Same Temperature, But Colder

Normally when I'm a bad blogger, it means I've also been a bad exerciser.  Not so today!  I'm actually doing really well with my mileage so far this week.  Funny how that works when you actually stick to the plan.  I keep looking back on my past weeks and feeling down on myself about lots of missed miles.  But, let's get to the actual workouts...

Yesterday I was supposed to run 8 miles, but I wasn't quite sure I'd have enough time for that.  The past few mornings have involved some version of the following events:

1.  Alarm goes off
2.  I press snooze
3.  Alarm goes off
4.  I press snooze
5.  Drew wakes up and says, "You should get up!"
6.  Alarm goes off
7.  I press snooze
8.  Drew pokes me and says "You need to go running!"
9.  Alarm goes off
10. I press snooze

So, you know, I've been waiting until the last possible second to get out of bed and actually get some miles in before work.  Hoping to do a better job on that next week, but in truth, I'm just bad at waking up.

Yesterday it was 50 when I was leaving and I threw on a long-sleeved shirt and capris.  I wasn't really sure that I needed to be wearing capris, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I might want to wear them for the marathon, so I figured I should get in some practice runs.  I headed to the Westside Path and had a nice run down and up the island. 

The big news from yesterday is that I ate a Gu.  And it didn't even give me any stomach issues like it has in the past.  I had a free Gu from the swag from my Central Park Biathlon and wanted to try it on a shorter run so that if I did have any issues, I wouldn't be ruining a long run.  The flavor I had was Vanilla Bean and I wasn't sure how it would taste.  Tasted kind of like frosting and as soon as I ate the first bit, I wasn't really sure I wanted to be eating frosting while running.  But then my tummy seemed okay with it, so maybe I actually do want to be eating frosting while running? 

I'm hoping to give this another shot on this weekend's "long run", which is actually a step-back week, so long is only 13!  I'm hopeful that the added calories will help me feel better (and maybe less thirsty?) at the end of these runs.

Today was also 50 and since I was a bit warm yesterday, I wore a slightly thinner long-sleeved shirt and capris again.  Except that the wind today was a bit crazy and I was really glad to have on as many clothes as I did, especially while starting running and waiting to warm up!  This morning I decided to go to the Park and was thinking I'd do the same run I did on Wednesday.

Except that when I got to the Reservoir, I realized that I haven't run on the Bridle Path in quite some time, so I decided to do a loop around there and then head back home.  It rained like crazy last night and the puddles on the path were pretty huge.  I felt like I added on an additional half mile just running back and forth around all the puddles! 

When I was running today, I was thinking about marathon and those missed miles that I have.  I can't go back and redo those weeks and I certainly don't think I can try to make up for them.  So, I just decided that I'm going to try to take a new outlook on the situation and say that every mile I run from now on will make the marathon a tiny bit easier.  We'll see how long this lasts. 

Thursday Running, Westside Path
Time: 1:15:00
Distance: 7.10 miles
Pace: 10:35/mile

Friday Running, Central Park
Time: 54:40
Distance: 5.10 miles
Pace: 10:48/mile

I can't believe how close to the end I'm getting of the Wardrobe Challenge.  I know that being busy with work and running have really helped time fly by. 

Wednesday night (Day 24), I went out after work to the Ingrid Michaelson concert and felt obligated to take a photo to show you my after-work outfit.  Purple long-sleeved shirt, black v-neck sweater, jeans, silver circle earrings and gray Converse:

Thursday, Day 25: Gray skirt, green turtleneck, gray tights, green and silver earrings.  Worn with black flats (my right pinky toe is sore and the flats were the most comfortable shoes).

Friday, Day 26: Black pants, blue sweater, diamond earrings and two gold bangle bracelets.  Worn with the high-heeled mary janes, of course!

Please Follow Directions

This morning I woke up and set out for my second run of the week. I knew that I'd never hit the total miles, but I also didn't want to be a complete slacker. Of course, I didn't really have a plan either.

