i don't stick to schedules very well, evidently

Today I did 3.0 miles in 34:05 at an incline of 1.0. I climbed 168 feet. Not bad, not bad. Tonight's running plan was:
0.5-mile warm-up walk at 4.0 mph
0.75-mile jog at 6.0 mph
0.25-mile walk at 4.0 mph
0.75-mile jog at 6.0 mph
cool down

I did that except I added another 0.5 mile jog at the end before I cooled down and I did the second two jogs at 6.5 mph. Recently I've been getting really bad side cramps when I'm running but the other day when I moved up from 6.0 to 6.5 mph for the last half mile of my run, the cramp went away. Today, I got a cramp during my first jog but then it wasn't there throughout my second two. Odd.

I also like the faster pace since I've found that I look at the distance around the same time during every jog section but when I'm running faster, it shows a higher number so I feel better about my situation. Instead of thinking "ugh, I've only run a quarter mile. Half a mile to go." I'm already at the half mile mark so it's more like "Ooo, I've already run over half of this!"

Tomorrow, the plan is the same - jogging 0.75 miles twice with a 0.25-mile walk in between. I did a half mile more today than on the schedule, so if I'm feeling good tomorrow I'll try to do the same.

Also for tomorrow, I'm going to change into my contacts before heading on the treadmill. Sweat + glasses = major distractions! I keep feeling them start to slip down my nose, which is not a particularly enjoyable feeling. I have short hair (above shoulder length) so I already have to put one of those grippy headbands on, then secure it with snap clips, then put as much of my hair as possible into a ponytail and then snap-clip the side bits that don't fit into the hair tie. All so that my hair will not fall and stick onto my sweaty fact/neck/head. Which may be one of the worst feelings ever when I exercise. (If I remember, I'll take a picture and post it. It's really quite an interesting look. But it works.)

Also, my headphones keep slipping out of my ears since I sweat and then they get wet. I'm going to have to get headphones that go around my ears so they stay on. Also, I'm getting a bit grossed out by the idea that I'm sweating on the same headphones that I use all the time. Just thought about that...

Who would have thought running would require so much forethought!
-J

i'm a genius...

...and here's why:

1. I cannot do math: I thought I could. I mean, I minored in it. I have a computer and phone that have calculators. I have an actual calculator. No excuse. The past few (I don't even know how many) times I've gone running and then posted here my distances/times, I tried to not include a 0.5 mile warm-up at 4.0 mph. However, when I subtracted the 0.5 miles from the overall time, I somehow thought that corresponded to 5 minutes off the clock. Sigh. Yeah, I know. So please ignore my previous times. It's probably better if you ignore the distances, too. From now on, I'm going to include my 0.5 mile warm-up walk in my distances and times since I clearly cannot be trusted to do basic rate*time=distance calculations.

Time out for a learning moment: you should always do some sort of warm-up before starting to run. It will help your legs stretch out before you pick up the pace. This guy hopped on the treadmill today a few down from me and just started going for it. It looked impressive until 10 minutes later when he stopped his treadmill all of a sudden and was kneading his calf muscle. Cramp. That sucks. Similarly, you should preferably do a cool-down walk. Today, I only did a 2 minute cool-down since there were a ton of people on line for the treadmill, but usually I try to do 5 minutes and slowly decrease the speed and incline.

2. I cannot read a running schedule: On Sunday, I was supposed to only jog 0.5 miles 3 times (with walks in between). I did it 7 times. No wonder I was dying at the end! I realized this today when I finally read my training plan for the first time since I made it over a week ago (since then I've just been glancing at the distances really quickly before heading to the gym).

So today, the schedule said to run 0.75 miles twice with a 0.25 mile walk in between. I sort of stuck to it but sort of didn't. I did only run twice, but the first time I did more like 0.80 miles at 6.0 mph (no biggie, I had good music playing) and so walked 0.20 miles at 4.0 mph and then I noticed that there was a huge line for the treadmills and the Treadmill Police were making sure people stuck to the 30 minute limits, so I just ran for as long as I could the second time until I hit 30 minutes. Which means that I ran 1 mile to end it. I think about 0.5 was at the 6.0 mph and then the other 0.5 was somewhere between 6.3 and 6.5 mph. It felt really good to run faster since even 6.0 mph feels like I'm not quite running. In total, I did 2.55 miles in 29 minutes at an incline of 1.0.

3. I built an Ikea table and chairs last night: Why does this make me a genius? Well it was a lot of time spent on my knees (that's what she said.) and by the time I was done with one chair and 20% of the table, my knees were hurting from pressing against the ground. I was even in a room with a really puffy carpet. So today my knees were hurting a bit at work and then they didn't feel 100% at the gym. Ooo, but that gives me a reason why I'm an actual genius: I didn't over strain myself running, which would have made my knees even worse. Hopefully tomorrow they'll be all better.

Anyway, I have to go to bed. I had to be in at work at 7:30am this morning which is usually around the time that I'm awake and getting out of bed. Not cool, job, not cool.

