VT Dad’s fight vs. inertia & flab

After having a 2 day respite from running, I was chomping at the bit.  This morning the local roads were still icy, so I decided to wait until the afternoon, and run in Montpelier while my kids were at music lessons.  It was 22F, -6C when I started my fartlek run.  It was clear and calm, and ideal conditions for my run.  It was moments before sunset when I started my run, and I navigated through the sidewalks of Downtown Montpelier, past the state capitol, and out of town along the Winooski River.  The sidewalks were not 100% ice free, so I knew to stay on the street when I returned in the dark.  

My run is a flat out and back, about 3.2 miles each way.  When I do this as a fartlek run I usually try to have three sustained bursts on the outward leg, and try to just push myself on the way back aiming for a negative split for my return.  As soon as I got out of town, I began my first fartlek burst.  I felt fast and care free, it felt wonderful.  My form and cadence have been improving, and each of my other 2 fartlek bursts were joyful expressions of running.  

I reached the turnaround 29 seconds faster than my previous best for this run, so it was time to focus and concentrate, in an attempt to push myself as much as I could during the return.  Again the Roots "Sacrifice" was pulsing through my brain.  "Tell you one lesson I’ve leaned, if you want to reach something in life you ain’t going to get it unless you give a little bit of sacrifice.  OOh sometimes you got to smile before you cry, you need a heart that’s filled with music if you use it you can fly."  I kept sacrificing, and pushing myself, returning 13 seconds faster than my outward leg, and 40 seconds better than my previous best for this run.

I will run in cold, rain, and snow.  I don’t like wind and depending on the temperature I may or may not run in wind, but I will NOT run in ice.  When I woke up there was a thin layer of ice on the roads, and more potentially falling soon according weather.com.  So I’m sitting it out for this morning.

I woke up with a Presidential hangover this morning.  I watched the State of the Union address last night as well as the brilliant Democratic response.  This put me up until 10:30PM.  By the time I finished my household errands and work that needed to be done it was 12:25AM.  I awoke at my usual 5:00AM, but I was in no condition to run.  Tuesday afternoons I have an hour and a half window to myself, where in the past I’ve run if I missed my AM run.  Sunday, when I was reviewing my week I realized that I had been neglecting weight training/stability/core workouts.  So when looking at this week I scheduled Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for weight training/stability/core.  So this afternoon I stuck with my plan and worked out on the bosu ball.  It was a nice change of pace workout, and when it was done I had a relaxing soak in the hot tub.

Learning my lessons from Saturday’s long run, when I got up this morning I ate a blueberry muffin, and prepared a water bottle to take with me on my run.  The pre-dawn temperature was 18F, -8C.  It was clear and calm.  My pre-run preparation was incomplete, as I left my neck warmer at hope, so my chin and cheek suffered some during the run.  My school is 7.3 miles from home.  I ran a crisp warm-up 1st mile, and  attacked the first set of hills.  There are 2 sets of lights from home to school, and unfortunately during this morning’s run I missed them both.  It was also cold enough during this run for ice crystals to form on my eyelids, and for the tip of my water bottle to freeze over, rendering it useless.

At ~ the halfway point, I have a 3 mile stretch on the same road.  It is rolling both with hills and a few curves, with one significant uphill.  During this stretch my inner caribou emerged.  The cold was not a factor.  I felt as if I could run forever.  All of my proprioceptive cues were coming together, and I was running with good form, cadence, and a purpose.  I was embracing the run, and all of my progress since October.  I was in the zone.  Although I waited at both lights, I ran to school 1&1/2 minutes faster than just 3 weeks ago.

My run back started out innocently enough.  It was 28F, -2C, and I ran without one of my upper layers and without gloves.  I ran at a comfortable recovery pace until I heard voices of a running tandem behind me.  I had run over 5.5 miles in the afternoon, and nearly 13 miles for the day, and these 2 other runners were gaining on me.  My competitive juices kicked in, I wasn’t going to let them pass me.  I picked up my pass for the next 1/3 of a mile, until I turned off the main road towards home.  I hoped that they would go there own way, but their route continued to follow mine.  What else could I do, I was still a mile from home, so I opened up my stride, and ran home with a purpose.  I clocked the final uphill mile in under 10 minutes, and slowly pulled out of ear shot of the other runners as I widened the gap.  I arrived triumphantly at home to the ecstatic smile, and full body tail (nub) wagging dance of my dog Mookie.

This week was an eye opener.  My mileage was alright: 30.2.  I had some good runs, and one awful one, my long run yesterday, when I bonked.  Although I’ve already successfully trained for and completed a marathon my previous training had been haphazard. This year I’ve done so much better, and I want to continue to build on those successes.  I learned that I need to treat my long run with more respect, making sure that my rest, nutrition, and hydration are adequate before beginning, and making sure that I have water and goo with me during these runs.

Program for Week 8 of 24, January 28 to February 3rd
Monday:  Run to school 7.3 miles, focus on accelerating up the hills, recovery run home.
Tuesday: Base Run 5 miles followed by drills: High Knees and bounding, Weight Circuit and bosu core drills PM
Wednesday: Base Run 5 miles, stability ball workout PM
Thursday: Montpelier fartlek run 6.3 miles
Friday: Base run 6.1 miles, stability ball workout in PM
Saturday: Rest
Sunday:  Long run with running group 8-10 miles, bosu ball at home PM
My proprioceptive cue for the week is Floppy Feet:
Concentrating on keeping my feet relaxed when running.  Try and use the muscles of my upper leg to generate the force of running, while keeping the foot relaxed.  Allowing the foot to displace and transfer forces on it to minimize stress.

