Weather: Forgot to check again but another perfect day for getting outside. Probably 70, sunny, light wind.
Shoes: Nike Free 4.0
Running Partner: Mollie for the warmup and first .75 miles then I had to drop her back off at home. Also, word to the wise, when you're walking/running with a dog sometimes you need to carry more than one poop bag with you because sometimes one doggy pitstop is not enough.
Route:
Pace/Distance:
How it Felt: Tough. I walked several times (about 5 times for twenty second each or so). It actually starts hurting worse when I walk. I definitely had some mental struggle today and I realized that stopping running was about the worst thing I could do because it was a lot hard to start running again than it was to just keep running once I was going. But I'm still pretty shocked at how much further I'm going now than just a week ago. I found myself lusting after some more cushioned shoes the last two days. I've tried to make a deal with myself that I won't even go in and look at shoes until I finish my first 5K. I know if I go in to look, I'm sunk and I'll be walking out with a new pair. I'm thinking about going easy the next two days. Maybe just a mile each day. Check back tomorrow.
How it Felt: Pretty good. I really like running along the river, having great scenery and other runners around makes me not as conscious of the running itself. Today was the first time I really had fleeting moments of not thinking about the running. I think it was toying with the feeling that people talk about when they say the miles just go by and you don't even realize it. I learned the quickest way to lose the feeling is to become cognizant of it. Sort of a Wylie Coyote going off a cliff then looking down and falling sort of thing. The playlist above is a 150 BPM that is supposed to be a 10:00 min/mile playlist. Obviously, I didn't make that. I was behind from the start even though I was moving my feet to that pace, I must take too small strides to make that be a 10:00 minute mile. Oh well, like I've said before, I'm more concerned about just getting out there and putting some miles in than how fast I'm going.
Route: Check out a bit of scenery. Also take note that I was running slow enough that I didn't even have to stop or slow down to snap this photo
Pace/Distance: Getting close to 2 miles after only a week!
How it Felt: So-so. Unlike the last few days, I definitely couldn't keep going today.
I was really looking forward to getting out there. I've had some good chats with some of you readers out there and it's really pumped me up to get out there and keep doing this. I loaded up the playlist today with songs roughly in the 155 BPM range to get to a 10 minute/mile pace. Didn't happen. It seems like this 11:40 pace is pretty much where I'm at right now. And that's not terrible. I'm not concerned at all about pace right now. I just want to log some miles. Being so close to 2 miles already makes me feel like a 5K by the end of April wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.
It's weird that all of the pain I experience is on my right side. I wonder if it's shorter than the other side or something. Today I hardly had any of the shin pain that has been my traditional nemesis. I was, however, feeling some pain in the ball of my right foot. It was what ultimately made me stop when I did today.
By far the best part of today's run was towards the end. I was listening to Don't Stop Me Now and singing aloud with my headphones on because, hey why not? As I got to the "I'm a sex machine ready to reload" line and belted it out, some dad with his tot in a stroller was pushing by me in the opposite direction. He gave me a very concerned look. Oh well.
I'm hoping this great weather holds up and I can keep getting outside and getting my runs in. Tomorrow looks like some bad weather so I might be running at the Y. Any of you guys treadmill pros or flat out hate the treadmill? Does the elliptical count as running?
So, music is huge in my life. As you can tell by the fact that I include my playlist for every run, I that importance carries over to running as well. I'm sure it's true for everyone but when I'm listening to music, I don't think nearly as much about what I'm actually doing as I run and it seems like I can go farther with less effort. Last night as I was listening to Freewill for like the fourth time in two days while running, I was noticing how listening to a song with a strongly defined beat like Neill Peart really evens out my pace and sets me at a good tempo.
So imagine my joy when today I found this website called job.fm. So you can go to this website and search for a song and it will display the BPM and what type of pace that translates to. Or you can search for your pace and it will give you a list of songs that match that pace based on their BPM.
Now obviously, the pace has to be an estimate because no matter how frequently you pick up and put down your feet, your pace will be affected by other factors such as your stride length and topography and such things. Nevertheless, this seems like a really cool website that I anticipate using a lot as I try to log more and more miles.
What do you guys listen to? Anyone out there philosophically opposed to listening to music at all while you run?
Playlist: Same as yesterday BUT I actually outran the playlist(!), so I ended with another dose of FreeWill
Shoes: Nike LunarGlide (I've been enjoying the Frees better but I left them at work. D'oh!)
