Large dog and I had an easy 7 miler this morning — it was easy like a Wednesday morning.
It was such a good run we had to stop and smell the sunrise in the last half mile. Temps were fantastic, no dogs tried to attack us, and I got to wear my dinosaur shorts. These are the runs that remind me why I love running so much.
And Botch loves to hang out with me while I’m in the ice bath. The weirdo.
Tomorrow’s workout: 10.5 miles of threshold work BUH 🙄
Large dog, his tongue, and I ended our July by running an easy 6 while watching the sun rise this morning in some awesome mid-50s temps.
His tongue enjoyed that sunset.
Pic #2:
This run topped off our July total at 155 miles and some change.
I have no idea if this is good or bad. Maybe good since I ran all those miles.
Pic #3:
My hip wasn't so bad this morning, but I was feeling some tightness toward the end of the run - which is why I did my hip and glute strengthening exercises this evening under large dog's supervision.
He's ready with toys in case I need those for my exercises.
Pic #4:
Female cat cannot believe how stupid this blog post is. And how stupid this blog is because it has so much large dog on it, who just likes to eat her head when she least expects it.
SO MUCH STUPID EVERYWHERE
And she thinks it's stupid I included a picture of her in this post just because I needed a fourth picture. Cats. Sheesh.
Tomorrow's workout: 30 minute tempo - a gift from the My Run Plan gods.
As you can tell, my treadmill and I had another hot date in my ugly smelly basement this morning, this time at around 5 AM. Six easy miles was on the schedule, and I have to admit I was dreading it. That's because it is a known fact that six easy miles on the treadmill is more accurately measured in eons and epochs rather than minutes and miles, and I suspected I might die of old age while i was trying to get this run done.
So I decided to spice it up with some pick-ups. Well, actually I first decided to spice it up with some awesome purple shorts.
PURPLE POWER
And THEN I decided that I was going to accentuate my run with some pick-ups.
I ran the first mile at warm-up pace, ran the second mile at around 10 min pace, and then did the first half of miles 3 through 5 at a 9 minute pace (with the back half of those miles at a 10 minute pace). I am happy to report that a) I made it off the treadmill, b) I am still alive, and c) those pick-ups made the time go by much, much easier.
But during the run I couldn't help but notice my mind wandering off, trying to self-soothe by making up these weird comparative equivalencies to keep myself motivated. It actually wanders off like this a lot, and I thought
I have half a mile of this last pickup....that's only two short little loops on the display.
I have one more mile left...that's only about 10 more minutes of running.
Of course, those are the more sane ones my brain comes up with when shut up in a basement with a treadmill. I thought I would share some of my other little running equivalencies I cook up when I'm in a race or outside taking large dog for a spin:
I have two more miles left of this hilly run....that's only four more times I have to be dragged downhill by large dog.
I have 13 more miles left of this marathon...that's only three more gel snack times until I'm done.
I have 20 more miles to go...that's only a puppy every mile that I don't stop.
I'm at the start line and I have no motivation to run this race whatsoever...that's only one waste of a race registration and one miserable run ahead of me.
But there's other ways you can spice up a boring treadmill workout other than playing little mental games with yourself. Here are some other suggestions:
Do speed intervals for 20 seconds whenever you hear a certain word in the song you're listening to or movie you're watching. Whatever that word is, just make sure it's in good taste along with whatever it is you're listening to/watching.
Jump off the treadmill every half mile or mile and do some push-ups without permanently injuring yourself.
Hum.
Crossword puzzles are always a good idea while running to exercise your brain along with your body.
For crying out loud get off the treadmill and go outside where it's not boring.
So boring. Go outside.
And here are some suggestions for learnings from the ramblings above:
As usual, I should never write posts when I'm this tired.
So many bulleted lists in this post. So. Many.
But boy did that treadmill run go by in the wink of an eye this morning.
A really really slow wink of an eye.
Please dear lord don't jump off a treadmill or do crosswords while running. You'll hurt yourself. FYI.
