Shoes for all runs: Brooks Pureflow
April 8, 2012
Time 6:14 PM
Route:
Pace/Distance
How it felt: And now we get to the dangers of not writing this each day. I honestly don't remember how this one felt. It seems like I had a slower-than-normal pace, so I'm thinking that maybe I had to walk some in there which wouldn't be great. I do remember the next day, however.
April 9, 2010
High Noon
Course: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/82111361
No pace or time information available for this one.
How it Felt: Absolutely terrible. Not because of the running but because of the workout. I decided to join this group from the Y which a deacon from our church invited me to. One would think that a deacon of the church, charged with helping his congregants "grow in love of God and neighbor" would be concerned about my well-being. Apparently, this man takes his charge neither literally nor seriously. Within fifteen minutes of starting this workout I was cursing my fellow man, taking the lord's name in vain, and cursing my lot in life. So the workout was to run from the Y up to the state Capitol. About .75 miles. Awesome, if we would have just run there and back. Once at the Capitol, however, the group leader decided it would be a fantastic idea to run up the approximately 5,234x10^23 steps in front of the Capitol.
Running up the steps was not sufficient, however. We then had to run down and then perform a set of exercises at each landing, alternating between pushups, situps and tricep dips. Having survived the first circuit, we then jogged over to the South side of the grounds and ran back up towards the building up what is undoubtedly Iowa's steepest hill. We then ran back down the steps repeating the other exercises. For the third round, the other intrepid souls ran to the North side of the grounds and ran up Iowa's second steepest hill. I was concerned that if I ran up said hill, I wouldn't have enough in me to make it back to the Y. So I decided another trip up and down the stairs was what my bloated carcass needed. We finished the workout with yet another trip up and down the stairs and a run back to the Y. Wow. I lost two pounds in water weight during this workout.
I will never go to the Y on a Monday again.
April 10, 2012
8:00 PM
Weather: Cold and windy
Route:
Pace/Distance:
How it Felt: Pretty blah. As you can see, I was running this one on a track. I think tracks might fall right behind the treadmill on the list of least favorite places to run. I really need something to look at when I'm running or else my mind tries (and usually succeeds) to convince me that running is not what my body should be doing at the time. Also, it was dark and cold which made this even worse for running. Finally, I tried doing this without any music because I read some ill-informed Runner's World article about running without music because you can get desensitized to it and so that you can "listen to your body." Folks, for a fat boy like me, listening to your body while running is about the worst thing you can do if continuing to run is your aim. My body was telling me things like "wow, this is hard"; "are you sure you wouldn't rather be sitting on the couch, eating potato chips, watching baseball, you know, like the rest of our lives up to this point?"; and "ok, seriously tubby, you're going to have a heart attack if you don't stop this and feed me donuts." So I really struggled to stay out there and I walked sometimes and it was generally pretty miserable.
April 11, 2012
Noon
Route:
Pace/Distance:
How it Felt: This one felt a lot better after the previous few days. I don't know if it was a function of the time of day or what I'd eaten or what, but this one felt pretty good. I was happy to get almost 2.5 miles at an almost 11 minute/mile pace. This was a nice route and one that I can expand in the future to go on longer runs.
April 12, 2012
8:30 PM
Route:
Pace/Distance:
Playlist: Flaming Lips: iTunes Originals Album
How it Felt: Even better than the day before. I know this was really slow, but I definitely felt like it was a pace I could keep going at. Aside from my right foot going numb, yet again, I felt like I could have easily kept running for the rest of the night. I'm very encouraged to be this close to 5K distance. I'm pretty confident I could run a 5K now and I think I might next Saturday!
awesome! we are very similar in our running preferences, sounds like. i must have the music because that's about the only thing i like about the running, besides the feeling i usually get later (and that's related to "wow, i am so awesome for working out today). I agree that you can ignore your body so that your mind doesn't get in there and muck everything up. seriously, your body will figure it out. usually i do better physically anyways when i concentrate on the music/scenery and i ignore my pace and my body alike, that way i can figure out my own pace without pressure on myself to go faster, make this time, feel that pang, etc. i can't even have annoying ear phones because any little thing to yank me out of my fantasy land, including an earphone that won't stay put, can still get me distracted enough to talk myself out of a run. So annoying!
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