Obstacles

A few weeks ago, my trainer had me do dead lifts for the first time in a while. We even went up to 115 lbs! The next day (Thursday), I tried to do my usual 3.1-mile run on the treadmill, and my leg muscles were having none of it. I walked and jogged for 12 minutes before I gave up and switched to upper body strength exercises instead.

That Sunday, I went for a run outside. I did pretty well, although my time suffered since I kept stopping to take pictures, and at one point I had to stop and check a map to see where I was on these unmarked park trails. Not to mention HILLS! But over all, not horrible. 

Then the next week, my legs refused to cooperate. I tried to run again on Monday, and it was miserable. The muscles on the front/side of my lower legs were pissed off. They didn't hurt per se, but they were exhausted and burning. I pushed through the 3.1 miles, but it was not pretty. I ended up doing upper body strength for the rest of the week to give my legs a break.

After asking the other Team Drea folks, it sounds like I was running too far too often, considering how new to running I am. I was doing my 5K race distance three times per week, plus shorter running sprints in circuits with my trainer twice a week. I also don't think I was stretching enough before and after running, although my calves and quads seem fine, but maybe they're more resilient than these other muscles.

So my new plan is to do my race distance once per week, do shorter runs beyond that, and do some low impact cardio (bike?) in place of the excessive running. Before I run, I will bike or walk for a bit to warm up and stretch my legs. I also bought some compression leg sleeves to try. And after I run, I will stretch longer and continue to take my post-workout "pout baths" - a nice hot bath with Epsom salts and lots of pouting because I always feel like crap after exercising (where is this "high" everyone talks about? I feel quite the opposite). I also bought a $5 wooden rolling pin at the grocery store so I can roll those little muscles, and I'll start using my foam roller on the big muscles more often - just to keep them happy.

The weekend before last, I met my trainer on the greenway for my first run since my little break. We ran 0.5 or 0.25 miles at a time and then stopped every so often to do pushups or whatever other strength things - to sort of mimic the obstacle race. My legs did okay, but I was struggling with the cardio since I hadn't been running.  During the running part, I averaged about 11-minute miles.

Last Wednesday, my trainer had me do back squats for the first time in a long time, and I got up to 105 lbs. My legs were SO sore for days. On Thursday, I wanted to do my 3.1-mile run, so I did. My legs were pretty angry, and I'm still trying to get back on track with my pace, so it wasn't pleasant, and I averaged about 13-minute miles. I'm not making any pace progress, which is a little frustrating, but I'll keep pushing.  I know my trainer will have me do more back squats tomorrow, so I think I'll either do my 3.1 today, or maybe this weekend...

Also, I am noticing that the tempo of my music is affecting my running pace. I discovered that "Army" by Ben Folds Five is almost the right pace (maybe a little too fast, but close)... so now I'm trying to make a NEW playlist of music that is all about the same tempo. I think that will also help my pace and hopefully improve my overall level of misery during the run. And yay for the internet actually making the BPM music search super easy! I love the internet.

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Progress and Perspective

I'm slowly making progress in my training. It's not getting any easier because my goal is still so far away, but my heart rate doesn't spike as much, and I can run for a bit longer before I start really pouting. I had a major revelation last night... there's something I hate WAY more than running: walking lunges.  Seriously, those things can bite me.  They occasionally make me cry.  But YAY, running isn't the worst thing in the world anymore! Is that progress? Or just perspective? Actually, I can think of a lot of things worse than running. Starting with the obvious: having ALS.

Must. Keep. Pushing.

... without whining too much...

(... yeah right, let's be real.)

I went for my first outdoor run his past weekend. I felt like I was on display and everyone was staring at me. Logically I know this is silly, but I couldn't shake my self-consciousness. Was my butt jiggling? Could people tell how hard I was huffing and puffing and struggling like a fat kid in gym class? Did they think I was demented for running in the first place (like I normally would)? Or would they applaud my attempt at being active? Chances are, they didn't even see or notice me beyond being vaguely aware of an obstacle on the side of the road (if that). "10 points for the overweight asthmatic bitch trying to run!"

