Running Giant: My Journey

Total Miles for the Week: 14.15 of 16 So today was different, I didn't have any apprehension about running 6 miles until about 10 minutes before i started today. I am happy to say I did more running (slower than I would have liked, but I did run) than I did walking. The first 2 miles were hell. I worked my way up hill and started at too fast of a pace to finish it in a good amount of time. I stretched in the shower before I left to run, hoping that would be enough. I need to get out my sports massage and stretching books from massage school and redesign my stretching so it works better for what I'm doing. Today was the first time my IT band started to hurt some, I'll need to address that too. So I posted I would be trying gel for the first time today as I ran. I didn't expect what hit my mouth as I was squeezing it in. I laughed after I had it. If you have never had gel (quick caffeine and carbs as you run, in a handy pouch). I took it when I reached the thr...

I ran this morning, it was a nice run. I used the suggested outline for running in Runner's World magazine. Since I'm a runner now, I read things like Runner's World, it only makes sense. It was a section on doing the long run. Today was a short run, but I used a principle in the section to do the run. The principle was to run 10 minutes, then walk 2. I modified to to fit the troubles I have been having and turned it into run 1 mile, walk 2 minutes. So I was able to do that twice, then finish with a 5 minute cool down. Today was the first run this week I actually had fun running. It was on a treadmill but that doesn't matter it was fun. Tomorrow morning I will be going up the canyon and run home. I will aim to do what I did today, run 1 mile walk two minutes. With the run a mile and walk 2 minutes I also decreased my pace to just around 13 minutes. I was never winded, and when ever my legs started to bother me I used a phrase from my training book, but it doesn...

Last night I wake up around 3 am and couldn't fall back to sleep for nearly 2 hours. Then adding school into the running mix has been exhausting this week. I am going to go out right now and run and it looks like to the gym I go. I will add an incline to my run in hopes to better prepare for that. It is 4 miles and will be about 45-55 minutes to get it knocked out for the day. Then home to shower and back to school for my afternoon class, then I will take my sketchbook and do about 20 thumbnails for my assignment in narrative illustration, then have some fun for the evening playing games (since I don't have the homework load this first week of school). So I was able to make it two miles before I was struggling to keep up with the treadmill. I may have my wife drop me off up the in the canyon tomorrow morning and turn my Thursday into a 4 mile  morning. That would work really well. Today I am leaving it where it is and moving forward to tomorrow. I believe that's the ...

Today was a short run that turned long. I neglected to stretch before hand and my body didn't like what I was doing because of that. So my run today should have taken me around 40 minutes to finish, if I were on a treadmill. It's funny how much I dislike the treadmill is now becoming how I miss it because it is easier than running up inclines and on uneven ground. I started out my run today at a slow pace to warm up a little, and then went up to my gym running speed (somehow forgetting that the first half of my outdoor runs are all up hill). My calves started to feel like they were on fire, so I made if a half mile. Not having a moving belt under my feet makes it a little harder to keep running, because if I slow down to a walk, I don't have to adjust the speed, or run the risk of doing something silly like falling off the treadmill. Today before my run and after my days of classes (first day of school for the fall semester at UVU) I went to the Runner's C...

I modified a couple of things on my blog here. Background image is the Provo River Parkway Trail. I do my run uphill then down hill back to the parking lot at the mouth of the canyon. It's where I am doing my outdoor runs as well as where the Provo Halloween Half Marathon is going to be. I took the photo this evening, it's of the bend on the path that I stopped at just before my 2.5 mile turn around point that I was aiming at getting to before a walking and water break. I changed the name of my blog to be something more personal and reflect what this blog really is. I added a countdown clock which is kinda fun and keeps things in perspective. I hope you like it as much as I do

Initially my run today was going to a drop off at a park 5 miles away and run home (almost all down hill). But I woke up a half hour too late to do that. So I drove up to the popular entrance to the running/biking paved trail in Provo Canyon. I averaged a really slow mile and would like to say it was because I was going up hill, but that's not a solid reason. I stopped to walk too many times. But because of today I have decided to run outside (only on the treadmill when the weather is too severe to run outside or I am feeling especially lazy). The reason for the change to out door running is because I am running a marathon outdoors, I am running a half marathon outdoors, and I am running 2 or more 5k's outdoors. So why use the treadmill as a crutch. It will be a little of a learning curve to run outside, but I believe I can do it. Also the weather is cooling down so those 100 degree days won't be happening. With doing 5 miles today I was full of doubt for the firs...

