Things that I love about running, feeling the love

Yesterday I did a little bit on things that fray my nerves while running. I thought to be fair there are quite a few things that I love about running. Here is a short list:

1. Post Run Glow - The feeling of general well being and euphoria I feel post run is enough to keep me going. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I am done and the post run endorphins are a great buzz.

2. Freedom (1) - When I am running on a slight downhill with a bit of a tail wind I feel flat out free. My speed picks up and I find a zone that keeps me coming back every time. I love that, for me there is nothing better than this pure feeling. Awesome.

3. Freedom (2) - For an attorney my job is not that stressful, but it has its moments. When I couple that with a turbulent personal life, I need a release. When I run I can forget all the other stuff for a while. This is a good freedom but not as good as the one above.

4. Finding the Top - I have struggled with hills since I started running, I am sure that I am not alone. It has been a challenge. That said, when I reach the top of the hill I get a nice feeling of accomplishment. It is nice, not overwhelming but nice.

5. Discovering Speed - I like to finish my runs with a couple of sprints. I think I do this for no other reason that I like it. I like to run for speed on occasion because it feels good. When you are burning the trail a bit, even if it isn't fast for others, makes you feel good even if you can't keep it up for long.

6. Race Day - Race day is a justification for all the training I have done previously. I may not always have a great race but the experience has always been a good one. It is nice to share this with a bunch of like minded people all out there for their own reasons. It is nice. You can put it all together and have a bunch of strangers cheer for you along the way.

7. Progress - Being a bit of an organizer in my personality, it is nice to be able to participate in a sport where my progress can be so easily evaluated. I am faster or not, I can run further or I can't. There are some nebulous things but for the most part, I can gauge my progress pretty readily. The anal part of me likes that.

8. New Gear - I like to buy myself some stuff now and then. Being a runner helps me decide what type of stuff I want to have. So when it is time for a little reward for whatever reason, running stuff has fit the bill as of late. Heck, we all like a reward now and then.

9. Blogging Friends - Although this is not true for all runners, it is for me. I like the networking aspect of the blog. I like that we all encourage each other and offer our own experience and learn from others. I think I have become a better runner faster because of this. Thanks to all that have commented.

Well that's my list.

These are a few of my least favorite things

I love running, I do. But there are some aspects that get on my nerves while running and I thought I would make a list. This is not because I haven't been running, so there. So here is my list in no particular level of annoyance.

1. Dogs off leashes -- I am an animal person and I like dogs. That said, people who use the same paths as I do will sometimes let their dogs off leashes and then the dog will run at me while I am running. I don't know your dog and I am sure he is friendly but I don't know. So it makes me nervous. I have been scratched in one of these situations.

2. Shouters -- Sometimes my fellow runners will shout to get themselves motivated. I am a fan of anything that gets you up for your run, I mean really go for it. However, I will say that those that shout to get themselves up for the game get me. It just rattles my nerves a bit to have someone shouting behind me. I think it is the startle factor and the good Samaritan in me thinks is this guy in need of some help.

3. Litter -- This gets me, there are trash cans everywhere but some people, I am guess people but I suppose it could be the deer, leave all sorts of bottles and trash on the running/ biking paths. I mean really walk the 100 yards and put it in the can. It gets me fired up because there is no need for it.

4. Chaffing -- Well this happens infrequently these days, and not just because my miles have been down. I have gotten the chaffing injury a time or two and I never realize it as it happens. That is a little gift I realize afterward. I use my glide but every now and then surprise. Ha, ha!! No one ever expects a Spanish Inquisition.

5. Jogging Packs -- I will qualify this a bit. I will run behind a group that will run abreast to fill the entire jogging path and make it difficult for anyone to pass the group. Please people make a couple of rows.

6. Bikers -- I don't dislike all bikers. I have heard that bikers think that runners are too intense looking and thereby unfriendly. Well for those of you that just whip by without any warning, I don't like those bikers. A little courtesy please, just let me know you are coming.

