2 seconds over a half-marathon

That’s how much I improved my previous time by. Good motivation to keep going the next time I want to stop!

I did my second half-marathon within 72 hours today. (I once told Runner Susan two half-marathons over two Saturdays was overkill, but I'll have to eat my tail now.) I wasn’t really mentally prepared to go for the PR this time, but I decided to just run and see what happened. More than anything else, it was mentally challenging, but I’m glad I’ve done it now. I don’t really remember much of it, except that I stuck religiously to an 8 mins/mile pace, the first few miles felt uncomfortable (again), and apart from a quick detour home after 5 miles, I didn’t have anything to drink after that. I’m sure if I ever took part in a race I could run faster because of the water stops, but for a guy who doesn’t even consider himself much of a runner, half-marathons run under 2 hours are good enough. I think I'll leave that distance for a while, simply because the last three I've run have all been in the 1:46 - 1:48 range, and I'm satisfied with that. (Does anyone dare murmur, "P for Plateau?")

Have a good weekend, blog-mateys!

It's true, I'm fatter than I was last year

I ran 600 yards short of a half-marathon yesterday evening. Basically, I ran for 1:47:29, my best time over the distance, and then left it at that. I didn’t really feel comfortable until the eighth mile, as my stomach was probably still full of food, and it’s been a long time since I ran with a backpack, so I’m happy with how the whole thing went. In any case, that wasn’t the PR I was going for, but I needed a long run, wanted one, and got one. I also got rained on too. I’m glad I stretched after running, because there is a noticeable lack of muscle soreness, compared to the previous time I ran that distance.

The only downside to the whole experience is that I’ve been hungry all day. And the house is full of things like ice-cream, biscuits and cakes. Or was.

Burp.

I oink, therefore I ham (sorry, Meg)

Mrs Try and I ran for 30 minutes yesterday. Wifey hasn't run in over a year, until recently, but amazed me by running 9-minute miles on the third Sunday we've been running together. She says running is a phase she's going through. What a phase! It started drizzling and by the end of the run it was starting to get heavier, but that's okay.

Did some weights, pressups, squats, and crunches when we got back. Crunches aren't exactly my favourite exercise, but I figure if I do about 2 sets a day my running will get better.

This week, on paper, seems to be a good week for me. I'll have a few days to run properly without worrying too much about the constraints of work. It's definitely a week to go for things. I don't want to jinx it by mentioning the distances I'm going for, but it's definitely PR-setting time. Wish me luck!

It's Raining Ham

Ran 20, maybe 25 minutes yesterday during the lunch hour at work yesterday. I was supposed to meet some relatives from overseas in the evening for dinner, but they forgot. I’m not really bothered, except for the fact that I’d had to plan my running this week around their wavering timetable – on the days I have to take the train to work and then meet people in the evening, I don’t want to be carrying my shoes with me – so I was a bit miffed to have been messed around, even if people are coming from overseas. It sounds cruel and unappreciative, but I’m sorry, that’s just how I am. I like to at least know what I’m doing two days ahead, and I don’t like to be unnecessarily messed around.

Had a good run anyway. I discovered a relatively quiet route around the river. The only downside to it is that I don’t have the necessary technology to Garminize the distance run, but sometimes it’s not about the numbers, it’s about the personal time out.

Was intending to go running again this afternoon, but I think I would benefit more from weights and stretching – the latter especially. My hamstrings are tight and could do with some door-frame TLC. My knees have also started to remind me that I am just about in the red when it comes to our weekly mileage agreement, so best for them to have a rest.

In any case, it’s raining and looks to stay that way for a while, so that’s that.