Running Partner: Mollie (who I actually ended up taking back to the house because she couldn't hang!)
Course:
Pace/Distance
How it Felt: Seriously, it felt really good. It's been feeling better and better each time. I find myself looking forward to it more and more and thinking about running also. I am certain there will come a point where that is not the case, where it feels like a chore to get out or where I flat out refuse to do it, so I figure I'd better get some time in while it feels good. So as you can see, today was a bit slower than I've been going, but I think I'm figuring out that I have to sacrifice speed for distance - at least right now. But again, I feel like I could have gone longer. I wanted to make sure and be able to go further tomorrow (which is actually today since I didn't get this post done last night). I felt pretty good throughout, at first I was feeling a weird sort of tingling each stride in my right shin. It was more towards the inside of the shin than what I normally feel on the outside. I tried to pay more attention to my stride when I felt the pain. So I shortened up and focused more on landing midfoot. After a minute or so of focusing on my stride, the feeling went away and did not return. I had slight lower back pain but it too went away. All in all, a good run. My longest yet. One last thing, add spicy tuna wraps to the list of what not to eat before running. I swear I was burping up Srirachia the whole time. And I love Srirachia, just not while I'm gasping for air and it's coming out instead of going in. Sorry if that's TMI. See you tomorrow (which, again, is actually today, but whatevs)
Location: Route along the Des Moines River. Gorgeous.
Distance/Pace: This was all running. Not too shabby. Almost 10:00 even first mile
Running Partner: None. There were a lot of folks out running today, however none were running with me necessarily. When I got back to the Y after I was done, I might have snuck in with a group of hard-core guys just to make it look like I had been out running with them the whole time.
How it Felt: Really pretty good. I never felt like I was sucking wind, although I got the old familiar stitch in my right side towards the end. Also, my lower back on my right side started hurting today. Again, I had the slight pain in my right lower leg but it went away quickly when I was done. I definitely felt like I could have gone further today. By far, the best part of today's run was being able to breathe well enough while running to shout out "if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice...something something I will choose FREEWILL!" in my best Getty-Lee-after-smoking-too-many-packs-of-cigarettes-and-being-totally-winded falsetto. Also, there may have been some Neil Pert-esque fist pumps timed perfectly with the cymbal crashes. Looking forward to going further tomorrow.
So I saw this article today. Is it bad that the first word that jumped out at me was endocannabinoid? I think if runners used that term more in promoting running, you'd get a lot of new people lacing up their trainers. Heck, they could even sell Nikes in head shops.
Seriously though, wouldn't it be awesome to get that feeling from something completely legal and good for your health? I know a lot of you guys reading this have probably experienced it first-hand and I hope to join your ranks one day soon.
Of course, I also came across this line from the study that seemed to perfectly describe me and some of the things I've written about already on this blog:
He says, 'Inactive people may not be fit enough to hit the exercise
intensity that leads to this sort of rewarding sensation.' However, he
is optimistic that individuals can be helped to build up their exercise
tolerance until they cross the threshold where they become motivated
to exercise by endocannabinoids.
So for now, I'll have to keep building up my tolerance until I get that first (metaphorical) bong blast of endocannabinoids. I'm ok with that though. Hopefully, with enough tolerance-building, I'll become the Cheech and/or Chong of running.
Now, time to load up some Phish for my playlist just in case the high hits today.
Weather: Gorgeous. I didn't look at the actual thermometer but it was absolutely fantastic. Again.
Playlist: Down by the Water by The Decemberists and Jessica by The Allman Brothers (it's my favorite song to run to so that will be on here a lot)
Shoes: Nike Free 4.0
Location: Loop around Roosevelt High School and Hubbell Elementary School
Running Partner: The whole family! We all went out for a walk with the girls in the double stroller. After five minute warm-up, Mollie and I took off running. Well, I was running. Mollie was hesitant today, I actually felt like I was dragging her along with me for a good deal of the run. She crashed way harder than I did when we got home.
Distance/Pace: There were a few hiccups in the tracking here like that big slow-down at minute 7 where Mollie decided she had to stop and do her dogly business and I didn't quite get it paused in time before it took a big hit off my pace. Also, at the end, those were walking after I was done running. Still, I had less than an 11:00 mile without even doing this for a week yet.
