Okay, so after another lull, weeks of jogging once or twice, and finding nothing to keep me moving, I've found the secret to my running success! I read a book that made a lightbulb go off for me. It really contained no new information, but the focus was what made me have my "aha" moment!
I've followed the book's recommendations this week and amazingly, I look forward to my jogs, I'm feeling better, sleeping better, and want to run on my days off! :) YAY!
So what is this miracle secret Lara discovered? Sloooooooowing waaaaaay down! I know simple right? Well, for me, I felt like doing a program like Couch to 5k or something similar with graduating weeks of walk/jog combos, I should be able to run at a 10:00/mile pace when I was jogging. I only jog for a couple minutes at a time during the early weeks, so that shouldn't be so hard right? Well, I was huffing and puffing (not necessarily a bad thing), watching the seconds go by til I could stop running, and sometimes couldn't make it through the whole workout. I certainly couldn't wait til it was over and didn't look forward to the next.
Well I slowed down. Actually, I slowed way down. The point of me doing this is so I can build my endurance and run continuously without walking. That's my first goal. Then my goal is to build speed. Why do I care if I run a 13:00/mile? Why do I care what anyone else thinks of how I slug along? I admit, I would love to knock out a 10:00/mile, but right now, that's not realistic for me.
If I can stay focused on my goal of building my endurance and being able to run 30 continuous minutes, I will be ecstatic! Once I can do that, I can work on the rest. Right now, I feel good, I enjoy jogging again and am hopeful for my continued success. I'm currently only doing 4 minutes of walking, then 2 minutes of jogging, for 30 minutes total. On my last jog segment on Wed, I was outside and decided I would either jog til I got to my driveway or til I got tired, whichever came first. Well, my driveway came first (5 consecutive minutes of jogging!) and I felt like I could keep going. Tonight, it was til I reached a certain mile point on my treadmill or til I got tired and I ended up hitting that (7 minutes of consecutive jogging!) and felt like I could keep going!
All of that to me.....SUCCESS!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Well named blog....
I must say I picked the correct name for this blog, struggle to run, when I decided to start this! Back in August, after Shawn started working over the road, I let life get the best of me and I stopped running. Well, I stopped exercising all together. So here I am, about the same place I was last year at this time....just starting back up again. Better late than never huh?
Because I loved running when I did it, I decided to do that again. So, I started the Couch to 5k program again. It saddens me that I'm back at the beginning struggling like I did a year ago, but I keep telling myself that struggling to run is better than not running at all. About 4 weeks ago I started making better food choices and am slowly dropping weight. I've lost 6.5 pounds so far and weigh again on Thursday. I wanted to add some strength training of some sort to my running, so after my run I am doing the 100 hundred push up program on my ipod touch and then on days I don't run, I do 30 day shred 3 days and then I'll do yoga or pilates on another day.
I got really good news this week. Every May I have my blood checked for cholesterol, including HDL and LDL and triglycerides. Here are my numbers:
Last year:
Total Cholesterol: 176 (should be <200)
HDL: 41 (should be >50)
LDL: 106 (should be less than 130, but less than 100 optimal)
Ratio of total:HDL 4.3 (less than 4.0)
Triglycerides: 141 (should be less than 150)
This year:
Total Cholesterol: 139
HDL: 54
LDL: 76
Ratio: 2.6
Triglycerides: 47
I'm pretty darn happy with those results!!
So.....I'm back to my struggle, but as much of a struggle as it is, I'm glad that I'm back at it again.
Because I loved running when I did it, I decided to do that again. So, I started the Couch to 5k program again. It saddens me that I'm back at the beginning struggling like I did a year ago, but I keep telling myself that struggling to run is better than not running at all. About 4 weeks ago I started making better food choices and am slowly dropping weight. I've lost 6.5 pounds so far and weigh again on Thursday. I wanted to add some strength training of some sort to my running, so after my run I am doing the 100 hundred push up program on my ipod touch and then on days I don't run, I do 30 day shred 3 days and then I'll do yoga or pilates on another day.
