Running Giant: My Journey

I didn't get this posted after my run yesterday. The run went a little longer than previous weeks and threw me off kilter a little when it came to eating after the run and getting ready for work again. It was a hot run yesterday, about 86° when starting and I was running on the road, so it was a bit hotter there. A few weeks ago I got some fancy insoles for my shoes, thinking they would help decrease discomfort to a degree when running. I had done some running without the insoles and had experienced some discomfort. I tried out the insoles for a couple of weeks and was having some specific discomfort of the anterior tibial muscle (muscle that is the culprit for shin splints). It was a big discomfort each run. So I took out the insoles and magically no pain in that area. Then I realized I still had other aches and pains that were bothering me, but a quick adjustment to form helped those fade away. I have been running without headphones, which is very different for me. I am now more

  I made it out this morning for my run. It was good, I was winded early on and was compelled to go slower. I kept repeating to myself, "take it easy, and are you able to carry a conversation?" Since I have been so high on my heart rate during my outings, I figured it would try again to focus on sticking between 132-143 bpm. I did it, I was in the right heart rate zone at an average if 142 bpm. I was shocked when I saw it. I guess getting winded early helped me to slow down and keep where I was aiming to be. Next week looks a little overwhelming with increasing to 5 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking for 2 days (2 minutes of walking for the first day). I will also be introducing cross training using the body weight exercise. I found from Nerd Fitness. That will be Monday during my lunch. I have also started to listen to a podcast Running Lean. That's really gotten me thinking more about the food I'm eating (combined with the lesson from Thursday where I ate fa

  Since it's me I'm comparing myself to, current me not past me, I think it's okay to say that I did some good work today. Today was 5 sets of 4 minute run / 1 minute walk. The first two were good, the third suffered from an incline, and the last two beat the crap out of me. But today was good. I had a crappy breakfast that felt like it was just a lump in my stomach. I guess I need some focus on fuel for my body to make sure that doesn't happen again.  I did get some stretching in before and I think that helped to make the first 15 minutes of being out there better. I really struggled with leg endurance while I was out there today. When I struggled to keep going my legs just felt like lead. It was hard to keep moving because they were just so heavy. I think that comes with increased difficulty of the run and continuing to work myself to my limits. I think I need a cheer squad to follow me when I run, just for those times my legs are feeling like lead but I need to push

It's Tuesday and I made it out to run, since I've not made it out on a Tuesday yet, it feels good. Today was 4 sets of 4 minute runs / 2 minute walks with a 3 minute warm up and cool down. I'm now sitting here trying to cool down. The first three 4 minute runs went well. They were slower because I didn't know how running 4 minutes without stopping would impact me. More about the last 4 minute run in the next paragraph. My first mile wasn't as draining as Saturday's was, so that's a win. While running I have opted out of listening to music/pod casts/books like I did when I ran previously. I'm trying it out to see if it helps me to be more in the moment while I'm out there. So far I think it's working, I am much more aware of my body and what it's doing out there. My self talk is actually heard, but the body doesn't always want to listen. Like today, I was 2 minutes into my last 4 minute run and I started saying to myself, "

Today I did not want to get out and put in my time. I intended on doing my 20% workout today but ended up just doing my regularly scheduled workout. I did 5 sets of 3 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. I could keep my heart rate down more which was excellent, and I still finished with the same distance as the past couple of runs. As I finished my time, I realized I had it in me to go further. But I knew my 30 minutes was up and it was time to stop and go and use the restroom. I pondered having some energy left in the tank for a bit and decided it's better to have that than be completely spent on my day off where I need to get some homework done.  I did experience what I used to when I ran years ago, the first mile sucked. I got to the 3/4 mile point and almost went home. My ankles hurt, my legs hurt, and I was tired. But I decided to keep going, and I'm glad I did. Today's run feels good now. It was shortly after the 3/4 mile mark that things started to feel bette

