Sustainable Training

For the third time this year, I didn't run in a 5K I had signed up for. This one was the best excuse yet - only a week since The Attack of the Killer Tree - but it's way too much a pattern. I wasn't supposed to run after the concussion, and I considered going and walking. But wouldn't you know it - it was a themed run - Flee the British - and the setup included Dolly Madison in costume leading off with the portrait of George Washington under her arm, and followed by British soldiers in costumes with muskets and bayonets. The last thing I was up for was being last in the pack - a very real possibility - and the onlookers all cheering on the redcoats behind me.

(Aside: I am bemused at how we are celebrating one of the most humiliating defeats in U.S. history - the capture by the enemy of our national capital in 1814 with all kinds of amusing "run away! run away!" festivals.)

I bailed on one race earlier because I signed up in expectation of friends also going and they didn't. I bailed on another because it was the day before a 25-hour plane trip and I was afraid I would push myself in the run and hurt the knees, which would then freeze up during the interminable time sitting still in steerage.

So I actually have run in two 5Ks this year - one in May and one in July. My time in July was better than the first one - hooray.  I'm signed up for two more in October - the Dead Man's run in the Historic Congressional Cemetery at the beginning of the month and a huge running festival in Baltimore in the middle of the month, with my friend I was with for the Annapolis race.

When I split my head open, I was actually on my way back from a run with the dog. I had been pretty good at doing run/walks with the dog 2-3 times a week, and longer walks on other days. But it was very unstructured with no accountability, and no sense that I was getting better or progressing in any way.  So after bailing on fleeing the British, I decided to get a more structured, and hopefully sustainable, training plan. Using my Runkeeper app on the iphone, I picked a plan labelled "Beginner's 5K - to finish" and jumped into the third week of the workouts. This was so I would be done with the plan by the time of the next race on October 4. It certainly builds slowly, and actually, even at week 3, took me back a couple of notches from what I had been doing on my own. It involves just three runs a week, with the midweek runs as timed intervals and the weekend runs longer distance-based intervals.  From the beginning, I've been tacking on a little bit extra - one or two extra intervals, but at the timing they suggest.

I have got the dog more in tune with running.  Since there is nothing my Very Hungry Labrador likes more than food, I'm using food to encourage him to keep up and match my pace.  I think perhaps switching back to the relatively short intervals is also good for him. So I no longer feel like I'm engaged in dog abuse.

I also did some runs in running shorts. I bought the longest ones I could find, but they are much shorter than I would normally allow myself to be seen in. I'm more comfortable with the tight but longer running pants. The shorts are good when it's steamy, though I feel like I have to change right afterwards. But paying attention to wearing clothes I like is part of my motivation.

Now my problem is the shortening of days.  It is pitch dark when I roll out of bed. Some days it's hot and steamy, other days its frosty, but it is always dark.  This past week, I changed up my routine. I had been going first down to the stream valley park by my house and doing a mile or so up or down stream, then returning through the neighborhood. This week first I went through the neighborhood, and came back as sunrise was approaching and the trail by the stream was less dark.  I think I may need to switch in a week or so to treadmill running inside, which does nothing for the dog who will still need to be walked.  Or else find a way to switch my schedule to either go to work later, or to run in the evening (I can't imagine running at lunch - no time to change, run, shower, and change back - that would be 90 minutes at least, lunch is more often around 30-45 minutes for me.)  My neighborhood is built on a steep hillside with most of the roads going up and down hill - not good running turf though great walking exercise - and so running out of my neighborhood to somewhere else... not a lot of good choices there either. I'll figure it out, though, and having the specific structure of specific workouts to do on specific days for my chosen training plan is good discipline.

So I'm hanging in there, and looking forward to running for the next twenty years at least. Sustainably. I can't capture here today all the other things I've thought of for blog posts - eating, wardrobe management, etc., but nothing else earthshattering is going on. School has begun, and my girl is settling in. We're establishing new routines, and it is working out fine.  Big boy has his own apartment finally, and middle boy is happy in in his school. Mother is hanging in there.

So that's it for today - the basement and the dump beckon me!