W3D1, part 2- The Return of Emmz

So today I hit the asphalt again in hopes of a rise to glory, and I kind of achieved it.

I made a big decision regarding my c25k journey this week, it kind of felt like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books- Distance or Time? If distance, turn to the track. If time, run willy nilly over campus. Well folks, I chose distance!

Like this.

I have a paranoia of timed runs. Back in the cross country days, a light workout was a 30 minute jog. It's what we did before race day. And somewhere in my head, timed runs are just light runs. I push myself harder on the track when I can see exactly how far I have to go. It's just a mental thing. So, I was paranoid that I wasn't running as fast as I should when it was just "run for 3 minutes" and I was right. I go faster on the track. I averaged a respectable 6.7 mph on my runs, and actually walked the walks since this was a recovery run from not running for a week and a half. I'll gradually add back in my jogging at 4.5 over this next week, and see how I feel about week 4. Right now, I'm feeling really good. Plus, on the track, you get to pass people. It's fun. And brings out the absolute worse in my competitive nature, since I focus only on passing the people in front of me, instead of "running my run". But still, I had a blast.

I'm also feeling a little muscle fatigue, since during this week and a half I didn't exactly sit around eating chocolate, as much fun as that sounds. Nope, I've been doing at least 40 minutes of intense cardio a day at my university's gym, usually more. After my run, I popped in there for a quick 35 minute bike ride, and burned somewhere around 500 calories today. Man, that's awesome.

Now, I'm sitting back, eating grapes. and going to do calculus. All in all, a good workout day. Tomorrow, I restart my 200/100/200 program!

Blood Pressure Machines hate me

So today I took a quick journey to the doctors to be told in a total of maybe 3 minutes that I had an upper respiratory infection, and given a prescription. Awesome, so I'll be running by tomorrow right?...Right?

Whatever.

Since I have no new news on exercise, thought I'd take a day to deal with a personal gripe. Blood pressure machines hate me.

Every single time I go to the doctors, I'm saddled up with a blood pressure machine which spits out some (varying) ridiculously high or low number. Since I'm young and look like exactly what I am, a former athlete gone slightly to seed, I often get super confused looks.

"Do you have a history of high/low blood pressure?"
"No."
"Did you drink a lot of caffeine....?"
"No."
"...I'm going to take it manually."
"You do that."

Manually, I'm golden. I'm so golden, I get the same reading every time (114/79). I'm told I have a great heart beat, and they can't figure out why the machine hates me. I'm not worried about having high/low blood pressure, especially since this is the 5th time this has happened, and every time they take it manually I'm fine. This worries me because I don't want to go on some bogus high blood pressure medication and wind up passing out in the middle of a run. This worries me because I hope its not happening to other people who might not be so quick to challenge it.

This also worries me because it makes me question all sorts of heart monitoring equipment. What if I buy a Garmin and the heart rate monitor hates me too?

Maybe its just me.

But if any of you other runners out there ever get a bogus reading off a machine with a vendetta, challenge it. Take the extra 3 minutes to get it checked manually. Fight the power!

Emmz vs. Emmz's Body, Round 2, Down for the count

When I last wrote, I was optimistic. I had a fever, but I wasn't feeling too crazy bad. 3 hours later, I could barely move and had never felt such a fever in my adult life. Whipped out my emergency thermometer, thinking it had to be over 100.

103.2

Ouch.

I immediately called my mommy despite it being 2 am, who called our doctor, who told me to take aspirin, use tepid wash cloths, and lay around in my skivvies.

2.5 hours later, I'm down to 99. 0, thank God, and feeling much better.

Don't think I'll be up to running tomorrow, and no reason I should be. Definitely going to lay low this entire weekend. Also thinking I'm going to repeat week 3. I want to get my speed up, and this whole illness thing just going to knock me back. But I'm in no hurry, my original end date was somewhere around May 9th, and I'm not making it back to Cypress (hometown) for summer until May 21st, which is when I really wanted to be done by. In happier news, parents will be here to pick me up in the morning for Easter, and I can't wait to be home.

A little annoyed that just as I'm getting into the swing of things that something like this happened, but you gotta roll with the punches.