Hopefully this week I’ll be able to make all of runs quality runs, and be more consistent with my core training.  In addition my yoga class is over with, so I have a void in my preparation that needs filling.

This afternoon my wife and I along with my two youngest children went out cross country skiing.  We went to a ski touring center 15 minutes from our house.  The snow cover was light and well worn, but the layout of the trail we went on was awesome.  It was a 5K trail that meandered with switchbacks up and down hills, through meadows, and a little back country.  It was great terrain for beginners, and some of the views were breath taking.  Everyone had a great time, but you wouldn’t have known listening to my 14 year old kvetch.  He took complaining to an obnoxious and irritating level.  Still it was great to be outdoors, and exercising as a family.  Hopefully we’ll get more snow so that the conditions will improve.

This morning was picturesque, a light snow was falling, and there was a dusting of new snow covering everything with a fresh layer of white.  It was 21F, -6C when I set out on my run.  I was attempting the same 10.9 mile run as last week.  My first mile was lethargic, if it wasn’t my long run day I would have altered my route and made today a recovery run, instead I pressed on, trying to concentrate on improving my form, and becoming more efficient during my run.  I ran the next 3     miles faster than I had the previous week, my form and spirits were improving.  I had another 2 miles until the 6.2 mile mark. Last week I was disappointed that I crossed this check point in 62 minutes, today I was at 63 minutes.  I decided that it was best to shorten my route, and to turn right, cutting 1.2 miles from the run.  

As soon as I turned right, my body shut down.  I was no longer running with a purpose, I was just trying to survive.  My brain shut down, I couldn’t focus on any running cues that could help me.  I lost all track of logical thinking.  I passed a friends house 3 miles from my home.  Instead of stopping, using his phone, and calling home to get picked up I trudged on, only thinking about how miserable I was, and how if I get putting one foot ahead of another I would get home.  All I could think about was that I could get home, I would get home, I would survive.  Whatever notion of running form and efficiency were long forgotten, I was just shuffling forwards and shuffling home.  My first 6.2 miles took 63 minutes.  My last 3.7 miles took 50 minutes.  

Today’s experience taught me a few lessons, which hopefully I will learn.
1. It’s ok to skip or scale down a workout.  I should never have tried to do three key workouts back to back to back.
2. I last ate 12 hours before my long run, I need to refuel before my long run.
3.  It’s time to try goo, and get used to eating it on my long runs.
4.  If I’m going on a run longer than 10K I need to bring water with me.
5.  I need to continue to enjoy the moment, my attempt to run too far too fast, kept me from enjoying the moment.

Since I missed my hill run Tuesday, I’m attempting my three key workouts for the week back to back to back.  Yesterday was my fartlek run, today my hill run, and tomorrow my long run.  I awoke to do my hill run in the morning, but the thermometer read 0F, -18C, so I decided to pass until this afternoon.  I got dressed and warm-up in time to get the first hour of my run done before sunset.  It was 23F, -5C, waiting was a good choice.  I ran the same run 11 days ago, and today each of my splits was within 10 seconds of the other run.  The footing on the dirt road was a little better, and I finished my run 10 seconds faster than my January 11th run.  Other than a biting wind for the last 2 miles the two runs were carbon copies.  I hope everyone has a great weekend planned.

I got up at 5:00 and put on my layers for an outdoor run.  It was 10F, -12C clear, and calm when I set out.  I added a 7/10ths of a mile warm-up to my 6.1 mile loop from Monday.  During the warm-up I tried to raise my neck warmer to cover more of my face, but I was unable to do so without my glases fogging up.  During my fartlek I was supposed to increase the tempo for 2 minute burst, but I tried to lengthen my burst to between 3/4 of a mile and 1 mile.  I found a great stride pattern and cadence.  I was able to pusj myself and still have balance and calm in my run.  It was so cold out, that each eye was growing ice crystals from my tears.  My favorite part of my run was bounding up the last hill, and carrying my momentum forward for a hard charging, but relaxed last half mile.  It was a great run, I completed the loop 2 minutes faster than on Monday.

Twice today I had the opportunity to work with younger kids and help them in fitness areas.  It was one of my best professional days in recent memories.  First at the high school, the start of a new semester gave me one new assignment, I work with one student with severe needs in PE.  Currently the class is split between volleyball, and cross country skiing, but my student can’t do either so we spent class in the weight room.  My student doesn’t have symmetry in functionality of his two arms, so I thought he would benefit from some bilateral exercises, so I worked with him doing a variety of exercises with 6 lb. and 8 lb.  medicine balls.  In addition we worked on some hand-eye coordination with the stability balls, and worked on balance with the bosu ball.  Finally we spent some time together on the exercise bike.  It was amazing to watch his face light up as we went through our workout together.

My second amazing moment was at Hebrew school where I taught my last class of "Torah Yoga."  I had 8 seventh graders in the class.  I began with a long visualization and meditation.  Then each of us chose our favorite Hebrew letter poses, and we practiced them one final time.  Their choices ranged the gambit from simple poses to challenging ones.  It was a great workout.  We finished with 2 relaxation poses, and all the kids were excited about what we had done, and had thanked me for the opportunity to participate.

I’ve spent the last 7 hours on cloud 9.