Another "mile"stone.

I had to work the last three days, so I've been away from the gym.

I'm an ICU nurse, and that means working 12 hour shifts.  I know that everyone struggles with the same issue of trying to fit their runs into their busy lives; it's probably one the top "excuses" out there.  But for me, running after work means making a conscious choice to not see my children that day.  I leave before they get up, and if I run, they are in bed by the time I get home--especially as we taper summer bedtimes down in preparation for school coming up.

For my first 2 work days this week, I chose to come home.  On my 3rd day though, I chose the gym since I'll be spending the rest of the week with the kids.

But I will tell you, throughout all three days I found myself looking forward to my run.  In fact, I lusted after it.  I noticed I was crabby on the first two days of work, and looking back I wonder if it was because I wasn't going to the gym?  Could 5 weeks of running leave me that addicted?

Either way, by the end of my (very busy) shift yesterday, I was fit to be tied to get off the unit, and to the gym.  I was a little worried that I might have built things up too much, and sent my wife a text:  "I sure hope this run goes well since I've been looking forward to it for 3 days!"

Once I got on the treadmill (towel safely tucked into the cup-holder this time) and started running, I felt the tiredness in my legs and feet melting away into warm fuzziness.

It felt so good.

And I couldn't help but smile.

I was only jogging along at my base 5 mph, and I could tell--I kept bumping against the treadmill rail.  I made the decision to stay at that pace because I wanted this to be a longer run, and I didn't want to burn myself out too quickly.

Anyway, I ended up running a full 5K, which is a good half mile further than I've run continuously to date.

I know that on the spectrum of runners and runs floating out here on the blogosphere, it's an insignificant distance and pace.  And I feel a little silly trumpeting it as an accomplishment here on my blog.  But it was another small victory for me, and I plan to use this "mile"stone as a "stepping" stone to greater times and distances.

Do you remember your first 5K experience?

That One Song

Do you have a particular song that just lifts you up and carries you while you're running?

For me, it's this Tiesto remix of an Imogene Heap song.  When I run, I use Pandora.  I pick an electronica station, and just use the pounding beats to drive me forward.  I love that Pandora picks random songs for me keeping things completely fresh.  So when this song comes on, it's totally random and by chance.

When it starts playing it never fails to pick me up.  Doesn't matter where I am in a run, this song just grants me another gear.  I usually end up with goosebumps, and often tears streaming down my face.

With this song playing, I am invincible.


Do you have a song like this?

If you're one of the two people reading this, leave me a comment and let me know what song makes you fly.

Mental Toughness

As in, I don't have any.

I was just settling into my run today, 10 minutes in and contemplating turning up the pace.

Then, disaster.

My towel fell off the treadmill and got sucked up into the belt, wedging itself against the frame.

That shrieking, tortured howling sound you heard at the gym today?

That was me, riding a quickly dying treadmill.

I hopped off and tried to see if it would just tug free, but alas the towel had declared its unending love for the treadmill and refused to be coaxed out.

I went and notified the front desk, and then showed the employee of the year which treadmill.

"Welp, there's your problem...there's a towel stuck in the belt."

Uhh....yep.

By this time I selected another treadmill and tried to resurrect my workout. But when I restarted, I felt awful. I made it another 10 minutes and then bailed.

Maybe it's a step forward--in the past I wouldn't have even gotten back on.

Still, I don't feel good about it.

I'm pretty sure it was all in my mind, something I need to get a handle on if ever I'm to become a true runner.

In Failure...Victory

Yeesh, if that doesn't sound counter-intuitive, then I don't know what does.

All I know is that I have two small victories to celebrate and claim for my own today.

Failure/Victory #1:  A couple of days ago I sent Dorothy Beal over at Mile Posts an email after reading her Meet Mile Posts page and seeing the massive, massive growth she's experienced as a runner in both pace and distance.  I was curious to understand (she's a running coach too) if anybody can experience growth like that, or if it's a matter of being genetically blessed.

A day or two later she sent me an email letting me know that she'd actually turned my question into a full on blog post.  I was at first surprised, and then very grateful that someone so rooted into the running world would still take the time for beginning runners like me.  You'll have to read her post to gather all the details, but one of the numerous big takeaways for me was the introduction of some speed work.

Well, it turns out I had unwittingly done just that very thing this past Sunday.  As I approached being able to run for 30 minutes straight at 5 mph, I thought I'd test myself at the pace I'd previously been able to sustain myself for 30 minutes--6 mph.  My plan was to run a mile at 6 mph, interspersed with walking enough to recover, and then repeat that as many times as I could.

Well, it was a miserable failure--it went horribly.

I wasn't able to run an entire mile at 6 mph.

And in fact, I was only able to run at 6 mph for 1/2 mile at a time, and then that required 4-5 minutes of walking to recover.  I was able to repeat the 1/2 mile runs only 3 times--ending my workout right about at the 30 minute mark.  So same time, less mileage because of more walking.

I had 3 days rest before I ran again because of work (I work 12 hours, and on my feet most of that) and then we entertained out of town company for a day.

Today I awoke with a food hangover after blowing my calories at a steakhouse with company last night.  It took a bit to get myself motivated to get to the gym, but after I got myself in the right frame of mind I could hardly wait to get going.

I started off at my usual 5 mph pace, and it felt...slow.  I kept bumping into the front of the treadmill.  I shrugged it off and settled in for a 30 minute plod run.  I started Pandora and blanked my mind.

