Chase the wind and touch the sky - a training journal (comments welcome)

[YawningDodo]

We're traveling this weekend to visit some friends out of town, so I'd decided to switch my runs to Monday-Wednesday-Friday. I'm...having regrets, because I'm not as well rested on Mondays as on Tuesdays, so that wasn't a great run, and then Friday's going to be really inconvenient since I have to have all my things packed so my housemate can pick me up straight from work--that'd be easier if it was a walking day. So I kind of wish I'd just run Tuesday/Thursday and skipped a run this week. I'm half tempted to just run either tomorrow or Thursday and call it good, but Tuesday/Thursday would have been a better rhythm for the week. Saturday was never going to be an option; I think I'm probably not going to get much sleep on Friday night, knowing this group of friends.

 

[SarahDisney]

Working your running schedule around your life schedule can be really hard. It's definitely something you get better at with experience. You've already taken some time to think about what did and didn't work for you, and next time you have a situation like this, you'll have more knowledge to draw on when deciding what to do.

Keep up the great work!

 

[YawningDodo]

Working your running schedule around your life schedule can be really hard. It's definitely something you get better at with experience. You've already taken some time to think about what did and didn't work for you, and next time you have a situation like this, you'll have more knowledge to draw on when deciding what to do.

Keep up the great work!

Yeah...it's looking like no run tomorrow because I'm getting stressed out thinking about the scheduling logistics. It's helpful to look at it as a learning experience, though (and I don't feel too bad about skipping since I'm still going to get at least a mile walk in).

 

[YawningDodo]

Yep, skipped my Friday run and...I don't actually have regrets about that! Friday was hectic enough with the last minute preparations; it was really nice to just take the dog on a shortened walk and then have extra time to check over what I'd packed for the trip the night before. It's definitely weird having gone five days with no run (including today), but I was right about the weekend itself being impossible to work with--we were up very late and the sleep I did get wasn't of great quality. Had a ton of fun, though, and came back feeling mentally refreshed if not quite so much physically refreshed.

The other really, really good news? I finally made time to get to Runner's Edge while we were in Missoula and buy a new pair of shoes. Theoretically the running store in Helena should be my home store since it's only an hour and a half drive versus two and a half for Missoula, but one way and another I seem to find myself in Missoula more often and I really like the people at Runner's Edge (not that I've been to the shop in Helena to compare). I haven't run in them yet (just got them yesterday!) but the moment I put them on in the store it was amazing how much better they felt than my old shoes in every way. I think my old Asics are broken down (I never tracked mileage on them...) and also just plain don't fit as well anymore because I bought them when I was at a lower weight and it's not unusual for shoe size to shift a little when you lose or gain a significant amount of weight. The new shoes (New Balance, some kind of men's stability shoe, don't remember which type) felt amazing and I'm really excited to run in them tomorrow. I still plan to hang onto the Asics until these new shoes hit retirement just so I have shoes for color runs, mud runs, etc. that I won't mind wrecking.

Training plan for this week will go up tonight, when I'm home and have my Galloway book handy.

 

[ZellyB]

Running while traveling is really tough. We've been off our schedule for two weeks due to vacation traveling and home re-entry. Don't worry too much about it.

And, hooray for new shoes! Hope you love them.

 

[YawningDodo]

Running while traveling is really tough. We've been off our schedule for two weeks due to vacation traveling and home re-entry. Don't worry too much about it.

And, hooray for new shoes! Hope you love them.

Yeah, and then I thought Tuesday was far enough along to be like a normal weekday run--except I ended up waking up half an hour late, the dog was off her morning routine because she's always thrown off when she comes back from boarding, and all in all I had to shorten this morning's run to 17 minutes to have time to shower afterward. I'm going to end up off-schedule for two weeks in November when I go abroad and I've just kind of accepted that I'm not running during that trip and that I'll have to scale back for a week or two afterward to get back to where I was. I know a lot of people run when they travel but the logistics of it are too much for me right now.

New shoes were indeed a success, though I need to adjust the laces. No shin pain! Funny how that works.

 

[YawningDodo]

July 29 - August 4

Monday:
Planned:

Walk to/from work​

Actual:

Walked to/from work​

Tuesday:
Planned:

30 minutes run/walk at 10/50 ratio​

Actual:

17 minutes run/walk at 10/50 ratio
1.16 miles
14:39 pace​

Wednesday:
Planned:

Walk Penny, 30 minutes
(running an errand today, have to drive)​

Actual:

Nothing ​

Thursday:
Planned:

30 minutes run/walk at 10/50 ratio​

Actual:

30 minutes run/walk at 10/50 ratio
1.97 miles
15:14 pace​

Friday:
Planned:

Walk Penny, 30 minutes
Walk to/from work​

Actual:

Walked Penny, 30 minutes
Walked to/from work​

Saturday:
Planned:

