Running to What End

Thanks, Brian! I was glad to do the run. Good job to you as well!

After a couple of weeks off, I ran again today. It was really terrific. I didn't push for distance, but
ran a nice, relatively effortless 4k in the brilliant moonlight of October. Somehow, my iPod has vanished. I suspect a two year old is somehow implicated, but perhaps I lost it as a symbolic gesture closing off the season.
The experience has made me think about the instrumental quality of running. I have a preference for not driving my performance with short term goals, and would rather run because I find it enjoyable, or because it is good for me in the long term, and I want to continue to be around in light of a ferocious family history with heart disease. Even these goals, however, feel like long-term versions of the short term goals. Some part of me wants to be entirely driven by a more qualitative consideration, such as running lends a thoughtful tenor to my day. Another part of me wonders what my real objection is to considering this activity as a means to an end.

Way to go Bill!

Good job Bill, on the big 5k! I didn't realize you were doing one so large. It is a very surreal experience being in such a crowd, running along.

I got my steroid shot in the foot last week so I am off running for a week or so. I think my next goal might be a 10k in the spring. I'll have to look one up to see. I ran 5k last week before the shot, and things were still ok. Hopefully my plantar fascia injury goes away now!

The official 5k!

Phew! Tougher than I expected, with a decent range of elevation over long spaces, but I got wrapped up in about 33'. A very lovely ending, with the steepest decline in the entire race, and a curve. You can almost here the Chariots of Fire song.

A lot of interesting dimensions to running with such a big group of people... the sing the Star Spangled Banner, fire the shot, and everyone stands still. The front of the pack pulls out and creates a bit of space, with the fast runners passing up those they can, and the whole pack attenuates over the first few minutes. I think I walked the first block.

Just in general, too, it's pretty remarkable to see the range of people running. Some clearly terribly out of shape, some in amazing shape, old and young, pregnant and pushing strollers. No bananas that I saw, but with something like 7000 people, I might have missed her. When the pack does start to spread, there is the interesting experience of simultaneously passing people up and being passed. I would say, too, that being surrounded by a relatively dense pack was disorienting with respect to pacing myself. I couldn't tell if I was running faster than my normal moderate pace. I guess with roughly 11' miles, I couldn't have been going that fast!

In any case, it was good to have done it!

Drip drop

I so feel like complaining! :) I've had vague but increasingly definite sore throat for a few days, and just in general feeling run down. Blah. Perhaps I'm catching a cold, or one of those 48 hr. tumors. It's funny how the same run can seem better or worse depending on the day, context, and expectations. A couple of days, I ran from our mechanics back to Natalie's office. It was a pretty nice run, even though it's virtually all up hill. The day before, I think, I did my longer old run and didn't find it nearly as challenging as I remember it being. So today, in the rain and with icky cold symptoms, my lower legs both hurt from the hills and my energy level was flatlined.

I think that I won't run tomorrow, and give my body a chance to rest a bit more before Sunday. I'm kind of looking forward to it. What does the chip look like, I wonder. What number will I be? (1729, perhaps... not an interesting number, I think.)

A pretty nice morning

I feel kinda sad that I didn't actually run yesterday, but I made up for this morning with a nice 5.5k, which is actually remarkably like the run that I used to do when I was running a few years ago (pre-child.) Remarkably, at least on this day and in the wee hours of the morn, it doesn't seem nearly so bad as it once did, which I think speaks to some progress over these last few months.
It's been remarkably nice, too, to have this common way of recording progress along with Brian, and to have been making progress is rough parallel! Thanks, Brian, for taking the initiative to set all this up, and for allowing me to come along for the ride! I'm proud of you and your persistence!
I've been listening to the Zencast podcast, which has been fun. One of them finished up in the middle of the run and rather than starting another right away, I put the iPod away for a little while. It really is quite striking how different it is to run! I'm not sure I would say it was any easier, or harder, but the mind goes to different places. I think I appreciated the wonderful houses along parts of my route more today, and certainly the incest fauna. Perhaps, as with all things, a balance is called for?

5k and going strong

Here are some pictures from the race. I came in a bit over 29 minutes by my clock, but I'll find the official time later. There were over 6000 people in this race, which is pretty crazy, but I wasn't last. Also, I beat the guy dressed up as a banana. :)

Big race day!

In 1/2 hr I am going into Providence to race in the 5k. I already went in this morning, around 7, to pick up my tee-shirt, my timing chip, and my number. Already, they were blocking off roads, and it felt a little weird to have all sorts of volunteers wishing me good luck on the race.

Tomorrow is the big day!

So here I am, after 4 months of training, still recovering from my plantar fascia injury, but going strong. 11am tomorrow I will begin the race, with my goal to finish it. :)

Looking back over the blog, I can really appreciate how far I've come. I've had a lot of childhood baggage to overcome, and tomorrow I am going to surmount it in style! I've heard that there are 3000+ people running in tomorrow's 5k, so I imagine that Bill will have a slightly lonelier run than I.

On Thursday I get my steroid shot for my foot to hopefully put the last of the plantar behind me. Then I have to break for a week from running, and I have to decide what my next goal will be. Perhaps a 10k in the spring, or something else...not sure yet.

Tough Run

I actually did the perfect 5.5k that I was glowing about the other day. Not perfect! It took me 40 minutes since there were so many hills that I had to walk. Yucky general pain in my left leg... kind of demoralizing.

Perhaps after the Great Race, I'll move to cycling!