Emmz vs. Emmz's Body, round 1

So in addition to being a running goddess (or something close to that), I am a student. Students have tests. Students don't always study for these tests in time because 3 of their 4 classes decided to have tests/papers due in the same week. So, I pulled an all nighter. Yah, yah, its bad for you! You'll never retain the same amount of information if you studied properly! I get it. I'm usually responsible and don't pull them, I just had absolutely no choice.

The result? An aced exam and broken down body. I started getting coughing fits somewhere around 2am, and its just turned into a pretty bad cold. I'm feverish, broken down coughing, want my mommy, and have only been able to keep down around 300 calories. While I usually feel pretty bad after all-nighters, its never this bad. Think I'm going to blame this on not wiping down my exercise equipment at the gym before using it. I tried to, but they were all out sanitation wipes. Note to self- bring my own! Since our gym is used by around....30,000 students? I'd say thats a smart idea. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep the exercise to a bare minimum and just do my 100/200/200 and maybe some super light yoga. This isn't because I'm a masochist who wants to push myself when I'm down, I need to stretch my muscles or event if I'm physically able to run tomorrow, my legs will hate me.

Excited to go home tomorrow and hopefully get a run in over the weekend. Fingers crossed!

Sweet Dreams

So, last night I had a dream about running.

I don't remember the specifics, all I know is that it was actually about running and not just me running away from something, or towards something (like ice cream..hmmm, ice cream).

This made me stop and give pause though, because, well...dreams are highly personal things. Who is this running to jump all up into them and interrupt me from doing something better like kissing Alan Rickman or eating ice cream (man, I want ice cream).

It took me a whole semester to dream about college instead of high school. Yup, I was sleeping soundly in my dorm, dreaming that I was going to miss a paper date or something to that effect in my old senior English class.

So, how on Earth after only almost-4-weeks did running manage to pop up into my sub-conscious?

Maybe because, thanks to the amazing inspiration stories over at c25k.com, its become my new favorite thing. I remember reading a post on the forums over there about when you know you're a runner. And I thought to myself, I never want to be a runner, I want to be someone who runs to train for taekwondo. But after reading about so many people who want only to run, and how much happiness it brings them it's completely changed my perspective on running. I want to be a runner.

An old taekwondo coach of mine once told me, if you have time to be something else, you're not trying hard enough. He was referring to my propensity to skip practice to go to rowing camps at the time, but over the years it has stuck with me and it was with that attitude that I began c25k. I was using the program to build up my cardio and lose weight with the sole purpose of being able to get back into the do-jang. Now, I'm running to run. And after I get back into the do-jang, I'm going to run. And once my career is over, and I'm old and pooping out babies, I'm going to run. And as I'm running, I'm going to remind myself, gosh darnit, I like this. Because I can be a runner and a taekwondoist. They're not competing with each other. And yah, I'm going to use running to train for tkd. But I'm also going to use tkd to train to run.

I am so excited to be a runner.

Inspiration

So, this post is going to be one of those posts-which-is-the-reason-why-Emmz-goes-by-nickname-only-online-and-doesn't-post-an-identifying-picture post. That, and I'm keeping the whole return to competitive tkd hush hush from people I know IRL until I can back up the talk with some solid tournament performances/getting back into my weight category. You people on the internet? You get me, you struggle with me! You find 1 minute runs hard too!

But yes, back to me embarrassing myself online.

I really want to know what other people do to get pumped. For what? Anything. Running, specifically, but if you have some awesome pre-board meeting ritual, share that too. Me? I listen to the same two songs, over and over and over again. At least 5 times each. I wish I was kidding. The sad thing is, I don't even own the two songs (yet...). I listen to them on youtube, until hopefully this weekend where the Easter bunny will give me some iTunes gift cards and running socks in my basket. If not, then the bunny is going to be given a strict talk about listening to me when I drop my signature subtlety like "Hey Mom, this weekend's Easter. By the way, iTunes are awesome, don't you think they're awesome? You know what's really awesome about iTunes? They sell giftcards! Yah, right there, in the store, like where you're going to buy my Easter presents....Mom?" But I digress.

The songs that have me tapping my toes, fingers, keyboard, wall, etc. are:



And...



Yah, yah. Not exactly the classics. But they're amazing work out jams.