3 mile run/walk at 10/50 ratio​

Actual:

3 mile run/walk at 10/50 ratio
46:25 minutes
15:28 pace
Training record: longest run​

 

[YawningDodo]

So I have it here as well:

Total miles in July 2018:
23.93

 

[YawningDodo]

August 5 - 11, 2018

Monday
Planned:

Walk Penny, 30 minutes
Walk to/from work​

Actual:

Walked Penny, 15 minutes
Walked to/from work​

Tuesday
Planned:

30 minute run/walk at 10/50 ratio​

Actual:

30 minute run/walk at a 10/50 ratio, route with incline
1.92 miles
15:38 pace​

Wednesday
Planned:

Walk Penny, 30 minutes
Walk to/from work​

Actual:

Walked Penny and Rose, 20 minutes​

Thursday
Planned:

30 minute run/walk at 10/50 ratio​

Actual:

30 minute run/walk at 10/50 ratio, hilly route
1.89 miles
15:52 pace​

I ate very poorly yesterday and went to bed two hours late. So...yeah.

Friday
Planned:

Walk Penny, 30 minutes
Walk to/from work​

Saturday
Planned:

40 minute run/walk at 10/50 ratio​

 

[SarahDisney]

Congrats on your 3 mile run/walk yesterday - that's an awesome milestone!!

 

[YawningDodo]

Congrats on your 3 mile run/walk yesterday - that's an awesome milestone!!

Thanks!! On the one hand I was a little disappointed in my overall pace, but on the other hand running 3 miles used to be this incredible, monumental thing in my mind and I just...went out and did it. So that's pretty cool.

 

[ZellyB]

Thanks!! On the one hand I was a little disappointed in my overall pace, but on the other hand running 3 miles used to be this incredible, monumental thing in my mind and I just...went out and did it. So that's pretty cool.

Great job! It's funny how those milestones sort of creep up on you something that was unimaginable is suddenly quite attainable. Keep up the great work.

 

[YawningDodo]

Great job! It's funny how those milestones sort of creep up on you something that was unimaginable is suddenly quite attainable. Keep up the great work.

Honestly, it's the reason I'm just not really thinking about/imagining running the marathon apart from positive thoughts about how cool it's going to be. That's a crazy distance. The half marathon is a crazy distance for me right now, tbqh. But I'll get there because I gave myself enough time to do it without wrecking myself.

Today's run...when I put "hilly route" on my journal notes, that's me saying "this pace wasn't because I had a bad day!!" What happened was that I got out of bed fifteen or twenty minutes late and I was worried about having enough time for a shower if I took my normal route to the south (it takes ten minutes each way to walk to where I start it, since I have to cross some busy streets before I get somewhere I can safely run). So I decided I'd do one of my alternate routes to the north since it takes me less than five minutes to get to a safe starting point, and that means a mile-long incline on either the way out or the way back, depending on whether I go east or west. It's not steep, but...it is a mile-long incline. I chose to take the harder part on the return (again because that meant getting to a starting point as quickly as possible) and man that return mile was hard.

Building endurance, I guess. It's probably good for me or something.

 

[YawningDodo]

Welp, training is on hold because I'm concerned I've injured my leg. I'd been getting minor shin pain that would go away within a couple hours after finishing my run, and I'd also been having some swelling that I assumed was water retention because I've been eating really terribly lately (my legs swell when I have too much salt). Yesterday, though, both went to extremes. My shins started to hurt mid-run, much more than usual, and instead of listening to my body I pushed through and finished. Then throughout the day my lower left leg continued to swell and the shin got more painful rather than less, and it still hurts this morning--nothing sharp, but a constant feeling of "hey, something is wrong in here." I brought the swelling down some with an anti-inflammatory and use of compression gear last night and this morning, but it's not back to normal. This morning I skipped my walk; I'd been thinking yesterday about doing tomorrow's 40 minute run as a 40 minute walk instead, but now I'm kind of thinking I don't even want to do that much.

I know I should probably talk to my doctor, but it's hard to get a timely appointment with her and my experience has been that I have to lead the discussion every time I go in, plus I don't think she has particular expertise in sports injuries. She's nice, but I kind of wish I'd chosen a different doctor. I don't really want to deal with it when I suspect the professional verdict is just going to be RICE.

So this is a super bummer! Right now, though, I'm uncomfortable just being on my feet, so a break is absolutely in order. I'm going to keep getting up at my usual time so I don't lose my sleep schedule between now and whenever I'm able to start back up, and use the time I would have spent running tomorrow morning to do some research into what I can do to prevent this from happening again. I suspect it's partly because I've been neglecting to stretch or do strength training, but...I hate to say it, but I suspect my new shoes might have also contributed. I've had a lot of trouble getting the heels to stop slipping (I've been kicking myself so hard for not relacing them in the store to make absolute certain the runner's loop would do the trick) and I think it may have messed up my gait. I'm going to have to take a hard look at whether I can make some kind of alteration to the shoes or if I'm going to have to resign myself to replacing them.

