Week 5: Damn Map24!

Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 3 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Saturday: skipped 3 miles (Mardi Gras parade!)
Sunday: 12 miles

Come on down!
For Tuesday's run I went to location of my gym that I'd never tried before. It was me and the mostly elderly folks, several treadmills wedged into a room with a few bikes and stairmasters. Instead on a TV and headphones at each machine there was one TV up in the corner inviting all of to guess the price of the showcase showdown. That's exercise entertainment.

On Wednesday the class met at a physical therapist's office and I learned about all kinds of aches, pains and causes for paranoia. Tried not to think about them on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

I fully intended to run 3 miles on Saturday morning, before the Mardi Gras parade. My second intention was to leave the after the parade to go running (this one was truly fool-hardy). Alas, no Satruday short run this week either.

Map24 lets me down
Heeding advice to get out of town and run on the country roads, I planned a 12-mile run in near a friend's house. (The same friend who told me about Map24, now that I think about it.) I remembered it being not too hilly - faulty memory - and Map24 presented an option for a loop that had a few spurs going out in different directions along the way. But as I drove out there, I realized that one key road in the loop did not actually exist. Huh.

I then commenced driving around and around, relying my odometer to figure out a new route. As retraced a few roads, I kept driving by the same runner. The first time I saw him I felt excited and inspired. We are the same! I'll be out there running too, in just a few minutes! I swung wide into the other lane to give him a wide berth on the snowy shoulder of the road. The second I passed him, I smiled goofily and wondered what route he'd planned and how far he was running, and maybe I should ask him where to run? The third time I was irritated at myself because it was getting late in the afternoon, and colder, and still hadn't figured out a place to park, route to run and way to get in the required miles on these godforsaken backcountry farmfields. The fourth time I passed him, I couldn't mistake the look on his face for anything other than, "why is that weirdo driving in circles around me?"

I was able to get in 8 miles, finally. But as it got later and colder, I felt less inclined to live the dream of running on the open road. A treadmill with the promise of a sauna afterward seemed a better fit. So I ran the last 4 miles at the gym and called it a day.

Week 4: Let it snow

Tuesday: 0 (should have been 3 miles)
Wednesday: 0 (should have been 4 miles)
Thursday: 5 (should have been 3 miles)
Friday: 5 (scheduled free day)
Saturday: sledded instead (should have been 3 miles)
Sunday: 10 miles!

A winter's worth of snow in 36 hours
The blizzard that dropped 3-4 feet of snow on the state this week presented some big problems for work and for running. I was planning for a huge project at work that was do be done on Wednesday and the coming storm threw a lot of doubt into the planning. So instead of preparing for one big project, I planned for that and one big contingency plan. And in the process of this planning, Tuesday evaporated before my eyes and sent me home at 9 p.m. exhausted, and knowing full well that Wednesday would not be pretty. Thus on Tuesday, I did not run.

Wednesday's snow sent the state into instant hibernation. Schools closed, the government closed, and the plows and police couldn't keep up with the downfall. And this is in a state where people know how to handle winter. So when I was finished with work (successfully, thank you) at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, I was released with my other colleagues into the snowy abyss. I had fully intended to run extra miles to make up for Tuesday's goose egg, but you know what else closed down for the storm? The gym. Thus on Wednesday also, I did not run.

Make-up time
I hit the gym at 9 p.m. after work and ran 5 miles, though the schedule called for 3. My plan is to run 5 today (check) and 5 tomorrow (would have been a day off) and that will add up to the miles I was supposed to have run before Saturday. I took a stretch break at 3 miles tonight and finished the 5 feeling pretty good. If I hadn't cranked up the speed on the treadmill just to get it over with, I think I could have run a bit farther.

Friday evening I was feeling sluggish but also resigned to the imperative that I was going to run and there's no reason to fight it. I wasn't sure about running 5 miles back-to-back just a few days before a 10-mile run, so I ran only the first 2.5 miles and took a break to stretch and then I finished the remaining 2.5 with a run-walk. This seemed a reasonable approach and as I write this on Saturday morning, my somewhat sore legs are validating that decision.

Doesn't cross-training count?
Saturday was scheduled for a 3-mile run, which to me now seems like an incidental, throw-away maintenance run. You have to do it, but it's that big of deal to get it done. But I was feeling sore and tired from Thursday's and Friday's 5-mile runs (not enough stretching, clearly) and decided to walk today's 3 miles. But as errands ate up the day and day became evening I found my rationalizing and drawing on the advice of my ultra-marathoner friend: there's nothing wrong with giving your body a break with a little cross-training. And so in lieu of 3 miles, I went sledding. And it was awesome.

