Addicted to Exercise

Something I ate last night did not agree with me, and I really didn’t feel like running this morning.  I did need some thinking time to work on my 2008 goals and resolutions, though, so I decided to sleep in and then go for a walk.  I didn’t really have a plan, but I just headed off from the house.  It was really nice outside.  I guess it was actually a little chilly, but I had warm clothes, and the sun was peeking out to start warming things up.  I was out there a while.  I looked at the map when I got back and found I walked about eight miles.  That seems like a good way to start the year.  I’ll definitely run tomorrow, though.

I didn’t run today, but I did eat, eat, and eat.  I’ll make up for that tomorrow.

I hope all y’all out there had a wonderful day with family and friends.

Wednesday was officially a travel day.  I decided that instead of the usual easy run, I’d just sleep in and then take a nice stroll instead.  I was pretty much a zombie by then.  I can operate on very little sleep for a few days at a time when it’s important to fit a lot of other things in, but it does catch up eventually.

I actually walked about an hour, again up and down the strip, and then I went back and stretched.  From there, it was just one adventure after another to get home.  The short version is that there was apparently some weather that messed up a bunch of flights, so I had a big pile of delays and spent a lot of time hanging out in the airports.  I ate poorly and spent way too much time on my feet.  Oh well.  Those seem like convenient excuses, but I was on a mission, so in the end they could not matter.  I got home about midnight, and I still needed to get all my stuff together for the race.

I just overhauled my website and loaded all new software.  If anything doesn’t work let me know!

When my alarm went off this morning, it was just above freezing outside, windy, and raining hard. I decided I would rather sleep a little bit more and then go run on the treadmill at the gym. My alarm went off again, and the temperature had dropped even more. I didn’t feel like leaving, so snoozed again, did a few core exercises at home, and then just went to work. Tomorrow morning I’ll be ready for it, though, so I’ll at least get up and do something.

As promised, I took a rest day today. My leg feels fine, but I think this was the right thing to do. I’ll keep my running easy tomorrow and run on the trail for my long run Saturday.

I didn’t run today, but hopefully the things I did do will help me prepare for my next marathon anyway.

I started out the day going to the dentist to get a filling, so that was not exactly a fun start. They let me wear headphones, but I wasn’t able to turn them up loud enough to drown out the drill. I tried, though.

After spending the rest of the day at work, I went and did my core workout with the group for the first time in about a month. I did pretty well at that, but there were definitely a few exercises that caused me some trouble. I’m back on the schedule now, though, so that’ll get better.

I’m back and pretty much recovered, and I am really itching to go running again. (I know my body is still tired, but all the soreness is pretty much gone now.) I promised I’d take a whole week off from it, though, so it will be a few more days. I don’t really know what to do, though.

Clearly, I need to change something. I’ve had this problem on almost all my long runs since I’ve started running them. The few times I haven’t had trouble I don’t know of anything I’ve done differently. I’m convinced that it’s just something about the longer distances. It happens if I’m running sub-seven miles or nine-minute miles. It’s just easier to notice when I’m running faster. My brain just looks for reasons to get me to stop.

I’ve gone back and looked at my old entries, and it seems that the first time I trained with Gilbert for the marathon (fall-winter 2004), I was strong on my long runs. I looked up my 20s and 22s from that season and saw that I was able to pick up the pace and be strong at the end, something I’ve not been able to do since. I can see that I was doing a couple things differently back then, and maybe I need to look into that more. I also got hurt that time, though, too, because I was doing too many hard workouts a week, so I know there’s a balance in there.

Basically I think I have to find a way to get my brain into that distressed state in training so I can practice getting out of it. The workouts I’ve been doing during the week just never push me like that. In fact, Gilbert had me slowing down because we agreed I would try for a more conservative time in the race. I stayed healthy, and I continued to improve my fitness level, but they all just felt so easy to me. I still found the doldrums on my long runs, but I never had anyone there that would force me to push through it. It was always easy to just drop back and coast in. The problem is that running 18 miles or so is really taxing on the body, so it’s not good if that’s the only way I can practice.

I saw two main extra things I was doing that first season, though, that I’m not doing now. The first was a bunch of progressive runs on the ten mile loop. Those are really hard because you have to start slowly and pick up the pace each mile. They get really hard at the end. I remember thinking at the time that those were magic workouts because I was gaining speed by leaps and bounds. (I think I got hurt because I would do those on Mondays and do the “regular” workouts on Tuesdays as well, and that was too much. I feel like working that in but substituting out something else to make room.) The other thing I was doing was long bike rides on Sundays. I’m sure that helped my aerobic base and didn’t put all the impact on my body that the running does.

So, I think I need to do some of these workouts that I find “hard” and also get the people who run them with me to not let me slack off. I am good at being strong at the end of the workouts, but if the workouts I’m doing aren’t putting me in distress then I guess I’m not really proving anything to myself. This is really about convincing myself I can do it, and I think the only way to do that is going to be to get into a few situations that seem too hard and finding a way to get through them.

So now I’m curious. If I try that ten-miler like I described, and purposely start out too fast, will I end up feeling the same kind of dread I get on the long run or a different kind? I can’t try it for a little while, but that’s my inclination. I’m going to keep doing this until I get it right.

I’m back in town now and catching up on my entries. My race did not go as well as planned, but I still had a lot of fun. Now I just have to figure out what to do next. I’m going to keep trying until I get it right.

I got to the airport plenty early for my flight Friday and had time to grab a bite to eat. I knew Frank and Lisa were on my same flight, but I was really surprised to see Joseph there getting on the same plane. He wasn’t going to the race, but he just happened to be flying through Chicago. It turned out we had seats next to each other, so I got to catch up with him for a while. I hadn’t seen him at the workouts in a while, and it turns out he’s been battling plantar fasciitis.

So, the flight went well, and Frank and I took the train downtown. That was really cheap, but the stopping every few minutes was a little annoying. After getting everything squared away at the hotel, we walked a few blocks to catch a bus to the expo. The packet pickup was really smooth, and the expo was very large. It was much bigger than Indy, and even with all the people there it didn’t feel cramped at all. We didn’t stay there too long, but it was enough to grab all kinds of goodies to carry back. I’m definitely going to have to try the energy jelly beans on my next long run.

Frank and I ate pasta before heading out to watch James Taylor play, and I got totally stuffed trying to finish my giant bowl of pasta that was probably about twice what I needed. I did it justice, but I probably only ate about half. That was a pretty relaxing end to a relatively long and hectic day, and I had no trouble falling asleep once back at the hotel.

Well, I woke up this morning, and my legs felt fine, but after the way I felt last night I was too scared to go for a run. So, I just went to work and sat around there all day. Tonight, my legs still feel fine. So hopefully everything is all right. Just to be sure, I’m going to hold off on the running until Saturday. I’ll hit the gym tomorrow, though.