I got really good news this week. Every May I have my blood checked for cholesterol, including HDL and LDL and triglycerides. Here are my numbers:
Last year:
Total Cholesterol: 176 (should be <200)
HDL: 41 (should be >50)
LDL: 106 (should be less than 130, but less than 100 optimal)
Ratio of total:HDL 4.3 (less than 4.0)
Triglycerides: 141 (should be less than 150)
This year:
Total Cholesterol: 139
HDL: 54
LDL: 76
Ratio: 2.6
Triglycerides: 47
I'm pretty darn happy with those results!!
So.....I'm back to my struggle, but as much of a struggle as it is, I'm glad that I'm back at it again.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Motivation is waning
Before talking about my running, I must talk about my life in general first. Shawn has now taken to hauling loads of pipe, or whatever else he finds available for loads, across the country. He started out this week. He left early yesterday morning to head to Texas. He'll get home at bedtime tonight and leave early in the morning to load up and go back to Texas. He won't be back again until Friday. While he's giving up precious time with Bennett (and I suppose me, too), he will be able to make quite a bit of money. This is in hopes that we can pay the house off, get a bunch saved and me be able to be home with Bennett and help him with books sometime in the (hopefully not far away) future. I've been very spoiled in that I only had to get myself ready in the morning and supper was on the stove when I got home most nights. Now, I have to get myself up and ready, Bennett up and ready, drop him off at daycare (where he spends way more hours there than he used to), get home, make a meal, fit in my run, all the other household things I need to do, gardening, entertaining a 2 year old, and finding a moment to relax a bit. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the thought of this, but I'm certain I'll get into a groove and it will be just fine.
For the last 2 weeks I've been struggling with getting up and out of bed and getting myself to work. It's not that I hate my job, it's just been hard to go. I think I've been stuck in the office too much and not moving around at all.
I went for a run outside on Sunday. The humidity was at 90%. Holy crap, that sucked. We were heading to Cedar for "coffee" so I had Shawn drop me off at Duke's hill on the highway so I could run into town. It ended up being about 2.75 miles. I ran the entire first mile at a faster pace than I'm used to (weird not having the treadmill to keep me at an even pace). After that, I had to walk some. I walked 1 minute, ran 4 minutes and continued that a bit, then moved to run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute for the last bit. I ended up running about a 12:00 mile pace, which is still quite slow, but with the humidity, I felt it wasn't bad for me.
Today, I was back on the treadmill since it's just me and Bennett at home. He was great and entertained himself. I don't know if it was me not eating anything since noon today or what, but man did I feel like crap. I ran the first mile at about an 11:00 mile pace. About what I normally do on the treadmill. I couldn't force myself to push through my mental block so stopped to walk a minute at 1.25 miles. Then I ran 0.5 miles at about a 10:15 minute pace. Then I was literally a mess. My legs weren't horrible and my breathing was okay, but I was lightheaded. I felt horrible. I ended up jogging slowly for 0.25 miles and calling it quits. I had planned a 35 minute jog, but ended with 2.12 miles in 24:46. Ugh.
I'm struggling with my motivation to keep going at this point. Logically, I know that I just need to jog at my own pace, be patient, etc, etc, but that is a huge struggle for me. I really had to talk myself into getting on the treadmill tonight and that's the first time that has happened. I want to keep going. Even if I never attempt running a 1/2 marathon like I'd love to do, I want to keep going. I'm struggling with me thinking this should be getting easier, but it really isn't. I'm hoping that I'm just in stress overload and when things calm down a bit, I'll feel better and motivation will be on the upswing again. Oh yeah, I also have the 2 mile run for my alumni this weekend. I'm a bit freaked out. When I ran in Albion, I ran 25:01. I wanted to run a 22:00 or better, but I really don't know if that's possible, especially if the humidity is like it has been. I know it's for fun, but I would really like to see an improvement. I would also like to be able to push through my mental block and run the whole time and not stop for a walk break period, but who knows. I recently read a book by former Olympian runner, Jeff Galloway. He has trademarked the run/walk/run method. He firmly believes in taking walk breaks at a set ratio throughout your entire run. His philosophy is it saves you mentally and physically and helps you cut time off your run in the end, or allows you to run farther and feel the same as you would have running far less. For example, if you take walk breaks as he suggests, you can run 8 miles, but feel the same as if you'd only run 5miles, which helps with endurance, calorie/fat burn, etc. I may try this, but for some reason feel like a failure because I won't be running continuously. Why do I care? I don't know!!!
