The Accidental Twelvist

With all this chatter about stress, I decided to do something about it: I took the day off. Mind you, I don’t exactly have a stressful job, per se, but I’m surrounded by stressful… err, stress-spreading people.

But what a day to choose! It’s sunny and almost 60 degrees outside, so I struck out for a free run. No time goals, no speed targets, no distance in mind. Just running.

In keeping with today’s stress-free theme, I drove and parked my car near the hike/bike path so I wouldn’t have to run through the high-speed traffic of Steels Corners. Even around 10 a.m. on a Friday, dozens of cars were speeding down the street. Who would have thought? The idea of driving somewhere to go running has always been strange to me, but you should see this traffic!

So, I started in the opposite direction I typically take the path and thought I would run toward Hudson until I got bored and then I would run back. As I have mentioned several times, however, I have no intuition about how this area is laid out, and I ended up getting lost and found and lost again. When I found OH-91, I turned what I guessed was south and found my way back to my civilization.

The whole time I kept a healthy, not-too-fast pace—around 8:00/mile. I know it’s only a little slower than the last run, but I was running at a really relaxed, leisurely pace. And even sang out loud when I needed to test my condition and stop feeling lonely. (Imagine me trotting down some Stow side streets singing “She’s Electric” by Oasis. Hey, their not my neighbors.)

By the time I found the path again (it was a relief when my car appeared at the top of a hill, around a bend), I had run about 12.35 miles. It seemed so much easier than the ten miles I ran last Saturday. And had I known my mileage when I was ending my run, I totally would have run the extra .65.

The only stumbling block in the run was a slight knee problem. No, I didn’t overdo it. I just twisted it while avoiding a dead animal. Eww.

Sidewalks are sporadic around here and halfway down OH-91, my sidewalk disappeared. And when I have to run on the street, I insist on facing traffic so I know when to jump out of the way. I’m not exactly a fan of surprises that come in the shape of speeding cars.

So, when my sidewalk ended, I hopped up on some roadside grass until I could cross to the other side of the street. But that grass appeared to be more a place where medium-sized animals go to die than anywhere people actually tread. I freaked when I saw something gray and furry in my immediate path, and then twisted my knee getting out of the way. It pained me for a few minutes, so I took a 20-second timeout to stretch.

And the only other downside was that I almost killed a dog!

For those who don’t know, I’m St. Francis of Assis, Ohio. Stray dogs, in particular, have always found their ways to my house or just parked themselves next to my car when I’m out because they know I have to take them home. But I’m also terrified of big dogs because I was attacked by one as a child (although I won’t discriminate when there is a dog in need).

When I saw two large dogs mingling and unleashed in a front yard today, I crossed the street with the hope that my running on the other side of the street wouldn’t entice them. Well, it worked for one of them. The other dog came tearing across the street barking at me, so I stopped running and let him do his doggy inspecting. Satisfied (or not) with the experience, he turned to run back to his house right when a car was passing.

The second I heard the car, I yelled for the dog and he jumped out of the way just in time. Sigh. I'm still worried about that dog and suffering from the experience. And that was how I used my good karma today.

Finally, my HRM indicated some good ranges for my running intensity… but I’m going to go interpret what all this means now.

How I Really Feel About It

After much kind nudging, I finally got my hands on my very own heart rate monitor—the Nike Imara. My understanding of the piece of equipment and my aerobic/anaerobic levels is a little lacking at the moment, but I anticipate being better prepared to chat about these things on the other side of this weekend.

But I was so eager to play with the HRM that I strapped on the sensor last night to measure my resting heart rate (55-65 bpm) and discovered how I really feel about work.

From a resting state, I checked my work email and found that just opening Outlook made my HR jump to the 65-75 range, and opening a message from my boss pushed it to 75-85. So, I took my test a little further. I maintained a resting heart rate for the drive to work, but found that it jumped to 90-95 the second I walked through the door and peaked at 125 when a series of others’ bad planning and decisions disrupted the flow of my day-before-vacation.