I am reminded of Massoman’s quotes about rain, which I feel makes a lot of sense: “Rain is not for running in. I may finish in the rain, but that’s a different matter altogether.” (Or something to that extent.) I understand the need to work through discomfort, complacency, procrastination and things like that when it comes to running – you need to kick yourself out the door, run, and get used to lungs screaming “Oxygen!” and strive to run further – and I know adversity of any sort develops determination, tenacity and fortitude. But life, to me at least, isn’t about going through the wall all the time. I don’t believe in constantly challenging myself, to put myself under pressure all the time. There is a balance to be struck between extending yourself and keeping on the safe side. Sometimes you have to accept life’s limitations in whatever form they come by, without feeling you’re a procrastinating loser. If it’s raining heavily, some people might lace up, but I won’t, because I don’t see the need to risk catching a cold just to prove “I’m a rain runner.” And I won’t be bothered if people think I am soft, or say I have let the weather dictate my training. On some days I might go out just because I fancy running in the rain.

But today’s not one of those days.

And I am fine with that.

Think whatever you will.

Come hither, April

Of late it’s been frustrating to try to balance Time atop the four pillars of Hog-dom: Work, Family, Personal Time and Running. The balance has tilted heavily towards work, with the other three scrapping for the remaining time, usually resulting in one of the following consequences:

1) I’ve felt pressured to fit in a run within a certain amount of time. Side effects: Not enough time for stretching after, having to rush through a cool-down phase to get ready for work, running almost immediately after eating, etc.

2) Wifey returns home to find the house in a mess, because I’ve gone out to get my run in without clearing up first

3) I spend my time away from work with my family but feel frustrated because I’ve sacrificed running time

This morning when I got up I felt as if I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, and thought of cancelling work to have a day to recover. I’ve had times like these before in the last two months. But then I thought a day’s break from work means a day to make up later, and a day less from Spring break next month, so I grumpily went in. Furthermore, the problem was more a mental one than anything else, probably because I’m feeling the weeks of teaching; and I think the best to get through these mental states are just to do your normal things, work through them and wait for them to go away. Taking time to reflect on them only gives them unnecessary credence.

I had some time this evening and chose to run instead of using it on work, which means I won’t get to run again until Saturday, but I think that was the best option. I ran 5.1 miles first in 37:30, then stopped the watch and headed for a bit more, just to enjoy the time for myself. I don’t have the specifics, but since I started running at 6:03pm and finished at around 6:55, I must have eventually done 7 miles in under 7:30 per mile. Maybe I should aim to break my 10K time or my distance-in-one-hour time first.

Got home, dinner with Wifey, Commonwealth Games on TV. Screw the work. I’ll tilt the balance the other way. 3 out of 4 isn’t too bad.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Today was one of those days that make you fantasize about having a coffee-maker by the side of the bed; piping hot coffee within easy reach of an outstretched arm, steaming up the windows; caffeine flooding a semi-conscious body with each gulp – glug, glug, glug – so that your next step after sitting up is to bound out of bed and embrace life in all its fullness. The power of positive thinking didn’t seem to conjure up one for me, so I just got up and ran 3.5 miles at 6:45 pace. I didn’t realise at that time it was 6:45 pace, of course, but that explains why my feet didn’t want to go around another lap to make 5 miles. All in all I was satisfied to tick one item off a “to do” list.

It’s officially Spring and this weekend the clocks go forward. The theme song at the moment might as well be “Where have all the flowers gone?” Apparently it’s because this has been the coldest winter in 5 years on this side of the Atlantic. British Gas pounced on this statistic and a few months ago offered to peg its customers’ cost of gas at a certain rate for the next 5 years, and scare-mongered dozens of people into signing up. Of course, the pegged rate, unannounced at the time of signing, was suddenly upped by 22% from last year. Sign up and you're bonded to pay gas at this higher rate for the next 5 years. Sneaky, huh?

I’ve been thinking of incorporating long walks as part of training to do my sub-4. I know that might seem a bit pointless – why walk for 3-4 hours when you can possibly get better cardiovascular gains from running half that time? The plus side is that it means less pounding on the joints. While I want to get to 42K, I am unwilling to put that sort of pounding on the knees from those long runs. And personally I think that the barrier from 1/2M to M is more mental than physical - the body can go a lot longer than we think; and after carbo-loading, hydrating, and eating on the run, the only thing left is for the mind to get used to working for 4 hours or so. We'll have to see whether that works or not.

