A New ID & Changing My Normal

I did my workout at the YMCA yesterday and the worst thing ever happened.  They made me get a new member ship ID card.  This was traumatic because I've had the same membership card since 1997.  That's how long I've been a member of the Y.  And my whole self-confidence and source of pride is that I still have that ID card - I never lost it or damaged it.  Same with my UD student ID card, by the way...and that's even more of a feat since I took it out with me every where I went...including to parties, bars, etc.  Anyways, OK so that was exaggerating, but I really do laugh every time I see my old card that says member since 3/20/1997 and has a picture of me at 8 years old.

When I gave it to the lady to swipe this time, apparently it didn't work and she said I would need a new card.  So she took my picture and gave me a card.  I was dismayed to learn that the new card didn't have show the picture.  I'm sure in 17 years I'd want to have it to laugh at.  Oh well.

(old card on top, new card on bottom)

After the card fiasco, it was time to work out.  I knew I wanted to go to body pump at 5:15 and if I didn't have to get a new card, I could have ran for 30 minutes.  Instead, I was only able to run 3 miles, which I did in 24 minutes.  It was fairly easy, but I was feeling at the end.  It's always harder those last couple minutes when you know you're almost done, right?  I started at a speed of 7.0 and increased by .2 each time the song changed, so I ultimately ended at 8.0.

Right after my run, I had just a few minutes to get upstairs to Body Pump.  When I showed up, the room was almost full, but the instructor greeted me right away and showed me to a spot I could use.  I told her it was only my 2nd Body Pump class, so she helped me set up what I would need.  I could tell that a lot of others in the class probably come to this same class every week because they were joking around with each other and the instructor and asking when they could do different workouts/music.

The class was the same tracks and music as the class I went to on Sunday.  But it felt so much harder.  I am pretty sure I was using the same level of weights, but my muscles were getting fatigued quicker.  I had to pause for a few reps of some of the exercises, but the instructor was very encouraging and kept me going.  I am probably a little sore from Sunday perhaps.

I'm going to try to keep going to Body Pump a few times a week because it's definitely better than any weight lifting I do on my own!  Once I get a little better/more familiar with it, I'll try to give a whole run-down of what we do, how I think it's helping my strength, etc.

You also may have noticed that I have been completely failing on the 30-Day Challenge I made for myself.  Basically the challenge was to run 60 minutes a day for 30 days straight.  I did a decent job, but some of my runs turned out to only be 30-50 minutes instead, for various reasons.  And some days I just didn't run.  There was only one day - 4 days into the challenge, that I felt like I could physically not run for an hour.  I can't say how the rest would have gone if I was actually doing it.  But I think a lot of the problem has been the weather.  This isn't just trying to run 60 minutes - this is trying to run 60 minutes on the treadmill.  And while I have been generally OK with the treadmill for now, some days I just couldn't bring myself to go to the gym knowing that I had to be on the treadmill for an hour.

One of the other big reasons I have not been running for a full hour has been that I'm trying to cross train/weight lift more than I have in the past.  I think I want to do another triathlon.  And I know I need to strength train.  Therefore, I've cut runs short so that I can swim or go to spinning or Body Pump.  I'm also going to try out a few new classes!

Although I am disappointed because I really want to run higher mileage, I definitely feel like I've been doing a lot more lately than I have before.  Last week I was only at 26 miles though, and I know I want to be consistently above 30 so that by the time the nice weather comes around and it's time to really train hard, I can more easily transition to 50-mile weeks.

Even though I'm going to stop this challenge, because really I was the only one doing it anyways and already "failed," I am still going to aim for an hour on a lot of my runs.  In the past, a "normal" distance run for me meant 40 minutes, 5 miles.  To get better at the marathon distance, I know that for me, more mileage is key.

Do you have a membership card or something of the like that you're surprised you haven't lost yet?

What is your go-to run distance or time that you consider on a "normal" run day?

The Positive Aspects of Treadmill Running

Here we are on hump day, just another snowy day in Chicago.  It has gotten to the point that talking/tweeting/posting about the weather and its inconveniences is like beating a dead horse.  But I wrote an awesome haiku yesterday:

It's snowing again.