Today was a hard run. I have found if I run hard on Wednesday that my Thursday is a bit tougher. But I did something I have never done before which is kinda cool. I increased speed on my third mile (by a second) compared to my second mile. Mile 1- 12:39 Mile 2- 13:45 Mile 3- 13:44 I am still having a hard time with the internal dialogue when running the first 20 minutes, but I found a trick that helped on the last 6 minutes. Take it one minute at a time. I was at 30 min of running and decided to do a 2 minute run 1 minute walk to finish off my last mile. I got to 31 minutes and said to myself, "It's only a minute more, why don't you push it to 35 minutes. I then repeated the process until 37 minutes, took a 1 minute break and then pumped up the speed to 6 mph. After running with the smaller stride of me going 4.9 mph, the longer strides were a welcome change. With these blog posts they are serving as an accountability journal. I also look forward to s...

Today was the first day I asked myself, "What the hell am I doing?" Then I kept running. I am very tired right now. I made it through my first 4 miler. I found that my legs got a little wobbly about 3.5 miles into it. During the entire run my legs only got really tired that once, I found that the lack of mental discipline in running had a big impact on how long I can run. I did an indoor run today because I didn't make it out this morning, and it was around 80 degrees when I made it out to run. My mile times were: 1 - 13:00 2 - 13:54 3 - 13:30 4 - 14:30ish 5 min cool down I will admit I am not looking forward to my Saturday run at this point in time, but I need to correct that thought process. The chapter my training guide is about thought. It's really a good book. I have it on my iPad as well as a hard copy and for anyone who is starting running and wants a good beginning training guide this book seems solid (The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer). H...

Today I barely made three miles. I shouldn't have taken Saturday off from running. I would have felt so much better if I hadn't. I did my three miles for my first official short run. It was frustrating. Have you ever started running and all the sudden you have to use the restroom, and it takes up every thought and you are unable to go full out? Well that was my run today. Next time I will just take a few minutes and use the restroom, and get back to running. I look back and shake my head wondering what I was thinking as I was on the treadmill, and it's obvious I wasn't , but I am working at it. Last week I was in Missouri and had two lackluster runs and one awesome run. Saturday I justified my way out of running because I was on my feet for three days. I really regret that I didn't give it my all. This week here's my run schedule. Today: 3 Miles Wednesday: 4 Miles Outside Thursday: 3 Miles Treadmill Saturday: 5 Miles Outside Next week I start sc...

8-12-13 Goal: 3 Actual: 1.33 RPE: 2.5 I cut my run short to get ready for my flight, make breakfast, and do the dishes before I left. Today: Goal: 3 Actual: 3+ RPE: 4 Today was a good run. I set three new PR's (the joys of running at 4500 ft lower elevation than usual). My new mile PR: 11:55 2 mile PR: 24:15 3 mile PR: 36:50 I ran for 26 minutes uninterrupted (accept for the time I accidentally hit stop), then a 4 min. quick walk, followed by 6 min. running. I did it at the YMCA and feel really good about my run. Tomorrow may be a shorter run again because I am waking up at 4 am to drive to Gen Com in Indianapolis from St. Louis. Well until next time...

Today is unusual for me. I am sitting here in bed typing up a post on my iPad instead of my trusty laptop. I am doing that for two reasons. First I am avoiding getting ready for the day, which would mean walking around the house, and more painfully walking down the stairs. My wife is getting things organized for her church calling downstairs and by me being up here it means it's less likely I will be asked to cover for someone who isn't there... but chances are I will cover for someone. The main reason I am typing in bed is because my legs are really bothering me. I even got a massage last night and it still feels like there are hot irons in my calves. I really wish I had some bio-freeze. It just smells like healing. I will put on this lotion called deep blue that my wife gets and call it good as I get in the shower and make my way down stairs to do the dishes, and make a checklist to make sure everything is packed for heading to St. Louis Monday then to Indianapolis later next...

Some things you may not know about me that may help you to get to know me more. I go by my middle name, Riley not my first name James I like gadgets I like to create art, stories, games, or even lunch (but I will let someone else make that for me today) My wife and I will have been married 8 years come the end of October I am a full time student (studying Illustrations, it's what I want to do when I grow up in conjuctions with making table top games) I love Indian food My wife and I have no kids at this point in time I like to ride my bike with its monsterous 29" wheels I am new to running I will be completing a marathon December 7th! I will be completing a half marathon October 26th! I will be finishing my second 5k September 2nd! Today I did my second run outside. The temperature my phone said was 64°f, I swear if started that but reached well above that. Today was a slower paced run than the past two runs, and that's ok because I am understandi...