Tomorrow's workout: Got me a little tempo...it may be on the treadmill or I may go outside and do it where it's not boring, for crying out loud.
For my penultimate run of 2018, I took large dog for a spin around my new neighborhood for 5 miles. Here's a thing for each mile:
Thing #1: It is MUCH HILLIER around my new house.
Hill be stalking me.
I know that hill doesn't look like much from the picture, but imagine tons of rolling hills just slamming into my feet. On the bright side, Twin Cities (known for its hills on the back half) should be way easier in 2019.
Thing #2: Large dog was more than happy to yank me down the downhills at breakneck speed.
Running rookie.
Every time we hit a downhill large dog decided to pull me at warp speed, causing me to feel as if I was going to fall forward and slam my head into the pavement. I'm pretty sure this is payback for running on the treadmill earlier in the week. Just like you should always remember that I am a moron, you should always remember that large dog runs like a rookie and is kind of a jerk like that.
Thing #3: Even though I manged it in the previous pic, it is actually quite hard to get a mid-run picture of large dog and it not be blurry.
Case in point:
Must be one of them blurry snout hounds, I reckon.
Thing #4: Oh, and I actually ran this easy run right on the pace that little MyRunPlan app said I should. Merry Xmas to me and all that jazz, I guess, for doing it without even trying.
Thing #5: Male cat thought 5 miles wasn't enough to stop large dog from eating his head later.
Hyooman. 5 miles is NEVER ENOUGH
Enough things; time for learnings:
I'm not kidding about all those hills around my new house. It's going to be a whole new training experience kids.
I'm also not kidding about how fast large dog yanked me down the hills. Going to get a lot of downhill training too, it looks like.
Blurry photos are large dog's thing, apparently.
Male cat's thing is not getting his head eaten. And, obviously, overeating.
Tomorrow's workout: Some strength and maybe some spinning because why the heck not, people.
This morning's workout was an easy 4-miler, which large dog and I were supposed to do at a 9:47 pace but of course we completely ignored that silly number and did whatever we wanted to do.
Picture and words #2:
I also completely ignored large dog when he wanted to keep going after the 4 miles was over.
Mom...I can't help it. The open road just calls to me, and I must answer.
Picture and words #3:
When you're trying to think of how to make an easy 4 mile run interesting for your blog and the dogs come over to your chair where you are trying to blog to "help."
Not really helping.
Picture and words #4:
After trying to googling for blog ideas for awhile and then suddenly finding your search has devolved into typing "Alfonso Ribeiro" into the web browser, you give up and call it a night.
How did this happen??!?
No more pictures; just words in the form of learnings:
I am so tired. Work has really wiped me out this week.
Maybe one day I will run a run at the pace it's supposed to be run.
Maybe one day large dog will also look at the camera for a post-run pic.
Maybe I'll remember tomorrow why I was even searching the web for Alfonso Ribeiro. Until then, it's time for bed, kids.
I went for a three mile easy run this morning. Normally these runs are pretty uneventful, but today I got taught a lesson for each of those miles.
Lesson #1: When you run a lot on the treadmill and then start to run tempos and such outside, your legs kind of hurt when you run. And they really kind of hurt in that first mile kind of a lot.
Lesson #2: After realizing your legs hurt, negative splitting your easy run probably isn't a good idea.
Lesson #3: Large dog yanking me hard to the left to jump on top of (and then sink into) the snow banks in the ditches made my legs hurt even more.
And then he couldn't even give me the courtesy of taking a break from his snow obsession to look at the camera for our post-run selfie. The nerve.
Priorities.
And the nerve of me to add more learnings at the end of a post about lessons:
Anyone else sick of running in the dark? Anyone? I think I see a few hands out there.
No large dogs were harmed in the making of this post. But a large dog did get all wet and muddy during the run this morning.
This running too fast thing is getting pretty ridiculous. My legs and I are going to have to have a little heart to heart. Or head to legs, as it were.
Admit it - I am completely IRRESISTABLE in that headlamp. Mmmm.