How it Felt: Great actually! I felt like I wasn't trying that hard the first several minutes and I never really got winded. I didn't have any pain in my feet or lower legs while I was running. When I stopped, that familiar pain in my right shin was there, but not for long. I'm really liking running in the Nike Frees but I think it's because there's no stability rather than because there's no cushioning. I really like the cushioning of the LunarGlides but there's too much stability in them. Hopefully, whenever I get new shoes I can find a good mix of cushioning and flexibility. That's why the Brooks PureFlows are captivating me at the moment. I'm actually really looking forward to tomorrow.
So, I've mentioned before that I love shoes. I mean, really love them. In fact, needing a justification for buying new shoes has been the motivation for at least two of my previous annual attempts at starting a running regimen.
Not only do I love shoes, but I love shoe advertising. And I'm totally a sucker for it. Now, I consider myself a pretty savvy consumer. I mean, I remember studying advertising and the various ways advertisers use emotion and logical fallacies to convince us to buy their products. I've studied and practiced consumer protection law. Heck, I've even seen every episode of Mad Men. I know what these guys and gals are trying to do to me.
But I fall for it every damn time. Right now, the back cover of the Runner's World magazine is promising that if I buy Puma's shoes, I will run as fast as Usain Bolt. And I believe it! Me. All 238 pounds of my tubby ass can run as fast as the fastest dude on Earth if I dole out a measly $100 for these pretty cool looking shoes.
But I don't just fall for claims of increased speed. I also believe that if I give Adidas $130 of my money, my feet can sleep on individual foot-sized memory foam mattresses while I miracle myself around the track. For even more money, Newton promises me that the shoes will propel me around. I mean how awesome is that?
So no matter what shoe companies promise, I believe it. Yet, with every pair of shoes I've run in, it hurts. My lower leg and shins always hurt. Sometimes they start hurting sooner than other times and sometimes the hurt goes away sooner than others, but they always hurt. So what do I do?
Well, I just finished Born to Run. A book, I think it can safely be said, that has ignited a natural running movement to the extent that every major shoe manufacturer as far as I can tell is selling a line of "minimal" or "barefoot" or "natural" running shoe. And reading through this book, I found myself buying everything that was said in there just like I buy the shoe companies' ads. "Yeah," I said, "we've been running without shoes our whole human history, why are we ruining it with shoes now?" "If I just ditch my shoes and take really fast, really short strides, I'll never hurt again!"
But I am learning. Right now I'm just maintaining the status quo. I haven't ditched my shoes, but I also haven't gone out and bought a new pair. My shoes are still in great shape and have plenty more miles left on them. So I'm going to keep wearing what I've got for now.
This does not mean, however, that I'm not keeping my eyes open for new shoes. Right now, the Brooks Pure Flow really has my fancy. I'm also considering going nearly $200 bucks in and trying out Newtons.
Before I shell out any money, or ditch the shoes altogether, however, you can bet I'll have researched the issue from all angles this time. Because you know what they say...
So what do you guys run in?
UPDATE: I should mention that I've purchased my last two pairs of shoes (Nike Structure Triax 12s and the Nike LunarGlides) at a specialty running store in town. I have come to believe that they have misread my feet both times. I have very flat feet and I'm a big guy, so I think on first look, people think I need a lot of shoe. Hence, the Structure Triax. I have now seen my doctor, an orthopedist and two other running specialty stores and have determined that I don't overpronate at all and I have a natural mid foot strike. So from now on, whenever I do buy new shoes, I will be looking for a neutral shoe.
Running Partner: Mollie (who was completely wasted after we were done). Also my lovely wife and oldest daughter watched while I plowed my way around the perimeter of the field.
How it Felt: Tough sledding. It felt like I had gone way further than yesterday's run, when in fact, I was about a tenth of a mile less. Also, I was way slower than the last two days. I have to conclude these are both attributable to the off-road conditions I ran in today. The ground was spongy from rain the last few days. It felt like I was exerting a lot more effort to propel myself forward. I suspect that wearing my road shoes on the grass was not helpful. I really wanted to try barefoot but decided to save that for another day. You can see that second to last minute was much faster than the rest of the run. That's when I decided to run straight towards my wife and daughter, imagining that they were in some sort of danger. That was definitely motivational but left me winded when I was finished. My legs felt better during the run (aside from the extra effort it felt like I was putting out) but immediately when I was finished, I had that familiar, nearly-immobilizing pain in my right lower leg. By the time we walked back to the car, however, I was fine.
Four days in a row! Baby steps. Over two miles down. I'm thinking about making weekly/monthly/yearly mileage goals. What do you guys think? Actually looking forward to tomorrow.