7. Chatters -- Some folks will use the paths for just walking and sometimes they will run into some friends and stand in the middle of the path and chat. There is plenty of room off the path but I suppose that the middle of the path is more inviting. So I will come running up on a group of 10 people stationary in the center of the path. They will also have no urge to move even on seeing people running toward them. I think the discourtesy thread coming strong about now.

8. Drivers -- I think this is first. When I run the roads rather than the bike/ running paths I have to deal with traffic. I don't assume much when running the roads. I think at least once a day that a drive will pull through the cross walk and stop there. I don't care if you do this when you don't see a runner; however, these folks will do this after I am already in the crosswalk. Also, some drivers will turn through my crosswalk when I am running through it. This is also after they see me in the cross walk, while talking on their cell phone (usually). Sunday a woman almost hit me by turning through my crosswalk while I was running across the street. To this I give her a stern reprimand.

You are not very polite, so there

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Well there is a small list of annoyances for Tuesday.

Week in Review

Well I managed a 15.42 mile week, a little short of my goal but quite a bit more than I had done in months. My long run only turned into 4.32 miles rather than 6 miles. As the saying goes, bad runs happen to good people. I just had a heck of a time getting into a grove. In the end I did 4.32 and I am happy with that. I will build on this for the coming week.

What did I learn this week? The summer is hot, no no its true. The Summer is humid ... also true. Both of these things make me slower and more fatigued than without. So I will take my small victories of a good week.

The Mid Week Check In

The week has gone to plan so far. I did 4.1 miles on Monday and 3.4 on Tuesday, this all fits within what I had set out to do. Yesterday, I took a vacation day and went with family and neighbors to 6 flags for the day. Short lines and no crowds make Wednesday an amusement park day. But I will have to work on Saturday, oh well. At least I have a job where I can work at any time or any place.

Today, I hope to do 5 miles so I can break my last month total. I think I can pull this off.

Hopeful Comeback

My running has been terrible for the past 6 weeks, it is true. Last night I ran 4.1 miles and I looked back in my journal (I am geek about writing things down what can I say) and noticed that the last time I ran further was on June 14th or about 6 weeks ago and that was 4.11 miles. There is serious trouble in the kingdom. I noticed that I had been taking longer walk and water breaks than usual. I short I was mailing it in a bit. There were reasons for my lack of motivation, mostly it was very humid and hot. I know these are factors and looking back at my numbers for last summer I notice that this was a factor then as well. That said I was also about 6o pounds heavier. Well last night I did run my 4.1 miles with shorter water breaks and no walk breaks. So that was a good change. I think part of my problem was that I was going out too fast and tiring myself out too soon. So I will have to back off the pace by 30 seconds for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.

My goals are to get to 20 miles per week. If I run 4 days a week I feel great, if I run less I feel like something is off. This is where I feel the best. So here is the week of running I have planned:

M: 4.1 miles - I did this one already
T: 3-5 miles
W: Screwing off
Th: 3-5 miles
F: Lazing about
Sa: 6-8 miles
Su: Make a mash-potato mountain

Total Range: 16.1 miles to 22.1 miles

This is the goal I hope to make it and if I can this week I am sure I will fine for the summer. Wish me luck, I may need it. The good news is that last night I was able to finish my run without any sort of pulls or strains and I feel fine today.

What is up with your running Dude?

Until the other night I had not run in over a week, a sad but true statement. My personal life has been ... chaotic and traumatic as of late. I did a good job the last couple of days getting out there but I need to build my base back up again. So I am pushing my speed work to the side for the next few weeks until I can get my miles back up again.

The last two were 3.37 at a 10:30 pace and 3.00 miles at a 10:25 pace. This is an o.k. pace for me but nothing special. I would like to get up to 20 miles a week and then hit the speed again. I will keep you all updated.

Take it and Run: Overtraining

The Take it and Run Thursday this week concerns over training. I can say that I am very familiar with the dangers of over training. This is a small personal story. I successfully began my running in March of 2007; I unsuccessfully began running in May of 2006. Unsuccessfully, you say. Sadly it is true. I possess heart and strength in very unequal proportions this was the recipe for disaster.

