where I’m at there are a few north/south streets that run parallel, and aside from *getting* to those streets, they stay fairly flat.
This past Saturday, Jon and I went to Green Lake Park, an Olmstead designed park about 5 miles from where we live. The trail around the lake is about 2.8 miles around, and features a gravel and asphalt path for both walking/running and wheeled bipeds. Jon and I just walked about a third of the path to check it out. Driving to a park to run seems wasteful to me, but the was something just absolutely lovely about the area that may make the trek worth it.
Frustrating week for jogging. I only did 3 of my usual 4 days this week because I spent one day this week diving, and was in a fair amount of pain the next few days afterwards, so I gave myself a break. Diving, it turns out, works out most of my backside, whereas running seems to do more to my front. At least, this is where I experienced the muscle pain.
Yesterday’s run (above) was disappointing distance-wise. I’m not seeing much improvement in speed or endurance, but yesterday was also a day where I was really stressed mentally, and had about 5 hrs sleep the night before (new noisy neighbors!) I’ve mostly switched to the heart rate monitor letting me know when I need to slow or speed up. A good chunk of the time, I’m wanting to go faster than it says I should. I know from the book that my muscles will be able to do more than the rest of me, so I have to have patience with the cardio-training.
I’m realizing that I really want to not just run a 5k, but also do really well when I do it. If we’re in town Thanksgiving weekend, I’m thinking of doing the 5k that accompanies the Seattle Marathon. It’s also the weekend of my birthday, and I think that a good way to celebrate one step further into my third decade is to do something fitness oriented. Next year, I’m thinking 10k, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.
This week, I’m just going to keep on paying attention to my heart rate monitor, and hope that by keeping mindful of not over-exerting myself, I may just get where I need to go faster.
page 46 Week 5. Walk 3 minutes, then run 12 minutes, then repeat. By the end of the week, walk 3 minutes, run 15 minutes, walk until rested, then run the rest of the session. Goal by week’s end: a 15 minute running segment.
page 45 By the Numbers
If you decide to run with a heart-rate monitor, you can use it to determine when to walk and run during your 30-minute sessions…The method is simple: Just jog until the monitor registers your 75 percent limit, then walk until your heart rate drops to the 60 percent rate. At that point, begin jogging again until you hit 75 percent, and so on.
Getting back to the Seattle chill was refreshing after trying to run in the Chicago heat. I ended the week with being able to jog for 20 min straight, and even better, at a consistent pace. The only reason I was able to do this, though, was thanks to re-reading the first few chapters from Runner’s World Complete Book of Women’s Running and purchasing the Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor. I’ll still be using my Nike+ SportBand, especially because I like the data I get from it, but I was focusing too much on how fast/far I was going, and not on plain old conditioning, and I was wearing myself out. Thanks to the OwnZone option of the Polar F11, I was able to stay at a slow, steady, consistent pace for a longer period of time, allowing me to ultimately go a greater distance with less strain on my body.
So far, I’m loving the Polar F11, and am glad I purchased it. I had wanted one initially that didn’t require the chest strap, but it looks like that the $80 savings for the non-strap models (of varying brands) don’t do the play-by-play heart rate, nor would they reasonably be able to protest when I’m over or under exerting myself. The strap is comfy, and for the most part, the readout is large enough that I can read it while jogging, with the exception of being the OwnZone details when I start up my exercise.
Today I’m taking a much needed rest day. I did two days in a row, two times last week, and my joints are complaining a bit. I have a natural tendency to push myself too hard (in about all areas), so thanks to my new gadgets, and re-reading the pertinent chapters, I’m learning to take it easy.
I’m also learning to eat a bit differently and remember my vitamins! This is especially important since I was diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency.
At some point this week I’ll try to blog about more than my running pursuits. My mini-goal for now is to sign up for a fun 5k sometime in September or early October.
I continued doing the “Week 2″ program for “Week 3″ because my endurance just hasn’t built up yet. It’s been rough, too, in the Chicago heat. I played with the time of day that I did my program, as well as what I ate, and where I went. The lakeshore offered very little protection from direct sunlight, but offered gravel and asphalt. The streets going up to Rogers Park from Edgewater offered shade, but concrete sidewalks and street traffic. Trying to do the program after a late night of beers and friends was near disastrous. Even worse was going along the lakeshore at high noon.
I ended the week with two programs solidly over 2 miles in 30 min. My endurance got a bit better, as did my breathing and posture. I’m probably going to continue at my current plan, but try to expand it a little so I can do the Week 3 properly around actual Week 5. I think I’ll do better in the cooler mornings of Seattle, and I also think that doing some strength training or stretching (yoga?) on my off days will be beneficial. I’m not sure how this will work with diving, which is also pretty intense at times, but I’ll find out, I’m sure.
Tomorrow I pack up and do my last little things and then on Tuesday I head back to Seattle. It’s been a fun trip - very tiring, though. I think another thing that’s kicked my butt has been the walking around the city when I wasn’t intending to exercise. I failed at having a bunch of time to myself during my trip, however I find that the wealth of friends I have here have given me more than enough things to chew on in my brain to set me up for some good thinking when I get home.
I’m in Chicago right now on a bit of a vacation. I completed my week 2 of this Walk to Run plan. I’m wiped out. I will continue with this week’s level next week to hope to be less winded before I move to the next level. Running in the midday in Chicago is HARD. I’m sensitive to heat, so I think I’ll try to limit myself to early morning. The lakefront trail has asphalt and gravel, which made my knees and joints happy. A new arch brace is helping my plantar fasciitis tendency. I’m enjoying my new running clothes that I got bargain shopping at REI last week. And most of all, while I’m still loving my Nike+ SportBand, I’m loving Trail Runner, which Jon found for me, and syncs to the Nike+ website. It does what I wish the Nike site did - gives me a better play-by-play of my varying speeds throughout the workout, on a timeline, where I can think about what was going on that was impacting my pace.
Anyhow - this is my new life of leisure. Hanging out in Chicago - talking about my dipping my toe into running, and wishing that Seattle and Chicago weren’t so far apart. If I could pick and choose between the two, I’d have my perfect city.
I’m loving my Nike+ so far - however, I really wish that the online portion for Nike+ gave me a bit more on the graph than a squiggly that vaguely represents speed and distance. I want to be able to mouse over points in the line and know what that pace was at a specific time frame. That way, I can think back to “Oh, that’s when I hit that intersection and I had to hoof it to keep from getting hit by that car…” The squiggle looks better than yesterday, and the end numbers are definitely improved, but I want more of a play-by-play from my little gadget. Maybe I’m asking too much, but the data is in there - I just want to see it expressed in more than a green squiggly line.
Tomorrow I take a day off from the walk/run so I can let my joints and muscles rest. I’ll try to do Tuesday and Thursday (though I leave for Chicago on Thursday.) Then, I plan to take advantage of the beautiful shore of Lake Michigan. To do this, though - I’m thinking I need to invest in more running wear. My Title Nine running shorts and tank are fantastic - but I need more than one of each. (And unfortunately, I’m not thrilled with their customer service.) Adidas and Nike have some interesting options available for running, but I just need to cough up the cash to get them. Not as easy being newly unemployed (by choice.)
We’ll see how this experiment turns out. I’m thinking of trying a 5k sometime in August or September.
I am a social worker, artist, academic and consumer who has spent most of my life winding my way through thought and expression.
In 2007 I became entranced by the idea of reconciling America's emotional need to consume with the practical need to promote well-being
and true sustainability. Many of my posts log my exploration of what I call deliberate consumption.