Tomorrow's workout: Total body workout! Will my barbell make an appearance?? Stay tuned...
1) I wore the loudest capris I own to wake me up for my easy 3 mile treadmill run at 4:30 AM this morning.
2) I was doing OK with my eating until I was STARVING on the way home and the hubbs called and asked me to pick up Popeye's for him and before I knew it a biscuit and popcorn chicken completely disappeared from the bag by the time I got home. The chicken tenders managed to escape the carnage.
3) Small dog could care less about my workout, my eating, or this blog in general.
Mom, type softly so you don't wake me up.
Some easy, recovery learnings:
Loud running clothing is absolutely beautiful to me. Life is too short to wear boring clothing.
It was either eat my arm off or eat the popcorn chicken, I swears.
If you're in my house for any length of time, you'll be sharing your personal space with an animal at some point. You don't get a choice about that.
Hubbs has no choice but to listen to the scary story podcasts I blast while I'm treadmilling.
Tomorrow's workout: Total body weights--it's barbell time.
Small win #1: Actually getting up on time (3:45 AM) and slamming out my easy 3-miler even though I didn't get home until almost 10:30 PM. Even the dogs were impressed, as you can see.
Woot woot!
Small win #2: Hubbs snapping a sneaky pic of me dressed like a real person just so you realize I don't walk around in running gear 24/7. Plus super happy small bonus dog.
Small win #3: I had a flying pig on the back of my leg while running.
Small win #4: Carrots triumphed over delicious junk this afternoon. Yay carrots!
So much learning from just a few pictures:
Everyone deserves a woot woot for getting out there and getting the run done.
Hubbs didn't get my awesome shoes in the pic of me dressed in normal clothes, which is a damn shame because they are super awesome maroon suede high heels.
Instead of my cool high heels, you'll have to settle for the flying pig logo on my tights.
Ever seen a grown woman angrily eat carrots while wildly eyeing a plate of cookies? Some of my so-workers did today.
Tomorrow's workout: Probably some Cathe Boot Camp just to let the soreness wear off in my upper body that's still there from all that weight lifting this week.
Got that easy 3 mile but kind of cold run in this morning with the large dog.
Apparently I forgot you need to stay still for pictures to turn out correctly.
As we were running this morning in the coldness and the darkness of 4:30 AMness, a car slowed down and drove next to us for a few seconds. As I watched the driver's side window roll down, all I heard was, "WHAT THE *badword* THINK YOU'RE DOING IT'S *samebadword* COLD OUT HERE."
To which I replied, "If you were out here running you'd be warm. Bye."
If you think that's bad, know that this exchange was way better than one I had a few winters ago, where one of my neighbors screamed "YOU'RE *badderword* NUTS LADY!" from his porch as he watched me run on a thick layer of ice on the road in my YaxTrax.
Anyway, I don't want to talk about the rude things that have been yelled at me while I'm trying to get my run on. I want to talk about what I was pondering this morning as I tried not to focus on my freezing fingers--how I even got started with this whole "fitness" thing in the first place and how it led me to being dragged around by a dog at 4:30 AM. Let's rewind a bit
I've mentioned before how I used to contain much more bodily volume but started working out and eating better to shed some of that volume. I have also mentioned I started working out to one of the original Tae Bo workout DVDs--this one, in fact.
I don't even remember where I got this DVD. All I know is that I did it every single day for the better part of a few years. But I didn't start out just rocking out this entire workout from start to finish. I knew that after an entire life of pretty much not exercising, I would have to ease into fitness slowly. More importantly, I also knew I would have to make time in my day to do this.
I was teaching high school at the time, so my day was filled with getting up early, getting to school to work before the students arrived, and staying late to set up for the next day of learning goodness. What I had to do was figure out where in that day I could fit in 15 minutes of exercise, because I had to decided that no matter what my day looked like, I could find a way to fit in 15 minutes of that Tae Bo tape. I decided to start working out in the mornings before work, getting up 15 minutes earlier than I normally did. "I can handle 15 minutes," I thought. "Just 15 less minutes of sleep to help my health. It's worth it."