Hopefully, my motivation picks back up again and soon.
For the last 2 weeks I've been struggling with getting up and out of bed and getting myself to work. It's not that I hate my job, it's just been hard to go. I think I've been stuck in the office too much and not moving around at all.
I went for a run outside on Sunday. The humidity was at 90%. Holy crap, that sucked. We were heading to Cedar for "coffee" so I had Shawn drop me off at Duke's hill on the highway so I could run into town. It ended up being about 2.75 miles. I ran the entire first mile at a faster pace than I'm used to (weird not having the treadmill to keep me at an even pace). After that, I had to walk some. I walked 1 minute, ran 4 minutes and continued that a bit, then moved to run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute for the last bit. I ended up running about a 12:00 mile pace, which is still quite slow, but with the humidity, I felt it wasn't bad for me.
Today, I was back on the treadmill since it's just me and Bennett at home. He was great and entertained himself. I don't know if it was me not eating anything since noon today or what, but man did I feel like crap. I ran the first mile at about an 11:00 mile pace. About what I normally do on the treadmill. I couldn't force myself to push through my mental block so stopped to walk a minute at 1.25 miles. Then I ran 0.5 miles at about a 10:15 minute pace. Then I was literally a mess. My legs weren't horrible and my breathing was okay, but I was lightheaded. I felt horrible. I ended up jogging slowly for 0.25 miles and calling it quits. I had planned a 35 minute jog, but ended with 2.12 miles in 24:46. Ugh.
I'm struggling with my motivation to keep going at this point. Logically, I know that I just need to jog at my own pace, be patient, etc, etc, but that is a huge struggle for me. I really had to talk myself into getting on the treadmill tonight and that's the first time that has happened. I want to keep going. Even if I never attempt running a 1/2 marathon like I'd love to do, I want to keep going. I'm struggling with me thinking this should be getting easier, but it really isn't. I'm hoping that I'm just in stress overload and when things calm down a bit, I'll feel better and motivation will be on the upswing again. Oh yeah, I also have the 2 mile run for my alumni this weekend. I'm a bit freaked out. When I ran in Albion, I ran 25:01. I wanted to run a 22:00 or better, but I really don't know if that's possible, especially if the humidity is like it has been. I know it's for fun, but I would really like to see an improvement. I would also like to be able to push through my mental block and run the whole time and not stop for a walk break period, but who knows. I recently read a book by former Olympian runner, Jeff Galloway. He has trademarked the run/walk/run method. He firmly believes in taking walk breaks at a set ratio throughout your entire run. His philosophy is it saves you mentally and physically and helps you cut time off your run in the end, or allows you to run farther and feel the same as you would have running far less. For example, if you take walk breaks as he suggests, you can run 8 miles, but feel the same as if you'd only run 5miles, which helps with endurance, calorie/fat burn, etc. I may try this, but for some reason feel like a failure because I won't be running continuously. Why do I care? I don't know!!!
Hopefully, my motivation picks back up again and soon.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Oh the struggles
I'm following a women's running program that goes 16 weeks. If I follow it correctly, I run 4 days a week for the first 8 weeks, then add an extra day after that. The first 12 weeks works just on building endurance. It's based on time, so right now I do 3 days of running for 30 minutes, then I do a 40 minute run on the 4th day. The last 4 weeks builds some speed intervals into the mix and keeps the length of time about the same.
Prior to this I was poking along at about a 12:00-12:30 minute mile. I have been feeling like that was almost painful to go that slow, so I picked it up a little bit. I'm now running at about 11:00 miles, but over the course of the 30 minutes, I end up having to take about 3 walk breaks, which is frustrating. I end up, with walking, going about 2.5-2.75 miles in the 30 minutes.
It's good to see a few improvements (that I can actually go faster than I was), but frustrating at going back to doing walk intervals. I know patience, patience, patience. I did lose a little weight this week, so that has made me feel better. I even bought a pair of shorts a size smaller than normal, so that's progress also. If it weren't for my hubby's very fattening (but yummy) cooking, I'd probably lose a bit more weight!
