Seven plus miles

I ran my 3.7 mile loop twice today, once each clockwise and counter-clockwise. I didn't wear my watch because I ran with a friend. But it was a nice, steady slow pace, maybe 11:00-11:30 per mile. Got rained on, but it felt nice

Weight up slightly

Yesterday I weighed 179.5. This morning it was 181.0, which is up a bit but still way lower than previously.

30 day trend is 184.05.

Still watching for excessive weight loss.

Weight drop

This morning, after sleeping in a bit, I woke up and weighed myself.

I weighed 179.5. I did it twice to make sure it wasn't an error.

That's a seven pound drop from Wednesday.

That's kinda scary, actually. I've been eating less since Wednesday, and ran a couple of times. But, still. I'm going to keep a watch on this and if I suddenly start dropping lots of pounds, I'll see a doctor.

My 30-day trend stands at 184.35.

A little bit longer

I ran my four+ mile route tonight, in the mugginess. I didn't worry too much about speed and just tried to maintain a steady pace. Stopped for water twice just in case.

I finished in 45:05. I felt kind of bad about speed, in spite of not wanting to worry, and until just now, though I'd averaged more than 11:00 per mile. But when I checked the actual distance, it was farther than I'd thought - 4.17 miles - and that brought my average pace down to 10:48 or so.

Sunday I plan on doing 7-8 miles, and I've invited a friend to go with me. She's never run that far before but is game to try; she's warned me, though, to feel free to go on ahead without her if I need to. I think she and I run around the same pace, but longer runs mean slower pace, so we shall see.

Ran

I ran last night. 3.7 miles in 36:23. Tried to push the pace a little bit; had two sub-10:00 miles (9:48 and 9:41) and stopped for traffic once. Weather was nice: around 74° F, sunny. I sweated a lot, though.

For this week (beginning Monday) I have just over 7 miles total. I'm aiming for about 18-20 miles total this week. Friday I'll do 4-5, and Sunday I'll have a nice long run, 7-8 miles.

Out of control

I made good choices for food yesterday. Except for the two donuts (a glazed donut after breakfast, and a glazed twist in the afternoon), the giant slice of pizza for lunch, oh, and the feta cheese and honey mustard on the salad, and the four pieces of buttered bread with my roasted red pepper soup for dinner, oh, and especially the cup of cappuccino and blackberry gelato for dessert.

Yeah. Great choices.

Oh, and I started but did not finish my dumbbell workout and otherwise got no exercise yesterday.

Today I am up a half-pound (to 186.5) - but I expect another bounce up tomorrow - and my 30-day trend is back up over 185 (to 185.3) after briefly flirting with being under 185 for several days.

I need to get back to my good eating habits. Today I feel bloated and puffy, and mentally I'm beating myself up.

Easy run

I ran this morning. 3.7 miles in 37:23. Had to stop three different times for traffic. Stoopid traffic. Also walked for 45 seconds or so, twice, during the last mile and a half. Stoopid walking.

Interval run

Yesterday I attempted an interval run. I still would like to work on my speed, and interval runs feel like a good way to do it. But it feels like I failed.

The plan was a mile+ of warmup, running down to the river side where the Springwater Corridor Trail is. The trail is marked off in half-mile increments, is paved and relatively flat, making it perfect for measured running.

Once on the trail, I decided I'd alternate slow, jog-walk half-miles with fast half-miles. I've decided that anything faster than 9:00 miles is "fast".

Last time I did this run, I did three slow and three fast segments. This time, I decided to try four of each. I tried to set my expectations accordingly.

The weather was warm, around 67° F when I left the house, and humid. And even though I had gotten up very early and had a slice of toast with peanut butter and jam to break my fast, I'd then slept in later than I had wanted to and didn't leave the house until 10:30 or so. All of this, I'm sure, contributed to my struggle.

My warmup was exactly 15 minutes, including a stop for water. Then I started out with a slow segment (so that I'd finish with a fast one). First fast interval was 4:26 - barely fast, by my own subjective measure. Then jog-walk for a half-mile, and I'm already sweaty.

Second hard half-mile was done in 4:04 - now that's more like it! That meant that my average for the two half-miles was exactly an 8:30/mile pace.

More walking than jogging, then my third fast attempt, which I did in 4:13 - basically splitting the difference between the two.

Waaaaay more walking than jogging, and I attempted my last fast half-mile. I actually stopped to walk for 20-30 seconds (I think), but then tried to push myself to cross the finish line fast. Sadly, I had messed up and not reset my countdown timer, so I have no idea how fast that last attempt was.

I ate some Shot Bloks and drank some water, and then mostly walked back home, with some jogging up the hill on Umatilla. The whole outing was over an hour and twenty minutes. Next time I'll have to keep better track of my time, and push myself harder on the "slower" segments.

After work special

I ran tonight after work. My 5-mile loop, which is actually 5.4 miles according to "teh google".