Now, if listening to a total of two songs on repeat at least 30 times (more like 50) for the past 3 weeks weren't enough to convince you of my nerd-ocity, I introduce you to Emmz's guaranteed inspiration part two:



I never did gymnastics competitively, never even tried it except for a few misguided months at age 5 which resulted in a broken arm and an introduction to the much safer martial art of taekwondo. But it awes me. Probably due to the fact that I've never tried it. I've ran, thrown dicuses (discii?), rowed, played every sport they offer at the YMCA, took and aced a fencing class, tap danced, ice-skated, kayaked, etc. Basically, I've tried a lot of sports. And I could physically do them all well, albeit no where even near Olympic level. But that? That what she's doing right there on that beam? I could never, ever, ever do that. Gymnastics is one of those sports that is just non-recreational. No one's like, well, guess I'll just hit the ol' balance beam for a quick sweat session! It's total commitment. It's a lifestyle. It's a sport so hard, careers end mid-teens. And that just blows my mind. So, if I'm ever feeling whiney about a run (so, like every run), I watch that. And think, man, if she can go out there and do that, the least I can do is go run. Boom. Guaranteed inspiration.

So what's yours?

More controversial than healthcare...

So, in my research into how people
a) make it through c25k
and
b) manage to get all runner-tastic in the process

I came across several bloggers who went into the treadmill vs. open road debate. Figured since I'm doing this blarg thing, I might as well chime in.

I hate treadmills.

No, not strong enough?

I wouldn't run on a treadmill if David Bowie's career depended on it. And I love me some David Bowie.

Let me take you back a few years.

In preparation for 7th grade cross country, a friend and I had a sleepover 2 days before school. We decided to get on my dad's treadmill to train since we'd been up late eating gushers and giggling over Clay, the jr. high hottie. So I get on, and everything's going so well, I neglect to put on that safety strap/emergency stop thing. You can see where this is going? So, my friend says that I'll never make track (note, we were training for cross country) if I can't go 15 mph. That would be the top setting on my dad's treadmill. Failing to recognize that that meant a 4 minute mile, I go, "Sure, crank it up." Well, all's fine and dandy for about 30 seconds. Then shit hits the fan. Treadmills are slow. Treadmills don't adjust quickly to a new pace. If you can't keep up with your treadmill, and you're a dumb 12 year old who didn't use the safety strap, you're screwed. Not only did I literally get slammed into the opposite wall after tripping at 15 mph, but that wall was literally right next to the treadmill so my whole right side got whammed by the treadmill as it continued to run while my friend freaked out and tried to figure out how to turn the damn thing off. The result? Imagine a scraped knee from your ankle to your training bra. Yah, not fun. And just in times for try-outs.

Now, while that story was completely my fault for being an arrogant 12 year old, it illustrates what I hate most about every treadmill I've ever tried:

They're slow to change. When I run, I go from around 6-7.5mph running to 4.5 jog flat. Try doing that in less than 5 seconds on a treadmill.

Also, I always feel like I'm working so much harder on a treadmill, and going way slower. Maybe it's a mental thing, but it's how I feel.

Plus, even if I make it to ten million miles on a treadmill, no way can I do it outside. It's like indoor rowing, sure I can hit a 1:37 split inside, but in a real boat? Naw.

Note, I'm not putting down treadmill users. If that's what works, do it. I wish I could stand to use one, so I wouldn't have to schedule my runs so diligently, and instead just grab an empty machine in the gym. But I can't.

I hate them.

The Knee goes....Crack!

So, since I'm on a weird schedule due to a few 3 day breaks from running, I've decided to lengthen this week to 4 runs, W3D1 was on Saturday, W3D1.5 today, W3D2 Wednesday, and round it out with W3D3 on Friday. This should hopefully get me on a nice 3 day MWF schedule for next week.

I'd already made this decision once I hit the pavement, and boy did my body know it. It decided to totally wimp out somewhere after my first 3 minute run and went, nope! We don't want to jog the next 3 minutes. Our knee hurts. It's hot. Oh look! A duck! And so, I managed a moderately respectable repeat of W3D1, which was Jog warm up, run 90, jog 90, run 3, walk 3, run 90, walk 90, run 3. Walkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. I threw some 100m stride exercises in there at the end just because I felt a little guilty for not pushing myself through that 3 min jog.

On the subject of my title, this night was a bit of a repeat of W2D2, where my knee went, hey remember me? You sprained me as a child and I've been giving you lip for it ever since? Take this sucker!!!!! And proceeded to whine the whole way uphills. Unfortunately, Austin is very hilly. Time to find some new downhill routes. ;).