I decided to head to the Park, wearing my Fuel Belt again. I have been doing a lot of flat running and I need to do some running on hills, which the Park is kind enough to provide.

I'd now like to take a few moments for some ranting. First up: the Fuel Belt. Still like it and I'm glad I have it. Not as much in love with it today (the second use) as I was after the first use. I felt like it rode up a LOT more today than it did before. At the end of my run, I wondered if that was because the first time I had tucked in my shirt and today I didn't, so it was riding up along with my shirt? Must test this theory out in future uses.

Second rant: Gmap Pedometer. I heart this service with a capital H. More than any of those Map-My-Run services. Except for one thing. The lack of the Bridle Path in Central Park. I wouldn't think it'd be that hard to just slap it on the map, but even in the satellite photos you can't tell because of all the tree cover. Gmap people, if you're out there, can you work on that?

End ranting (at least on technical issues). I decided to run up the Bridle Path and go from there. It was pretty warm here today and I figured the shadiness would do me some good. There were actual horses on the Path today, which was fun! I wonder where you get a horse or keep your horse to ride there? And do the horses get bored on such a short path?

After running all around the Bridle Path, I decided to do a loop on the Reservoir Path. Good day for path running, apparently. Except here's where I have to start ranting again.

No one was following directions on the Reservoir Path. Mainly in the direction that they were running or walking. I actually thought I was making this up, but then I started counting and it was true that there were more people going the wrong direction than the right direction. I tried to tell myself that a lot of them were probably tourists and I should give them a free pass, but I spent some time really looking at the signs posted an they're very clear with pictures even if you can't read English.

I pretty much got to my breaking point at the north-western corner when 12 people on bicycles entered the Reservoir Path. Um, no! That's just not okay. I just looked at them and yelled, "No, no, no!" I tried to tell them to take their bikes back on the road, but they all stared at me like I was crazy and kept on trying to head in the wrong direction, of course.

OK, done ranting again. But, really, is it that hard to follow an arrow? The run was okay. The weather keeps catching me off guard. It's cool and lovely at night, but hot during the days! At some point I'm sure I'll go back to complaining about it being cold, but this heat is a bit of a surprise. I was glad I had the Fuel Belt for that reason!

I haven't been wearing my heart rate monitor strap for the last couple runs since it keeps giving me this horrible chafing mark in the middle of my chest where the transmitter sits. I keep thinking that I'll try wearing Body Glide and seeing how that works, but I haven't wanted to test the waters yet. Maybe next week.

Running
Time: 1:29:10
Distance: ~8.00 miles
Pace: 11:08/mile

No Passing People!

This morning Drew was going to head off to his trainer, Billy's, boot-camp Park class. I decided that I'd go with Drew to drop him off at the class, but that I didn't want to participate. I'd really rather just go running instead and do my own Ab Challenge!

Drew and I ran most of the way up to the meeting spot where he'd meet everyone else. I had to stop to adjust my laces a couple of times. I finally am forcing myself to wear my new shoes and to get the speed laces adjusted properly so it'll be smooth sailing from here on out. I actually had to throw my old shoes away (I know, I should have recycled them), but I knew if I kept them lying around, I'd be too tempted to keep wearing them.

After I left Drew, I did some more fine tuning on the laces and I think now I've got it "just right". Hopefully they'll be all set now for many miles to come! Today's weather was much nicer than it had been recently, but, I have to say, it's still hot out there when you're running. At least it doesn't feel like you're running through water, but it's definitely not cool. I'm wondering if I'm more of a cold weather runner? Maybe I should become a warm-weather biker?

I started my run off by running one loop around the Reservoir. I tried to keep it slow and "conversational", which isn't all that easy when you're running by yourself. I just kept checking my heart rate and tried to keep it under 180. The easiest way to keep things conversational is to have a song stuck in your head, I think.