Useless trivia for the day: Where do sheep buy online? Ebaa.

Weekend recap

We ran for 30 minutes this afternoon. I was all for staying in, and it was Mrs Try that kicked us out to do some running. I guess some of the hog running magic must be rubbing off. We ran for a bit around our local park, then after a lap she decided it was too boring and we headed off elsewhere. There were a lot of runners in the park for a gloomy day, and this past week I’ve seen more people running outside, which is a bit of a surprise. After some stretching at home I did some ab work, weights and pressups.

My abs and hamstrings are my problem areas. Between the chest and hips there appears to be this area of peanut butter jelly, which, if I don’t address, I’m pretty sure will cause me to arch my back when I run and eventually develop back pains. I’ll need to stretch too, because tight hamstrings do the same thing – cause me to arch my back. Sometimes I think I’d benefit more from dropping one cardio session a week from my already miserable running schedule to work on abs and stretching, and while I’ve thought about it for some time, I find it hard to justify just running twice a week.

Spring break is coming soon (woo hoo!) in April and I’m excited. I’ve been looking forward to that since autumn. My goal for autumn and winter has just been to maintain some running activity, and I’ve achieved that; it’s during those ten days of spring break that I put more effort in running and start trying to improve my running times. Watch out! Pig about!

Just some thoughts on how to run a sub 4-hr marathon, based on my level of fitness:
1st hour: Run 12.395k
2nd hour: Run 11k
3rd hour: Run 10k
4th hour: Run 9k

Possible?

Weight a minute

I ran just under 3.5 miles at 7 mins/mile pace this morning before work. When I got up, work was on my mind and I thought, "I really have to complete the stuff I wanted to do" but somehow convinced myself it would have been better to get the once-every-other-day run out of the way first, and use the lunchbreak tomorrow (normally reserved for running) to do my work instead. I'm boring you with these details, I know, but this is Deskbound and Trying. Now that the run is out of the way, I feel better; probably the lack of guilt. And I'm happy I don't have to cart my running gear et al to work tomorrow. Yippee.

It's absolutely freezing here today. It was 32F when I ran and it hasn't passed 40 all day. I know it's probably worse in places across the Atlantic, but still, we've had a queer couple of days this week - ones that are sunny and fairly cold, followed by cloudy and cold, or rainy and warm. But never sunny and warm. I hope those days are on the way. In the meantime I'll dwell on the lighter days and stay happy. My SAD has been quite well-managed this year so far. I've had the odd crap week or two, but it's been better than it was last year. This time last year I was ready to butcher myself.

Did some pressups and weights on the days this week I didn't run. My increasingly favourite method for bicep curls is to use 10lb weights and do a slow 5- or 10-count on the way up and down for about 15-20 reps. I do about two or three sets. I find this works better than using heavier weights. Good for lack of muscle pain, bad for ego.

What weight exercises should runners do? What weights should they use? When I started training with weights, I lifted more like a bodybuilder - low reps, heavy weights. When I got tired of persistently aching shoulder pains I swapped to really light ones - 10lbs at the most. And to be honest, it didn't seem to make any difference to my running whether I did high reps, low reps, heavy weights, light weights, fast pace, slow pace. Either way, I ran like a pig. And a fat one too.

Can anyone offer any comments as to their weight training regiment? Many oinks!

So, what’s been going on lately?

Ran-walked 3.5 miles on Sunday afternoon with Mrs Try. I didn’t bother with the stopwatch – it wasn’t important. I know a guy at work who’s so driven by his desire to compete, when he plays Scrabble with students five decades younger than him to “have a break from normal lessons”, he even plays for them when they think they can’t put a word down, or when they put one that is worth few points down. I left the minutes-per-mile me at home.

I ran another 3.5 miles on my own this evening. I'm terribly glad now that the days are getting lighter for longer – I come home from work and it’s still nice and inviting to go for a run. A few weeks more and I might even go for early morning trots. Mrs Try calls me Solarman – when the sun’s out, I’m up because I can’t sleep any more. In the darker months, I’m as limp as a shrimp.