For 1 1/2 hours we sailed down the bumpy and fairly steep hillside of a golf course, then trudged through deep snow back to the top. If you've never sledded, let me assure you this is an activity that requires cardiovascular endurance to get back up the hill, strength to hold on tight on the way down, and little gumption to set out downhill in the first place. It was a fairly cloudy night in a rural area so we couldn't actually see the hill we were about to sled down, we knew only that we were at the top. An occasional passing car illuminated the slope with all it bumps, moguls and steep drops on the left side. Several crashes, but no injuries to report - just lots of fun.

Sunday: 10 slow, cold miles
I mapped a route that would pass by my gym several times, giving me a chance to warm up, adjust layers and give out the outdoors for the treadmill at several different points in the run. And I took advantage of that planning. I ran a 1-mile loop three times, then struck out on the road for a 2.6 mile loop. From there I had a 4.4-mile loop planned, but the sidewalks were buried in snow and the road was barely wide enough for the cars. So I repeated the 1-mile loop twice and finished up on the treadmill.

So that's the good news: I got in 10 miles. I stopped twice - once at mile 1 to shed a layer of fleece at my car; once at 5.6 to use the bathroom, warm up and stretch; once again at mile 7.6 to shed layers and hit the treadmill. By this point my knees were sore and once I warmed up a bit I realized my back was sore too. Getting on the treadmill was awkward and painful - it took a good mile to loosen up from the cold and to run with a normal gait.

Afterward I had snack as was recommended (apparently you have about 1/2 hour to refuel after a long run or your body starts to breakdown whatever it already has going for it) and then sat in the hot tub to stretch and recuperate. I'm not sure if it was the run, the hardboiled egg and slices of turkey, or the heat of the hot tub (clearly, all three weren't a great combination) but I felt totally nauseous and sore and miserable for awhile there.

Now at home I'm Googling day spas that might have openings for hour-long massages tomorrow. My knees are sorest, but my back is a close second. I hope stretching will solve this.

The food journal begins

The very helpful nutritionist who spoke to our class last week invited us to keep a food journal for three days for her to analyze for its nutritional content. This is a great opportunity for me, given my scandalous lack of knowledge about nutrition, but it skeezes me out for two reasons:

Skeezy Part 1:
The food journal calls on me to keep a record of everything I eat in a day, the time of day I eat it and what kind of exercise I get during that day. This conjures for me the image of a teenager with an eating disorder, desperately agonizing over every calorie and spiraling downward in the manner of an after-school special. I know the point of this food journal is to make sure I'm getting enough food, rather than to reduce what I'm eating, but the act of writing it down still reeks of unhealthy obsession with food.

Skeezy Part 2:
This will be a professional confirmation/condemnation of crappy eating. I will have to own up to it, look it the eye and decide whether I want to do something about it. The nutritionist signed her letter to our class with this admonition: "Good nutrition maximizes your potential. Bad nutrition impairs it. Choose to be your best!" Interesting.


Raw-foodist, I'm not
In coincidence with the crazy amounts of snow that fell this week, my stove broke. I was cooking on Sunday evening - a bunch of random stuff to have in the fridge during the week - the mechanism inside the stove that controls one of the burners finally broke after threatening to for a long time. In an extra challenge, the burner was broken in the "on" position. Huh. I switched off the breaker and went shopping for a new stove to replace the one that had served 20 years admirably.

I also decided no stove=no food journal. My already oddball diet was extra animated with lots of take-out, processed stuff and microwavables. Popcorn, for instance. Or last night's dinner - half a box of crackers topped with goat cheese. It was easy, tasty and required no cooking.

But this evening from where I sit in my living room, I am admiring the new stove that was installed today. Let the food journal begin.

Week 3: My longest run ever

Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Saturday: 3 miles
Sunday: 8 miles (!)

Tuesday - a reminder not to leave work late
My plan to run on Tuesday morning was undermined by a more attractive offer to have breakfast with a friend. My intention to take a break from work and run in the afternoon didn't materialize (this was a not even a realistic plan - I shouldn't have even finished thinking that thought). So when I left work at 9 p.m. I had the choice of going to the gym near work, or the gym I prefer nearer home - I chose the latter. And arriving at 9:15 I learned they close at 9:30. But helpfully the gym near work is open till 10:30. Willfully, I got back on the highway, drove back toward work and got in my run. I finished my 3 miles at 10 minute pace, just as they were closing for the night.