Before we left this morning, we were watching "Jersey Shore" (embarrassing fact #1). They played the smallest clip of Enrique Iglesias' new song "I Like It", which promptly got stuck in my head for the rest of the day and in order to get it out, I had to download it when I got home (embarrassing fact #2). Also, is it just me, or does Enrique look younger now than he did before?

When I wasn't repeating the lyrics to "I Like It" in my head, I kept telling myself not to pass people, which turns out was harder than I thought it would be. I don't really think that I'm all that competitive, but it was easy to pick people off, especially on the Reservoir Path. I just kept thinking that I was normally a faster runner than the people that were passing me.

The only great thing about this slow heart rate running? I honestly felt like I could run forever. Maybe my new shoes had something to do with that too, but I felt awesome. After running around the Reservoir, I ran back South to Columbus Circle along the East Side. I saw Drew and Billy's class doing their normal warm-up stuff. Billy saw me and waved, but Drew wasn't paying attention, I guess! They were doing squats when I ran past. Which didn't really seem like all that much fun. I have to say that I wasn't all that sorry that I missed the class!

After I got home, I watched some TV and was really hungry (but was waiting for Drew to get home with groceries) so I fell asleep on the couch until he got home. Once we had eaten, then I got my act together and did today's Ab Challenge. I did 15 minutes of exercises, including some new ones (to me). I put a yoga mat down on the rug today and it was a lot easier to do everything since it wasn't as slippery as the rug has been!

Running
Time: 53:42
Distance: 5.10 miles
Pace: 10:31/mile

I Like To Move It, Move It...

This morning Drew and I walked through the Park up to where he was supposed to be meeting his trainer, Billy, for Billy's Saturday morning Park class. While we were walking, we were watching the 10K that was going on in the Park. There were some little kids with their dad (it was a women's only 10K) and the kids were doing some cheering. And some singing! They kept singing, "I like to move it, move it..." It was really cute and sort-of got that song stuck in my head for the rest of the morning. I dropped Drew off and went off for a run.

I wasn't really sure what my plan was, but I knew I just needed to get out and run. The race was mostly over by the time we got to the Park, but I was dropping Drew off at 86th Street, so I figured I'd just run north and see what happened. When I got near Lasker Pool, I decided to get off the road and run through the North Woods.

So, it was ridiculously nice there. Actually, the whole experience was a little bit ridiculous because as soon as I started running there, it's all these paths and I didn't really know where I was going, but I figured it didn't really matter. At one point I was in the woods running and then came out onto this meadow area, which was filled with flowers and plants. It was just really beautiful. I couldn't figure out if this whole experience was enhanced by the rap music playing on someone's boom box or not?

Eventually, I got out of the woods and ended up on the upper loop of the Bridle Path. The one I almost never ever take. So, I figured, why not? I'll just do that loop too. When I finished that loop, I had been running for 30 minutes. I wasn't quite sure what to do at that point. I was on the Bridle Path, in between the Reservoir Loop and the tennis courts. There is a lot of grassy area there and I figured that it seemed like a decent place to try out this barefoot running stuff everyone keeps talking about.

So, I took off my shoes and started running. I didn't run very far in any one direction. I just kept running back and forth over the same patch of mostly flat ground. I actually couldn't really notice any real difference in how I was running (my foot hitting the ground), but it didn't take very long before I noticed that my left calf was bothering me. I decided that about 5 minutes of that barefoot running stuff was enough for me, so I put my socks and shoes back on and figured out what to do next.

I figured that I was still feeling good, so I might as well just keep on running! Since I was at the top of the Reservoir path, I figured that I'd just run around that Path until I got to the 90th Street exit. From there, I could run South until it was time to meet Drew. I ended up running South, then running around the Great Lawn to see if I could spy Drew and his group. I didn't see them, so I circled back to the meeting spot and they weren't there. I still had some time to kill, so I figured I'd do a couple of 200 meter sprints while I was waiting. I think I got two of those in before I saw his group heading back to where we were supposed to meet each other.

