I'm a runner

Saturday was a rest day, today was terrific.

The schedule called for 25-35 minutes of easy running which would be my longest outdoor run ever. Up until today, running seemed tough. Twenty minutes of easy running had always seemed tough so my enthusiasm for today's task wasn't what you might expect.

The weather was warm, but a little foggy and drizzly too. About 20 minutes in, something clicked and my body went into cruise mode. Everything seemed so easy - no pain from anywhere, and my breathing was relaxed as well. When I looked at my watch I had hit 34 minutes and ended up where I wanted to finish running, about a half K from my house. For the first time, I reluctantly brought my 240 pound body to a stop and walked in from there.

The week called for 75-95 minutes of running and I clocked 85 minutes making me feel pretty darn good about my results.

Today I discovered, I run, and that makes me a runner.

Back on track

Today was the first time, in a long time that I did what was required by the training schedule. A 20-25 minute easy run was the plan, and I managed 21 minutes. I must say, I like the approach to training in minutes and not miles. Saves me a lot of time by not having to jump in the car and pace off distances throughout the nearby neighbourhoods.

Felt pretty good too.

New week, new opportunities

Monday and Tuesday were both rest days. Today was a 30-35 minute moderate run and like I had hypothesized a couple of weeks ago, my easy pace and my moderate are both the same pace.

I managed 24 minutes, stopped for a couple, and then gutted-out another 4 minutes. This might not sound like much, but that extra 4 minutes taught me something about myself - it would have been easy to call it a day after the first 24, but I wanted more and reached down and gave it everything I had. Looking forward to the next training day. But right now, looking even more forward to tomorrow's rest day.

The Tely 10 is less than 2 months away.

Further behind than I thought

Today I got up ready for the 40-55 minutes of easy running that was scheduled - only thing is, I tapped out after 23 minutes. I'm further behind in my training than I thought. That week of illness was a real killer. I was supposed to log 105 minutes this week, but only mustered 54 in total. I guess though, 54 sure beats none. I decided for my Sunday runs, the "long" runs, I would make an effort to hit the road at 800am as this is the same time the Tely 10 starts on Sunday, July 24th. Probably a good move, and I thought of it all by myself.

Rest day

I don't miss many of these.

I'm no dummy

This morning I woke up, looked out and went back to bed.

It was raining sideways with a temperature of plus 2. I'm no dummy. While I love the idea of training for a big race, I'm not going to subject myself to these conditions. I often see people running in weather like this and while some would say it exemplifies dedication and determination, I think it represents poor judgement or perhaps even temporary insanity. I was happy to dedicate this morning to my pillow.

Still behind

Today was a 25-30 minute easy run, or at least it was supposed to be. I only lasted for 20 minutes, but they were quality minutes. I'm still a little behind because of last week, but I noted in my running journal under "How I Felt" - not bad.

Back in the saddle

Well, kind of. My week of illness caused me to miss out on 85-110 minutes of running time. Today was supposed to be 20-25 minutes at an easy pace. I thought I'd try something a little different so I hit the streets during my lunch hour. Boy was that a mistake. Well not really, as I learned that I am not a lunchtime runner. I ran for 8 minutes, walked a couple of minutes, and then ran another 3 minutes and then called it a day. It was literally all I could muster. I think this was one of those bad days that we sometimes hear about.

This week is a write-off

I woke up today, still under the weather, but on the mend. I decided to put all thoughts of running and any other form of exercise out of my thoughts for the rest of this week. I was scheduled to run 20-25 minutes at a "moderate pace". I had to look up what a "moderate pace" was. The experts say that at an easy pace, you should be able to maintain a normal conversation, but at a moderate pace, conversation would be a challenge. I've got news for the experts - based on my inability to carry on a conversation while running at my easiest pace, I can safely assume that my easy pace and my moderate pace are essentially the same pace. I hope to test this hypothesis next week.

Full-blown flu

Well, this thing has taken a turn for the worse. Going to have to Nyquil myself after work today and see if I can't shake this flu. Oh by the way, I never miss a day of work. I always say that unless I'm bleeding from the jugular or have a really severe case of diarrhea, I'll be in.

Still under the weather

Woke up this morning, same sore throat as yesterday; I pretty much knew I would, but had hoped for a little better.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

I haven't been sick for years

It was only recently that I bragged to a co-worker that I hadn't had so much as a head cold within the last couple of years. Guess this is why when things are good, we should keep our mouths shut.

I woke up this morning with a brutal sore throat, and if I have any signs of illness whatsoever, I stop the exercising immediately. Some people continue believing they can sweat the illness out their systems, and maybe they do, but for me it's quite the opposite. If I had run this morning for the 20-30 easy minutes that were scheduled, I would definitely wake up tomorrow, a lot worse off than today.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

I woke up this morning, energized, ready for the 20-25 minutes of easy running. This was going to be a good day because it would have matched my longest outdoor run ever. Notice my use of the term 'would have'. I woke up, looked out the window, checked the temperature, got dressed and made my way to the front door only to find that I had left my running shoes in my office from yesterday's run into work.

Instead of the morning run, I jumped on the treadmill after work (with my shoes) but experienced a really painful shinsplint and cut the run short after 12 minutes. I find my first run outdoors for a long time, or in this case, on the treadmill results in the shinsplints. Rather than risk injury, I happily shut the treadmill down and noted "Treadmill Splint" in my running journal.

Running to work

A new thing to try today, running into work. The timing is great for this as my wife and I recently got rid of our second car, so if I can pull this off, it will take some of the stress off the morning commute, trying to co-ordinate the schedules when we start work at very different times.

I like to be into work for 730 in the morning so I figured I'd better hit the road by 600, just in case things didn't go so well. It's about 6k from my house to work, but I didn't expect to run half that distance in the 15-20 mins of easy running that was scheduled. Overall, the run went well, however, being a real sweater (I'm sweating while typing this), I didn't leave myself enough time to dry off. Oh well, I'll know for next time. The greatest thing about today was the astonishment on the faces of my co-workers when they realized that I had actually run into work. One co-worker commented "Your serious about running the Tely 10". Yes I am, quite serious.

Under "How I Felt' in my running journal I noted, once again, "sluggish at the end".

15-20 minutes "easy"

That's what the training called for, 15-20 minutes easy. Up until this point, I had never run more than 25 minutes outdoors, so what could possibly be "easy" about this? I noted in my running journal that I felt "sluggish at the end" - guess it's a lot better than feeling sluggish at the beginning.

The first one.

Here it is, the first blog and coincidentally (not) the first run outdoors since last November. Actually, today is day one of the training program for those interested in running the 'Tely 10' - a 10-mile road race through the streets of Paradise, Mount Pearl and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is named after one of our local newspapers (The Telegram) and this year marks the 78th running of this historic road race. The Telegram has published a training program that takes us right up to race day, July 24th, so, as a rookie trainer/runner, I'll be following that. Today was supposed to be a simple 15 minute easy run, only thing is, this being my first run on pavement in six months, there was nothing simple about it.

What a strange feeling to run on solid ground again - what a strange feeling to not have the treadmill drag your feet along as they hit the deck time after time - what a strange feeling to have something to look at other than the 14" television screen - this is really wonderful! Fifteen minutes completed. Entry in my running journal under 'How I Felt' - not too bad.