Hope everyone is having an acceptable first-full-week-back-at-work-since-the-new-year!
-J

end of week 1

So either Pandora failed me or my will failed me. Either way, I did not go to they gym yesterday. I did sort of help my parents move boxes (I barely helped) a I did lift one side of my king-sized bed (strong as bull!) so that my dad could get a mandolin he'd been storing under there along with a few guitars (the guitars were easy to get, but the mandolin found it way to the very center of the bed so normal human arms could not reach it). But honestly, I did no exercise yesterday.

Since I had to go to the gym today so I could get a run in, I was left with the difficult choice of doing the run I was supposed to do yesterday (jog 0.25 mi, walk 0.1 mi, jog 0.5 mi, walk 0.25mi) or to do the routine I was supposed to do today. Well, I decided to pretend that yesterday totally happened like it was supposed to and did today's scheduled routine.

Here's what it was:
Jog 0.5 mi at 6.0 mph
Walk 0.25 mi at 4.0 mph
Repeat

Since the previous sequences had been jog/walk/jog/walk repeated 4 times and this was only jog/walk, I wanted to repeat it 8 times. However, I didn't. I did it 7 full times and by on my 7th jog, I got a really bad cramp in my side. When I went to jog for the 8th time, it was so painful that I jogged maybe 1/5 of a mile and then had to walk. How do people get rid of these cramps when they're jogging? I tried putting pressure on it with my hand and massaging it, I tried lifting my arm on that side into the air, I tried twisting my body both more and less with each step, but nothing worked. So, I ended up doing 5.45 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes at an incline of 1.0.

I think maybe I pushed myself too hard considering I hadn't run for the past two days. Maybe I should have done the shorter jogs sequence but repeated it an extra time to increase my overall distance. I'm not sure, all I know was that my side was killing me. Besides today's side cramp, my shoulders have also been hurting me when I run. I'm going to look into getting a massage. My back is always extremely knotted and maybe getting some of those out will help.  It'll at least make me feel better even if it doesn't help me run better.

I've been saying I was going to get a massage for the past year now and I have yet to get one.

New year, new massage?
-J

speed demon

I am super late on posting this update! I went jogging on Thursday and did the same sequence as on Wednesday, but I did the 1/4 mile jogs at 6.0 mph and the 1/2 mile jogs at 5.5 mph. I've been liking the faster paces so far. I think it's because I get so caught up with making sure I do the exact distances that when I go faster, I get to that distance sooner. Not including the warm-up walk (I've been trying to keep those at a 1/2 mile at 4.0 mph since it's easier math to figure out the other distances from 0.5 than from 0.67, for example), I did 4.4 miles in 52:50 at an incline of 1.0. That's an average of 12 minutes per mile! Not too shabby... I only have 2 more weeks of this specific-distance program and then my schedule just says "Jog X miles". Then I'll really start having to work!

In related news, I still have yet to run outside. I was going to try to go today since it's so warm out but I'm still on the specific-distances program so it's hard. Also, I'm really tired today. I did not get nearly enough sleep. I am supposed to do another 4.4 miles today (again, the same sequence) but I can't convince myself to put on real clothing. Yes, it's 3:30pm and I'm still in pajamas, what about it? Maybe I'll turn on my Pandora and it will jazz me up enough to go to the gym.

It's worth a shot...
-J

rough day

Here's what I did today:
Jog 0.25 mi at 5.7 mph
Walk 0.1 mi at 4.0 mph
Jog 0.5 mi at 5.3 mph
Walk 0.25 mi at 4.0 mph
Repeat (I did the whole sequence 4 times)

In total, I did 4.42 miles in 54:30 at an incline on 0.5 (whatever that means on this treadmill, I'll get into that in a minute). That did not include a 1/2 mile warm-up walk at the beginning or about a 2 minute cool-down walk after the last 1/4 mile walk (again, will get into that in a minute).

Things I liked:
- I liked the 5.7 mph more than last time when I did the 1/4 miles at 5.5 mph. It seemed like a big enough difference in pace between the 1/4 mile and the 1/2 mile runs that it felt worth it. Like I was actually working harder. Which was the point. So yay.
- I forgot that I was trying to hang out with my friend (the same one whose fault it is that I'm doing this) tonight. He texted asking when I was leaving work because he only had a short period of time between family obligations and other-friend obligations and my first reaction was "That's weird that he's asking me when I'm leaving, why would he care... Oh sh*t!" But when I was leaving didn't match up with when he was available. Why is this something I like, you ask? Well a week ago I would have said to myself "Julia, screw the gym. Just stay at work a little longer and then go get a drink with your friend! This can only end well for you!" but this week is a new week. A better week. A week in which I am training for a half-marathon. So what did I do, you ask? I went to the gym. To train. Which means I am for serious about this running thing. I see my entertainment bills being significantly lower than in 2011. So what about my friend, you ask? Don't feel badly for him. It's his fault I'm doing this, he's already up to running almost a full 13 miles so I need to catch up a bit, and we've made plans for tomorrow after my gym time.