I did my first 15 minutes of Tae Bo on a Saturday morning, and Sunday morning I woke up feeling as if I had been beaten with a stick on every inch of my body (that's how out of shape I was). But I dragged my body right out of bed and did 15 more minutes. And so on for the next week or so, until I felt ready to add on 5 more minutes of the workout. I kept on adding 5 minutes more every one or two weeks until I was finally doing the whole workout and putting noticeable cracks in his sanity by making him listen to it while he slept every morning for a few years. (He was overjoyed the day I switched to P90X, let me tell you.)
So here's my advice for those of you who know they should be working out but don't know how/when/where to start: Just get started. Pick something, anything, and just start, even if it's 5 minutes a day. Good habits develop just like bad habits--good habits grow and expand and take over your life and pretty soon you're ditching your husband to go run 20 milers in the rain and sneakily signing up for marathons all over the country and hoping he doesn't notice all that new gear you've bought because your body has been completely redefined and you NEED that new gear to fit your new awesome body. These good habits also benefit those around you by giving them the needed "me time" they have always wanted since you're always running off and running somwhere...for example, a husband you may be married to. So it's obvious that developing the positive habit of working out is a win/win for all involved.
In all seriousness, just get started. Start small and your workout habit will snowball as you get addicted to the goodness of it all. And then, inevitably, that goodness will ooze over into goofy pictures of yourself that you share with everyone on the internets.
Working out! Yay!
It also leads to dark cold 4:30 AM runs attached to a dog. You've been warned.
Workout learnings:
It all starts with the decision to make room for fitness in your life. After that, it's a matter of fitting it in using the time you have.
If I thought it was cold this morning (30s), it's going to be 18 degrees when I do my run tomorrow morning. There will be much mental whining in the morning.
I pretty much only do Cathe workouts these days...and the hubbs has them all memorized.
Working out doesn't always lead you to wear plaid pants with black riding boots...but it's possible.
Tomorrow's workout: A cold and sullen 10 mile tempo run. And it will be too cold for large dog to go with. Total BUH.
Yesterday I talked about speed work and how I love it so. (And I do.)
Today I woke up and realized it didn't exactly love me back. My legs are pretty tired after yesterday's speediness, and I have some soreness lingering in my left quad that will probably make me cycle tomorrow rather than do mile repeats, and maybe go for an easy run on Friday before I do the Sunburst Half Marathon on South Bend, IN on Saturday.
I must remember not to crank up the training too fast. Easy on the peasy, if you know what I mean. And you probably don't.
I should have cycled this morning, but I decided to go for a slow 6 mile run instead. I did manage to keep it slow and easy, and the temperatures were very nice. Even though it was a little windy, it really cooled you off when you started sweating. Oh, and the rain did, too.
But the best part of the run was a totally awesome double rainbow that started to form about one mile into the run:
OK, so that's not an actual picture from this morning's run. But that was pretty close to what it looked like, and I was running right into it. Talk about an uplifting and inspiring sight for a 5:30 AM run! It made the slogging about in the rain and wind totally worth it. It also made me want to stop every single car that passed me on the road, pound my fist on the driver's side window and yell, "HEY! LOOK TO YOUR LEFT! IT'S A RAINBOW!" while jumping excitedly up and down, but I refrained lest I a) get hit by the car, or b) get hauled away to the looney bin.
It's the small things, really, that keep me sane.
Today's weigh-in was 145.8. Down a little more today. I have taken to entering in my daily weigh-ins into Garmin Connect so I can get a groovy graph. Here's what it looks like so far (with the first measurement taken on 5/10/2013):
Ziggity-zaggity-zig. At least by keeping track of my weight I'll get a good picture of what's normal for me throughout a month. Hopefully after a while the best-fit line will have a negative slope, if you know what I mean. And you should, if you remember anything from your algebra classes.