That was when I stopped with the HRM. I had learned enough.

Unfortunately, I missed lunch again and was exhausted with a stress headache by the time I came home. I was (this) close to wimping out after a 6 p.m. nap, but felt motivated to play with my HRM the way it was meant to be used!

It was just a relaxing 2.25-mile run in my immediate neighborhood, but it was the first time (since I started branching outside my neighborhood) that running that distance was actually relaxing to me. Until recently, two miles was a distance run for me! There are several grades on my street that I used to call “hills” that barely phased me this evening. I love the feeling of breezy running and undeniable improvement.

While I did use my HRM during the run, I’m not sure how to gauge my results and will have to complete my reading materials to know what I’m looking for when I’m running and how to get better. Between the HRM and my Nike+iPod, I not only feel like a Nike product slinger, but a little bit like RoboCop too.

A Beautiful Day in my Neighborhood Pool

By the time 4 p.m. rolled around, I had only gotten up from my desk twice: once to get a glass of water and then again to make some CoCo Wheats for lunch. And I felt much more inclined to go home and take a nap than jump in the pool.

But I promised myself months ago that particularly on days like today I had to at least give my activity du jour a try—whether it’s swimming, running, yoga, nagging or cycling—because I know I’m grateful when I’m done. Such was the case today.

I swam away my stressful day with a sunny 3,100-yard workout:

• 1,000 yards free
• 5 x 200 yards free
• 1,000 yards free
• 100 yards free

No timed sets or butterfly this afternoon because I not only lacked any real energy, but had a nagging pain in my right arm that left me a little tense and wincing. In fact, I still have it. It must have been caused by some tragic right-clicking incident, considering the physically eventful day I had. Either that or I’m being attacked by that silent work killer: carpal tunnel. If my crumpled little arm could move, I would knock on wood right now. I guess my good intentions will have to do.

But enough of the sympathy: the swim was great. Despite the energy slump, I have to admit that reading about Michael Phelps’ record-breaking ways helped me get out there. And I really needed it. It’s incredible what something like running or swimming can do for your mind when it has been a stressful day, week or year. Sure, I can get lost in my thoughts, but I have sworn off work-thinking during my training as much as I’ve sworn off the rec. center track (although whenever I ran on the track I mostly did career-path planning, so it wasn’t mentally all that bad).

For the second time this week, however, I had someone at the pool approach me for the same swimming advice. Both people (one last Friday, another today) had the problem with swimming endurance, such that they would swim a lap of freestyle, rest, swim a lap of breaststroke or sidestroke, stop, swim a lap of free, and so on. They both wanted to know how they could get the magical thing called endurance.

My response: swim.

But apparently it was not the answer either person wanted. The one asked, “are there any other exercises I can do to improve my endurance?” Swimming, I suggested. The other said, “after I swim a lap, I don’t want to stop or have to switch strokes, what can I do?” Ummm, swim. I realize that there are exercises one can do to help swimming, improve swimming. But I believe that the only way to get to lap 2 is to swim! Same with laps 3, 4 and 5.

I wasn’t sure what else to say, like “eat a can of fava beans before 5 a.m. every Wednesday and then ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes and you’re there!” I think that's how Michael Phelps mastered his craft. (Smack forehead.) I know that getting in shape in any exercise or discipline is difficult (and we all know my downfalls and inability to understand the best approaches!), but don’t try harder to find the easy way out than the real answer. Grrr.

Nevertheless, I have discovered that skipping lunch and swimming at 4 p.m. is my favorite time to swim. Not only do I have time freedom while I’m swimming (rather than having to swim, shower and get back in about an hour), but I get to go home when I’m done. And I have to admit that today could have easily been a 2-mile workout, but that bright sun lured me outside. I took Friday off work and cannot wait to enjoy what is shaping up to be a lovely day.

Knock on wood for me, please!