I kept a nice, steady pace in the 10:20-10:30 range, even including the several times I had to stop for traffic so I could cross the several busy streets. I guess that's one advantage to running early in the morning; fewer cars on the road to dodge.

I also stopped for water once.

The temperature was around 70° F and it was a little humid but not that bad. Wore my trusty Brooks Adrenaline 6 GTS, shorts and a short-sleeved tech shirt.

Finished in 56:59, which is almost exactly a 10:31 pace average.

Two runs

Tuesday's run: 3.69 miles in 37:25

Thursday's run: Postponed until later today due to rain.

Stupid rain.

Long run, a little bit faster

This morning I did 7 miles. It was warm-ish (72° F), humid, and overcast. I'd had around 1600 calories yesterday, 200 of those were gin. This morning I got up at 5:00 AM, ate some toast with peanut butter and blackberry jam (263 calories), drank around a half-liter of water, then two hours later set out for my run.

I tried, oh, how I tried, to keep a steady-fast pace. But I kept seeing 10:30-11:00 miles for the first half. And I took frequent walking breaks on the last half.

I finished in 1:17:10, 50 seconds faster than last week's effort, and an average 11:01 pace.

Short fast run

I have wanted to push my speed lately. After months of just working on distance without much emphasis on speed, building back up my endurance and aerobic conditioning, I'd like to get back to where I was last year, sooner rather than later. I've been doing some interval training for the last month or so, and a while back I tried a short burst of speed (around a mile at 8:30 pace is fast for me)... but basically my routine has been a long run every other weekend, an interval run every other weekend, and 3-4 miles at slow-ish 10:00-11:00 pace a couple of times during the week. It's all I've had energy or inclination for.

But I was inspired by my 10:00 pace 5-miler last Wednesday, so this morning I wanted to push. I planned on doing 3 miles - warmup for a half-mile, then 2 solid miles at a 9:00 pace, then cooldown for the last half-mile. I thought it would be hard, but achievable.

And it was, it actually was. I had my watch on, to keep track of time and pace, but because my cheap running watch only keeps track of total time and the current split time, I'm not sure exactly how fast my fast section was. I remember a couple of half-mile segments being in the 4:24-4:43 timeframe, and the final cooldown was 5:59 (I had to walk a bit), and the total time for all 3 miles was 30:16. I think I achieved my goal, though. Felt good.

Basically it was a short tempo run, run at 5K pace.

Sunday I'll do a long interval run. Looking forward to it!

Distance

My 5+ mile loop is 5.39 miles, making my pace this morning an average of 10:24.

Mid-week long(-ish) run

Got up early and wanted to run. Needed to, really, especially since I weighed in at 186.5 (see previous post for why I was up a pound and a half).

So I ran my 5 mile loop. Haven't measured it exactly, I will do that when i'm at a better computer. But my pace was around 10:40 most of the way, and I finished in 56:14, which would indicate that it's almost a 5.5 mile loop. We'll see.

Poor choice, good choice

Because yesterday was a non-running day, I wanted to keep my calorie intake low. I was doing well after I left work - I'd only had around 1200 calories. A small dinner, and I'd be fine.

I wanted two, small, corn tacos. No chips, no salsa, no guacamole or rice and beans. Just two small tacos. Fish, chicken, steak, didn't matter.

When I got off the bus in my neighborhood, though... my favorite restaurant, the Iron Horse, was calling. I rationalized that I could order the lemon garlic chicken taco platter, and just eat two tacos, no chips, no salsa, no rice or beans... and take the rest home.

I almost did it. I ate about 20 tortilla chips (yes, I tried to count), and I ate a couple spoonfuls each of the rice and black beans. And two chicken tacos. And a couple of forkfuls of the left-over chicken.

I did, however, take home a lot of left-overs.

Then I walked home from there, about a mile and a half. And later, I did my upper-body barbell workout.

So at least I tried to offset the poor choice of restaurant (giving in to temptation and placing myself in temptation's path) with some restraint in eating, and some mild exercise.

In spite of

Even though I walked to the grocery store and rode my back to and from the Johnson Creek Fred Meyer's area yesterday, and did some barbell weight-lifting, and didn't eat more than 1800 calories yesterday, my weight this morning was unchanged from yesterday, when it was up a pound and a half from my massive over-eating Saturday.

It's really difficult to keep eating down on days I run long. Not sure I should even be trying. Maybe long-run days should be guilt-free days? I'll look into that.

This morning I got up early and ran my 3.7 mile loop, maintaining a consistent 10:00 pace for all but the last mile, when I stopped briefly for water. Total time: 37:44. Go, me!

Long run

So this morning I got up at 5 AM to eat a little something, so that 2-3 hours later I could go for a long run and not have an empty stomach. I had yogurt. Oh, and I weighed myself: 185 even. Again. 30 day trend is down to 185.25.