So as the name of this blog says, I'm not only a fat runner, but I'm also a daddy. I have the two sweetest daughters in the world and a big reason I run is to be healthy so that I can live a long time and have energy to play with them. My oldest daughter just turned two earlier this month. She's been walking for over a year now and today she was running in a field with me. She likes to go fast (I know because when we ride our bike she goes "Faster!" even though I'm pedaling as fast as my fat legs will take us) so I imagine soon she will be running all over the place.
I remember when she first started walking though. She started off by pulling herself up with the couch. Then, she would cruise around a little cradle we had sitting in the middle of the floor. She would do laps around the cradle holding onto it and falling. A lot. We were proud of every step and marveled at the miracle of our tiny baby who only months earlier couldn't even hold her head up unsupported, now engaging in bipedal locomotion. Now we see her run and don't think anything of it. Yet, it's still miraculous. The engineering of the human foot and the evolutionary steps it's taken to get to this point are astounding.
Then I get out on the track and set the human race back 2 million years by Neanderthaling around the track for six minutes. Seriously though, I'm trying to remind myself that just like my daughter taking those first hesitant steps around that cradle, I'm taking the baby steps that will eventually pay off in miles and miles down the road. It doesn't seem like it now, but in months, I know I will be able to measure my time in hours rather than minutes and not even think anything about it.
Distance/Pace: I had to do some serious math to figure this out. I'm using Runkeeper and I set it to do a 5 minute warmup and then run. I thought it would start over with a new pace and distance after the warmup. I thought wrong. So, here's the screen shot. The first 5 minutes were walking though. So I went .31 miles walking for five minutes. That means I went .72 miles running in 6:24. So I think that means I was running an 8:53 mile. Right?
Running Partner: Mollie. Also, some Dude-ish looking guy was lapping the track at the same time I was. As an avowed Dude acolyte I did not know quite how to feel when I saw someone looking a lot like El Duderino on running lanes rather than a bowling lane. On one hand, I thought it was pretty cool that I was keeping the same distance from him the whole time which made me feel like I'm not the slowest land mammal outside of Blank Park Zoo. On the other hand, the Dude kept abiding around the track long after I was done. I definitely felt out of my element.
How it Felt: Much better. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I changed too many variables to know what accounted for it feeling so much better than yesterday. I am certain that not eating the ribs of four small hogs less than an hour before I ran definitely was a wise move. The sunshine generally makes me feel better about life so that might have contributed to me feeling better about spending 6:24 of that life doing something that in every other sport is considered a form of punishment during practice. I drank quite a bit of water during the day today so I was feeling more hydrated than the last two nights. Also, I was wearing more shoe today than before. I'm planning on putting a whole shoe post up here soon so I won't go into too much detail about it here but I felt better in the shoes while I was running today. However, as soon as I was done, my shins and lower legs felt way worse immediately. According to a guy I talked to at Running Wild in Coralville the other day, it's because I don't need any stability in my shoes and what I have in the Lunarglides is actually pushing my feet out which is causing pain in my outer calves/shins. Maybe a more neutral shoe will be the right combination for me.
Today was day 2 of this little running experiment I've been sentenced committed willingly to.
A couple of things: (1) don't eat this before you run; (2) if you do eat that before you run, do it more than half an hour before you run. Yuck. Obviously I am still a fat guy and you can't take a fat guy to a place with ribs and expect him not to eat any. In my defense, I only got the appetizer size, not the dinner size AND I only ate half to the ribs. On the other hand, even eating half of the ribs was still half a pound of meat in my gut while I tried to haul my fat ass around the track.
So, even though I'd stuffed myself with pork and potatoes, I didn't want to fall off the running wagon on only my second day. I'm doing this for you guys you know? So I leashed up the dog and took her across the street.
It wasn't terrible at first. I really expected for it to suck. Badly. But at first it felt pretty normal. I'm really working on being a mid foot striker, taking shorter, quicker paces. I began by trying to keep my head up and my upper body lined up nicely over my hips and knees. Somewhere around the end of my first lap, I think all of that went out the window.
I was determined to run farther than I did yesterday. It seems to me (based purely on reading and observation of real runners) that your mind is the real obstacle in long-distance running. I know my mind is very good at coming up with very convincing rationalizations as to why I should not keep hauling my fat ass around the track. So I'm thinking that it's probably as important to start training my mind as it is to train my body.
