Cold is an excuse, not a reason not to get work done.

Rediscovery

On the walk home from work, I had a slight pain in my right Achilles, or just above it -- I thought, this might be an excuse not to run this evening. Somehow, I managed to convince myself run anyway.

I walked inside, put on my new running shorts, some running socks, running shoes, debated on whether or not I needed my capilene running shirt -- to keep me warm, but decided against it, which turned out to be a good call.

I set out at a brisk pace, trying to warm up my legs as much as possible before I started running -- not that the difference is actually that great, in fact it's only 2-3 minutes per mile, but it helps nonetheless.

I was almost all the way down my "driveway", which I use as my five minute warmup walk, when I realized I had left my watch at home. I felt no regret as I looked at my empty wrist, and continued anyway.

It turns out that's a pretty good call. Focusing on the numbers, I think, has removed me from the purity of it. "I need to run X number of miles this week to be ready for the half!" isn't something that I am apt to stick to for very long. The reason is that it, honestly, is boring.

Today, I felt something I haven't felt in a while. Even though it was only a quick one mile jog, it helped me to remember why I'm out there. I'm not out there to hit a target number, I'm out there because it feels nice -- before, during, and after. I love to bask in the glow of what I've accomplished. I don't get a great feeling of accomplishment for hitting a certain target speed, or a pre-set distance. I feel gratified when I overcome the obstacles and challenges, mental or physical, that I run in to when I'm out there alone. I only want to race against myself.

Blame

I'd like to simply blame it on the cold, but even that would be admitting defeat, in this case to an outside element and not an internal one. "What's he saying, exactly?" might be your question right now -- entirely valid.

I haven't done much in the last couple weeks. I started brightly, spending time and carefully constructing a training plan which I pledged to stick to. What happened?

The latest in a long line of failures in attempts to better myself, as have the others, has seen some dark days of late, and so soon after the beginning. I wish to promise, to swear to those of you that have been so kind to follow me and believe in me thus far -- and further still those who haven't given up hope in the past two weeks and stopped following my blog -- that I will get back on track, or that I will make it happen. At this point, I can't make such a bold declaration. I cannot make such a promise as I don't know at the moment that I have it in me.

When I am running, I have a tendency to take the long way. "I could run 2 miles or I could run 3 miles." 9/10 times I will take the harder route, to prove to myself that today, on this run, right now, I am capable. I can do it. This mentality at time creeps in to my everyday thinking, and sometimes it doesn't. When I don't have this, when I don't have motivation, when I don't have drive, I falter and sit on the couch for weeks at a time.

All I can do with honesty at this moment is start again and take it one day at a time. Tomorrow will be a good day.

Christmas, other days

The last two days of running ended up both being three mile runs. The first was intentional, and the second was simply because I felt like going the extra mile -- or half mile, as the case was here. My times for the intended "big" three mile run were good - last lap being the fastest. The mid-week run was less impressive as I found myself in a sort of "comfortable run speed" of something around an 18:00 mile, which is below a fast walk speed in most cases. Still, I'm going to continue to do what I can. My primary focus is on distance, and not on speed at this point.

My take on it is that the farther I can go, the more calories, the more fat I will burn which will in turn allow me to go farther and faster. The other option is training in speed which, while it would help both my weight and speed, wouldn't impact my weight as much, so finding a balance is key -- leaning towards distance over speed, because that's what I'm good at, so far.

On another note, I had an idea for a tattoo -- or several, to be exact. On the outside of each calf, I want to get the race distances I have completed -- starting with 5K at the top of the left calf, then 10K, then 21K, and eventually 42K when I get there. On the right, I will have the imperial equivelants -- 3.1 miles, 6.2 miles, 13.1 miles, 26.2 miles respectively. I'm not sure what kind of set I want these numbers in though.

Cross-training, Diet.

I've been keeping tabs on my food intake via the Absolute Fitness app for Android. Just keeping track of what I eat, without intending to change any of it, has helped me make some more.. intelligent decisions over the last few days. I'm updating my spreadsheet with an estimated daily calorie total, as well as an estimate on calories burned, and from that a "net" calorie intake for the day. The point is first to see how much food I have been eating, and then to see if there is a trend as my training continues.