Oh, and btw

The site that Brian used a little bit ago, gmap-pedometer.com, also has a widget to create real topo maps. It looks like they're linked up with hand drawn but geo-rectified county survey maps. The street names are written in with surveyor handwriting, and there are what look to be pencil drawn lines. A quick look suggests that perhaps I don't live in the hilliest part of the city. :) Is a bit frustrating... I wish all of these map sites would allow you to use a much larger part of your screen. It's sometimes like looking at a Rand-McNally atlas through a small rectangular hole.

Perfect Route?

How wonderful. Just a week or so before the collective 5k's, I think I found the perfect route. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2271462
It's about 5.5k and spans only 50 feet, although there are a few steep spots. Oh, wait. That's meters. Damn. Well, about 200 feet of elevation changes. In any case, relatively flat for the area, which is quite nice. It goes along a little park for a bit, and through small residential streets for almost the entirety, giving me some nice time to listen to podcasts. (I'm working my way through the ValuesHacker series, which is sort of the Cartalk guys doing philosophy.)

Well, it's still dark, but everyone in the house should be up soon, which is kind of weird. I guess that winter is coming. I'm starting to think about what to do to stay in shape afterward. Turns out that I've lost very little weight in this process, possibly because I haven't been consistent enough, but that I feel better generally. Perhaps it's one of those things where I picked up some muscle mass in exchange for some weight, possibly. In any case, work has a little weight/training room that I can use for about 15/month ; maybe that would make sense.

Looking forward to this weekend. Natalie's uncle Taras and Clara, a lovely pair, are in town starting tomorrow. Lots of possible activities, but the highlight really is to get them together with Hazel and to expand her circle a bit. :)

A very wet 5 miles

7 days until the 5k!

Today, I did my weekend run, which is the long one, and I ran 5 miles. It was made a bit more challenging because it was pouring rain. Yuck! By the end I felt it was made more challenging by the amount of extra weight, in water, that I was carrying around. :)

Off and On again

I was sick for a bit this past week, so I stopped running for about a week. After the 5-miler, I did 2 runs of 2 miles in the morning (which works well with my schedule), and then did a 2-miler this morning. Tomorrow I plan to do another 2-miler, and then another 5 on Sunday.

10 days until the 5k!

Great Race et al.

Couple of miles... thank god, I've gotten through the anti-procrastination book I was reading. (The Now Habit.) Lots of good ideas but the writing style could kill an elephant. :) Today, I was back to the Alabama 3. I don't think I ever realized that the Sopranos theme is about suicide before today.

So, I went out to find a race on the 21st without much luck in Pittsburgh. Perhaps I
ll do my own little course with Brian on the 21st. On the other hand, the following weekend is the Great Race, which is a big Pittsburgh event every year! I had no idea it was so late. How exciting! In the past, I've just gone out to cheer strangers on, and it might be more fun to run it. Question is whether to do the 5k or 10k. Turns out to be downhill, on average, and just over six miles. Think I probably won't go that way, since it really wasn't the training goal.

5 miles today!

I took a break for a few days to catch up on some sleep, and then this morning ran 5 miles, my longest yet. Pretty tired afterward, but I made it. I even got to see some road I have never been on. At the end of the road that I typically run, it seems to turn into fields and farmland, with stone walls. Pretty neat!

My schedule seems to be about every other day. During the week I am doing 2 miles, but trying to run them quickly. On the weekend I plan to do the longer runs.

It's official!

I signed up for the CVS 5k Run/Walk which you can get to here: http://www.cvsdowntown5k.com/

I mapped the run, which you can get to here:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/ri/providence/867866345038

All set for Sep 21!

Stretch, Run, Rest

Stretch day Monday, Run 3 mi, Rest today (because my feet/calves hurt on Tuesday most of the day). Tomorrow I think I'll run another 3 mi, as I figure out what works in my time-schedule. Short post...kids to bed now...

Growing the run

I've found that, while the 2 mile run that I usually do has become easier (hills and all) and I feel that I've definitely built some strength, that actually running a reasonable distance takes getting up earlier. Now, in particular, with the light coming later, it's getting harder to do that! Gripe gripe gripe. Feeling emotionally blah. Today, my shin hurt... it's the same vague pain that can get fairly intense, that goes all the way back to when I used to run in high school, but was injured a bit jumping out of the way of a truck. At that time, I thought I might have broken my leg, although nothing showed up on x-rays, but since that time, I've often been at least vaguely plagued with pain in the same spot. Perhaps that's a matter that can be served by stretching?

OK. It's getting late. Time to get everyone up.

An "easy" 2 mi

So, in my schedule it says to do an "easy" 2 mi (or 20-30 minutes). I was pleasantly surprised that it *was* easy, despite an initial soreness. Tomorrow is rest day, but I plan on getting up a the same time, and doing stretches, etc...

A rest, and a good run

I think I missed posting earlier in the week, but then I took several days off mostly due to later nights than usual (baseball game, fantasy football draft, guests, etc...). This morning I ran a bit over 4.3 mi. Unfortunately, continuing on the same road as I've been doing, there are no landmarks for a while, so it's hard to tell how far. I need to redo part of the route.

1 month to the 5k!

Erratum

Oh, and I realized that my earlier post on 7/25 claimed that veloroutes.com was the site I used, when it was actually veloroutes.org. Apologies to all inconvienced and all that. (I've gone back and retroactively retracted the error.