Things I didn't like:
- The treadmill I was using this time. I work out at New York Sports Club which has a big room filled with treadmills (and the noise they make!) and so far I've always gotten ones that I either really liked (I'm talking about you, treadmill with the automatic 4.0 mph button!) or ones that I thought were fine. The one I got tonight was a Woodway Desmo (don't quote me on the Desmo bit). In the future, I will not use this treadmill. If this is the only treadmill open, I will wait. Here's why I didn't like it: It vibrated. Not in a good way. When I put my foot down on it, I would feel unpleasant vibrations going up my leg. I found it so annoying that I both couldn't focus on other things and couldn't stop focusing on when that jogging period would be over. Even the walking bits were unpleasant. Although I find it unfair to say that they all do this (it may just be this one machine, who knows), I'm definitely not going to use any of them again. Usually when I go to NYSC, there's a line for the treadmills. Which means that once one opens up and you start walking towards it, you're pretty much stuck to that specific machine. Heaven forbid I risk picking a different Woodway Desmo and then it turns out to also vibrate and I have to do a 2-6 mile run on it. No, I refuse to let that happen.
- Drinking coffee before going to the gym. I have water at my desk. There was no particularly good reason I chose to drink a Starbucks tall Americano up until the point I left work for the gym (which means I really only had about 3/4 of it, it was way too cold outside to keep my hands out of my pockets even with gloves). The reason I got one was (a) a woman I work with offered to go and get it and pay for it; (b) I had no idea how late I was going to have to stay at work; and (c) I started drinking it at 4:30 so I honestly didn't even think about it and I didn't end up leaving work until 6:30 (yes, I took a very long time to drink 3/4 of a coffee). Here's why I didn't like it: I had to pee. Not when I first started running, otherwise I would have just gotten off the treadmill and waited for another one to open up. No, I had to pee when I was already done with my second sequence of run/walks. Which means that I would have had to wait for another treadmill and my heart rate would have gone back down and I would have lost my groove (that I didn't really ever gain because of that damn treadmill!). The coffee was not worth it. From now on, coffee in the mornings or not at all!

This sh*t is for real.
-J

PS: The plan for tomorrow is the same sequence but I'm going to try to push it up to 6 mph for the shorter runs and 5.5 mph for the longer runs.
PPS: I still don't like how I have to count the miles. That damn 0.1 mile walk totally throws it off being easy numbers!

training day 1

My first official day of training has come to an end and it wasn't quite what I expected. I stuck to the plan that I explained yesterday (I did it 4 times, for a total of 4.4 miles in just under an hour at an incline of 1.0 except for the third time that was at 1.5 incline) but I found it much more challenging than the unstructured walk-jog I did on Saturday. On Saturday, I just put a towel over the front of the treadmill so I wasn't focused on time or distance and went between 5.3 and 4.0 whenever I felt like it. This time, I was so concerned with making sure I did the right distances (better not do too much or too little! Stick to the plan, woman!) that I even found 0.25 miles difficult. I've always been really bad at judging distances and the treadmill makes me even worse at it. At least outside I know that 20 streets is about 1 mile, but it gets dark very early right now and I don't feel comfortable running outside by myself once it's dark.

How do people stick to running plans like these without going crazy about watching the distance meter? I've only done it once and I'm already about to throw the plans out the window and just go by overall distance. But I think I'll give the plans another few training days and if I don't see any improvement then I'll reevaluate.

And since I'm already asking questions, I might as well throw out some other ones:
-When outside, how do you know your speed? Do you know that you should pass Store A after x minutes, etc?
-When on a treadmill, do you generally set it to hills or just do an incline or keep it flat? A friend told me that you should always set an incline on a treadmill because 0.0 actually helps push you forward a bit so even the lowest incline means that you have to pull yourself forward, like you would have to outside.

I planned for tomorrow to be a rest day since I'm back at work after being off since December 23rd and I expect to have a ton of emails and whatnot and have to stay late. However, I am going to bring my workout gear to work with me and if all goes well, I'll get out at a reasonable hour and I'll do some strength training.

Good luck at work tomorrow,
-J

I have a plan

One of the reasons I decided to sign up for a half marathon in May is that it would theoretically give me enough time to get in shape. But without a schedule, I'm useless. And by useless, I mean lazy. That's why I spent today, a much needed rest day after running too hard yesterday and then going out for new year's, figuring out a schedule. I looked up a few schedules online for 0-5k and 5k-half marathon and then adapted them to fit into my time frame.

Here's what we have in store for tomorrow:
Warm up: 5-7 minutes at 4mph
Jog 0.25 miles
Walk about 0.1 miles at 4mph
Jog 0.5 miles
Walk 0.25 miles at 4mph
Repeat entire sequence
Cool down

My goal is to keep the jogs at 5.3-5.5 mph. Yesterday I was at 5.3 but I ran longer distances each time, tomorrow I'm only jogging 0.25-0.5 miles each time so hopefully I can pick up the pace a very very very little bit. Or is that a bad idea?

I'll let you know tomorrow!
-J