Wednesday - music!
I had a great 4-mile run in the evening after Marathon 101. I warmed up at slow 12-minute pace, ran 2 miles at an 11-minute pace, ran the third mile at a 10-minute pace, then alternated between 10-11 minutes for the final mile.

The biggest change I made in this run was that my iPod was playing music. I never listen to music while I'm running, I listen to podcasts. I subscribe to them faithfully and look forward to hearing them when I get to the gym. It makes me laugh to look at the other treadmills and wonder if any of those guys are listening to Meet the Press, or Washington Week with Gwen Eiffel. Tonight, however, I was newly in possession of a downloaded album that I really wanted to listen to. And even though it was folky, slow, meandering, cerebral singing (not a contender for the next Jock Jams compilation) it was awesome! I focused less on the minutes and tenths of miles ticking past and just enjoyed the run - actually just enjoyed it. It was wild! I'm not trading in my podcasts, but this opens new possibilities.

Thursday - it's just routine
I went to the gym near work in the morning before going in to work. This run felt like checking a task off a list - I wasn't excited about, I didn't think much about it, I just did because I knew I had to. I felt pretty tired and little cranky afterward - maybe it was the combination of running 4 miles at night and 3 miles in the morning without enough food or sleep in between.

Saturday - closing time, again
Friday night was unexpectedly long and eventful and Saturday morning was the annual Penguin Plunge, followed by burgers and napping. Mid-afternoon I looked up the closing time of the gym (7:00 p.m.) and calculated that I'd need a little more than a half-hour to get in my 3 miles -- enough time to nap a little longer on the couch. Around 5:45 I forced myself out the door, got to the gym and found every blessed treadmill occupied. I stretched, I watched, I lurked and I waited for a treadmill to open up as the minutes ticked by. It was 6:30 p.m. when a very nice older woman finished her walking routine (hey, I figured, everyone deserve to workout without their pace being rushed or judged) and I had just enough time to finish my 3 miles before they tossed me out.

Sunday - this was BIG
Since first looking at the training schedule, this weekend has stood out as a milestone for me. I have never run farther than 6.5 miles in my life, and this 8-mile run was going to be the first test to burn past that marker. The 6-mile runs in the previous weekends had ok at best, but not necessarily fabulous in a confidence-boosting way.

Using the super-useful Map 24 I charted a route in the North End that started with a 3-mile loop and end with a 5-mile out-and-back run. The forecast said 26 degrees and the sun was out but dodgy, the wind was mild -- this might be one of the better days for outdoor running we've had in a long, long time.

At a mile in, I was tired and rationalizing that tomorrow, Monday, is a day off and I could do this run then instead of now. I kept going, a pretty slow jogging pace and finished off the 3 miles feeling ok. I stopped back the car to adjust layers of clothing and pick up a water bottle, than took off on the 5-mile stretch. It was a particularly interesting neighborhood to run in, but it's an area that I've only driven and never walked, so it was interesting to look more closely at the houses and markets. And every pedestrian I passed gave me a jolt of pride: I am running. I am running. I am RUNNING. Merely months ago the thought of doing this would be fairly classified as a thought. It would be more of a notion, an awareness that other people (who are crazy) go out and run 8 miles in the snow. But now I am among them, and that feels good. It also feels cold, but mostly good.

I did have to take a break, probably around 6 or 7 miles, because the cold was getting to me. By now I was running in the shade, sky had clouded over and I felt the chill in my knees. I walked a few laps around a convenience store to warm up and find something new in my iPod to keep me company for the final stretch. I'd like to be able to say that I set out for 8 miles and ran it without stopping, but I think until the weather changes, that's not realistic. I'm very encouraged, though, that my endurance wasn't flagging - I felt like I could still go farther. Which is good, because next Sunday calls for 10 miles. Lordy.

Nutrition is a pain in the ass

Tonight's Marathon 101 class focused on a topic that I need a lot of help with: nutrition. Nutrition baffles me. If I were tested on nutrition literacy like eighth graders are tested for reading and math, I would be in a low, low percentile.