So, I have no idea how far I ran today. I pedometered out the parts I know for sure and I have no doubt that I ran at least 5 miles. Maybe more. But, whatever the distance was, I felt great while I was running. My calf seems to still be a little bit sore after that barefoot business, but it was tolerable. I guess that's why they suggest that you start out small!

After going home and showering, we headed out to run some errands. Both Drew and I got new running shoes! Mine aren't quite ready for use yet. I'm waiting until I really figure out what I'm doing with my summer training wise before I start tracking the miles on these new ones. Here they are:


If you think they look identical to my old ones, that's because they're indeed the same shoes. Except this time I went with navy laces instead of white. Drew ended up getting some Mizuno's as well. I hope that he likes them! We'll have to test out our new shoes soon!

Running
Time: 55:07
Distance: 5.00 - 5.50 miles?
Calories: 563
Maximum HR: 193
Average HR: 177

A Monday Stroll In The Park

This morning we woke up and Drew asked me if I was going to go to the gym. I told him that I didn't want to go to the gym but that I'd do something outside. My plan was to basically do what I did on Saturday. Walk up to the Reservoir, run one loop around, and then walk home. Drew ended up tagging along with me.

Since it was so warm out this morning, I decided that I wanted to try to stay on the Bridle Path for as much of the walk/run as possible since it's much more shaded than the road is. Seemed like the best plan to me. We were walking along and it was more like a stroll in the park than a workout for me, but I didn't really mind. It was nice just to be outdoors and chatting with Drew.

Then we got to the Reservoir Path and I asked if he wanted to stay on the Bridle Path and run around the Reservoir or if wanted to run on the actual Reservoir Path. He chose the real path, which was okay with me, although it's not as shaded. He also decided that he wanted to do two loops, so I told him that he should just go ahead and run at his own pace so that I wouldn't have to wait as long for him once I was done.

I ran my one loop (although I wanted to do two) and then just sat down on a park bench and waited for Drew to be done. And then we walked home after that. Still on the stroll in the park mode, not actual workout mode. I was bummed that I didn't get as good of a workout in as I was hoping -- mainly with the walking. I guess from now on when Drew comes with me I'll have to make it very clear that since this is my main form of cardio right now, I can't really afford to be dilly-dallying around!

Walking/Running
Time: 1:03:16
Distance: 4.60 miles
Pace: 13:45/mile
Calories: 672
Maximum HR: 198
Average HR: 150

And I Ran

This morning Drew told me that he was going to do another brick, but since I was going for a walk, he had to drop his bike off at home before going running. We left the house around the same time, but since he was biking and I was walking, it took us a while before we saw each other again.

I decided to walk north up the west side of the Park so that I could wave to Drew when he rode past. But, secretly, I had a different plan for myself today. I walked myself up to the reservoir path and then I ran one loop around the path. Um, right, so I'm not supposed to be running right now. I know that. But I'm sick of this. And, truth be told, I've run a couple times before. I was just hiding it because I was embarrassed I wasn't playing by the rules.

I've run in small increments, mainly on soft surfaces, and have had no arm pain at all. I've taken this as a sign that doing little bits more is okay. I know, I'm not a doctor, but it's been a month since my arm was broken and aside from some things that I know still hurt my arm, it's fairly normal now. I'm not doing anything crazy and, truthfully, I think I'm preventing myself from going crazy!

So, I did my one reservoir loop and then I walked myself back home. It was definitely a nice morning to be out early getting my run on. So, if you don't agree with my decisions, that's fine. Just avert your eyes for another couple of weeks. Because I still have to wait until June 15 to go back to the doctor!

Walking/Running
Time: 58:32
Distance: 4.60 miles
Pace: 12:43/mile
Calories: 645
Maximum HR: 194
Average HR: 166

The Hungry Caterpillar

Yesterday I got these delivered to me at work. I had ordered them about a week ago and was glad that they finally arrived. I really just wanted to try them out and give them a shot. I had been reading about the benefits of compression gear and figured that it wouldn't hurt just to try it. I also thought that they could be really good to wear on the airplane to Atlanta before the half-marathon to try to avoid some of that puffiness that comes along with flying.