2 weeks until the alumni run. Not sure I'll make my goal of 22:00, but we'll see. I'm pretty certain I can beat my 25:01 time from Albion though, and that would be enough for me!
Prior to this I was poking along at about a 12:00-12:30 minute mile. I have been feeling like that was almost painful to go that slow, so I picked it up a little bit. I'm now running at about 11:00 miles, but over the course of the 30 minutes, I end up having to take about 3 walk breaks, which is frustrating. I end up, with walking, going about 2.5-2.75 miles in the 30 minutes.
It's good to see a few improvements (that I can actually go faster than I was), but frustrating at going back to doing walk intervals. I know patience, patience, patience. I did lose a little weight this week, so that has made me feel better. I even bought a pair of shorts a size smaller than normal, so that's progress also. If it weren't for my hubby's very fattening (but yummy) cooking, I'd probably lose a bit more weight!
2 weeks until the alumni run. Not sure I'll make my goal of 22:00, but we'll see. I'm pretty certain I can beat my 25:01 time from Albion though, and that would be enough for me!
Monday, July 12, 2010
I think I can....no, I know I can!
So here's my new schedule:
Saturdays I do a long, slow run, trying to increase the mileage by 0.5 miles each week. I do this at a slower pace than normal.
Mondays, I'm going to do a maintenance run, which is whatever mileage I just covered on Saturday, but at a quicker pace.
Wednesdays, I'll do a speed workout, which currently is running about 2.5 miles while alternating walking 0.25 miles with running at a fast for me pace for 0.25 miles. I'll likely add some hills or increase the incline on the treadmill this week or next also.
I just started this last week. Saturday was my longest run yet, which was 3 miles. In looking back, I cannot believe that 9 weeks ago I could barely do 90 seconds of running! So on most days when I feel slow as a snail, I need to focus on how far I've come.
Today was very good! I went 3 miles again, but I ran faster than I've ran before. I normally run a 12:00 mile pace (5mph), so today I decided to try 5.3 mph for as long as I could go. I kept going to 1.5 miles, then increased to 5.6 mph for another .5 miles. I then was pretty pooped, so walked a couple minutes then started in again. I took another walk break around 2.5 miles, but other than the 2 short walk breaks, I never ran slower than 5.3mph. Overall, with my 2 minute warm-up and the walk breaks I did an 11:30 pace, which is a 30 second improvement! Great news is I still have 3 more weeks to the alumni race, so my goal of 22 minutes is looking more and more attainable all the time!
I have made some changes to my diet also. After doing some reading, I don't think I was eating frequently enough. I've added more fruits and veggies and complex carbs to my diet also. I lost weight last week and I continue to think that my legs look a bit better. I read an interesting tidbit about how women store fat. Men tend to store fat in a layer over their muscles, so it's easily noticeable when it's occurring. Women store fat in the small spaces in between muscles and when those are all filled up, then they start storing fat in layers. So by the time a women notices fat on their legs, hips, butt, etc, they actually have a lot of fat already stored amongst their muscle also. So when I started exercising, the lean muscle I was building was getting rid of all the small fat deposits amongst my muscles instead of the large deposits. Interesting to me! I also read the most effective way to turn sugar burning cells into fat burning cells. So, hopefully I'll continue to see weight drop and inches to decrease!
Overall, I have to say that I'm so amazed at how this is going. I never thought I would stick with this! I'm so glad I started. I actually look forward to my workout days. I tried adding a 4th running day, but legs just aren't ready for that yet. I'm going to add some sort of cross-training in though because I feel like a slug on days I don't run.
I have went from thinking maybe I can do this running thing to knowing that I can do it and the only person it really matters as to how fast or slow I go is me! And right now, tonight, I'm pretty proud of me.
Saturdays I do a long, slow run, trying to increase the mileage by 0.5 miles each week. I do this at a slower pace than normal.
Mondays, I'm going to do a maintenance run, which is whatever mileage I just covered on Saturday, but at a quicker pace.