That Settles It: I’d Rather be a Hamster

Thunderstorms were rolling through Kent when I headed to the rec. center this afternoon (I had been staying on the weather up and up all week; that’s why I went swimming yesterday), so I headed inside to run. It was my first time running on a treadmill. As you know, I have only ever gone flying off a treadmill.

My goal was to run a 10K around 8:30-9:00/mile, so I stepped on the machine, pressed the large “ON” button and chose the 10K option. Seems straight forward, right? It always does.

I’m running around 6.7 mph for close to a mile when the treadmill suddenly slows to walking pace. It had been my understanding that running machines with large buttons were intuitive and easy to use, so I blamed this gaffe on user error. I must have done something wrong. So, I start over with my 10K, enter my weight and begin running again. And the same thing happens. Then I just restarted the machine and ran on manual around 6-7 mph for 1.5 miles. But not without incident.

When I first started running on the machine, it felt a little strange having the ground moving beneath my feet. I couldn’t quite get comfortable with moving my arms, so I held on for dear life for the first couple of minutes. Then I let go and tried to allow myself to drift back enough for room to move. And then I stumbled. It wasn’t too bad a stumble, but loud enough that Jeff, who happened to be at the weight circuit behind me, jerked around and gave me the good old ‘L’ sign to the forehead. I kept hearing the word “loser” repeated for several minutes, but that may have just been in my head.

Until it happened again.

This time I definitely tripped over the clean air and the next time I stumbled on a stubbed toe. The third time, however, was the charm. I jumped off the treadmill, walked over to Jeff and swore for several minutes when I saw the sun had come out. So, I took my anger outside and ran the remaining 3.1 miles of my 10K in the beautiful weather.

It was really difficult to run at first: running feels different when the ground is just standing there, waiting to be traversed. But I took the run at a healthy pace (8-9 min./mile) and even considered whether I could sing the national anthem while I was running—but I sang “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” instead ;-)

My only regret was that I hadn’t started my run outside, but I was able to get my mind off the fact that I couldn’t manage to complete a task regularly performed by hamsters. Even on my second and third tries.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you what I looked and felt like on the treadmill today. This video actually features the exact treadmill I was using at my rec. center in the exact location I ran this afternoon. I was not, however, wearing a squirrel costume.

Apparently, squirrels aren’t as adept as hamsters either.

Spring Break Has Sprung

Top three favorite things about spring break:

3. desolate campus
2. zero traffic
1. empty rec. center pool

The days leading up to spring break are buzzing with incensed college students who don’t know where they’re going for break or how they’re going to look in their bikinis. And then on the first Monday of spring break, it all dies down and we’re left with peace and quiet.

So, my expectations were high today for the pool. Minutes after I started swimming, the other two people in the pool left. But seconds after they were gone, you know who showed up. No, not the bad guy from the Harry Potter books. Flipper. There weren’t any confrontations or major swim-offs today, but I definitely gave the old codger a run for his flipperin’ money.

Jeff and I are convinced he’s some tenured professor, and now I’m quite eager to identify him. Unfortunately, most professors don’t wear flippers when teaching their classes or holding office hours. I'll find a way. More Flipper news as it happens.

But when I wasn’t trying to identify my arch-nemesis, I was swimming an easy 2,000-yard workout in the 30-minutes I had, including:

• 500 yards free warm-up on 6:30
• 5 x 100 yards free on 2:00
• 1,000 yards free on 12:30

No butterfly today. Sad, I know. But it's a Monday... and if that's not an excuse for unacceptable laziness, I don't know what is. I cannot explain, however, how nice it was to have my Monday lunch hour back. Granted, I only get my lunch hours back for the week (and then again in another 5 weeks), but the freedom is incredible. For once, I think I'm going to go straight home and... do my taxes.

Other than that, I need to set out a plan for running (i.e., races and getting a clue) and cycling, as well as make arrangements for an upcoming trip to Portland, Oregon. I know, I know: tone down the running pace and the thrilling Monday evenings.