89 Miles Down, Plus: Your Fashion Tips

It’s amazing how quickly the week can get away from you: I skipped a run on Monday for whatever reason, and that guilt carried into Tuesday’s swim (but was mitigated by the Cavaliers game—it was still awesome to be there) and only mounted yesterday.

Despite it all, I covered 7.33 miles at lunch today (that leaves 11 miles to go!), including a 1.11-mile warm-up and 6.2-mile run at 8:42/mile pace. And I think I have found my very comfortable pace for distance-building between 8:35 and 8:45/mile. For months I struggled with running too fast too soon: remember the whole 7:37/mile on my first 10-miler? Silly G!

Now I can start running at a comfortable pace without having to brainwash myself, burn in the heat or insist on singing to gauge my intensity (although it’s still fun).

While I didn’t understand the importance of the long-and-slow when I started running, it’s all making sense now (and I definitely wouldn’t have made it to 14+ miles by now). It had been my impression that if I had built endurance at a slower pace, I would never be able to improve my speed. But that’s just silliness. And I know that many, many people tried to explain the concept to me, but sometimes you just have to make sense of things yourself.

I am, however, still working on my pace and trying to find my optimum intensity. And getting back to my HR monitor could help. I haven’t used it in the past month because I suffered some pretty awful chafing from the thing on one of my long runs on a hot day.

So, as I get back to understanding my HRM, I’ll also be a big fan of skin protectants like Aquaphor (I received a sample of Aquaphor from the Cleveland 10-miler in April and have become a big fan; I’m always skeptical of free samples, and was pleasantly surprised), which has really helped me recover my pride from my recent wipeout.

Today’s run took me back inside: after the wipeout and the car incident, I’ve decided that on days when I really want to intently focus on my stride or pace or anything but my surroundings, I will either run on a [bearless] trail or at the track (Kent State also has an outdoor track, so I might check that out soon too) despite my previous prejudices toward the perfect terrain.

But alas, someone had let their children run rampant on the track, so it became an obstacle course at times. At least this time, as opposed to the bear, car and ground incidents, I was bigger. I didn’t make anyone cry this time, but there were a few close calls and severe tackles.

My other distraction on my run was my shorts. So, I wanted to know if anyone had any running fashion tips: what’s a good running short? I have spent most of my life utterly opposed to wearing shorts, but after spending 1-2 sunny runs in pairs of dark cropped pants, I’m ready to be converted.

While the shorts I already own are good for general exercise, they’re not made for distance running. In fact, they’re good for 3-4 miles, but then get a little… cranky, we’ll say. I’ve been checking out different styles online, would like to get opinions and will eventually check things out in person before I amass a new collection of runnable clothing.

The Cavaliers games have started so late in the finals that my superstitious running routine has been utterly shot—at least now we know what the problem has been. Sorry Cavs fans! And I had something bad-for-my-stomach to eat today, so I was whipped when I came home and couldn’t head out for a bit at 9 p.m.

One final funny note:
Salty is an awesome runner from the blogosphere who kicked butt in a 5K on Wednesday. I was reading her race report, in which she logged that her first-mile split was 5:50, and realized that her first-mile split was my running-for-my-life-from-my-fear-of-bears “split” from last Sunday’s run through the wilderness. I felt like I was literally flying at that pace, and she ran it in a mid-week 5K race. How awesome is that? Way to go, Salty!

Now We Sit and Wait…

It seems that no matter which sport reaches playoff season, Cleveland is always made to “sit and wait” for this or that scenario to unfold. And it rarely does. At least this time, if the Bulls beat the Nets, the Cavaliers will still be in the playoffs. But for how long?

This is not to say that I don’t have confidence in the Cavaliers’ ability to play the Heat, I just wouldn’t prefer for them to start off that way. I’m getting my share of heart palpitations tonight.

It was nice to get out of class early tonight and arrive home in time to make a bowl of lentil soup and settle in for a Cavaliers victory. My afternoon was wrapped up with a 4.26-mile run around Kent State.

I was vastly overdressed as usual, and even wore the hokey, orange knit hat I keep in my office for cold emergencies—they happen more often than you think. It’s a great hat for running because it has fleece-lined ear flaps (and my ears get cold so fast), but the yarn ball that sits on top kept bouncing off my head and throwing me a little off beat. But I’m always a little off beat anyway, you know?

So, I headed into hilly Kent at a too-fast pace (as usual) and could feel my track-ridden legs catching up with me. It’s probably 50 percent mental, but I’m just getting over mentally induced side stitches and I’d like to get over my mental hurdles one at a time!

But I really started thinking about my pace (another mental hurdle!) and had the wise words of one particular running Yoda ringing through my head. So, I stuck to the less hilly parts of campus to just stretch my legs and find a more sensible rhythm.

And one of these days, the rhythm of beating this lesson into my head will pay off as I extend my distances. So, thank you to all of my wise running advisors!

It’s time, however, for a rest day on running tomorrow. My congestion is dying down and I’ve grown a little too proud of my newfound health. So, I’ll probably hit the pool around lunch and take a light stroll in the evening. No sense in wasting perfectly nice weather!

Time is winding down and it looks like the Cavaliers might pull a #2 seed in the playoffs. Bulls are down by ten with one minute remaining. And somehow it’s still early. Now we sit and wait, fingers crossed.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The upside of sludge season is those unexpected nice days—the ones that start with a 60 percent chance of rain and gloomy clouds that linger too long, but ends with sunny skies and springy breezes. For once, one of these days happened on the first day of spring.

So, you can imagine that my motivation was greater than the “take a nap” level I mentioned on Tuesday. Around 4:45 p.m., I jumped into my running gear and made my stealthy way out the door and parked at the rec. center. I tied my car door key to my shoe with much anxiety and took off to the hills of Kent again.

Recently, I have felt the urge to start improving my running times again. When I first started running, I paid too much attention to running times and too little to distance. But now I’m building my distance and would like to start picking things up a bit. I know that I am capable of running much faster than my 9-minute/mile pace from St. Malachi, but I just need to do it!

Sometimes, however, this Nike+iPod thing just doesn’t work well for me. I know the first two mile-markers on my path, so I not only get my stats (duration, distance, pace) readout from my iPod, I can also calculate it myself. My run started with 6:35 mile, then 6:50 for the second. But when I checked my iPod in the middle of my third mile, it told me that I was running at a pace of 28:35/mile. No, I didn’t lie down and die; apparently my shoe and my iPod weren’t on the same page. Either that or I had actually started running in place. I felt like I was moving.

Anyhow, I just ignored the errant technology and stuck to my goal of running for 45 minutes. It was such a nice day I could have run for a couple of hours, but I had my 6:15 p.m. class to shower and stop sweating for. But I will have to build up my “short” days in the same way I need to work on lengthening my “long” running days.

It hadn’t occurred to me until recently that my running workouts could range from long to short days. I just thought I was lazy on the days when I ran shorter workouts (whether it was because of time or energy). But I have had a number of people explain to me the dynamics of the long and short running days, and I feel my running confidence building. This realization has also reinforced the fact that training for running and swimming (at least in my head) are two wholly different things. And that’s my excuse for not being very good at the running one!

This weekend I would like to get a general sense of how I should structure my running schedule in preparation for the half-marathon in May. Next week is spring break at Kent State and, while I still have to work, I won’t have to give up my lunches on Monday and Wednesday for class. That’s two extra training periods at my disposal! And I’m looking forward to taking advantage of them. My fingers are crossed, however, for some good weather (knock on wood and all that jazz).