I've been doing some research in to what kind of diet a runner should have, and one that I've seen in a few places is the Paleo diet. I've given this some thought, thinking of gradually making a move towards this kind of diet, though I haven't settled down on this -- for now, I am just working at eating what is conventionally "better" -- i.e. no more Oreos, Hamburgers, French Fries and the like.

I am making an effort in this mindset to change the way that I see food. I have always been a pleasure eater -- almost never hungry, because of my eating habits. I see food or think of food, and I want food. My goal now is to change my thoughts about food from a source of pleasure to a source of energy, and if I can convert my mind to this type of thinking I should be able to provide myself more regularly with the fuel I will need as training goes on.

Tomorrow is the "big" three mile run for the week. I've run three miles fifteen or so times before, so I'm not at all worried about not finishing it. I will post my time and splits tomorrow as an overview, as well as update them in my training spreadsheet.

Half Marathon Training, Days 1 and 2

Day one of training consisted of what was intended to be cross training. Initially I left my apartment in cleats with a soccer ball at my feet and full intentions of doing some drills in the field next door, however I found myself pretty quickly in what resembled more of a marshland than a soccer field and dropped that idea.

Returning to my apartment, I donned my running shoes and headed out to a patch of pavement behind the school, in whose field I had intended to play soccer. In the end, I did a few sprints back and fourth across some basketball courts and a bit of fast running across as well, but found myself quickly remembering two things: First, how hard it is to catch your breath after doing a few sprints. Second, how bad my side stitches really are if I've been running like that. I need to find a new way to cross-train, but that's for another post.

Today, day two went much better. I was planned for a 2.5 mile run as well as some strength training. My impression of strength training is that it is more intended to round out your training, rather than to actually build muscle, so strength training ended up with a few sets of crunches and some time with my 20 pound barbells - curls, presses, and that type of thing.

My run went well, specifically the first mile or so before I started to run out of gas a bit. Thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 210, I can show you exactly where I ran and how quickly: Click here if you want to see that specific workout.

In sticking with the idea that I went out too fast, I ended up adding about a minute per mile -- from a 15:43 pace in the first 1.25 miles, to 16:55 pace for the second half of the run. Because, on my aforementioned GPS watch, I set it to 1.25 mile intervals (to remind me when to turn around,) I can only see my splits (mile times) in a 1.25 mile split, so I will be looking to change this in the future but for now it provides me with enough information to know that I went out too fast, and ended up slowing down because of it.

I would be much happier with a 16:55 pace for the first half, followed by a 15:43 pace for the second half -- showing that I can get stronger and faster as I run, as opposed to getting weaker.

In terms of nutrition, my day wasn't good overall. For breakfast and lunch, as well as the small snacks between, I was doing well. In the evening I got a Muscle Milk shake to help rebuild the muscles I had used through the day, and some salted peanuts to help round it out. I ruined it all with that late night trip to Taco Bell, which is an absolute killer. I ordered two items and ended up with just over 1400 calories worth of food. I still ended up right around my "budget" of 2500 per day (I'll explain more on this later, as well) but could have done really well if I had chosen to eat at home instead of going out. This is a habit I have to break.

Me, Now

Now -- I'm a different runner than I was when I started. I am not afraid to admit that I am using this blog to some extent for my own motivation and to keep myself involved in this big idea I have now: To run the Capital City Half Marathon on May 5th.

I have a plan. A plan to run a lot of miles between now and May 5th. A plan to eat better food and train more efficiently. I've modified Hal Higdon's Half Marathon training schedule for the novice runner. My primary goal is to complete the half marathon to begin with, and my secondary goal is to finish it with roughly a 15 minute mile pace.

I am going to be keeping detailed training logs via Google Docs, so visit the spreadsheet if you want to keep an eye on my progress.

In short, I will be adding about a mile per week to my weekly mileage total until the half marathon. In the meantime, my hope is to lose weight (which increases your maximum sustainable pace inherently) and spend some time on speed training to increase my pace that way.

I continue to harp on About.com (I have learned a lot from them) but they have taught me something interesting: Ten pounds equates to about 20 seconds per mile off of your pace. They list it as 60 seconds off of a 5K time, but figuring that a 5K is 3.1 miles you could roughly equate that to 20 seconds per mile. Yet another helpful article from them: Run Faster

If you are just starting out, I can't say this enough: DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR PACE. Wait until you know you can run a distance before you try to run it fast.