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Training Runs (8.5 miles and 4 miles)

6/15/2013

I went back to the place where I did my long runs for my marathon training, which was a nice change from running through Columbia. I waited a little too long and it was up to about 80 degrees when I started. I usually did a 4 mile loop, which consisted of 1 mile around a track and then 3 miles of road running, but I decided to forgo the mile on the track. It was pretty hot on the track and I never particularly enjoyed it anyway, so it was sort of a no-brainer to skip it. It also had the nice benefit that I could get back every 3 miles for water, rather than every 4.

Despite the heat and my being overweight, I found myself running fairly quickly and comfortably. I ran the first two loops with no problem and then did a shorter version of the loop the 3rd time, which reduced the length of the loop by about half a mile and also got rid of a fairly big hill.

I’m still not back to running 10 miles regularly and with no problem, but I considered this run a major win. There were a lot of things going against me, but I still came out with a really good run, keeping a 10:36 average pace for the entire run.

6/16/2013

I got on the treadmill with the expectation of doing a short run. I started at 6.0 mph, figuring that I’d try to go relatively fast. If I flamed out, I’d just quit at 3 miles and be fine with it. As it turns out, I actually felt really good and comfortable for the first mile and decided to push a more aggressive pace than I had originally planned. My speeds by half mile were:

6.0/6.0/6.2/6.3/6.4/6.5/6.7/7.0

I still felt like I had some gas left in the tank and could have gone longer, but it was getting late and I was already closer to bedtime than I’d like for the end of my run.

So overall, this makes 3 really good runs in a row. There are a number of things I could contribute this to, but I’m not going to speculate too much. Even more importantly, I’ve felt reinvigorated about my running lately. I think the new challenge of trying to lose weight while keeping an intense running schedule has helped with that. Plus, I’ve been running more frequently, which has helped me to feel more energetic about it. It no longer feels like a chore to get home and run after work, which is a huge plus.

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Training Runs (6 miles and 4.5 miles)

6/11/2013 (6 miles)

For the first time since August, I did some lifting on Monday. I don’t have a lot of free time with my schedule, so I plan to just try and get my lifts in whenever I can. Between 2 days per week of softball and 4-5 days of running, that doesn’t leave a lot of time to do my lifting. That’s fine, though. I basically just want to get my strength back up, not build any mass, and use my lifting to help my running.

I was a bit heavier and a bit sore for my run because of the previous day’s workout, so I unsurprisingly had a tough time. I tried to do the same 7 mile routine as last week, where I started at 5.6 and went up every 0.7 miles, but I was pretty spent by the end of an hour, so I quit at 6 miles.

After the run, one of the other guys commented on how much I sweat when I was down there. “You really get your money’s worth, don’t you?” he asked rhetorically. I commented that this particular run wasn’t even that bad. Indeed, I’m trying to come up with a way to deal with my longer runs on the treadmill, because I sweat so much off of the back of the treadmill that it often causes a puddle in the middle of the weight room. I’m thinking buying some cheap towels will probably do the trick.

6/12/2013 (4.5 miles)

I planned to do a hot, hilly run today. When I got outside, though, my GPS watch wasn’t working. It turns out, it just didn’t charge properly, which has happened before. It wasn’t a big deal. In fact, it was kind of nice to run without a timer. I knew approximately how far I ran, since I had run that distance before, but had to guess on how long it tool. The only thing I missed was my heart rate monitor. Given the heat and the difficulty of the run I was planning, it would have been nice to have some idea about how high my heart rate was so that I didn’t overdo it.

I ran about a mile to get to the big street I had to cross. Rather than running in small circles, I just stood there and waited for a walk sign to keep my heart rate down. I was going to wait there on the way back, too. My tentative plan, then, was to get in most of my uphill work on the way to Centennial Lake and downhill work on the way back. If I needed to, I’d walk parts of the downhill on the way there and parts of the uphill on the way back. As it turned out, I didn’t need to do any walking. I was surprisingly comfortable for the entire run. I did stop at the light on the way back, but I definitely didn’t feel like I needed to.

I was happy to get in a surprisingly easy run on a day when I planned something tough.

After my run, I weighed in at 220 on the nose. I was hoping for a bit lighter, but maybe I will be in the morning. That’s still down from 226.2 two weeks ago, so I can’t complain. I’ve still got a long way to go, but it already feels like my clothes are starting to fit better again.

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Training Runs (5.25 and 7.25 miles)

6/8/2013

It appeared for a while that I was going to be wrong about yesterday’s weather. When I got up, it actually looked pretty nice out, so I decided to got outside for my run. It was an ambitious attempt through Columbia and around Centennial Lake that never quite happened.

The ground was wet, which made for some very humid parts of my run. I made it to the lake, but by the time I got there, it was starting to rain and it seemed like it was picking up. Since I knew this would be a hard run anyway, I didn’t want to risk getting stuck miles from home, exhausted and in the rain, so I turned around. Part of my normal route was closed, so I could really run that. So I decided to try and make a loop around the mall, which turned out to be pretty tough. There were lots of steep, long hills and I ran into a throng of people heading over to Merriweather Post Pavillion for a concert and had to navigate my way through them.

Part of the compromise I made with myself when I turned around was that I’d do a medium-long run today, which I did.

6/9/2013

I wanted to try a toned down version of the run I did on Thursday, starting at the same pace but going up every mile instead of every 0.7 miles. This would result in a slower overall run and a slower top speed, even if I went 8 miles. I think this was still a bit aggressive. Given the tough run I had yesterday, I wasn’t quite recovered and I could feel it. A slower pace could have probably gotten me to 8 miles, but I was exhausted by the end and wondered if I was actually benefitting myself at this point. I stopped, which was probably good. There was a puddle of water behind the treadmill when I was finished.