The first realization I had that this might be a different kind of day was when I first looked down and half of my planned workout was already gone.  I was sweating for sure.  But I always sweat.  My breathing was well controlled, my legs felt good, and I didn't feel...tired.

I chugged on for another 5 minutes and realized it still felt too slow.  So I turned up the pace to 5.5 mph.  And 7 minutes later I was working harder, but I still felt good.  So I turned it up to 6 mph, and finished out my run, hitting my 2.5 mile planned distance a good 1 1/2 minutes early.  So I ran until time ended.  And then I walked a minute of my cool down, and then turned the treadmill back up to 4.5 mph and loped out the rest of my cool down, recovering nicely, while I ran.

Now, I don't know for sure that one session of "speed work" would make a such a huge difference.  Maybe it was 3 days rest.

All I know is something changed, and even if it was just the encouragement of a strong voice over the internet...I'll take it.

Gratefully.

Victory #2:  The needle that broke the haystack in getting me started back on the nutritional straight & narrow happened to be advice from a friend.  I have a pretty important interview coming up on Sept. 19.  The outcome could truly change my and my family's world.  In a strategy session with a friend he mentioned the only thing he would suggest for me to work on would be to drop a little weight if possible.

I totally agreed with his assessment, and had been flirting with the idea anyway.

I set a modest goal of dropping from 277.8 lbs to 260 lbs over the course of about 9 weeks.

Today, 4 weeks later, I nailed my goal.  260 lbs.  Then I had to pee and I weighed in again at 259.8.

Hellllloooo 250's!

I think I'll set my new goal at 245 lbs by Sept 19.  I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but it really doesn't matter at this point.

With the way I'm feeling now--so much better--I've already started winning.

Embrace Life

Recently I've started following a local emergency services scanner service on Facebook. The owners of the page essentially post real-time updates about all the ongoing emergencies in my local metro area.  The service is so on top of things that by the time things are "breaking news" on regular news channels, it's often hours old news.

It's also been quite startling to witness the sheer volume of major emergencies that occur locally each day.  And it's eye opening how many people lose their lives just in the cities surrounding where I carry on my daily life.  In fact I no longer have any desire to get back on a motorcycle--I used to ride--because there are 5-6 motorcycle accidents a day during the week.  Double that on the weekends, and it just never goes the biker's way.

All this has really caused me to be a tad philosophical lately, and particularly today on the treadmill.  As such, I'd like to share the following with you, if you haven't yet seen it.  It is one of the most brilliant public service commercials I have ever seen.  It originally aired in Great Britain, but a few years ago it went viral here in the States as well.  It's only a minute and a half long, but it is immensely powerful.

I read so many of your blogs and I see you talk about your beautiful families and vibrant lives.  Please be safe out there in this big bad world.

And give those you hug some love.

Shopping

 I had an unexpected day off from work today, so I headed up to our local running shop.  I've never owned purpose made running shorts, and some of my athletic shorts I have been wearing do this really annoying crotch wad thing.  So, I browsed through the sale rack and came up with two pair of running shorts with integrated compression shorts for 40% off--a pair of Nike and a pair of Mizuno.  I hope to give one pair of them a test run later this afternoon.

While I was there I couldn't resist picking up a decal that pretty much sums things up.  Pretty sure it's going to look pretty spiff on my little roller skate I drive these days.

I also did a quick browse through the shoe wall because my current Brooks may be getting a little tired.  Like many people, I'm a pretty big pronator so I have to pay close attention to my shoes.  I'm a little hampered in selection because I wear a size 14.  Usually my local shop only has one or two models that run in 14.  I get that they probably don't sell very quickly, as there's not a lot of people with feet as long as mine.  But, I sure wish they'd have a little better selection.  I like to support my local resources, but unfortunately I may end up shopping online for shoes--which creates problems all in itself.

Next I swung by The Vitamin Shoppe and picked up a protein supplement.  One of the things I really love about MyFitnessPal is the ease of tracking where my calories are coming from.  Over the last month I've noticed that I consistently miss my protein percentage by about 20 grams a day.  I'm focusing on trying to get those grams in whole foods, but there are days it's just not feasible.  Enter protein powder.  A big concern I have is that most protein powders/supplements appear to be formulated for the weightlifter trying to pack on muscle and weight.  Frankly that's the very last thing I want to do, and it's a legitimate fear for me as my frame and musculature would easily support the muscle bound look. My body make up is very dense--I weigh much more than you might expect for my size.  True, I am significantly overweight, but even with all that extra fat, I'm a good 30 lbs heavier than it appears.  Anyway, I'm going to try this, and hope that I don't turn into a mini Arnold while I'm at it.

Edited to add:  Just ran in a pair of my new shorts.  They are amazing, I've never run so fast in my life. 

Ok, that may be an exaggeration.

Actually I didn't think about them one single time while I was running.  Which is a huge win!

Run Report 8/1/13

In keeping with yesterday's push, I ran 25 minutes today.

And for today, that was enough.

It was a good workout. I spent a great deal of that time with my heart rate up, and worked up a decent sweat. I felt good throughout, never out of control or in pain.

I think a corollary to yesterday's "aha" moment is the understanding that there will be days that I push myself, searching for those limits in effort to break down those barriers. And there will be days that I just need a good solid, joyful workout. The last thing I want is an injury.

Today was just a good solid, joyful workout.

I feel good.