This morning I had my treadmill test. I thought they would attach a tube to monitor my breathing as well when I got on their Treadmill of DEATH! I didn't even make it 9 minutes, I did almost 8 minutes before I wasn't able to breath. The treadmill was really cool and designed to push the heart of the person walking on it. My blood pressure got to 200/40 right before they stopped it (it returned to normal fairly quickly. From what it sounded like my heart was ok, but I will know more tomorrow. This still doesn't solve why my breathing is so bad, unless he sees something that is causing it in my test results. So after the Treadmill of Death I wanted to feel better about my abilities when it comes to running. So I went to the gym and got on the nice treadmill of happy no incline land and started with a brisk walk that turne into my Clydesdale trot. Mile 1: 12.53 Mile 2: 12.39 Mile 3: 14.28 (Half a mile walk half a mile run) I ran 2 miles non stop again, whic...

So today was my first outside run. I didn't like it too much, but I will be doing more so I had better start liking it and quick. It's about 5 hours after my run and I am still feeling it. My legs are a little wobbly and I'm a bit jittery, which I think is due to a new supplement I tried (that had a lot of caffeine apparently). Here's why I didn't like the run outside, I can go faster on a treadmill. That's the whole reason, it's kinda lame. When I went out to run it was mid 70's, cloud cover and windy. So the conditions were nice. The first mile and a half was all into the wind. The last part every time the wind picked up the little voice inside my head kept saying, "The wind is here to help you, start running again." I gave into the little runner in my head a couple of times between my little rewards of walking after I accomplished a distance goal running. I also started using a little mantra, "Come on Slim Jim, you can do this!...

 Mastering the selfie (picture of me while hoding my camera in front of me) is something I am learning to do as I this blog. Today was a day that will go down in history of my selfies, I caught myself unaware. Just look at the expression on that face, it looks like I am going to chase away a member of the Paparazzi. Onto better things. I finished my run about an hour ago, it was a hard run, but I feel better because of it. I did 15 minutes of non stop running took an eight minute fast walking break (Run was at an average of 4.7ish mph, walk was at 3.7) then picked up and rand again for just over five minutes, walked another five then ran the remainder. It wsn't my best running day, but that's ok. I will be trying a couple of new things this week. The first is running outside for 3 miles. I have an awesome app on my iPad that lets me make running routs along trails and roads. So I have planned out a 3 mile loop that is quiet in the morning. I will need to run in the morning...

My First 5k Me pre-race (the sun glasses block the anxiety) Packet  Contents (Minus the window scraper I left in my car) So I showed up this morning at 7:30 to get ready for the race. The anxiety of all the people started to hit me first as I thought to myself, what the hell am I doing here I'm not a runner...  So I freaked out as I did less than sufficient stretching and looked around. The only people I recognized were the employees from the running store I go to. So skip forward 20 minutes and here I am getting pictures taken by my wife and making my way to the starting line after 10k runners start. There are around 150ish people (maybe less), a surprising amount of pregnant women pushing strollers, and kids running with mom or dad. The gun fires and we all take off (me at methodical trot, or at least I think I was going at the right pace, I had no clue. So I continued that way for around 3/4 a mile, and started wheezing, which leads me to my first lesson learne...

So what do I say today... Ok here goes.  My run today I did two miles in 25 min 40 sec. So my First mile was 0:12:55, my second was 0:12:45, my third was 0:14:15. I was stoke, I finished my first two miles with a couple of 30 sec. pauses because my lungs were fighting me. When I got to around 20 minutes and stepped off to catch my breath, it was so hard to start running again, but I got back and kept going. I feel like I am ready enough for running in a 5k Saturday. Here's a funny story that concluded all of 5 seconds ago. Earlier this week I decided I needed to find my Polar heart rate monitor. So I tore apart our second bedroom (which has all of my art supplies). The rom was taken apart. I searched through any drawer it might be in, any bookshelf, and nook, andy cranny, and everywhere else. Then today as I am sitting in my comfy chair I stretched to reach for my glasses which should have been behind me. I thought I would find what I was looking for (I wasn't looki...