Checking in

Things have been busy on the home front. Natalie and I recently saw off my brother, Bob's, family after a visit of almost a week, and before that it seemed like quite a long time with a sick child. Running had fallen by the way side for a bit, but having Bob over really helped get back into it, running a couple of miles a day. So, I've gotten through all of the Long Now lectures that I had downloaded some time back, and now I'm listening to the book that Goldstein did in cahoots with the Dalai Lama on destructive emotions. Interesting stuff. I have to say that, in cases like this when a spiritual figure is involved with talking about the scientific basis of their work, I am immediate suspicious, which is fun to watch as I listen. That said, some of the findings that they've described have been quite interesting and have encouraged me to revisit that other healthful, lapsed habit, meditation.
Love that diagram that you did last time, Brian. How did you do it? Visio? Or the open source equivalent?

Yesterday 4.3 mi...a little sore today..but feeling fine

A good run...5k

Felt good running today. I powered through more than 1/2 of the 5k, before downgrading to my slow "maintenance" run for the rest of the run. I'd love to get up to 5 miles, with 3 or so not feeling too bad, so that when I do my 5k in mid-september it will not be an overwhelming challenge.

My foot has been feeling better each day, but I will see how it goes as I increase back to a normal running schedule. I haven't had a running schedule for more than a week or two in a long time, so I guess time will tell.

Recovering from a cold

First run today after the last post, as I recover from a cold. I ran 2 miles, and it was a challenge. I need to build myself back up to over 3! The weather is getting cooler in the morning, and there was fog on the field in the park which was pretty neat to see.

Night splits, heel lifts and ice...oh my!

So I have a night splint, to keep my plantar from relaxing too much at night and getting inflamed, and I have heel lifts to support my foot as I recover.  I am icing and motrining and such, but I did run 2 miles yesterday (which I planned to do...I had a late start).  Another run tomorrow to see if I can get back up to 3.5 or more.  

I am now planning on running the 5k on September 21 found here:  http://www.cvsdowntown5k.com/

I'd like to get up to 5 miles, so that 3.1 won't seem so terrible!

Doctor tomorrow and bad run today...

I ran 2.5 of my 3.5 planned run (and then walked back in pain the last mile).  I refused to take motrin ahead of time, and it really showed!  I am glad to be going to the foot doctor tomorrow, so hopefully I will fix the problems that have been plaguing me, before I start on my school schedule.

3.5mi and going strong

I did 3.5 mi today, although I think I look like walking death at the end of my run.  I'd like to get up to 5 mi, so that a 5k won't be so bad.  My foot is off and on in terms of pain.  Rest day tomorrow...

Another 5k

I ran another 5k today, and plan to try to run 3.5 mi tomorrow.  My foot was feeling fine most of the day, although occasionally I get the calf twinge, and if I am off my feet for a while, it hurts when I stand and start to walk.  I want to make sure that at my doctor's appointment there is something there to look at.  :)

Elevation

From http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ I get the following elevation map for the 5k I ran (1.51 mi there and back, thus the symmetry)

Lousy run... :(

I took a week off, to see if my foot would get better.  My first run was today, and I was stopped after 1 mile and walked back, because of my injury.  What's new right now is a peculiar cramp in my calf, which I am certain is a by-product of the plantar fascia injury, where the calf seems "weak"...it doesn't support weight well.  Weird!  Most of the time I don't feel it, more than a twinge, and I am not sure whether it is because of over compensating for my foot, or something else.  At any rate, I am going to see a podiatrist next week to get a clear answer, and hopefully a solution.

I tried to get my altitude on the website you posted, Bill, but it wouldn't give me altitude information.  I guess Rhode Island is a little too flat.  :)

Oops..

OK... so apparently my calculations from the last route weren't very accurate. It seems now to be 4.2 miles or 6.7 kilometers. In fact, if it were the 3.8 miles I thought it was, that would be 6.11 kilometers rather than 4.8. I probably should have noticed that, but was so deep in a pit of despair that it eluded me.

On the negative side, I still can't actually run that route. One of the things that I found on veloroutes.com that was really interesting was that it actually will give you a "profile" of the elevation of your routes, which is pretty nice.
This, for example, is the profile for this route. I think the grade might be somewhat exaggerated, but you can probably guess what the hard part is. It's really really tough to run that continuously. But it also gives a nice way to visualize what part of the route is actually useful from the perspective of steady-state endurance. That's actually the first part along Voelkel St., which turns out to be a relatively low grade way of getting farther West. Maybe I should just run little laps on that leg. :)

I'm about done with the Long Now lectures that I've downloaded so far. The last one was by anthropologist Steven Lansing, and explored the complex adaptive systems dynamics of the Bali irrigation systems. It was a fascinating and somewhat demoralizing critique of the "5 year program" approach to resource management. Highly recommended! http://fora.tv/2006/02/13/J__Stephen_Lansing_A_Thousand_Years_in_Bali

Blechy run...

Tough run. Inspired by Brian's run, I decided to try the run that I used to do, years back, as my regular run. It's about 3.8 miles (4.8 k) and has a maximum grade of 10% but enables me to avoid the 13% right around the house. It's not that bad, on average, but it really gave me a hard time. I could feel my face turning purple and I just felt incredibly hot. Blech. Happily, there was a torrential rainstorm on the way back that, at it's height, sent me under an awning to avoid the ipod getting wet. This may well be one of those cases where, rather than listening to the very arrogant Kevin Kelly talking rather uninterestingly about science in the future, I might have listened to Moby. :)

Blah.

And Lucy, thank you for giving us this tool: veloroutes.org. It's totally cool!

My first 5k!