So, naturally, once I got them, I pulled them on at work. Of course, I just happened to be wearing a skirt and tights yesterday, so I just wore them over my tights and kept my legs planted firmly under my desk so that I wouldn't appear too weird. I'm not sure I really noticed anything while at work, but I tried them again after work while I was just lounging around and being lazy watching TV and I will say that they improved my leg circulation by about 100%. I didn't wear them to bed (I took them off right before), but I think it was the first time that I didn't have cold feet when we went to bed. Normally I just plant them on Drew to warm them up, but that wasn't even necessary this time. I'm sure he'll be wanting me to wear these every evening!

My plan for today was pretty similar to another night not so long ago. I was going to run to the New York Road Runner (NYRR) office in order to pick up my race number and t-shirt for the 5K Race that I'm doing on Sunday. The actual plan for today was supposed to be 7 miles plus 5 GP. So, I left work, headed home and changed clothes. By this point, I was really hungry, but I knew I needed to get myself out the door as soon as possible in order to get to the NYRR office before they closed at 7:00, so I didn't take the time to eat anything. I figured that since I had a big afternoon snack (Kind bar crumbled up into Chobani yogurt) of around 350 calories, I'd be totally fine.

Tonight the weather was about 39 when I left the apartment and I wore the exact same thing that I wore on Tuesday when I went running: capris, thin long-sleeved shirt, windbreaker. Both times I ended up taking my hat and gloves along with me, just in case, and both times I ended up keeping them in my pockets. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

I had planned on taking the inserts for my shoes, but decided that I'd just tough it out with just the orthotics and my shoes and see what happens. I figured that if something went wrong, I could always walk and if I didn't have the inserts, I'd probably be less likely to want to stop and fidget with my shoes. Turns out that I was totally correct on this as my shoes were totally fine the whole time. I think I've figured out what to do with these new ones. Whew!

I ran to the NYRR office and picked up my race number and D-Tag for my shoe, but they only had L or XL t-shirts available. Since I don't know anyone who normally wears size L t-shirts, I decided to skip that part. The guy told me that I could come back tomorrow or before the race to see if they had some smalls in stock then. A bit of a bummer as it was actually a really pretty teal color. Oh well.

The bad thing was that when I was picking up my number, my tummy was really rumbling. I was starving already. I wasn't sure how in the heck I was going to make it through the route I had planned for tonight. I was thinking a lot about the book Born to Run while I was running tonight. Although I'm still not quite done, the end portion of the book is really interesting to me - about barefoot running as well as how humans were designed to run for survival and hunting. Somehow that just made me feel better about running longer distances in general. If I'm designed to do it, I must be able to do it, right?

After I left NYRR, I had planned on running around the top of the reservoir before heading back south. There was no one on the path, which was really really weird to me. Normally there are at least a handful of people. Of course, once I started running, I realized that it was probably because the path was filled with huge puddles that took up the entire path. I must have looked like a crazy person running from one side of the path to the other, jumping up on the ledge and so on in order to avoid a step in a puddle. Luckily, there was no one around to actually see me!

I decided that I could get myself to the bottom of the park, but that I just couldn't stomach the idea of going around the Lower Loop again as I had planned (in order to get my 7 miles in). When I got to the bottom of the park, I talked myself into doing the pick-ups because that would only be a small amount of running that I would have to do. When I first started, I talked myself into doing 4 pick-ups (which would be 1 mile in total). My plan was to run 1/8 mile and then walk back to where I had started as recovery. Each pick-up took about 3:00 (~1:00 running and 2:00 walking).

