Back On Track

You'll (maybe) be happy to know I have managed to stick to the training plan for the last 3 days. Mostly. This shouldn't be something to really brag about, but since it's so much better than what I was accomplishing I'll brag anyway.

Tuesday was a 2.5 mile run. I ran on the treadmill after work, knowing I was missing the beginning of the brouhaha over election returns but not caring very much. I got to see the final results and speeches, so I didn't miss much. I am really working hard to maintain cadence. or how frequently my feet turn over. (I would also be working on my midfoot strike, but it's hard to gauge on the treadmill exactly what's going on due to its squishyness.)

Side Note: I downloaded all these podcasts called Podrunner from iTunes; they're fixed tempo playlists of various speeds per set for walking/running/spinning/etc.

EDIT I was misinformed as to podrunner licensing. All is well at djsteveboy.com, the dj's original site. Direct from the horse's mouth:

I'm glad you're running with Podrunner, but please don't tell people that our site is down because I "didn't get licensing renewed." My site has always been djsteveboy.com, and all the mixes are still up there and on iTunes. There is no licensing issue. It looks as if something has happened to the server that forwards podrunner.com to that site. Regarding donations, all money donated goes entirely to overhead involved in keeping the mixes available to the community. Making this free for people takes a lot of work and a lot of money.

Thanks!

I have really been enjoying the few I have listened to. I am grateful he put them together as a fixed tempo so I don't have to try to figure out what my personal music is.

So for cadence, I have listened to two podrunner podcasts while running. "Strong", at 153 beats per minute (or 76.5 pair of footstrikes per minute), and "Running to Elysium", at 156 beats per minute (or 78 bpm per footstrike pair). I would just like to say how hard it is to run to this rythm, and I'm not even at the 85 - 90 bpm recommended for maximum efficiency! I limited to the treadmill between 4.0 mph up to 4.8 mph, keeping it on the slower side as I wasn't trying to concentrate on stride so much as foot turnover. I survived, but it was hard! Fortunately the new running style plus treadmill lower impact leaves me without injury, so I wasn't sore in place I shouldn't have been.

On Wednesday I tried to follow the 35 minutes of cross-training activity. Unfortunately it was so late by the time I finished work and got to the gym that I only had 30 minutes to do part of my spinning video. I'm not getting enough nutrients or I am way crazy out of shape or something because my muscles are becoming fatigued way too quickly. At any rate, 30 out of 35 minutes isn't bad, and my day job exertion has to count for something!

Today (Thursday) I managed to squeeze in the 2 miles mentioned in the plan, although I didn't have enough time to do the strengthening portion. (Again, doesn't my job count?) I listened to "Strong" today and just kept pounding it out. I averaged 13 min/mile which is pretty pathetic, but it's better than 15 min/mile for "running".

Tomorrow is a Rest Day (huzzah!). Saturday is supposed to be 50 minutes of cross-training and Sunday is supposed to be a 4 mile run. We shall see what I manage to accomplish. It'll be nice to get a long bike ride in, but I am going to go back to the flat path where it's easier. Unless I flip-flop the days and count hiking as my cross-training activity. We'll see. On Saturday I get to experience an Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy session - I'll report back on how I like it.

Election Day 2008

My polling location is not too far from the house, so I thought I should bike there. I figured since I was going to be out anyway, why not pack my running gear along too? Then I could go bike to my favorite trail after voting and get a brick session in!

I have not been on my bicycle in a while. Last time I was cycling the pedals were squeaking at me again. (I don't understand what my problem is with shoes/pedals - it's always something!) Quickly got them relubricated and away I went. I took my lock and cable with me; awkwardly trying to attach it to the sport sack holding my running shoes. The cable was a pain and didn't quite work so well. Oh well, off I go. Whoa that's more work than I'm used to! I got half-way up a hill and decided it'd be easier to go the other way. Turn around, go the other way, get half-way up the other hill and need to take a breather. I was on Violet, too, so you can see how pathetic I was/am. Sit down, drink some water, try to fuss with the cable again, walk the bike up the rest of the hill part, fuss with the cable again, and finally keep on going. I arrived at the church and "parked" my bike against a basketball hoop pole. Changed into my running shoes (because cleats on the ground make an annoying sound) and went inside. This whole time the weather was pleasant and sunny.

I came out of the polling place, talked to a neighbor for a couple of minutes, and suddenly there was rain! Nooo! Changed my shoes, got back on the bike, and started toward the park/home. It got really chilly and unfun. I, being the laziest lazy person in lazystan, decided to bag the workout and come home. The plan was to grab some lunch and go to the gym. But did I do that? I did not!

Now I've run out of time to go to the gym first. (Un?)Fortunately this is a very light work day. I will have to run tonight to make up for today's lackluster performance. I have to run tonight. Silly woman, don't I understand I have six weeks until Race Day? According to Hal Higdon's Novice Plan, today is a 2.5 mile run. (I'd move on to the intermediate plan, but I'm not ready to do fartleks yet.) Wish me luck!