When will it all melt for good?

I hate the treadmill.

(You can read more of my spectacular running poetry here and here.)  Treadmill running is probably the epitome of what runners love to hate.  And my relationship with the treadmill truly is a love/hate relationship.  So instead of highlight the negative aspects of treadmill running, as most of us usually do during this time, I decided I'm going to focus on why treadmill running is better than outdoor running.

People watching.  People watching is obviously fun outside too, but you generally just run past a person never to see them again.  But on the treadmill, you can observe people and their working-out habits/techniques.  At XSport, the treadmills are right next to one of the fitness studios, so chances are a class is going on.  It is funny to watch people doing the routines, but to the music in your own headphones.

Controlling your pace.  If I was able to go run for an hour outside, chances are it would be just an hour right around 8 minute pace or so, with little variation.  I like that the treadmill allows me to pick and choose exactly what speed I want to go for the day without any guesswork.  I can easily change up the pace when the song changes or after a certain number of minutes without always needing to look down at my watch to see when to do so.

Hillwork.  There is no such thing as a hill in Chicago.  Sometimes there are very slight inclines, but they are about as close to a hill as my net worth is to Warren Buffett's.  Or my basketball skills are to Michael Jordan's.  You get the picture.  Now, I am not going to pretend I've actually done hill work on the treadmill.  I'm not one to voluntarily run hills.  But I know that I should and used to run on hillier terrain when I lived in Dayton.  Catherine recently sent me a few treadmill hill workouts to try by varying the incline setting for intervals, so I plan to work those in over the next month and will share them when I do.

(There ARE hills/mountains in Denver!)

Readily available supplies.  I always have a towel and water bottle right at the treadmill with me.  In addition to varying the speed every time the song changes, I also am in the habit of taking a drink of water every time the song changes (after I change the speed first of course).  I usually use a towel to cover up the display panel so I am not constantly staring at my time or distance, but I also use it to wipe away sweat from my face which is something I can't do outside.

Entertainment.  Along the lines of supplies, I must admit that I do bring my phone to the treadmill sometimes and text or tweet while I run.  Same with the Kindle, which only works to read while running at the slower speeds, otherwise I'm too bouncy.  I can also watch/read the closed captioning on the TV.  I can't tell you how many episodes of Sex and the City I've "seen" but not heard.  They are always on and I watch and read the captioning, but while I'm listening to my own music.

And a recap from today's run:

Day 10 - 7.5 miles in 60 minutes (8:00 pace average)

This run was very similar to yesterday's.  The total time and mileage ended up the same as yesterday, but today I started at a speed of 6.8 and increased by .1 each time the song changed, ultimately ending at a speed of 8.4.  I was happy with it, especially because I was almost going to stop early a few times.

I was at the YMCA today instead of XSport and used the treadmill while Mom was in Zumba class.  I was starting to feel very fatigued and knew she'd be done right around when I would hit 6 miles.  I figured I would just call it quits when she finished Zumba because obviously I want to be polite and not make her wait.  But instead, I told her she should get on the treadmill next to me and walk/run for a bit until I finished, which she did.  (I am trying to get her to be a runner of course.)  By this time, I was at a speed of 8.1 and was pretty sure I was not going to make it much longer.  I declared that I would stop at 7 miles.  But once I got there,  I told myself it's only about 4 more minutes to finish out the hour, so I kept on cranking through it.  Boo-yah.

I do like doing these gradual progression runs, but I think tomorrow I'll go back to sticking around the same general pace for the duration of the hour.

What do you like about the treadmill?
What TV shows do you watch on the treadmill?

Hairstyle Changes & Running Relaxed

Hello friends!  I have many things/workouts to update on from over the past few days.  Btw, does that seem normal to have 3 prepositions in a row (on, from, over)?  Is there a rule on how many prepositions can go in a row?  Prepositions are my favorite part of speech so I always notice them.  Anyways...