So I ran 5k today, not an official one, but just 3.1 miles mapped by mapmyrun.com.   I past the turnaround for 2.5 miles that I did the other day, and felt good, so I kept going.  Of course, I wasn't feeling quite so good at the end of the run (very tired), but it was nice finishing the run.  I even have my own finish line, which is a line of tar-repair across the road.   :)

My foot seems to be hurting more this afternoon, but it may have been me going to the beach and being barefoot (which I hear is not good for the ol' plantar).

I'd like to see if there is a good way to visualize the elevation of the run that I do, like a 2d side-view, just to see how it compares to Pittsburgh.  I'm sure it is much flatter. 

Running with verve

I love that MapMyRun tool! Except for the ads. But it is nice to be able to catalog and, more importantly, to see the runs that other people are doing in Pittsburgh. Perhaps I'll drive to a different run at some point. I can tell that underlying that thought is the hope that somewhere there is a bright, green land with no hills. I'm thinking the hidden answer is ... not in Pittsburgh. But 2.17 miles today with a few stops to let my feet recover a bit. The new route problem, in fact, is trying to find a nice decently long route that doesn't involve traffic. Not that it's an affront to my sensibilities so much as I can't hear Dan Janzen talk about biodiversity very well, even with the ipod pretty much blasting.

Glad you like your shirt, Brian. I have one two. I like the sense of running in parallel several hundred miles apart! And, of course, it's funny. I rarely get the chance to wear t-shirts these days, but when I do, they often come from verve.com.

Running alone

Sometimes when I exercise I think that it might be nicer to be able to exercise with someone, but then I realize that I am much better at pushing myself when it is just me.   I think about the movie "My Dinner with Andre", and the discussion about running in that movie.  Andre Gregory says:

 "You see, I've seen a lot of running in the last few years, Wally, and there's one thing that's for sure about running: you do it alone, you see, that seems quite certain, you see, that I've seen. That the people around you mean nothing, your reviews mean nothing. Whatever it is, you do it alone. And so the question is: when I go running, what kind of a person am I going to be, and I'm just very dubious about the kind of person who would have lived his life those last few years the way I did."

I ran 2.5 miles today, in 23 minutes.  The initial goal right now is to hit 3.1 miles by September, which looks very doable (assuming that my foot holds out).  It still aches through the day, but I stretch and it helps.  Next week we will be on vacation, and I have to figure out how to keep up my running schedule away from home.  

Back in the SmellyShoes

It's been exactly a month, by sheer coincidence, since I've updated the blog. While I've been running from time to time, usually in the middle of the day, this is the first time I've been up in the wee hours to go, and I think in the end that I have to stick with this early morning procedure to really have ongoing running be feasible. There have, of course, been complications. My two year old in the hospital for a few days, and her recent odd sleep habits have been creating a very tired me in the morning, but that doesn't really add up to the the 30 days.

Just taking a step back there makes me think about the role of guilt in running. How universal is it as a motivator? For me, there is the substantial if somewhat grandiose sense that my genes want me to run to keep them around and potentially send them out into the world again, as well as to ensure the ongoing success of their externalized brethren (to whit: to take care of my daughter.) I wonder, too, if there is a more than coincidental connection between starting to run and write (which also seems a bit of an important part) and getting prescribed bifocals yesterday! Bifocals!

The final ethical conundrum of the day... when one gets chased by a loose chihuahua, what are the ethical dimensions. Where is the appropriate line of intervention? Chase them off? Yell? Drop kick?

OK, off to the showers.

2 mi in 20 minutes

So I did 2 miles in 20 minutes.  My foot is feeling better by the day, although it still hurts in the morning and occasionally through the day.  When it does, I stretch for a while, and the pain goes away.  I am doing Motrin in the morning before I run, but none at any other time.  

I took the girls for a short bike ride today, about 45 minutes, and a picnic in the park.  I found biking around the neighborhood to not be nearly as much exercise as running.  One can almost always choose to coast, and one is forced to stop or slow way down at each intersection.  With running, I'm able to maintain a good pace throughout the entire workout, and I'm able to push myself consistently.  Running also gets my heart rate up without hills, so I find that with biking my legs tire before I get winded.

1.75 mi in 17 minutes

So, now that I am switching to a miles-based schedule, as opposed to a time-based schedule, I ran 1.75 miles (which took about 17 minutes).  It was a challenge, but not impossible.  It helped to have my new running shirt with Haiku on it (thanks Bill!), which clearly gave me an advantage.  

Tomorrow is a day off, and then a run on Saturday and some light run/walk on Sunday.

A record today

I ran 21 straight minutes today, which is a record.  I am finding that I can't continue running after I stop...my motivation goes out of me, so I ran for another 3 minutes and stopped, stretched, and walked the rest of the way home.  :)

I think now I am going to start the 5k training program which I found online, and is here:

http://running.about.com/od/racetraining/a/first5K.htm?p=1

I will start with a 2 mile run, and work my way up adding .25 miles each week.  I like the fact that this training schedule has rest days every other day, especially given my injury (which seems to be back a bit tonight, but I'm going to take tomorrow off).

You can map your run to determine distance at mapmyrun.com.  I love the internet!

Running at last!

So I got back on the trail today, with a 15 minute run, 1 min break, 7 min run, 1 min break, 4 min run.  My feet felt great, and got better.  I made sure to stretch well.   I want to get to 15 min x 2, and then to 20 min + 10 min, and then to 30 straight.  We'll see how long it will take.  I want to take it slowly, but I was pleased by how little I had declined in the past month. 

As a bonus, I saw a bunny today!

