Sorry, that title's completely irrelevant to this post. I just love that man (and he just won another Oscar).
Saturday Workout: 4 miles, 11:29 average
Sunday Workout: 5 miles, 10:47 average
And so ends four days of consecutive running. I think it's a record, actually. I guess it could have theoretically happened during the dark ages of my running (also known as "the first three years") when I never had any idea what was going on, but I can't remember it. How'd I feel? Fine, but happy for a rest day tomorrow. More on that in this week's training recap.
I wasn't messing around this weekend. My neglected classes were screaming at me to pay attention to them (something about "you're failing everything!"), so I checked out my school's library for the first time ever and spent the last two days imprinting my ass on the special chair I've claimed as my throne. I haven't worked in a library since I was an undergrad, and it was kind of awesome to be back. The process of finding "your spot" in a new library is kind of intimidating, though. I seriously walked around that place for fifteen minutes before I found a spot I deemed acceptable. And then I kept glancing around nervously to make sure I wasn't out of place among all the younguns in college these days (can you believe most of them were born post-Cold War?!).
Since I happened to be near the library (and, let's face it, I don't really run anywhere else these days), I hit up the trails by the dog park both yesterday and today for my runs.
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I don't really have anything interesting to say about these runs, except that today I saw this fantastically crazy Russian woman I ran into on a previous run. The last time I saw her, I was looking at a map since I wasn't familiar with the new trails I was on, so she took the opportunity to give me a 20-minute play-by-play of what lay ahead. I'm a people pleaser so of course I listened attentively, all the while wondering how long it would be before I lost my toes (sweat, cold, and inactivity do not a happy Jeano make). When I couldn't stand it any longer, I politely bid her farewell and continued on my way, but not before I saw the fury in her eyes. Seems she thought I was being disrespectful. Anyway, I saw her today and she was with another friend from the senior home so I was off the hook. It made me laugh.
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I figured out a way to simplify my life. And by life, I mean garmin. I don't know what my problem is, but I've had my watch set to display three screens with three data fields each since I bought the dumb thing. I guess I got so excited about being provided with all this data that I felt the need to display it all at once. The only things I actually care about, though, are distance and pace. Consequently, I found myself wasting a ridiculous amount of time waiting for the watch screens to cycle through to the ones I wanted (yes, I realize you can touch it to move to the next screen, but that's more energy than I'm willing to use), which annoyed me to no end. Well, turns out you can change this. Who'da thunk it? Not I. Anyway, I was messing with my garmin yesterday, as people tend to do, and I changed it to one screen, two data fields. It's like having a new watch! It was awesome to be able to instantly get the data I needed during today's run.
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Somehow it's been three weeks since I started marathon training! Not sure how that happened. Here's a li'l recap:
21 miles jogged.
God, recaps are so easy.
But seriously, this week's schedule didn't have a lot of variety. It was 4 easy 4-mile runs and 1 easy 5-mile run. It seems the coming week will be similar. This lack of variety is totally fine with me, though, since I know it's going to get weird in a couple of weeks. I can already tell this "cumulative fatigue" thing is going to be pretty killer (but likely effective). My mileage this week was similar to what I was doing with Higdon's plan, but I ran five days instead of four. Did I mention four of those days were consecutive? They were. My muscles could definitely feel it on today's run. I wasn't experiencing muscle failure or anything, but the last mile or so I just felt tired. I'm thinking it was a combination of four consecutive days of running and the knowledge that I had a super hero waiting for me at home (SO GOOD).
I managed to do ab stuff most days this week (just realized I haven't done any today; thanks for holding me accountable, blog!), but my eating was atrocious. I mean really atrocious. I've eaten pizza every day for the past three days. I've eaten hamburgers two out of three days (if you do the math, you'll see that means I've been eating a lot of hamburgers and pizza). I ate that awesome sandwich I just mentioned. Yes, things got a little out of hand. But hey, I ate some asparagus. Aren't bloggers always preaching about the importance of balance? There's balance for you!
You're probably all too busy thinking about the Oscars (HELL YES Christoph Waltz!!!!!) to answer questions but I'll throw some at you anyway:
- What screens/data fields do YOU use on your garmin?
- What's the most days you've ever run in a row? Probably more than four...
- Ever been accosted (in a harmless way) on the trail? Or do you keep on running before it comes to that?
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I have a slightly different Garmin, and the screen is split four ways (yes, this can be changed - and yes, I was thrilled when I found out, but no, I don't use the feature very often) for run time, run pace, distance, and actual time. I've used the thing for years. Sometimes I still read the actual time as the pace, and wonder why I'm getting slower as the run progresses.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what may "days in a row" record is. But probably no more than 6. I believe in non-run days.
I try not to get accosted on trails. But around here, the older Chinese women always want to stop my husband to ask for directions, in Chinese. He's super nice, and knows Chinese. I get really focused on my workout, and I don't know Chinese. This works out well for everyone...
Wow, I would think four data fields would make each field tiny! I'd have a hard time seeing it.
DeleteI totally agree on the value of rest days. I always feel so tired when I'm reading about someone who ran, like 15+ days in a row... I think my body would fall apart.
At least you can get away with "I don't speak your language!" Probably the best excuse out there.
I use total running time, current pace and distance, but then my second screen has my lap information - lap distance and average lap pace - which is what I use when I am supposed to be hitting a certain pace (whether that's fast or slow). I feel like the lap average helps me most accurately gauge my speed for each mile. I tried to set up alerts on my watch so it would beep and vibrate at me when I went outside of like a :10 second area, but because all the watches have about a 5-8 second lag, it was a huge hassle. I've been wanting a setting that tells me total elevation gain, but I have been too lazy to find out if it's actually an option.
ReplyDeleteProbably 6 days in a row, but I don't remember, either. There are crazy people who run every single day. One of the blogs I follow has been going strong since New Years. Congrats on the 4 days though, I've tried to incorporate Hanson's cumulative fatigue into my new training plan,b ut have yet to really kick it into gear.
I got yelled at pretty harshly from a lady for having my dog off leash - even though my dog was no where near her and came straight to my side when I called him and didn't come near 15 feet of her. Haters be haters.
Dogs inspire a shocking amount of rage in people. Some people seem like they'll be totally cool but then freak out and give me a death glare if my leashed dog gets too excited in their vicinity... I'm NEVER mean about dogs, even if they're, like, attacking my dog (which, really, I should probably be mean about that), since I know what it feels like to be yelled at for it. Meanies.
DeleteI like the idea of using current pace because it IS more accurate than average pace wen you've had to stop, etc., but because I'm obsessive I like to make sure my overall pace is where I want it to be. I was thinking of trying the alerts but figured it would exactly how it was for you.
Every day since New Years?! That's insane. I ALMOST want to say something snarky about that but if she's still feeling good, then more power to her?
I usually try not to run more than four days without a break bc I am a loser and never stretch or foam roll. And I wonder why my it band always hurts.........
ReplyDeleteYou're being too hard on yourself! I don't stretch or foam roll either. Hate it passionately. I've actually never found it to be helpful to me personally (ie. when something's achy stretching doesn't seem to help at all), although I'm sure it helps some people...
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