First, a recap of last week's mileage (click on the links for details of each run):

Monday - 7 miles

Tuesday - 7 miles

Wednesday - 7 miles

Thursday - 3.65 miles

Friday - 7.5 miles

Saturday - 3.5 miles

Sunday - Rest

Total - 35.65 miles

Second, I realized that I have been failing on taking pictures lately.  And I will tell you why.  It's because of SnapChat.  Whenever I find interesting things to take a picture of or take silly selfies on the treadmill (not that I'd put my sweaty treadmill pictures up here for the world to see anyways), I snap them to my friends instead of take a normal picture.  So I am now resolving to take more real pictures so I will have more for the blog :)

I did just look through the photos on my phone though and found 3 I would like to share:

Each of these 3 pictures was taken within 3 weeks of each other.  My hair was so long and blonde.  Then I decided it was time to go back to brown, my natural color, but I was going to keep on growing it long.  It's much easier for running when I can nicely pull all of my hair back into a ponytail.  But then I got an offer by a friend in cosmetology school to do a hair cut on me for free.  So why not?

OK, now to the running!  Here's how the past 4 days of my 30-Day Base Building Challenge have gone:

Day 6 - 3.5 miles in 30 minutes (8:34 pace average) + 500m swimming
Day 7 - Rest
Day 8 - Rest
Day 9 - 7.5 miles in 60 minutes (8:00 pace average)

I was about to put little sad faces by the 2 days that I didn't do my challenge, but I decided that in the end, I think the rest is a good thing.  I felt awesome on today's 60 minute run!

But let's back up to Saturday.  I went to XSport with the intention of not running a full hour so that I could try my hand (body?) at swimming.  I have completed a few triathlons in my day, and I plan to write a whole post on my thoughts on doing another one this summer, but let's just say I'm not exactly a swimmer and need some major improvement.  So I got in the pool, not sure how it would go considering I have not swam since the last triathlon I did back in June.  I ended up doing a total of 500m, stopping for a short rest every 100m.  My 100m segments were: freestyle, freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle.  It was definitely an arm workout as well as a cardio workout, so I'd like to try mixing in some swimming twice a week and I also plan to take a stroke class.

And on the 7th day, I rested.  I decided more for mental reasons that I did not want to deal with another day on the treadmill.  Another impending doom of a winter storm is heading for Chicago now and I knew I'd be on the treadmill all of this week...and who knows how much longer.  So, I decided that since it was the Super Bowl and Groundhog Day and Sunday, it was an appropriate day to rest.

Similarly, Monday was a mental health day/I don't want to go to the treadmill day in my book.  I figure I could take that day off and still get in 6 quality runs each of the remaining days this week.  So that is my plan.

Which brings us to today.  I ventured out to the gym and thought "hmm it's not that cold, I could run outside."  But then I remembered that the issue is not the temperature right now (we seem to be past this round of the polar vortex), but rather the snow and ice that still blankets the sidewalks.

On the treadmill today I was surprisingly content and relaxed the entire time.  I started at a speed of 6.7, which has been my normal starting speed lately, and I increased by .1 every time the song changed.  After I got to 6 miles (I was at a speed of 8.0 I believe), I decided to get a little crazy and increase the speed every 1/4 of a mile.  I still felt very relaxed and at ease, which was a nice little boost to my running self-confidence.  For the last 5 minutes I increased the speed each minute, ultimately ending my hour at a speed of 9.0 (6:40 pace).  I think next week I'll try working in some actual speed work to my runs.  But for now, this 8 minute/mile average run was a wonderful start to the week.

Do you change your hairstyle a lot?

Any tips on learning to swim?

Treadmill Pacing and January Round-Up

Happy Saturday!  Remember how my legs felt so fatigued on Thursday and therefore I only ran 30 minutes?  Well, yesterday I went back to the treadmill and felt awesome!

Day 5 - 7.5 miles in 60 minutes - 8:00 average

I really didn't think I'd make it the full hour again last night because I thought for sure my legs would feel so tired and sluggish like they did Thursday.  I started the treadmill at 6.7 (8:57 pace) and increased by .1 every time the song changed (I always do my treadmill workouts by number of songs instead of minutes).  I wasn't sure how long I'd make it and kind of thought once I got to 7.5 (8:00 pace), I would just keep it there and cruise for as long as I could, hopefully an hour.  But I was feeling great, so I just kept increasing with each song and when I got to about 43 minutes I really wanted to quit...but I had made it that far so quitting wasn't allowed.  I finished the run at 8.3 (7:14 pace) for a total of 7.5 in 60 minutes - exactly 8:00 pace average.