Doctor's visit

So I visited my doctor on the 3rd, for my annual physical, and went over my foot pain.  This week was actually the first week since my last post that I could walk normally!  He confirmed my thoughts that it was Plantar Fasciltis.  Foot X-rays showed no real bone spurs or fractures, which is good.  The next step is to follow the steps:

1) Vitamin I

2) Stretch for at least 15 minutes before and after the run, with particular attention to the stretches that affect this injury

3) ice after the run

I will be recovering from the 4th tomorrow, having gotten up at 4am this morning to help stake out a spot at the Bristol, RI parade....the oldest parade in the country, but hope to start back running Sunday or Monday morning.  I wonder how far I have slipped, and whether I'll have to start all over again. 

Out of it for a while

So my heels are hurting so badly that I limp around all day...not good.  :)  I am trying to keep off my feet as much as possible, and I am using inserts in my shoes because it is most likely Plantar Fasciitis.  Now that I am reading about it, I am going to try ice as well.  Unfortunately, they say that it takes a long time (i.e. months!) to get rid the pain in most cases.   Yikes!  I am seeing my doctor for my annual physical in a couple weeks, so I will hold on until then.  Needless to say, running is off the table for now, but I still have quite a while before September to get back to it.  

Internal and External Hills (Basins of Potential)

So much of my experience of running recently has been thinking around the route.

View Larger Map
The problem here is that if I want to run up any of the North facing roads toward Broadway (which, as a road with a light rail line, is fairly flat), I have to go across a bit of a valley which stresses the ankle at the start and the end of the run. A real headache. Going directly South involves going down a hill steep enough that, if we were to line it with aluminum, children would pay to slide down it. That pretty much leaves West as the most tenable direction. But for me, running is often about trying new routes, etc., and until my ankle is not problematic anymore, it's kind of boring to always run up Espy.

OK. Now I'm just whining.

Thinking about Brian's statement about runners as masochist. There might be something to that. The thing to remember, I think, is that at least in part the masochism is to the end of enjoying your running later. At some point, when the initial struggle is over, running for me feels good in a way that is somewhat similar to stretching. Maybe one way to put it is that, for me, running can lead to a pleasure inherent in pushing the internal boundaries to make myself bigger, to enlarge my experience. On the other hand, maybe that's what's going on with masochists as well.

It's Father's Day. I don't know what's in the plans, but I'm looking forward to whatever awaits. Happy Father's Day, bro. I'm proud of you for all of those boundaries you've broken.

Broken through the ceiling

My heel was hurting a lot this morning, but I set out anyway.  I was favoring my right leg a bit as I ran, but I told myself that it would get better, and it did a bit.  After a while, I thought that if I took a break between my runs that it would hurt more when I started up again.  I wasn't feeling any worse after I ran past what was normally around my 10 minute mark, either with my legs or being winded, so I kept going.  I ran to my turn-around point (which is normally around 15 min), and back to past where normally my second 10-min run would end.  I refused to look at my watch the whole time, because I felt it would be discouraging, but when I finally did, I had run 20 minutes straight!  I stopped then, stretched, ran a bit, and walked the rest of the way home.  I didn't want to push my heel that much, but the next stage of my running schedule was to run 20 minutes anyway, so I had already satisfied the schedule.  Now the point is to run longer than 20 minutes.  

I also notice how quickly an asymmetry  is felt.  I feel sore on my right thigh, and my lower right back, having favored a little my right leg due to my left heel being sore.  

Feeling Greek today

So I am feeling a bit greek today.  I mean, Achilles and Sisyphus.  :)  My heels hurt today, and I will give it a break tomorrow.  I almost gave up on my running today, as I slogged my way through the last leg.  I still finished my 10 min run/2 min walk x3, but it was *really* hard.  It also felt like I wasn't making much progress, but I guess I should go back about 3 or 4 weeks and read the blog.  It was a tough day.

Running slowly

Occasionally I would see a runner going at a snail's pace.  I thought to myself, with a slightly condescending grin, I could *walk* faster than that.  Today, as I struggled to finish my last 9 minutes, with my foot and leg hurting, I realized that I was going perhaps at a walk-pace.  I finally understood the difference between running and walking, and why the slow runners are to be given more credit than I had been giving them.

Most other times I would look at runners and simply think that they are insane masochists.  That viewpoint hasn't actually changed since I started running.  :)

Tough, but Successful, Day

Today when I started to run, my right ankle was hurting to the point that I was obviously favoring my left leg even when walking.  I figured it would go away after running for a while, which it did somewhat, but then my left leg muscle started hurting mid-way through the run because of the extra work. 

I had done 9 min run/2 min walk yesterday, and planned on increasing for today.  I decided that, while limping during my warm-up walk, I shouldn't push it today.  Wasn't sure I'd do the full run, but I did the 9 min run/2 min walk.  

Moby?

Perhaps it is the whale, although I don't think so.  Most of my music is Jimmy Eat World, Live, and a smattering of other artists like Kelly Clarkson, Melissa Ethridge and (believe it or not) REO Speedwagon.  :)  Perhaps I'll post my running soundtrack later.

Today, another 9 min run/2 min walk after a break of 2 days.  It felt fine, like I could run longer at the end of the run, but I will probably repeat tomorrow and move up to 10 and 2 or 10 and 1 the next day.  We'll see.  My knees were a bit sore today afterward, but are fine now.

I noticed that I am starting to lose a little weight.  I oscillate between the high 140s and the mid 160s.  When I hit 160 I start feeling bad, and it motivates me to exercise.  That was what spurred on this recent wave of exercise for me.  Now I have dipped below 160 (at around 158), and hope to get as low as 150.