So I kept going for another lap. It sucked, but I did it. Believe me, I know it sounds pathetic to talk about half a mile like it's some fantastic distance, but I did it. I doubled what I did yesterday. I'm like a sixth of the way to a 5K. And I did it at an 8 min/mile pace. That's pretty fast for a fatty don't you think?
So, I'm still a runner. And I'll get back out there and do it again tomorrow. See you then.
How it felt: Pretty bad. Not as bad as I expected but also worse than I expected. I'll put up another post with some random thoughts to explain what I mean by this. Again, there's some numbness in my right shin/foot area. It's been like that since I was trying on shoes on Monday (did I mention I like shoes?) Does anyone really think that running up and down the sidewalk in front of the shoe store could make my leg go numb? It was almost immediately after I did that when I began to feel the numbness and it hasn't gone away since then.
So I started this blog because I want to document what exactly being a beginning runner is. I've checked out other "beginning" runner blogs or websites like at Runner's World. I really enjoy the site, the magazine, and that particular column. But any dude writing about a ten mile race in the mountains is not a beginner. I even went back to the very first post he had where he talked about running a mile in the snow. Again, not my idea of a beginner. I want people to be able to look at someone coming from an absolute dead start, no running experience, poor physical fitness, little motivation and see where I can go. Join me.
March 21, 2012
Weather: Cloudy, wet ground but not raining
Time: 8:30 pm
Music: None (just my wheezing and huffing as I went around)
Location: High School Track
Shoes: Nike Free 4.0
Distance: .25 miles (1 Lap)
Time: N/A
Running Partner: Mollie
How it felt: Surprisingly difficult breathing-wise during the run. When I started out, I planned on going a mile. I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. My feet and legs felt fine during the run. That was a good sign because historically my shins/outer calves lock up on me and I can't keep going. After my lap, my right shin felt a little tingly/numb for a few minutes.
So I'm starting this blog as a training journal, random thought depository and, hopefully someday, online community.
So you can tell by the title of this blog that I'm a fat guy. I'm not Homer-Simpson-wearing-a-mumu-going-to-watch-Honk-if-You're-Horny fat, but I weigh probably fifty to sixty pounds more than I should. I know there are many ways to lose those pounds. I've tried a bunch of them. Most recently, I did about nine months of Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping. I lost almost 25 pounds and got in fairly good cardiovascular shape doing Farrell's. I found that I was bored with the same classes at the same time every day however.
Through all of the other diets and exercise regimens, I've wanted to be a runner. Key word in that sentence - wanted. I don't know what it takes to successfully be a runner. All I know is that every time I've tried to start a running program, no matter how frequently I run or for how many weeks (days?) I stick with the running program, I don't feel like a runner. I feel like a wannabe.
There are many things that make me feel like a wannabe. The first is the fact that I've never successfully run over a mile as an adult. I will change that. The second is my body type. I'm a pretty big guy. Watching marathons or other distance races, I don't see many guys who look like me. As of today I'm 6'0", 238 pounds. My goal is to be either 7'0", 238 pounds or 6'0", 180 pounds. Since I'm not anticipating any second puberty, it looks like I'm going to have to pray for the former but work towards the latter.
And work towards the latter I have. Just about every year when the weather starts getting nice, I go buy a new pair of shoes (more on that in another post I suspect) and start trying to run again. Typically, my default training program has been the Couch to 5K program. It usually works pretty well for the first several weeks. Then I get to week 4. Week 4 always kicks my butt. It's not just the fact that the running time is measured in minutes rather than seconds during that week but it's always some combination of illness, injury, or business that conspire to keep me from getting the runs done and moving on to week 5.
So here we are again. I've finished all of the program again up to week 4, day 2. And I'm stuck. So I'm going to try something different yet again. I have reached a point with my wannabe running status where I have decided that there is no magical initiation ceremony whereby one crosses over the threshold and "becomes" a runner. I believe the only thing required to be a runner is that you run. Clearly, there is no single definition for what constitutes running, but for my purposes I am going to say that picking up my feet and putting them down faster than any walk is running. And I declare for myself and any other fat guy out there that if you want to be a runner, then run. It doesn't matter for how long, or how far, but every day, I will run. I am, therefore, a runner.
So today was my first step as a runner. Because I want to be a runner for as long as I can, how quickly I build up to a respectable distance or time is of no import. Hopefully tomorrow I'll go further or faster, if I don't, that's fine. But tomorrow I will go. I will run and I am a runner.