Wednesdays, I'll do a speed workout, which currently is running about 2.5 miles while alternating walking 0.25 miles with running at a fast for me pace for 0.25 miles. I'll likely add some hills or increase the incline on the treadmill this week or next also.
I just started this last week. Saturday was my longest run yet, which was 3 miles. In looking back, I cannot believe that 9 weeks ago I could barely do 90 seconds of running! So on most days when I feel slow as a snail, I need to focus on how far I've come.
Today was very good! I went 3 miles again, but I ran faster than I've ran before. I normally run a 12:00 mile pace (5mph), so today I decided to try 5.3 mph for as long as I could go. I kept going to 1.5 miles, then increased to 5.6 mph for another .5 miles. I then was pretty pooped, so walked a couple minutes then started in again. I took another walk break around 2.5 miles, but other than the 2 short walk breaks, I never ran slower than 5.3mph. Overall, with my 2 minute warm-up and the walk breaks I did an 11:30 pace, which is a 30 second improvement! Great news is I still have 3 more weeks to the alumni race, so my goal of 22 minutes is looking more and more attainable all the time!
I have made some changes to my diet also. After doing some reading, I don't think I was eating frequently enough. I've added more fruits and veggies and complex carbs to my diet also. I lost weight last week and I continue to think that my legs look a bit better. I read an interesting tidbit about how women store fat. Men tend to store fat in a layer over their muscles, so it's easily noticeable when it's occurring. Women store fat in the small spaces in between muscles and when those are all filled up, then they start storing fat in layers. So by the time a women notices fat on their legs, hips, butt, etc, they actually have a lot of fat already stored amongst their muscle also. So when I started exercising, the lean muscle I was building was getting rid of all the small fat deposits amongst my muscles instead of the large deposits. Interesting to me! I also read the most effective way to turn sugar burning cells into fat burning cells. So, hopefully I'll continue to see weight drop and inches to decrease!
Overall, I have to say that I'm so amazed at how this is going. I never thought I would stick with this! I'm so glad I started. I actually look forward to my workout days. I tried adding a 4th running day, but legs just aren't ready for that yet. I'm going to add some sort of cross-training in though because I feel like a slug on days I don't run.
I have went from thinking maybe I can do this running thing to knowing that I can do it and the only person it really matters as to how fast or slow I go is me! And right now, tonight, I'm pretty proud of me.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Found my groove
I finally found my groove! After a disastrous workout last week, I did a "max run" test. It was to go at my current pace and see how long I could go without stopping. I made it 24 minutes (2 miles). Not great, but not horrible. It was hard though. I was still a mental mess! That was last Wednesday. Then I took Thursday and Friday off due to 4th of July stuff going on.
Saturday was the day I've been waiting for, and wondering if it would ever come. I decided I'd stick to my current pace and hope that I could at least make it to 2 miles with no slowing down and no stopping. Well, I did that and added a 1/2 mile! I felt absolutely great and for the first time could really say that I enjoyed my run. Bennett was quiet throughout the run (busy watching Bugs Bunny DVDs) and that helped me maintain my focus a bit more. I felt really, really good! I couldn't believe it. I felt like I could have kept going or picked up the pace a bit even! That was so encouraging for me! I'm so ecstatic! I know I'm still slow as a snail, but looking through my logs, I know I'm improving, even tiny bits at a time!
Today I did another 2.5 miles in 30 minutes and felt good while doing it. I hit 2 miles and I start getting all "mental," so I'm working on that. My goal this week is to do 2 more 2.5 miles workouts at the same pace. Next week, I plan to increase to 3 miles on 3 days and 1 day do a shorter distance at a faster pace.
I am going to sign up for the Cedar's Rapid Run (alumni run) on August 7th. I'm going to do the 2 mile run. My goal is to run that in 22 minutes or less. I know it's doable. I would really like to be 20 minutes, but I'm not sure in a month's time if that is really achievable or not. We shall see. I'll be happy so long as I can beat my 25:01 from the Albion run!