As for watches, I went to Target and bought a watch for $10, and it works well.  I find I need the digital seconds (not just hour and minute) in order to motivate myself.  Just 30 more seconds...just 10 more seconds... etc...

Box of Running

Reading quickly through Brian's posts that I've been missing keeps making me think that I ought to buy a watch. Or maybe get the battery replaced on my old Colman watch with the broken lens. What a cheapskate.

Today was the first time that I've ever run with an mp3 player. Just recently picked up an 8g nano, which is really fun! I got it mostly for books on tape in the car, but it's been entertaining for the bug (Hazel) and good for playing music on the home stereo as well. But today was the first time that I thought to use it while running. Listening to Moby up and down the hills. So, I'm not entirely sure whether it was Moby, or just my foot is healing, but I was able to go farther without really feeling the foot pain, or even stopping to flex it. I think I might have stretched a bit more thoroughly in the morning.

In any case, it's kind of strange. I can just barely hear the cacophony of birds. I can hear the buses, but most other cars fade away into the periphery of consciousness. I was thinking at one point that it feels like I'm in the intro to a movie with the main character taking a run and the soundtrack playing overhead. (I'm holding out for Cusack. Not Joan.) I was thinking, too, about Sipiora's work on the walk-man... as sort of an encapsulated box of commoditized culture. I have to say, at least this first run, I miss the birds. It doesn't feel like the run is providing as much of something different from how I spend the rest of my day (often with headphones on listening to people talk.) I'll try it for a few more days, but maybe in the end I'll leave the music and headphones for driving.

(Kidding)

A little more

I went up to 9 minutes run/2 min walk x3 today.  It was easier than I thought it would, but still challenging.  Sometimes I find, during the run, that I lose track of time which is interesting.  I wonder if it is a response to the tedium of running.  I'll have to keep tabs on it to see when it happens.  :)

The work-energy theorem

Given that my net displacement is zero on my run, and I maintain (roughly) a constant kinetic energy, then according to the work-energy theorem, I should be just as tired at the end of my run as I am at the beginning.  That was what my brain was telling me, as I struggled through the last leg of my run today.  Clearly my brain had failed to take into account the energy lost due to friction and, more importantly, the inefficiencies in the biochemical reactions which power my run.  That probably explains why I wasn't too comforted by the analysis.  :)

Again, 8 min run/2 min walk x 3, but I did feel better than yesterday.  I saw a large caterpillar, which I thought I'd bring back to look in our new microscope, but I had no way of carrying it, and didn't want to be cleaning out a squished caterpillar from my pockets.

I'm back...

My daughter is fine, and what I thought was going to be a 2 or 3 day break grew into a 5 day break, because I was just too tired to get up.  :)  This morning I felt it, but still did a 8 min run/2 min walk x 3 (with the last leg very hard).  I need to build up my stamina!  I feel like I've stagnated a bit at this point, and hope that I can get over it soon.  I'd like to get to the point of being able to run 20 minutes straight without stopping.  

No bunnies today, or Mr Skunk.  I did see a number of birds, and my mp3 player lost power on my last leg, so I heard a lot of my own footsteps and breathing.  I prefer the music.

A looong break...

Has it really been a week? It's amazing how time gets away! The dissertation is worse, but I wouldn't have expected to have gone a week since running. I have to say, of all the times I've taken up running, this start has been far more beset with obstacles. My ankle/foot is still bothering me. Having never truly followed through on my pt when I had my tib-fib fracture many years ago, I've never gotten the full mobility back, but that seems not to be the whole issue here, since that was also the case last time. Maybe I simply need to start with walking and hope that it's mostly the impact.

And now I'm feeling old, but I've also developed a testicular/abdomen pain on my right side. At first, I thought perhaps it was appendicitis, but it hasn't gotten any worse since last Thursday when it appeared. My non-doctoral pet theory now is that it is related to the height of my daughter, or rather where her foot now tends to kick me. Ow!

Grouchy. I was sad to see that the theater that had been opened up the street to benefit the women's shelter has closed. Another in a string of failed businesses in this little area. It's a nice little jog of .7 miles or so and finding out what was playing was a great motivator.

OK.. running late. My thoughts are with you today, bro., and tomorrow. Natalie's, too. Let us know if there is anything we can do to be of help. Love you.

Back again then off again

I did 8 min run/2 min walk x3, even though it was hard today.  This running stuff is hard!  :)

I will be off for 3 days, most likely, because my 2-year old daughter will be in the hospital for a heart procedure.

My first setback

Yesterday I did 8min run/2 min walk x3 and it felt hard.  I decided to run today, and at first it was challenging, but then didn't feel hard.  I made an off-the-schedule decision to see how far I could run in one length, thinking I could do 15 minutes or possibly 20.  I made it to 13 and couldn't go any further. 

Then, I decided to do 8 minutes x2 after that, but made it to 4 and then 2, with my legs shaking.  I guess I pushed them too hard!  I'm going to take tomorrow off, and go back to 8 min on Monday. 

A day off and a bit more

I took a day off, and then did 8 min run/2 min walk x 3 today.  At the end, I didn't feel like I was on my last legs like I did the other day.  I think I may try 2 days of running, and then a day off, so I get 4-5 days in a week, and I still get to sleep in occasionally.  :)

I saw another runner today, running around the park green.  That might be nice for a change sometime, but I think I might not like running in big circles.  