After talking to my dear ol' mom today, she made an interesting suggestion for my runs. I'd been whining about not having any rewards for my efforts (aside from, ya know, being able to run) and how it would be nice to have some treat to look forward to at the end of the week. Note, this was mostly just hinting at her to buy me some new running socks, or that chi running book I keep reading about, but she ignored my subtlety. Instead, she suggested I take my last run and go do it on a really nice track. I mostly run on campus since that's where I live and all, but in Austin we have a gorgeous lake about 3 miles away from campus that's bus accessible called Ladybird Lake. I love that lake. As I'm a kayaker and rower, albeit not competitively anymore, I've spent a lot of time on that lake. And the trail around it is pretty amazing. Nice soft crunchy gravel, water stations every mile or so, and a killer view. Since I live the life of Reilly and have no class/responsibilities on Friday, I think that's what I'll do. Gotta say, I'm pretty excited for it.

Tomorrow, the adventure continues with my first day of my 100/200/200 program. I'm super excited. Like, bizarrely excited. It's not normal to be this enthusiastic over push-ups. But I really just can't wait till 6 weeks from now when I say...You know, I can do 100 push-ups. Yah, I'm just that awesome.

Future me has it SO good.

Well, my stomach is demanding reparations for its efforts, so I'm off it hit Subway!

Some time tested running wisdom...

That I am learning is completely bogus.

Since I ran as competitively as someone as slow as me could in HS, I thought I had the skinny on the right way to attack long distance running. Head up. Shoulders back. Loose arms. And after checking all that, it seems to still be true.

The big debate is on stride. How long? Heel striker? Toe striker? Knee raised? Knee bent/straight/loop-de-looped? I'm confused people.

I was taught straight up run with as long of stride as you can, lift your knees, strike with your heel, dig in, and let that propel into your next stride. Now I'm reading that over reaching your stride leads to leg pain, heel striking leads to (gasp!) leg pain, and lifting your knees too much can lead to...leg pain.

Which might be why I'm feeling some leg pain.

Help?

The Plan

So to get my butt moving, I've started on the following plan:

1) C25K from www.coolrunning.com, or www.c25k.com

This plan is great! Even while doing cross country, I was never a great runner. I ran because I liked the workout and it drops pounds like nobody's business. There's also just a great meditative aspect about running. Something about hitting the pavement and just feeling the earth fly by and losing myself in the run. That said, since I'm on the fast track to getting my athlete back, I've modified my C25k to a harder cardio level. The original plan calls for 3 workouts a week, leaving a day in-between and 2 days between each week. The system builds you up to 30 minutes of running by the end of 9 weeks, or 5k, depending on if you follow the time or distance model. An example of the program is week 1:

Walk 5 min. warm-up
Run 1 minute, walk 90 seconds for 8 intervals
Walk 5 min. cool-down

I've changed it so I:
Day 1- Jog 5 min warm-up
4 intervals of 1 min run, jog 90 seconds
4 intervals of 1 min run, walk 90 seconds
Walk 5 min cool down
Day 2- Jog 5 min warm-up
6 intervals of 1 min run, jog 90 seconds
2 intervals 1 min run, walk 90 seconds
Walk 5 min cool down
Day 3- Jog 5 min warm-up
8 intervals of 1 min run, jog 90 seconds
Walk 5 min cool down

Voila! Within week 1, you are moving at a pace above 4.0mph for 30 so minutes. Nice! Finishing Week 1 on this plan kind of made my life. It was nice to remind myself what my body can do when I push it and don't take no for an answer. Note: To do this plan, I'd recommend knowing your running body. If you've never run seriously before, it might be hard to distinguish between jogging speeds and long distance running speeds, and you might over exert and injure yourself. A jog is something anyone can do, at any age. It is just above walking, and walking can even be faster than jogging, the difference is in the cardio workout you will receive. I always remind myself that it is my rest period, and therefore my prerogative to go as slow of a jog as I need.

I'm currently on W3D2 of the program (to be run on Monday!), and I'll post on how it goes! But I'm already seeing progress, those 5 minute warm-up jogs are nothing now, my first one was hell. And huffing up those longgggggg hills on campus? Gone.