Picking up the pace and whatever else needs picking up
One lesson that I keep pushing on is physical capability. I was born into a family of natural athletes. I however, have never been blessed in quite the same way. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate every single motor skill I have from large to fine. But while I seem to have the endurance factor in spades I do not have speed or coordination locked up like my brothers and sister. For whatever reason I don't have a good competitive schema. I do find that this makes it harder to get myself out of the chair. I also seem to lack the self control with food that my other siblings have and my body gets bigger faster and smaller slower than anyone in our family. Or so it would seem to me - all things revolve around me in my blog - me and Gromit and Chewie that is.... I do love the state fair diet, not at all adverse to the flour, butter and eggs fried up in a little fat and sprinkled with sugar...ahem...
About three years ago I trained for a marathon with some friends. We trained spring, summer and early fall. You might think training for a marathon would be really hard but we maintained a laid back philosophy around our long runs. We would save up our good stories from the week to share during the long run. Sometimes I would find myself talking about a weird dream or most embarrassing moment or a work puzzle that just couldn't be solved while I was at work. Between the three of us telling our stories, we were able to stay focused on something other than pulling our feet up off the ground and pushing our hips forward. We made the long runs enjoyable and kept our pace comfortable. Towards the end of our training we would run about 18 miles and stop at the Mel-O-Gkaze bakery along Minnehaha Creek parkway to pick up some donut holes to add some calories to our final two miles. That kind of gives you an idea of our intensity.
When the day of the marathon arrived it was incredibly hot for Minneapolis. We started the run but the heat and my nerves got the best of me. I was so disappointed. It took me at least a year to move on from not finishing that run. Once I dropped out Kristin and I grabbed our scooters and took off to support our other friends. I think I made the right decision. I was too slow by mile 7 and the water stops actually ran out of water by mile 13 due to the heat. I would have been quite a mess if I had kept on pick going. I made it about 9 or 10 miles. Plus I got the bonus of getting that extra time with good friends. I miss that regular time - in a good way. By the way they both finished - it was quite impressive.
Anyway, I started running again with vigor last year. I decided to go extra slow with building my mileage and focus on speed. I wanted to get a pace that was comfortable and that would allow me to stop worrying about getting picked up by the dreaded bus or feeling like I was being stalked by the paramedics driving the ambulance. I started doing trail running because I love it and it keeps me entertained. It is easier on my joints overall but I am not sure that the falling really works in my overall fitness strategy. It is more challenging and works my muscles differently. It really helped my pace on road running to do the technical terrain of a trail run. Chewie loves loves loves the trail run.
Here is the part where I am going to try to explain how hard it is to be me, I mean to be my partner. Over the summer I got a Garmin running watch. It will give me distance and pace and downloads to my computer so I verify the run. I was immediately addicted to this thing. I wouldn't leave home without it and went nuts trying to figure out how to use it for my runs. Sometimes I couldn't believe how slow I was going and wondered if it was working. On the days where it was showing me going faster I still wondered if it was working. I started and stopped it for every little thing - stop lights, drinking water, the dog stopping to sniff - I didn't want to count anything that wasn't running. I started to set my mood by the Garmin. I would get cranky at Gromit when I had to pull him and happier when he was pulling me. The Garmin was so much better when he was pulling me.... I remember one incident where I was horizontal to the ground and on that run I believe the Garmin clocked my best pace at just over 6 minute miles for all of 15 feet- that is because I was flying through the air - I think it had something to do with a squirrel. I was actually parasailing behind Gromit without a chute. Suffice it to say that my need for speed resulted in a skinned knee and a bit of a hobble for a week after that 'pb' run - personal best.
Chewie was the man though - he was steady eddy. I could start that Garmin and stop it maybe twice in a whole 7 mile run. It was like we were sharing head phones - and he was relaxed and enjoying the music and the sun, the dirt, the prairies, the lakes and the big old shade trees. He just went about his run like it was the best job in the world. He was going to be the best running dog in the world and he would not let the Garmin get in the way of his steady.
I needed to rethink this strategy of stopping my watch all the time. It was really getting crazy and I wasn't so sure that some of the stopping and starting was unnatural. I came home and talked about this with Kristin ad naseum. At some point I decided to just stop stopping the watch at all. I decided I needed to start getting the facts and truth about my runs so I would not be discouraged at races when I saw my times.I mean, they don't stop the clock if I walk for water during a race. I don't know why they don't, they should, but they don't - LOL!
Funny thing about obsession. The Garmin has its place and has helped me increase my pace by an average of about 2 minutes per mile for my 6 mile runs. Nothing to shake a stick at although I am likely giving away how slow I truly am....once my pace was acceptable I wanted to take a look at how I was doing with consistency.
I started looking at the graphs of my runs to see where I was slowing my pace - was it hills, was it during a particular song - that kind of thing. I made some adjustments. Then one day I came home and saw this graph where there were two big spikes where I had slowed way down for about a tenth of a mile. This happened twice. I was racking my brain trying to remember what was happening at mile 1.6 and mile 2.2???? Oh - oh - I was waiting and picking up after Chewie and then I was getting untangled from running over to a garbage barrel and tossing what I picked up after Chewie - I just started laughing.