Rabbits and no Asthma

So I did another 7 min run/2 min walk x 3 today.  It felt really hard today, but I made it through.  My stamina, however, is definitely improving.  I noticed it the other day climbing stairs at the train station, where I wasn't winded at all at the top.

I saw Mr Rabbit today (just one).  He ran off, showing off his fluffy white tail.  

One thing I was thinking about today is all the reasons I didn't do running before.  I convinced myself that it was too hard, both in terms of challenge and on the knees and ankles.  Not that I have ever really had knee problems (except in middle school), but it was a reason nonetheless.  Growing up my excuse was always my asthma, which kept me out of the fall leaves, and kept me out of gym a number of times.  When I went to college it completely disappeared, only to come back again for the semester I was back at home, and then disappeared again after that.

In this whole running experience, I have not had even a hint of asthma.  In fact, I haven't had a hint of asthma for 15 years now.  It is nice to see that I have put that behind me, finally, and can move on.  Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like without this constant issue in my childhood.  It's just nice to not have it anymore!

Trip to the Library

I've gotten in the habit of waking up around 3 and taking some ibuprofen. It's hard to know what to even think of a habit like this. One thing to be said for it is that when I wake up at 5 or so to run, I'm more likely to get up to do so. This morning, I had the added incentive of having a few library items to return: Copying Beethoven, which I haven't had a chance to watch, but which I ironically copied, and some VHS tapes which I mysteriously signed out for Hazel not recalling that we don't have a working VHS player anymore.

I took a variety of interesting little back alleys. So many of the little hills around here are steep enough that until you're actually on them, you can't see what's down them. I remember that being the same characteristic that made driving in San Francisco interesting, but when it comes to running, my ankle anticipates them coming up.

In addition to the rabbits which are ubiquitous at this time of the morning, I saw a bird which ran along the ground in front of me. A robin, I think, although it was too dark to clearly see it. Injured, I supposed, and the rest of the way back home, I was questioning whether I should have picked it up, brought it back to the house to nurse it back to health... Unclear if these considerations are a kind of fantasy nourished by watching too many Disney films as a child, or more of a compassionate impulse that is squelched by thoughts of incompetence and hurriedness that are so part of my experience.

A bit of a jump

So, I got to the 4 minute mark today on my first leg, and didn't feel like stopping, so I continued.  I made it until 7 minutes before I felt I needed to stop, so I switched to a 7 minute run - 2 minute walk x 3.  This increases my running time by 5 minutes, and doesn't change the overall workout time by very much.  By the 3rd leg, I was feeling pretty tired, but it seems like my cardiovascular is catching up to my legs.   Felt good to get to the finish line today!

Back from the conference...Back to running

So I took 3 days off, when I intended to do 2.   This week I was back and forth to Boston for a conference, and yesterday I decided to sleep in as much as I could (and it was raining).  Today I decided not to backslide, and to repeat the 4 min run/3 min walk x 4, and was able to do it, but it was tough.  I'll do at least 1 more day of that before advancing.

From a Runners World article, I saw an interesting quote.  "The difference between walking and running isn't speed or biomechanics.  It's determination."  Sometimes that's all that keeps me going.  :)

Balancing Fortitude and Prudence

I imagine that at some point, my right foot will be doing better. Actually, I thought this morning was going to be it. :) New shoes on my feet, I headed out in the wee hours and tried to minimize the hills. After about a a third of a mile, though, my foot started throbbing again. I stopped a couple of times, stretched it, moved on. Ended up walking quickly back, in the end.
Getting up early turned out to be helpful. A colleague from work had sent out an email requesting help with an early morning task due to illness. Nice to be able to help out and even though the run was far from really vigorous, I still feel a bit of the energy that getting up this way seems to impart.
Makes me want to buy an iPod, though. I have a big old mp3/cd player that I use in the car. (Recently, I've been making my way through Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron on my way into work.) But that's not really going to work for a run. I wonder if the hard disk based iPods are any good when running....

A brisk run

It was a little brisk this morning for my run.  Again, I did 4 min run/3 min walk x 4.  After tomorrow, I will take a couple days off to give my muscles time to recoup.  

There was a nice layer of fog on the field in the park I run through, but I didn't see the bunnies this morning.  I can tell that the running is a getting a bit easier, although by the end I am pretty tired.

More running than walking

For the first time I am doing more running than walking, 4 min run/3 min walk x 4.  My foot is feeling a bit better today than it has been.

I have noticed all the uses of the word "run" in the random music I put on my mp3 player.  I also get flashbacks to the 500 yard run/walk as part of the presidential fitness award program I did in elementary school.  I was really good at situps at that time, but to even get through the 500 yards was a huge task for me.  I remember once, in 5th grade, measuring my heart rate well into the 200s.  It was part of an ongoing project to measure heart rate before and after exercise, and one day it went off the chart! (I had to tack on 2 extra sheets of graph paper).  In hindsight, the teacher probably should have brought me to the nurse, but I imagine he chalked it up to bad measurement.

The weather has been cooperating perfectly for the runs.

Mother's Day and Beyond

I took a break from the morning run for Mothers Day, to cook my wife breakfast in bed with the kids.  Today, I was back on the trail.  Again 4 min walk/3 min run x 4.  Sometimes my watch feels like Frodo and the ring...I feel a great urge to look at it to...an urge I try to ignore, as my body gets heavier and heavier.  :)  

Actually, the amount of time that I run before looking at my watch has steadily increased.  I know when to increase the run time when I miss my stop-deadline.  