So I was hopeful that tonight would clarify things for me, and in part that was the case. The instructor had bags of groceries and she pulled out items and had us name their nutritional value - carb, protein, fat, etc. And while this may have been remedial for everyone else in the room, I found it helpful to see these piles growing on the table of varied foods, all having their own nutritional merits pulling for them.

The part that still confuses me is how to get these nutrients into my body and in what quantities. First, there are recommendations for numbers of servings per day, and it varies depending on what kind of nutrition-packed food you're talking about. Then there is rule of having a carb, and protein and fat in each meal. And then there is the complication that not all protein-containing foods have complete proteins and they need to be combined with certain other foods for their benefits to be realized. And when tonight's conversation veered toward glucose levels and amino acids, I started to wonder if I could get by without thinking about all this.

And then there is the question of how much nutrition and how many calories you need to support the training regime you're undertaking. It seems logical that the more energy you're expending, the more fuel/food you need to take in. But what's the baseline, and how much is enough? This warning was sobering: your body will break down and metabolize your own muscle protein if you don't take in enough carbs and protein. So how much food should I eat? They say, "Listen to your body." My body has never undertaken this kind of challenge. My body may not know what it needs. My body wants to eat Cheez-Its for dinner.

Advice with a cup of soup

I had lunch with a friend who has run 26 marathons. Twenty-six! I knew he'd run many, but not that many. It renewed my enthusiasm and his certainty that if I stick to training I can absolutely do this was encouraging. But it gave me a scary, potentially doubt-inducing glimpse at how many ways there are to train, how my aproaches, strategies and philosophies there are. And who's to say which one is right for me?

Hopefully, the proscribed path I'm following will work well enough, but alas I learned from the lunch that personal determination and decision-making is a big part of preparing for the race, and until now I was taking a "do what I'm told" approach. I have an awful lot to learn about nutrition, training and physiology to appropriately deviate from the plan and take more of my training into my own hands.

About that shoe fitting....

One of the sponsors of the marathon is an athletic shoe store and they provided a little seminar on how running shoes are constructed, how your feet are shaped and how the two ought to fit together. Early on, the women were warned not to choose running shoes based on looks, which I totally resented. Not because it's untrue, but because men play into the same superficial attractions in sportswear that women do. (How the hell else do you explain Air Jordan?)

Once I knew what kind of shoes I should be running, the option appeared: 3 pairs of shoes in varying shades of ugly purple, a pair in shocking white-and-turquoise, and pair in sparkly green-and-white. I have to admit, the ugly factor made the first pairs feel like they didn't fit. But between the turquoise and green shoes, I picked the better-fitting but bizarrely bright blue shoes.

Week 2: Sick - of running?

Tuesday: 5 miles
Thursday: skipped a run (should have been 5 miles)
Saturday: 3 miles
Sunday: 6 miles, the last 2 slow and sad

Downhill Fast
This week started strong - I burst through Tuesday's run feeling like this is already part of daily routine. I ran 5 miles in the morning and went to work as if I've done this every day of my life.

On Wednesday I had a headache most of the day and by evening my temperature was 101. I fell asleep with the chills, never mind two down blankets and a thermostat set high enough to induce global-warming-guilt.

Thursday ended late, and I was in no shape to run my scheduled 5 miles. I felt pretty bitter about deviating from the training schedule only a week-and-a-half into the program. Friday was a scheduled day off and I reasoned that I was just postponing the run till then.

Seriously, enough already
I was still in no shape to run on Friday: I left work early and slept about 18 hours in the aforementioned down blanket cocoon. I woke up periodically, allowing time to acknowledge that I was bored and still felt like crap.

When Saturday dawned clear and cold I (finally!) felt better. I hit the treadmill thinking that I would at least run the scheduled 3 miles for the day, but maybe I get go a bit farther to make up for Thursday. I called it quits at 3, and felt pretty tire and weak for the rest of the day. But at least I didn't skip a second run this week!

Sunday was the true challenge: the 6-mile run. The previous 6-miler had been iffy - cold, snot, messy. By this time, I had new pair of running shoes (thanks to super-detailed shoe fitting that morning) and a reminder from the leader of Marathon 101 that if you push yourself while your sick, you'll only set yourself back further.

So I ran the first half -- 3 miles -- and took a break to stretch; I ran the fourth mile, then alternated walking an running half-miles after that. I hit the 6.00 mark on the treadmill and I didn't overdo it, but I'm still aware that I haven't gone out and run a continuous 6 miles yet, and next weekend calls for an 8 mile run. How will she do?