Same thing, different (busy) day

Things have been busy hence the lack of posts recently. I've been keeping up with the running schedule and have managed to avoid the treadmill. However, that's going to change today. My usual afternoon run time has been overtaken by appointments and while I briefly considered running in the morning the fact that the temperature outside was in the single digits (factoring in wind chill) quickly led me to change my thinking on that. So I'll be at the Y tonight on the treadmill. Winter eventually has to come to an end, right? I can at least revel in the thought that in a little over a week I'll be running in Hawaii!

Good weather, good run, good luck

I knew it was going to be warm today but I expected to be running in the rain. Instead, when it was time to grab my running shoes the sun was actually shining! Hallelujah! In fact, it was so warm that I was wishing I had my shorts instead of tights but at least I was running in short sleeves. Halfway through the run the clouds moved in and I was glad to have the tights, but still awesome weather. And I was running fast. Surely a result of the improved weather but I'd like to think my attitude adjustment of the other day was working as well. As I finished up the rain started. Talk about timing! All in all a beautiful run. 4+ miles at a pace of 8:50 isn't bad either.

A swift kick in the attitude

I've been in a bit of a funk regarding my running lately. I'm tired of running in the cold but I'm also not happy about running on the treadmills. My pace isn't improving and I just don't seem to have much energy these days. And my hip has been bothering me more and more lately. So after whining about all of this the other day I decided I needed to put on my big girl panties and just deal with it. Self-motivation is a quality that is hard to come by for most people, and I'm not much different than the average person in that regard. However, being disgusted with yourself for having such a lousy attitude can often help you dig a little deeper. So I grabbed hold of my boot straps this afternoon and hit the pavement. It was a good run. No PR's - just a good 'ol 9 minute mile - but it felt a lot better than my recent runs. Plus my hip didn't bother me at all (supporting my suspicion that the recent pain has to do with running on the treadmills). Now I just have to make sure the attitude adjustment sticks.

Still winter

The high today was 27 and with the wind chill it didn't get much above 20. Combine those temps with the fact that I overbooked myself for the afternoon and that meant running on the treadmill at the Y tonight. Someone recently tried to persuade me as to the benefits of the old treadmills versus the new ones. I have to say I agree. While the new ones have some cool extras, they often have way too many buttons with mostly useless functions (Does anyone really care how many joules they're burning???) and sometimes getting the information you're really interested in to appear on the display can be tricky. The older treadmills may have less bling but they do what you want them to do with little effort on your part. Plus I just like the feel of the older ones better. New technology is not always an improvement. Anyway, I was stuck on a newer treadmill tonight so I tried to make the best of it by doing more speed work and some inclines. I'm sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow.

Speed

After being told by several people that I need to do some speed work, I finally pushed myself to do just do it (to borrow Nike's slogan). I went to the track to run so that I could re-calibrate my pedometer and seeing as how the track has nicely marked intervals it just seemed the natural place for speed work. After a few warm up laps I settled into a routine... a fast 100-meters and then the rest of the lap at my usual pace. I managed to keep that up for 4 miles. I'm not usually a big fan of speed work because I tend to want to just stop after the fast part. However, I want to improve my time so I may end up visiting the track every couple of weeks. After walking a cool down lap I decided to see just how fast I could go - an all-out sprint. I managed a 20 second 100-meter dash. A far cry from the Olymic medal winners (10 seconds!) and not even good enough to compete in a high school track event, but that's OK. It was really, really fun!

Pedometer or no pedometer

Not only did my pedometer need to be recalibrated but the other day the data area (where it stores all of the info about my runs) got full. In the process of attempting to clear the data I managed to completely reset the damn thing - including the time, date, connection to the foot pod, etc. Serves me right for not checking the manual first. So I spent a good 20 minutes trying to set the whole thing back up (that was with referring to the instructions). Apparently even with a PhD in astronomy I'm not smart enough to operate this thing.

The good news is that, despite not having a working pedometer, I had a very good run yesterday. About time! I managed an 8.8 minute mile for just under 6 miles. I've been really out of the groove for awhile now and I really needed that run. I plan to try to recalibrate the pedometer today so that it will be working for my run on Saturday. It's supposed to be in the 40's for the next couple of days. As long as it doesn't rain it should be good for running.

How not to do it

The other day I did my usual loop around campus only to discover, upon returning to my office, that I had managed to lose the key to my office somewhere along the route. Talk about feeling like an idiot. So then I proceeded to walk the entire route again - this time in heels - in a futile attempt to find the key. Of course it was unsuccessful. Luckily for me, someone else found the key and turned it in. On the plus side, I think I've discovered a new cross training routine... speed walking 2 miles in heels. I was sore for the next three days.

I have officially started training for the Broad Street Run. However, given that I've been keeping my weekly mileage at 15 or above, I'm actually already running more miles than the first weeks of the training program call for. So I can just keep doing what I'm doing for another month. I'm already getting anxious about starting to train for the Philly Marathon and that's still many months away. I think I'm just looking for a change in routine. Maybe there's something to that speed walking in heels thing.