(fat me in June 2007)

I was quite heavy in 2006 (about 280 pounds), not as bad as January 2007 (293 pounds), but still quite bad. I met a woman at work who was a runner and with her encouragement I went out and tried my hand at running. I was slow, quite slow as I put in my 14:00 to 15:00 miles. I thought that even if I wasn't fast if I got out there 4 to 5 days a week that I would progress faster. Train more and get better faster, that is what I thought. I was very wrong in my thinking. I was over training in a big way where I just thought I was toughing it out.

My desire and heart were in the right place but I wasn't thinking very clearly about the state that my body was in. Besides being overweight my joints were not up to the stress I was putting them under. I wasn't giving myself time to recover, sometimes I would run up to 4 days in a row. I was getting aches and pains but I just thought that it was just normal pain from starting to exercise again. It wasn't.

I didn't let myself rest and these small injuries piled up and piled up and before I knew it, I had a bad knee injury. By August, It was so bad after that after only a hundred yards of running I felt like my knee was on fire.

(not so fat me May 2008)

I simply couldn't run, it was devastating. I had registered for a half marathon but didn't even make it to the starting line. I felt so badly but there was nothing I could do but recover and learn from my mistakes. It took me the better part of 6 months before my knee felt right again. I learned later that the connective tissue in the knees, hips and knees develops much slower than legs muscles and the cardio system.

When I did come back to running the next March, I gave myself more time to recover between runs and almost never ran back to back days when I first got back. If I have to give one bit of advice, and I am not sure if I am qualified to give any advice on running given my newness to the sport, it is please respect the recovery time. When you start don't run on consecutive days, you might think your body can handle it but you are wrong and you might not get hurt right a way but an injury is waiting for you. Take it slow because training healthy is a lot more fun than managing injuries.

Another double digit effort

Since running my marathon back in May I have been in a running funk. That said this is the third week of double digit totals, which is a step in the right direction. Actually I think it is great as it has been humid as of late. This weekend I was supposed to do a tempo run on Friday but that was just a nice idea. I was struggling just to get the miles in (humidity was killing me). I managed 3.8 miles. I took Saturday off from running and then put in 4 on Sunday.

I feel like I am getting better. I totally blew week 2 of my speed plan. But it doesn't matter as I am not on a time crunch so I will just do it again. It is nice how things work out.

Take it and Run: Running T-Shirts

The Runners Lounge has come up with a great Take it and Run Thursday: That is a great running T-Shirt. There are two that I have come across that I think are great.

"Pass the Weak, Hurdle the Dead"

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and

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"Run Like You Stole Something"

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Which I did because I didn't come up with either of those. I just like them. To which I will add my own:

"Run Like It Matters"

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To this I will add the thought that I think it does matter.

Sprinting Fool... or just a fool (Speedwork W2, D1)

Last night I continued on my quest for the holy grail, which is speed. Pardon the Arthurian reference, I am reading Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles and it has taken hold of me as of late. These are some of the best stories involving King Arthur that I have come across, of course I love Bernard Cornwell and recommend all his works but these are top shelf. Now that I have done my little reading pitch. I went out and did a little three mile warm up because for me speed work is something I have to work myself into. I don't want to get hurt so I do three miles at about a 10:30 pace and then I did 5 sets of sprints. These were .10 at speed and then a .10 walking back to the start point.

I have been working on being consistent with the speed instead of just trying to go all out, well except for the last one ... that one I go all out. The firs four were at about a 7:30 pace. This is faster than my tempo pace by a good deal and I feel like I can maintain this without too much trouble. My legs don't bark and my chest does not feel like there is an explosion on the horizon, but it is difficult. For the last one, I go all out and try to burn it ... with a little help from Linkin Park. This one was a 5:33 pace. Now that was fast and smooth. But my heart felt like it was going to explode. It didn't. But that felt awesome. Tonight I have a tempo run scheduled.