The plan for the next few weeks is to at least get some long runs in – just to illustrate the idea of relativity, by “long”, I mean anything from 5 miles onwards. I’ll also try some longer fartleks - run/jog at 1K intervals or something like that. I have goals I want to achieve, and while I know it is important, I don't want to tie myself to a fixed training schedule. I make it up as I go along. That makes the running fun. I’m happy to just trot along at 8 minute miles for 20 – 30 minutes; anything else is a bonus, although I still haven’t lost sight of that experiment to run a sub-4 marathon on less than 13 miles a week.

I heard it through the grapeswine that March / April is the blogging transition period. One traditional train of thought is that bloggers, fresh from achieving their winter goals, find they have nothing more to blog about. Another is that bloggers pile on more engagements – work, social and otherwise – in the spring when the weather is nicer and hence have less time to blog. A third believes that bloggers get bored staying in front of the computer screen when the weather is better and decide to head outside. Are any of these you?

Balancing

I ran for about 25 minutes in between lessons yesterday - that was all I could afford, I'm afraid. I waited until the students had gone to their classes during my "free", then headed out for an out-and-back by the river before the next lesson started. I had a huge tailwind behind me on the "out" - "Woo hoo, I'm flying!" - and ran a lot further than I would normally have done. On the "back" it was more a case of "Heck, this much more to run back, and with a headwind too?"

I like being a closet runner at work. I prefer it if few people know about it. Running, in a weird sort of way, is a kind of personal joy, and I’d like to keep it to myself. So while I’m at work I try to run when pupils are having lessons or assemblies, so I can remain fairly unnoticed. One colleague, however, did discover why I’ve never appeared at the dining hall for the free school lunches – not hard when you’re getting ready and have a sock on one foot and a Nike on the other. Somehow we got briefly talking about marathons as she herself was training to run one. I explained that marathons, to me, seemed somewhat romanticized in public opinion, and said I couldn’t really understand why people viewed them as the epitome of distance running, when there are triathlons, 100-milers, 24-hour races, where people have to keep moving for longer. In light of these more gruelling races, a marathon doesn’t seem like much to crow about. (I think I might have unintentionally poured cold water on her burning ambition.) I also explained that I preferred half-marathons, as I can run that distance on a free morning or afternoon, and I didn’t really want to commit any more time to running than I already am, because, well, I have to work, and I also want to spend time with family. And some days I just don’t want to run, even though I have the time, because I want to do other things.

The balance between work, family, and personal wants/wishes is a tricky one. Time is a limited commodity that has to be spread among many areas, but how do we use it satisfactorily? If I have a busier time at work, and need to put in more hours there to get tasks over and done with, so I can spend time with family and on my own interests, how do I reconcile it with the fact that I will, in the first place, have to spend less time on my interests and sacrifice family time so I can get the work over and done with? If I’ve had a busy week at work, and have had to sacrifice family time, and also feel miserable because I haven’t run, would it seem selfish, if I unexpectedly had two hours free, to go running instead of spending time with family? If I opt not to run in order to spend time with my family, how do I deal with thoughts of "How can you expect to make others happy, if you yourself aren't happy?"

I try to keep my priorities in the order of family, work and exercise, which means when things get busy around here, running gets shelved. I know some people would consider that making excuses – “If you were really committed you’d get up at 4:30 in the morning to run” – but if that means feeling tired in the evenings and compromising family time then I’m willing to put running on the back burner for a little while. And sometimes I think it is worthwhile remembering that if you do have time to run, sometimes it is because that your family is pulling a bit more of the load to enable you to do the things you want to do.

Balancing is hard. I hope everyone finds their own balance. Don’t just live strong, live happy too.