Boom.  I did not expect to have that good of a workout after Thursday's not-so -good workout.  But I guess I just needed a bit of a rest day!  Today will probably be an easier day.  And we are getting more snow :(  So I think the treadmill will be calling my name for awhile.  And I will answer it's call and bring my BFFs Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and a few others to help get me through it.

Here's a treadmill pace chart:

And alas, it is February.  So I must do my analytical-self thing and give you a recap of my January mileage:

Total Miles - 66

Total Runs - 12

Average Miles/Run - 5.5

And here is a comparison of this January to all my previous Januaries since 2008:

I think I was trying to get super motived in 2012 and show the tax busy season who's the boss...but it didn't work out (tax busy season is always the winner) and by April of that year, I wasn't running any more... but we can analyze that when we get there.

All in all, I guess the years I'd want compare to the most are 2010 and 2013 because those are the years (although not until October) that I ran good marathons.  However, January 2010 was when I was still injured (groin muscle) so running was a struggle until May/June.  I think I'm where I need to be for now, just building up the base and mileage.  And actually, about half that January 2014 mileage is from the past 5 days.  So my goal for February is to run higher mileage, but evenly spaces throughout the month.  That shouldn't be a problem if I keep up with my 30-Day Challenge!
 
I didn't do a Friday Five post this week, but I do have a few really great articles or blog posts you should check out!

What I Learned From My First Marathon - from Kristin @ Glitter and Dust

15 Reasons Cousins Make The Best Friends - Thought Catalog

Weight Is Just A Number - from Elise @ 9 to Fit
Los Angeles Will Host The 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials - LA Times
Season of Humbling - from Katie @ Peace, Love, & Oats
Why Can You Bet on the Super Bowl But Not Races? - Runner's World

Why I Think I Can Run Higher Mileage

I'll probably write this and jinx myself and get injured very soon.  I wrote earlier this week about the 30-day challenge I'm doing (update on Day 4 below!) and I'm sure most people would think it's not the healthiest challenge.  And I agree.  I am already struggling and probably going to back off tomorrow by going to a spinning class instead of running.

But, I also think that I am physically capable of doing much higher mileage than I have done.  Here is my monthly mileage while training for the Chicago Marathon last summer/fall:

 

(I use www.running2win.com to log my runs)

So if I took 140 (August mileage) divided by 4 weeks, that's only an average of 35 miles per week, and the other months are even lower.  I also looked at my miles per week and my highest was 49.5 which I believe was the week I did 2 20-mile runs in the same week (here and here).  So yeah, I'm not the best example of running normal/consistent mileage/marathon training tactics.  But I'd like to be, eventually.  Besides that week, I had no other weeks in 2013 that were above 40 miles.

Here are a few reasons I know that I am capable of running higher weekly mileage:

- Most weeks I only ran 4 days.  I should be running 5-6 days to train for a marathon.  This is not true for everyone, but I believe that for my ability level and to get faster, I should be/need to be running more than 4 days a week.

- I struggle with motivation.  One of the main reason I don't run higher mileage lies in my head.  There were a lot of days over the summer I just didn't feel like running, so I didn't.  One week in July was 5 miles because I only ran 1 day.  If I can stay motivated to do my 5-6 days of running a week, my mileage should naturally increase.

- I have never been injury-prone.  I am happy to say that I don't believe I have ever had an over-use related running injury.  This is not very common in the long-distance running world.  My senior year of college from June through November, I was consistently running 40-50 miles a week, and that was easily when I was in my best shape.  I did get injured that winter, but that was a strain from weight-lifting, not related to how much I was running.  I believe this is because of the extreme amount of milk/chocolate milk that I consume and therefore have bones of steel.

All that being said, it is obvious I am not ready for the high mileage YET.  That will hopefully come more in June - September as I train for a fall marathon.  It is especially noticeable to me that I am not quite ready yet because I failed to make it through 60 minutes of running today, on Day 4 of my challenge.