A lesson I learned a while back... and I wish I would have remembered when I was running yesterday is avoid running on cement as much as possible. For some people it may be alright, but myself it's not. By the end of my first half mile of running yesterday my low back was hurting to the point where I almost stopped, but as I transitioned to running on asphalt my back started to feel better. The slight give of asphalt is what I think made it so my back survived after that. Yeah this would have been better to write yesterday, but only reflecting on it now do I remember that valuable lesson. Post Afternoon Run Changed the data display on my watch to include heart rate, it kinda helped me stay at a lower heart rate. I was doing good until I got to the incline. It's a small incline that bumped my heart rate up and I couldn't get it down after that. The incline is right at the end of the first half mile. Since I am at 1.69 miles for my runs right now it k

Morning of 5/16/23 In my past 2 weeks of new experiences running, or previous experiences coming back to light, has led me to start watching some videos on YouTube and reading some running articles. They have been about the 80/20 training method. I am by no means an expert after having seen a few videos and read a little about it. This made sense to me though, the gist of it is you do 80% of your training in Zone 2 of your heart rate and 20% in Zones 3 - 5. Zone 2 is roughly between 75% - 80% of your max heart rate and is the fat burning zone. Max heart rate is 220 subtract your age according the the CDC. So for me at age 42, my max heart rate is 178 and my Zone 2 heart rate it roughly between 133 - 143.  After looking at my heart rate during my runs I saw that my heart rate was between 133 - 143 during a 0:15:00 - 0:16:00 minute mile. Which is slower than I have been running when it's time to run during my workout. So I am going to make that adjustment this week and see how I feel

Starting out yesterday, I had in my head it would be easy to wake up, get out there, and put some time in on the road. It was a glorious morning, and I slept in. Which isn't ideal, but that's what happened. I had to give up on running in the morning because it was just me and our little guy, and I wasn't ready to tackle a voyage with just the two of us. So I planned on running around 6ish. Fast forward to 5:30 pm when I tried to get out running in the neighborhood. I walked outside and panicked because there were people outside who could see me trot along at my slow-paced run/walk. I felt like all eyes were on me. So what did I do? Packed up the car with Silvia and our little guy and went to the nearby track at the JR. High just down the road. It's a track may of tarmac around a football field, so better than cement. I made it, and we started the training session.  The three-minute warm-up was complete, and time to start the 2-minute run followed by a 2-minute walk. The

My running schedule is Tuesday 6:30 pm, Thursday 6:30 pm, and Saturday 6:30 am. I plan on posting some time after each run. It may change as things do over time, but for now that's what I want to do. With these early work outs the important thing is the workout itself. Tuesday I ended up in bed sick and slept for 11 hours. So I thought I would be running the same schedule I did last week, but was still sick yesterday too. So the modified schedule is today (Thursday) @ 12:00 pm, and Saturday at 6:30 am.Then next week I will try for my scheduled times again. On a brief side note, our 5k that we were going to run on June 24th has been cancelled. So we will be doing the Firecracker Run in O'Fallon, MO on the 4th of July. My run today was through my neighborhood, it's the same route I ran on day 1 last week. I ran during my lunch break to avoid the heat of later in the day, which according the the forecast will be avoiding a downpour later in the day as well... just to spend my

It's been quite some time since I last posted anything. I didn't end up running the half marathon I thought I was going to. I didn't end up running at all for quite some time. Since I last posted I have moved to Missouri and tossed the idea of running around a couple of times, and it hasn't stuck. But here I am, at a new start. I'm out of shape and overweight. My lifestyle is low on movement, I work from home at a desk all day, and am mentally tired by the end of work.  It's time for a change. I know running helps me mentally to handle things better. I know that running helps to keep my weight down. I know I feel better about myself when I run. I know running helps with my creativity. All things I want to be a part of my life. Last time I started running to accomplish something big. This time I want more out of my life. So I went through and read some of my posts on this blog and saw someone who had more joy in their life. Someone with more vitality. I'm i