I also found today that I was looking up (meaning forward) a lot more, as opposed to at the ground or my feet.  I think this is a good sign that my body is getting used to all of this.

Bunnies!

I saw the 2 little brown bunnies this morning on my run.  Too cute!

The new shoes felt good, but the top of my foot still hurt a bit.  However, it only did while walking!  When running, the pain disappeared.  I did notice that even a day off made running more challenging, but I still did 4 min walk/3 min run x 4.  

I'm determined to make it to the 5k in September!

New shoes all 'round

In light of my foot pain, I went out and bought some new running shoes, the first I have ever had.  My pain has decreased a lot today, so I am going to try to run tomorrow morning and get back into the swing of things.  

Had never heard of "Vitamin I" before, but it is very appropriate.  :)

I, too, have found the mornings to be the best time.  Nothing creeps into that time except the lack of motivation.  You're guaranteed to have no meetings or phone calls at that time to deal with, and it starts the day off very well.  I find that my energy level is higher all day when I exercise in the morning.

Day off!

Yesterday was great. Since I didn't have to be up early, I slept in (until 5:45.) It was one of those great dripping grey mornings. Kept me nice and cool and I think encouraged me to run a bit further, perhaps. (Although it also plagued me a bit with nagging concerns about one of the brick columns in the front of the house which is slowly dissolving in the rain.) I have to say that this early morning running is ideal. It's much better than the last time I took running up, mostly in mid-day. It feels like it provides a stiller foundation for the day ahead.

By mid-day yesterday, I was limping around. I foolishly felt that the shoes I had, and have been intermittently running with since the early 90s, were fine. Well, they were. Nice Saucony's. The foot attached to the let that I broke a few years back really started causing me some pain. Even this morning, (Friday), it was enough for me not to go out. But it didn't stop me from driving out to REI to take advantage of the sale and get a new pair. Older brother, Bob, has since told me that the new ones are a little dicey, although they came really highly rated and my general sense is that they are going to be worlds better than what I've been using. In the meanwhile, loading up on "Vitamin I" and looking forward to the new shoes!

Pain is a pain

I have developed a pain on the top of my right foot, so I am taking tomorrow off.  I hope to buy some nicer shoes soon, making sure that I can run without these problems cropping up.  It is a drag to break my momentum, but if I don't I will probably break something more serious than momentum.

The rain falls mainly on the pain

I woke up at 4:15am this morning to the sound of pouring rain.  I drifted in and out until the alarm at 5am, and crawled out of bed.  By the time I got out, it was a light sprinkle.  I did 4 min walk/3 min run for 4 times.  This was the hardest run so far, and the rain increased over the course of the run.  By the end, it actually felt nice to be rained on!

I started feeling this cramp in my right side and right shoulder.  It reminded me of childhood, when I would run and get these same cramps.  I also tried running early in college, and was always stopped by the pain involved in running.  The difference here is the goal: 5k by September, plus a bit of experience pushing myself.

I'll stay at 4/3 walk/run for a couple of days, and hopefully I will get better.  I have already noticed that the time that I look at my watch to see if my cycle is done has been increasing on its own by about 20-25 seconds each day.

I saw the brown bunny this morning.  :)

Some pictures of my running route

So I start off at home, in the dark at 5am, looking back over the pond at the back of my house.  I then walk for 5 minutes, which takes me around my neighborhood, toward the park.  I begin my run/walk through the park to the neighborhood on the other side.

The park has baseball and soccer fields, and at the end I usually find a couple of cute little brown bunnies (but not today).  

After going through the park and a bit beyond, I turn around and come back home.

By the time I get back home, it is light again.  I finish up with some stretches outside, and go in for a shower.

Nice weather

It's a beautiful day today, and a nice morning for a run.  I did 5 min walk/2 min run x 3.5.   I didn't see the two little bunnies I often see at the other end of the park, and thankfully I did not see Mr Skunk.  Although I like the bird sounds in the morning, I find that I need a proper soundtrack to exercise to at 5am.  Mostly loud and obnoxious music.  :)

Later, I'll try to post some pictures from my run this morning.  I took my cell, and paused for an occasional 10 seconds during the walk phase to take a picture.  

I am finding that I am getting less patient with my walk-phases, so I might go to 4/3 tomorrow.  I don't want to push myself to much, however.  3 minutes is a long time for me to run at this point.  I look at my watch at about 1 minute and 50 seconds.   I'm sure I'll look back on this, and be amazed at my progress!

(First run) '

It's been toooo long. Although I'm often up in the wee hours, to be up and out at this time of the morning... years. The trees around the house are silly with song birds. I can hear them from up the street, from the yards of all of those houses that don't have song birds. I can't quite decide if they're better off for it at this time of the morning, when I'm still in bed. But hearing them from the outside is different. It's still dark, and I can just see their dark outlines on the wire. I can identify only the cardinal by sound, thanks to one of Hazel's toys from the Audobon Society, although a number of the other birds are equally persistent.
Running was nice, too. The first day is, I know. I ran something around 25 minutes, stopping to struggle up the hills, then running down the hills. It's an early work day, and the clock just chimed, so I'm off to prepare now , thinking about Brian doing the same thing 10 hrs. to the East. (Longer if one were to run.)

First post

I am starting from scratch, and have been training now for 3 days.  :)

I started with 5 minutes walking warmup, followed by a 1 minute run and 6 minutes walking, repeated 3 times.  Today I did 2 minute runs with 5 minutes walking.  I feel sore, but generally good.  I actually feel better, after 3 days, than I have for quite some time.