Overall things are looking up in the running world for me. I still have to get a half marathon under my belt that I am comfortable with before I make the final push for a marathon. I have done a couple but am not happy with my times yet.
I guess while I work on picking up the pace I might find a little balance in stopping the watch when I am picking up after Gromit and Chewie. It might be okay to not rush the doodles - every pace has it place.
About three years ago I trained for a marathon with some friends. We trained spring, summer and early fall. You might think training for a marathon would be really hard but we maintained a laid back philosophy around our long runs. We would save up our good stories from the week to share during the long run. Sometimes I would find myself talking about a weird dream or most embarrassing moment or a work puzzle that just couldn't be solved while I was at work. Between the three of us telling our stories, we were able to stay focused on something other than pulling our feet up off the ground and pushing our hips forward. We made the long runs enjoyable and kept our pace comfortable. Towards the end of our training we would run about 18 miles and stop at the Mel-O-Gkaze bakery along Minnehaha Creek parkway to pick up some donut holes to add some calories to our final two miles. That kind of gives you an idea of our intensity.
When the day of the marathon arrived it was incredibly hot for Minneapolis. We started the run but the heat and my nerves got the best of me. I was so disappointed. It took me at least a year to move on from not finishing that run. Once I dropped out Kristin and I grabbed our scooters and took off to support our other friends. I think I made the right decision. I was too slow by mile 7 and the water stops actually ran out of water by mile 13 due to the heat. I would have been quite a mess if I had kept on pick going. I made it about 9 or 10 miles. Plus I got the bonus of getting that extra time with good friends. I miss that regular time - in a good way. By the way they both finished - it was quite impressive.
Anyway, I started running again with vigor last year. I decided to go extra slow with building my mileage and focus on speed. I wanted to get a pace that was comfortable and that would allow me to stop worrying about getting picked up by the dreaded bus or feeling like I was being stalked by the paramedics driving the ambulance. I started doing trail running because I love it and it keeps me entertained. It is easier on my joints overall but I am not sure that the falling really works in my overall fitness strategy. It is more challenging and works my muscles differently. It really helped my pace on road running to do the technical terrain of a trail run. Chewie loves loves loves the trail run.
Here is the part where I am going to try to explain how hard it is to be me, I mean to be my partner. Over the summer I got a Garmin running watch. It will give me distance and pace and downloads to my computer so I verify the run. I was immediately addicted to this thing. I wouldn't leave home without it and went nuts trying to figure out how to use it for my runs. Sometimes I couldn't believe how slow I was going and wondered if it was working. On the days where it was showing me going faster I still wondered if it was working. I started and stopped it for every little thing - stop lights, drinking water, the dog stopping to sniff - I didn't want to count anything that wasn't running. I started to set my mood by the Garmin. I would get cranky at Gromit when I had to pull him and happier when he was pulling me. The Garmin was so much better when he was pulling me.... I remember one incident where I was horizontal to the ground and on that run I believe the Garmin clocked my best pace at just over 6 minute miles for all of 15 feet- that is because I was flying through the air - I think it had something to do with a squirrel. I was actually parasailing behind Gromit without a chute. Suffice it to say that my need for speed resulted in a skinned knee and a bit of a hobble for a week after that 'pb' run - personal best.
Chewie was the man though - he was steady eddy. I could start that Garmin and stop it maybe twice in a whole 7 mile run. It was like we were sharing head phones - and he was relaxed and enjoying the music and the sun, the dirt, the prairies, the lakes and the big old shade trees. He just went about his run like it was the best job in the world. He was going to be the best running dog in the world and he would not let the Garmin get in the way of his steady.
I needed to rethink this strategy of stopping my watch all the time. It was really getting crazy and I wasn't so sure that some of the stopping and starting was unnatural. I came home and talked about this with Kristin ad naseum. At some point I decided to just stop stopping the watch at all. I decided I needed to start getting the facts and truth about my runs so I would not be discouraged at races when I saw my times.I mean, they don't stop the clock if I walk for water during a race. I don't know why they don't, they should, but they don't - LOL!
Funny thing about obsession. The Garmin has its place and has helped me increase my pace by an average of about 2 minutes per mile for my 6 mile runs. Nothing to shake a stick at although I am likely giving away how slow I truly am....once my pace was acceptable I wanted to take a look at how I was doing with consistency.
I started looking at the graphs of my runs to see where I was slowing my pace - was it hills, was it during a particular song - that kind of thing. I made some adjustments. Then one day I came home and saw this graph where there were two big spikes where I had slowed way down for about a tenth of a mile. This happened twice. I was racking my brain trying to remember what was happening at mile 1.6 and mile 2.2???? Oh - oh - I was waiting and picking up after Chewie and then I was getting untangled from running over to a garbage barrel and tossing what I picked up after Chewie - I just started laughing.
Overall things are looking up in the running world for me. I still have to get a half marathon under my belt that I am comfortable with before I make the final push for a marathon. I have done a couple but am not happy with my times yet.
I guess while I work on picking up the pace I might find a little balance in stopping the watch when I am picking up after Gromit and Chewie. It might be okay to not rush the doodles - every pace has it place.
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