Once I had done three pick-ups, I talked myself into doing three more (so I'd be doing 1.50 miles instead of just 1.00). I realized that it'd only be three more minutes of actual running and I figured I could handle that. Of course, every time that I was walking back to the start, I just kept getting hungrier and hungrier. While I was running (and walking) all I could think about was what was I going to eat when I got home? Our fridge is pretty low on supplies (and even on a good day there aren't a lot of options) but I remembered that there was a little bit of cheese left and I was just totally fixated on that for the majority of my pick-ups.

When I was done, I was so excited to run home so that I could get something to eat. Normally I feel like walking home (even if I do in fact run), but today I actually wanted to run. Of course, I had some sort of curse on the way back because I think I got stuck at every single red light that there was on the way, but I made it eventually.

In all, I ended up doing 7.25 miles total and burning almost as many calories as I had eaten in the day. No wonder I was hungry! So, now I'm currently eating some cheese, drinking some muscle milk and compressing my calves. My plan for the weekend is to deviate slightly from the original plan (shocking, isn't it?) and to do my 12 mile run on Saturday and do the 5K race on Sunday. The weather is actually supposed to be decently warm this weekend and sunny too, so hopefully it'll be a great weekend for running!

Run To NYRR
Time: 25:59
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace: 10:23/mile
Calories: 328
Maximum HR: 186
Average HR: 173

Run To S
Time: 24:53
Distance: 2.45 miles
Pace: 10:09/mile
Calories: 319
Maximum HR: 182
Average HR: 175

Pick-Ups
Time: 18:20
Distance: 1.50 miles
Pace: 12:13/mile
Calories: 202
Maximum HR: 183
Average HR: 160

Run Home
Time: 19:24
Distance: 0.80 miles
Pace: 11:24/mile
Calories: 104
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 162

I Wasn't Listening

This morning I slept in until about 10, which was quite a nice treat. Then Drew and I went for a walk around Union Square and of course ended up buying lots more bars and some other various things. After our afternoon jaunt, we went home, changed clothes and headed out for a run. I'm not quite sure how I convinced him to come with me, but somehow I talked him into it.

When we were walking to the park, there was a group of guys right by the Maine Monument playing music, which led to a brief discussion of me telling Drew about another music group I had heard recently in the subway. After I had told him about the other group, he then admitted that he wasn't really listening to me at all while I was talking. I admit, it wasn't that great of a story, but it always makes me wonder what else he's not listening to!

I had told him before we left the house that today's run wouldn't be fast. I really wanted to concentrate on keeping my heart rate in the 170s as it seems to be a much more comfortable running pace for me with a slightly lower heart rate. He had said that he wanted to run about 4 miles, so I suggested that we run up the West Side until we reached the Reservoir, run around the Reservoir Loop and then back down the West Side again.

The thing about running north first, which is against traffic, is that there is a lot more to see that way. I'm not really sure we saw anything or anyone noteworthy, but it just makes the whole thing more enjoyable. There were a couple moments where we were running a little bit faster than I would have liked for my heart rate, but I really tried to keep it slower. I told Drew that if he wanted to run ahead and go faster he should feel free, but he said that he was doing fine at my slower pace.

Once we reached the reservoir, I really made an effort to keep my heart rate in the 170s. It's a fairly easy conversational pace for me and I wasn't trying to win any awards with my run. Once we got all the way around the Reservoir Loop, Drew looked at his watch and said, "about 17 minutes ... sort-of slow." Geez! I'm fairly certain I said it several times that this would be a slow run. I'm not sure what he was thinking that meant (or maybe he just wasn't listening again!).

We ended up running 3.9 miles in just under 40 minutes, so it really wasn't that slow of a run overall. It's nice to know that I can still keep about a 10 minute mile pace even with a slower heart rate, which I think would help me be able to run for longer stretches. I think that's my strategy for the 10K I have on December 6 ... to keep my heart rate in the 170s and just take my time. I'm really just doing this as motivation to keep running and I don't think the 6 miles will be a problem no matter what, which is really nice to know!

Time: 39:48
Distance: 3.90 miles
Pace: 10:12/mile
Calories: 508
Maximum HR: 183
Average HR: 172