Speaking of which, I stupidly forgot to use my inhaler before heading out, so the results of my run were less than phenomenal. Not that I'd know if they were because the stupid running app I downloaded clocked me for 3.5 minutes (it was 30 minutes!!) and 0 miles (I don't know how far I went, but it was definitely more than zero!!). And it can't display my last name properly because the programmers are obviously prejudiced against apostrophes. Jackasses. What's a good running app anyway?

Tonight I spent some quality time with the treadmill, and I was able to run 5.5mph for 300m - 400m at a time, which is like over two minutes or something!  If I had been really bad ass, I probably could've pushed it more, but I'm trying to be reasonable and not kill myself.  But... omg, tiny progress!

Someone recommended Chi Running to me. I want to look into this, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to spend money on all that stuff yet.  Maybe I'll check into YouTube videos.  If anyone has any input, I'd love to hear it - about Chi Running, or any other good resources (especially form-related) for newbies.

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Team Drea Challenge

My friend Andrea was recently diagnosed with ALS at age 33. She is quite an athlete, having completed many races, triathlons, and a 70.3 half ironman. Her ALS progression is making physical activity much harder for her, but she does what she can. She recently proposed a challenge for people to push themselves to do a race that represents a major challenge for them: the Team Drea Challenge.

I shied away at first, hoping maybe she wouldn't notice if I crawled my fat ass under the radar for this one. I'm not into running. Let me rephrase that: I HATE running. I think people who love running are bonkers (sorry Andrea - love you, mean it!). Actually, I dislike exercise in general, but running is the worst of all. But who knows... Maybe a few months from now, I'll be bonkers, too. (Since I'm totally normal and sane at the moment. Duh.)

I eventually warmed up to the idea of participating somehow. I thought maybe I could do a long hike (I actually LIKE hiking)... Or maybe just donate to other people's fundraisers and support them from the comfy cozy couch in my pajamas with my cat in my lap. However, I could tell how much this challenge excited Andrea, and I know how much she loves running and races, and my being slack was everything this challenge is not. A quote on her blog post really struck a chord: "You can do this. You GET to do this." Well, shit. That is true.

I grumbled some more cuss words and started searching for races. They seemed too soon, too far away, too short, too long, too hard, too dinky. Every time I searched, I would end up grumbling more cuss words and not committing to anything.

Then I suddenly remembered the Ninja Challenge obstacle race that has been held near Raleigh for the past few years. I love watching Ninja Warrior on TV (the original Japanese version "Sasuke," not the glitzy Americanized one), and this Ninja Challenge had always intrigued me. It's a 5K obstacle race with obstacles reminiscent of Ninja Warrior. I have been meeting with a personal trainer for a few months, and I thought, hey, I'm in better shape than I've been in years... I might actually be able to pull this off, and it would be way more fun than a standard road race. It's in May, so I have time to train. So, I bit the bullet and signed up. Aaaaaaaahhhh!!!

Luckily, a few of my friends are also registered for the Ninja Challenge, so I joined their team. Yay! Friends! People to keep me going, make it more fun, and call in first responders when I'm dying during the race!

So, I told my personal trainer about the race, and she is training me accordingly. We are doing circuits of strength training and running. I am only able to run at 5.5mph for short periods of time (a minute and a half tops), so I have a long way to go. But I still have a few months to train, so I'm just gonna keep on keepin' on. I've also heard that pull-ups are an important part of training for this thing, so I bought a pull-up bar and some assisted pull-up bands so I can work on that at home.

And... I bought running shoes. Real ones. Ones that cost 4 times what my old sneakers cost. Apparently the investment is worth it, so I went for it. Asics gel Kayano 21... Whatever that means. They are gelly and cushy and comfy! And totally tacky and dorky-looking like all running shoes... What is up with that anyway?

I still hate running. I don't know if I'll ever get over that. But I'm trying. I'm testing different distractions while on the [grumbled cuss word] treadmill - music, mentally playing connect-the-dots with the little light-up dots on the treadmill display, comedy audio, podcasts, audiobooks, mentally reciting the lyrics of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel... Any runners out there with any good distraction ideas, please share!

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