Blogger peer-pressure

Ran about 6K today. I didn't really care about the distance, just about getting out. It's been busy this week for me, and today it was raining as well, but after trying to get my heart rate up whilst indoors I decided rain or no rain, I was going out to run. Ran at what felt like 8 mins/mile pace - and I hope that's what it was, otherwise I'm truly forming a Michelin around my waist.

I had some other motivation to go running too. The common conception of blogging is that it's a waste of time, but today the thought of having nothing to post about, and leaving the blog blank for another day, was good incentive to get out and get a run in - not to mention the fear of disdain from my fellow blogmates. So if you're reading this, thanks very much for helping me out!

Tis the season to be runny

I ran what I later discovered to be 10K on early Sunday morning, and somewhere around 5.5K this afternoon during lunch break. Running is therapeutic, and while things are still a little hectic, and I'm still feeling "ok-ly crap", it was at least nice to get out and forget about work for a while. I wasn't too concerned about distance run, or timings - when you're harassed by deadlines and expectations, the last thing you want to do is impose some more on yourself, and on the activity you do to escape it all. I was just happy to get out and run. I've never before in my life put in this many runs during the colder months.

It's still cold though, but at least when I leave for work in the mornings it's bright, and some days it's quite sunny. Late winter/early spring is a strange time of year. I view every season differently. Autumn is the time I gear up for increasingly colder and darker days. Winter is the time I'm thankful that the days are brighter, even though they get colder. Summer is the time it gets hot and muggy. I'm not quite sure about this time of year yet. At the moment late Winter/early Spring is when "it looks sunny but feels cold".

How do you view the seasons?

This would have been an okay week if not for...

Work (i)
I’ve to prepare music theory assignments for students, as many of them come to learn a keyboard instrument without any music basics. (How it would help those who don’t know that the missing letter in the sequence C, D, __ , F is E, I don’t know, but I digress.) The thing is that it’s quite a big project, and I’ve shelved my exercise in order to get this thing over and done with, but it's of course taken longer than expected. I’ve set goals for various stages of the project, but each time I reach one, I want to go for the next one – over-ambitious ass. Anyway, the bottom line is I haven’t exercised since Monday, which is not good. Not just over-ambitious ass, but fat ass too.

Work (ii)
One of the summer schools I applied to teach at is really messing me around. It’s been a month since I interviewed with them, and I’m still waiting to hear if they accept me or not. Yesterday they said they had forgotten to request references, so that will lengthen the waiting time. If I didn’t really like the job and its working hours I would have dumped them for another school that offered less pay but made me an offer the day after my interview. Surely to wait one month (and counting) for an answer is ridiculous???

Cold Weather…
which has given me cracked skin around my feet and fingers (that I can remedy), and also surrounded me with people that seem to use weather for an excuse for anything (that I can’t remedy). “Oh, why is it so cold all the time?” “The students study and behave better when it’s warmer.” “I haven't done my homework again because I’m really tired …”

PMS
I swear, 50% of PMS victims are really the men.


Remember when you were younger (well… most of you can, hahaha) and all you wanted to do was lock yourself in your room and only come out when you felt like it? That’s how I feel like most days. I could really do with a break, but Mrs Try is – well, was really, before the stress of hosting set in – looking forward to her folks coming to visit this weekend. Which isn’t really as bad as I make it out to be, but I don't really want to spend the weekend talking stuff like “when did you last upgrade your motherboard”, discussing the technical specifications of the latest DVD re-writeables, weather-chat, or listen to play-by-play recounts of a homemaker’s diary. (By the way, that is why my profile pic is that of a pig; otherwise, I’d be nailed.)

One of the things that has helped me has been to continually go back to something or a situation that’s been relatively safe – for me, it’s been to mentally escape to a time in my teenage years (I can sense even the most hardcore readers of this blog starting to DNF here) when I used to cycle on this long track by the beach. There would be busier sections where there were lots of people, but as this track progressed into the less populated areas there would be fewer joggers, then fewer cyclists, and after a few miles you would be the only person around. By the time you got to the turnaround, you were more than ready to face the world again.

Maybe I should go for a long run one of these days.