Overall, I did 28.25 miles this week, so I’d consider that a very successful week of running!

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Training Run (7 miles) — 6/6/2013

The weather is bad, and should be all weekend, so I might be relegated to the treadmill for a while. I did a fairly easy 7 miles today. I did start to have trouble with slipping on the treadmill, starting at around mile 5.5, which worries me if I’m going to do 9-10 on the treadmill on Saturday, which is likely to happen.

In good news, I’m down almost 4 pounds in the week since I’ve been back. I usually tend to lose weight pretty quickly when I immediately start trying. This is particularly true if I’ve just been on vacation or have recently put on a lot of weight. If I’m consuming a lot of sodium, then my body will retain more water. As my body returns to a more normal level of sodium, I lose some water weight. So I’m of no delusion that I’ll lose 3-4 pounds every week, but for a first week, I think it’s very good and I hope to continue losing 1-2 pounds per week for a while.

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Training Run (3.75 miles) — 6/4/2013

The weather today was perfect early June weather. It was maybe a bit warm for a run, but great weather to be outside. I was even able to get home and relax for a bit before trying to get outside.

Once I got started, I had somewhat of a hard time. My heartrate was actually pretty good, and my pace was also surprisingly good, but I just didn’t feel great. My legs were tired and my breathing was a bit heavy. It wasn’t until about halfway into my run that I figured out what was probably going on. I think this is the exact problem I was worried about with reducing my calorie intake. I got out there and just didn’t have enough carbohydrates to keep me going. In essence, it was like hitting the wall in a marathon from the very beginning of my run.

The good news about this is that it means my body was hard at work burning fat, so I’ve got that going for me. I did decide to cut it a bit short though, since I wasn’t enjoying it at all and I at quite a bit more when I got done than I had planned. I think my body needed it.

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Training Run (5 miles) — 6/3/2013

I was supposed to have softball today and leave work really early. That got cancelled due to rain, but I was still in the mental state that I was going to leave early, so I made an agreement with myself that I could leave half an hour early if I got immediately on the treadmill when I got home, which I did.

I guess I decided sometime earlier this morning that speed training was probably just as good for me to lose weight as normal running. If I’m going to run 5 miles anyway, why not make it fast? It will boost my metabolism a bit more, and although it will take my heart out of the “weight loss zone” and into the “training zone”, you still tend to burn more fat overall at the higher zone, though you burn it at a lower rate. Plus, you get your metabolism up a bit for after the run.

I came up with the plan of doing a tempo run, starting at 5.8 mph and keeping that for half a mile, then going up by 0.1 mph every quarter mile until I got to 4 miles. It turns out that was a pretty good plan because I felt like I had a good run and challenged myself without pushing too hard. Next time, I can probably do the whole thing increased by 0.1 mph.

I’ve done well with my eating since I’ve gotten back, keeping my caloric intake under 3,000 every day (except perhaps one). So far, I’ve had about 1,700 today and am only having about 600-700 for dinner, so I’m in good shape to lose a fair bit of weight today. It’s not been that hard, though I feel myself hungry a lot. I’m lucky enough that I can still take in close to 3,000 calories every day and expect to lose weight.

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Training Runs — May

I’ve been on the road for most of May, which has made keeping up with both my running and my blogging a bit hard. First, I was gone for two weeks for work, then I got back for less than a week and headed back to Minneapolis for a week.

During my two weeks on the road for work, I didn’t get too many runs in and most of them were tough. I did have one really nice one along the beach that was 7.5 miles, though. It came at a good time, too. I was having somewhat of a rough day and didn’t get much sleep the night before so I felt pretty terrible, but the nice long run really helped clear my head and get me ready for the next day.

During my week in Minneapolis, I did two fairly long runs with a 5K race sandwiched in the middle. The second long run was a nice trip down memory lane. There are two bridge loops that I used to love running when I lived in Minneapolis. The first was between the 46th street bridge and Lake street bridge, which is about 5.5 miles. It was something of a dream for me to run that when I first started running, because it was always too long for me, but I did manage to accomplish running it a few times, eventually. The other part of the loop was between the Lake street and Franklin avenue bridges. This was a route I used to regularly run when I live on the U of M campus. Together, it was about a 9 mile run.

The 5K was the Brian Kraft 5K. I was able to run this one with my mom, which is always fun. I had pretty low expectations for myself for the run, but couldn’t even make my extremely meager goal and had my slowest 5K ever by about 2 minutes. My mom did well, though, setting another PR for this race! It was a really nice race with an extremely flat course and great scenery around Lake Nokomis. I’m glad to have run it with my mom, even though I did poorly and my performance can set a low benchmark for me to break for my next 5K. Another interesting thing about this race is that it is filled with freakishly fast runners! Twenty people in this race finished with a pace of faster than 5:00/mile.

When I got back home, I realized that the damage I had done to myself while being on the road was worse than I had expected. I never thought I would be able to gain so much weight so quickly. So now, I’m left with a new challenge. Since I’ve started running seriously, I’ve never tried to actively lose weight. It’s tougher than it sounds, since you need the food to fuel your running and you’re also supposed to refuel immediately after a run! It’s tough to run 10 miles unless you’re properly fueled, so there’s a good balance that needs to be achieved. It shouldn’t be all that hard, though. In general, running all of these miles should make things a bit easier in terms of losing weight, I just need to get back to a more reasonable and disciplined eating routine. I’ve done well so far, but I’ve got a lot way to go. I was going to focus on building my speed back up this summer, but now I have to focus more on just taking the weight off. I’ll probably still try to do a bit of speed training, for variety, but it will be less of a priority than I had originally planned.