 

[ZellyB]

We've all been there, and it stinks, but you are doing the right think to take a break. Taking some precautions now can make a big difference in avoiding a much bigger injury later.

Did you get the shoes at a running store? Our running store will take shoes back even if you've run a fair amount of miles in them.

 

[YawningDodo]

We've all been there, and it stinks, but you are doing the right think to take a break. Taking some precautions now can make a big difference in avoiding a much bigger injury later.

Did you get the shoes at a running store? Our running store will take shoes back even if you've run a fair amount of miles in them.

I did, but I've kind of been assuming they wouldn't take them back since I've run in them for...is it two weeks now? Not a ton, but they have definitely been worn. I could call and ask, though. The other issue is that they're a three hour drive away; we don't have any running-specific stores in town so I'd stopped in when we were over that way visiting friends. The other nearest running store is only an hour and a half away, but of course if I go there to buy the replacements I can't attempt to return the shoes that aren't working for me. Six hours round trip is still usually considered a reasonable day trip among Montanans, but the idea doesn't thrill me.

 

[YawningDodo]

I return.

So. The good news is that my legs went back to normal, no pain. My training was on hold for a while longer than planned both because I wanted to get new shoes and because we got a lot of smoke blowing in from the wildfires last week and the air quality was rated "unhealthy" for what felt like ages. It rained yesterday, though, and this morning the air quality is back down to "moderate." Also, I got new shoes this past weekend, and did a mail-in return on the other pair. This morning I finally went back out for a run and took things very easy; my pace was abysmal but I finished the run feeling good, no pain, and that's the current focus, so I'll count it as a victory.

 

[YawningDodo]

I deleted most of my last post since it was just a lot of melodrama about shoes. Every so often I fall into a spiral of second-guessing myself about something that's frankly not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, and sometimes it can be hard to take a step back, accept that it's not actually that big of a deal, and move on.

I've gotten back to running this week at last. Thursday was a bit rougher than Tuesday and left me with lingering soreness, so I took Friday as a full rest day instead of walking to work. I'd been planning to run only two miles today, but last night I kept thinking about how much I wanted to run three -- can't tell you why, I just really, really wanted to run three miles today. So I made a deal with myself that 1.) I had to stop immediately if I was in pain and 2.) I'd set a distance alert for 2.5 and would only finish out to 3 if I was still feeling really good when it beeped at me.

This morning I did change my intervals, which was a bit naughty since I should do that on short runs instead of pushing it on a longer run, but as I'd suspected it was fine. I'm still only running 10 seconds, but went from 50 seconds walk rest to 45. It didn't really feel any different (probably because I made a point of taking a slow, relaxed pace), and I'm going to continue to play with adjusting the walk duration downward without increasing the duration of the run. It didn't improve my overall pace at all, but right now the point of adjusting intervals is just to see how much of a walk break I really need instead of assuming 50 seconds is necessary. Also, I totally did the three miles. I had a really good time exploring part of the trail system I hadn't run before, finished the run feeling really good, and finally feel like I'm remembering why I wanted to do this.

 

[SarahDisney]

Yay! I'm glad to hear you're back to running and that you were able to push the distance to three miles and enjoy it!

 

[YawningDodo]

Yay! I'm glad to hear you're back to running and that you were able to push the distance to three miles and enjoy it!

Yeah!! It's been kind of weird pushing myself to take things really easy, but I think it's working for me! This week I tried switching to a Monday/Wednesday/Saturday schedule to bring my schedule closer in line in terms of rest days with the suggested Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday business without having to run on Sundays...total bust on Monday. Had to talk myself into literally every step in the process of getting dressed, getting out there to run, and then refraining from quitting five minutes in. Didn't help that I didn't have music since it was raining and I didn't want my phone to get wet. I'm still proud of myself for still getting out there and doing it, though, and then on Thursday (yeah, didn't run Wednesday) I had a really great morning run, and even taking things easy I got a better pace than I was expecting.

Speaking of pace...I'm debating what to do in this journal going forward. I'm planning to start tracking my training in a spreadsheet and/or Strava for my own ease of reference, and part of me wonders if refraining from sharing the details of my runs online would actually help me on my current plan to Not Push Myself Too Hard. Even though everyone here's been nothing but supportive, I worry that part of what's going on in my brain is a need to show constant improvement if I'm sharing my numbers with others. So I may focus more on like...overall totals, how my runs felt, any races I do, etc. I dunno.

Anyway, speaking of totals, my total for the month of August is 17.11 miles. That's down 6.82 miles from July, but considering that break in training felt like it lasted an eternity, I had sort of expected it to be worse than that! Anyway, I get a fresh start for September, so no worries.