Then I went to bed until 9 AM, which is later than I wanted it to be. The temperature had risen to around 63° F, and it felt muggy.

I planned on doing the same thing I did last time I ran 7 miles - my 3.5 mile loop, twice. I did it in the opposite direction, just because. I maintained about a 10:20-10:30 pace for the first half, which felt slightly fast. Then the second half saw me stopping for water and Cliff Bloks (twice), and to walk several times. I was disappointed at my performance on the second half, until I realized that I was doing about as well as I used to do months ago when I was only running 3-4 miles total. That put it into perspective for me, and made me realize that if I keep working on it, I can get better, and I'll be able to run the whole 7 miles as well as I run half that distance now.

My final time was 1:18:21, which makes my average pace 11:11 per mile overall. Nice, but only 20 seconds faster than the last time.

I think I need to work another longer run into my week. I just alternate between 3.5 miles and either 6-7 miles or an interval run every other weekend. More variety, says I.

Rain

It rained on my early morning run today. I did my 3.7 mile loop, and during the first mile or so, the rain started, came down heavy for a couple of minutes, and faded away. It caused me to stop under the shelter of a tree to check the skies and see if I was going to be drenched for the entire run. Turns out, no, I wasn't.

I kept about a 10:30 pace for the whole run, even including the few times I stopped or walked. I didn't stop for water (drinking water) at all, and I managed to make it entirely up the steep part of the hill on SE Umatilla from the trail to about 9th without breaking stride.

I finished in 39:02, for a 10:34 pace. See?

I weighed in at 185.5, which brought my 30-day trend down to 185.75. I hope this is just a temporary plateau caused by my eating slighty over my goal for the last couple of days. Yeah, that's probably all it is.

Bump

My weight is a little up yesterday and today - 185.5 and 186, respectively. Trend is still going down. I'll cut back and be a little more active.

Ran this morning. 3.69 miles, and I managed to keep a nice steady 10 minute pace. Finished in 37:32. Felt good.

Interval run

I decided to do the interval run, just as I should.

The last time I tried my interval run (ignore the fact that I called it a "tempo" run, which is incorrect), I messed up by accidentally going too far, which meant... nothing big, actually. Basically my post-workout cooldown would be longer by a half-mile or so. But mentally, it threw me off. Plus, it was hot and humid.

Today, I started out from home around 10:30 AM. Temperature was 57° F, and it was overcast. I was a little cold to start - wearing long basketball shorts (the only running shorts that were clean) and a sleeveless singlet. But by the end of the run I was sweating and plenty warm, even though the temperature hadn't gone up.

I did my warmup slowly, as slow as I could without walking. Actually, I walked the first couple blocks. Took me about 14 minutes to get to the 3.5 mile marker on the Springwater Trail by the river (with a stop for water from the fountain at Oaks Pioneer Church), where the hard part began.

I set my countdown timer for four and a half minutes, which is, of course, a 9:00 pace for each half-mile segment. I pushed and tried not to have long gaps when I switched from slow to fast, though I did stop briefly and walked slowly before beginning each fast segment. But I walked much less this time than I did last time on the slow segments; I wasn't timing them, but I could tell that I was able to keep up a jog for most of the time.

My three fast sections were (with equivalent mile paces): 4:26 (8:52); 4:16 (8:32); 4:20 duuuuude! (8:40).

These are actually slower overall than the fast segments I did last time I did an interval run, but I'm happier because the total time for all fast/slow training run is much less. I completed the overall workout faster this time, and I still had strength to jog slowly back home after drinking some water and eating some Cliff Bloks. Maybe the cooler weather helped; and maybe my strength is coming back. Either way, I'm happy with today's workout.

And my reward was a big bacon cheeseburger, topped with Walla Walla grilled onions, from Mike's Drive-In. Mmmmm.

Torn

Last weekend I did a long run - 7 miles. This weekend, I should do some other kind of hard run, like a tempo or interval run.

But I don't wanna. Maybe I'm just bored or something. Decisions, decisions.

I weighed in at 183.5 yesterday, well below my previous low point of 185.5. I had eaten well on Friday and ran well, too, but I think the major cause of being down so much weight was drinking - I had gone out bar-hopping. Alcohol is a great dehydrator. Really great, as my hangover can attest to.

This morning I got up early, around 5 AM, and ate a little something in preparation for my hard run. And I weighed 185 even; which seems disappointing compared to Friday's weight but is still below my trend, pulling it down to 186.85.

Low point

My weight this morning is 185.5, my lowest point all year.

The 30-day trend is 187.45. There's been a week-long upswing - exactly seven days ago, that's what my trend was, too, then it rose a bit and fell a bit.

I had planned to get up early this morning and run, but because of my broken sleep last night (in bed at 7 PM, up again around 9:30 PM, went out for a walk in the night, back in bed around 1:30 AM) I was too tired this morning. It's going to be warm-ish and humid today so running after work is going to suck. And yet, I know I will be doing it.