Saturday was the day I've been waiting for, and wondering if it would ever come. I decided I'd stick to my current pace and hope that I could at least make it to 2 miles with no slowing down and no stopping. Well, I did that and added a 1/2 mile! I felt absolutely great and for the first time could really say that I enjoyed my run. Bennett was quiet throughout the run (busy watching Bugs Bunny DVDs) and that helped me maintain my focus a bit more. I felt really, really good! I couldn't believe it. I felt like I could have kept going or picked up the pace a bit even! That was so encouraging for me! I'm so ecstatic! I know I'm still slow as a snail, but looking through my logs, I know I'm improving, even tiny bits at a time!
Today I did another 2.5 miles in 30 minutes and felt good while doing it. I hit 2 miles and I start getting all "mental," so I'm working on that. My goal this week is to do 2 more 2.5 miles workouts at the same pace. Next week, I plan to increase to 3 miles on 3 days and 1 day do a shorter distance at a faster pace.
I am going to sign up for the Cedar's Rapid Run (alumni run) on August 7th. I'm going to do the 2 mile run. My goal is to run that in 22 minutes or less. I know it's doable. I would really like to be 20 minutes, but I'm not sure in a month's time if that is really achievable or not. We shall see. I'll be happy so long as I can beat my 25:01 from the Albion run!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Defeated
I'm feeling so incredibly defeated again. I've had a decent couple of weeks, but have hit a point where mentally I can't run past a certain point and just "have" to stop to walk. It's not that my lungs are going to explode or my legs are going to fall off, it is totally a mental issue. I'm so frustrated. I don't know why this is so hard for me.
I was looking at online coaching sites to see what they offered, if I thought it would be something I'd be interested in, etc. I found a site that gives a 1-week free trial. I'm doing that this week. I'm not doing anything hard by any stretch of the imagination. Tonight was jog 9 minutes, walk 1 min, then repeat 2 more times for a total of 30 minutes. I did the first 9 just fine. The 2nd 9 were tough and I stopped at 8 minutes and walked for 2. The last 9 were miserable. I stopped 2 different times to walk for about 20 seconds each time. Wednesday is my "max run" day. I have to see how long I can run without stopping. The way things are going it will be about 10 minutes and I'll be done.
I'm so frustrated!!!! I just don't know why this is so hard for me. I have given up on "speed" at this point and am just focusing on endurance, but even that isn't coming along very good. I've lost a total of 7 pounds since I started 8 weeks ago. I'm still frustrated with that and am going to start keeping a food journal so I really know for sure how much I'm eating. People close to me say that I look better and seem to have lost weight, but I don't see it much. It's been about a month since I took a picture, so I'll do that again and see if I notice a difference.
I'm beginning to think that a 1/2 marathon on May 1st is a completely unrealistic goal at this point. UGH!
I am signing up for the Cedar's Rapid Run alumni weekend so I can be the slowest person out there, but I'm going to do it anyway.
UGH, UGH, UGH! I'm just so frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was looking at online coaching sites to see what they offered, if I thought it would be something I'd be interested in, etc. I found a site that gives a 1-week free trial. I'm doing that this week. I'm not doing anything hard by any stretch of the imagination. Tonight was jog 9 minutes, walk 1 min, then repeat 2 more times for a total of 30 minutes. I did the first 9 just fine. The 2nd 9 were tough and I stopped at 8 minutes and walked for 2. The last 9 were miserable. I stopped 2 different times to walk for about 20 seconds each time. Wednesday is my "max run" day. I have to see how long I can run without stopping. The way things are going it will be about 10 minutes and I'll be done.
I'm so frustrated!!!! I just don't know why this is so hard for me. I have given up on "speed" at this point and am just focusing on endurance, but even that isn't coming along very good. I've lost a total of 7 pounds since I started 8 weeks ago. I'm still frustrated with that and am going to start keeping a food journal so I really know for sure how much I'm eating. People close to me say that I look better and seem to have lost weight, but I don't see it much. It's been about a month since I took a picture, so I'll do that again and see if I notice a difference.
I'm beginning to think that a 1/2 marathon on May 1st is a completely unrealistic goal at this point. UGH!
I am signing up for the Cedar's Rapid Run alumni weekend so I can be the slowest person out there, but I'm going to do it anyway.
UGH, UGH, UGH! I'm just so frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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