Day 4 - 3.65 miles in 30:30 - 8:21 average pace

The good news is I ran outside.  The bad news is, I didn't make it a full 60 minutes to complete Day 4 of my 30-Day Challenge.  The first 15-20 minutes felt fine (besides the places where sidewalks were barely shoveled), and it really didn't even feel that cold, but I also could tell this run was going to be a struggle.  I finally stopped after just over 30 minutes and started to walk.  Unfortunately, I was a long way from home.  I did a mix of running for 2-3 minutes at a time and walking home, so I probably did get in closer to 40 total minutes of running, but I'm not even going to count that since I had considerable periods of walking in-between.

My legs feel very fatigued, as I expected.  I am leaning towards taking tomorrow as a cross-training day and going to a 60-minute spinning class instead of running.  I am disappointed I wasn't able to make my streak last more than 3 days without a break, but it's more than I had been doing so that's a good thing :)  And I'm going to keep up a full 30 days of activity and shoot for the 60 minutes of running when my body will allow it.  Maybe just some spinning or shorter run days between streaks of 60-minute run days.

What is your weekly mileage like when training for a marathon?  Or when not training for anything specific? I think I'm going to shoot for at least 50 miles a week when I start really marathon training again.

What is your highest mileage week ever?

Running Playlist - February 2014

I made a new running playlist this week and I am loving it!  I tried it out for a few days, deleted some songs I had added, but realized while I was on the treadmill I actually didn't care for.  I posted my Chicago Marathon playlist and other playlists here and here before, but here's the most recent.

Brave - Sara Bareilles

Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

The New Workout Plan - Kanye West

People Like Us - Kelly Clarkson

Wake Me Up - Avicii

The Phoenix - Fall Out Boy

Shake It - Metro Station

Legendary Lovers - Katy Perry

Timber - Pitbull, Ke$ha

Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke

Pompeii - Bastille

Dark Horse - Katy Perry

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift

Wasting All These Tears - Cassadee Pope

Red - Taylor Swift

Chillin' It - Cole Swindell

Compass - Lady Antebellum

Face Down - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Heels Over Head - Boys Like Girls

Five Minutes To Midnight - Boys Like Girls

Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida

Bottoms Up - Keke Palmer

If I Had You - Adam Lambert

Dark Side - Kelly Clarkson

 

 

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me tweet about the fact that I was basically rotating through 3 songs: Teenage Dream, Dark Horse, and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.  Some days certain songs just get you pumped.  And those were working for me today.

 

Which leads me into Day 3 of my 30-Day Base Building Challenge.  I completed 7 miles in 60 minutes, for an average of 8:34 pace.  I did the same little game as Monday with my songs and the speed.  Started at 6.7 and every 2 songs I increased .2, then decreased .1, and so on.  But it felt oh so much harder, both mentally and physically.

 

Each of my hour runs over the past 3 days now have been on the treadmill, and I think that's about my mental limit for that death machine.  After 30 minutes, I was not quite sure how I was going to make it another 30.  I was extremely close to stopping.  Once I got to 25 minutes, I decided I would stop at 30 for about 3.5 miles.

 

But then I did the right thing and put on Teenage Dream.  That did the trick.  You know the saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough put on Katy Perry and get going" or something like that.  (I'm way too excited now that I have concert tickets for August...so far away.)  Anyways, I suffered/persevered/ran through the last 30 minutes really rocking out.  I'm glad nobody was next to me because my music was really loud.  But obviously they would've enjoyed it too.

 

That was all really dramatic.  Long story short, I'm really proud of myself for doing the full 60 minutes!  If I didn't have this challenge for myself, I definitely would not have done it.  I think I will try running outside tomorrow and see how it goes.  It's the age old question - suffer on the treadmill or suffer in the cold?  Decisions, decisions.  Sorry, more dramatic-ness.  Running isn't suffering, it's fun!!  That's what you gotta tell yourself!  So get on out there (after adding the above songs to your playlist), and RUN!  :)

 

Do you have a specific song or 2 you put on when your workout gets tough?

 

What do you tell yourself to get pumped up? (The last couple sentences above were my words of motivation to both you and me)