Ruminations on Running and Racing

Week of June 10, 2012:

Friday: Off

Saturday: Bike ride commute to the lab and to the hippie food store for groceries

Week of June 17, 2012:

Sunday: Long, ass-kicking run!

The Solstice Run 10K is almost upon us, friends!  Now, I know that most of you are probably not running this race, but perhaps you have some empathetic excitement for me and my first 10K experience.  I know I get excited for other people when they are pumped for their race, and let me tell you: I am pumped.

You may recall that I’ve been a bit worried about my performance in this race.  It’s been hard for me to adjust to the heat and humidity of running outside during a Texas summer, and I’ve had moments of doubt about my ability to be a decent race participant.  I don’t consider myself to be a serious runner, but I do consider myself to be thoughtful about my budget, and it just doesn’t make sense to sign up for races unless you are going to do the training.  So I suppose it is by racing that I become a serious runner.  In other words, I run because I enjoy what running brings to my life, but I recognize that my love for running has peaks and valleys.  And I’m okay with that.  My approach to running has its benefits, such as my low injury rate, good performances in half-marathons in the past three years, and the way that running with JD when I’m in Michigan has given us time to spend together and brought a better sense of balance to my vacations.

Running makes me happy.  It’s that simple.

After struggling through several runs recently, my body seems to have acclimated to the weather and, for my long runs, I’m heading out earlier in the morning.  It’s still hard to run outside, but the challenge is worth it.  I just feel so good afterward.  Today I was out the door before 9 AM for 60 minutes on foot.  My friend Tom, who works in my department and used to be a personal trainer(!), offered me a little weeklong training guide for the days leading up to the race.  For today, he recommended that I do several miles of my long run, then throw in some surges to simulate a race to the finish line during the 10K.  I chose to run for 40 minutes (about four miles) then started doing 3-minute intervals of 30 seconds fast, followed by 2.5 minutes of recovery.  My fast pace was fast enough to feel speedy, but it was not an all-out sprint.  I did that five times, then finished up the final bit of my run at a slow-ish pace.  It was a great work-out, and at the end, I was really spent.  Hopefully today’s hard work-out is putting fuel in the tank for next weekend.  I feel ready for a great race.

Have a good week, my dears!  Have fun out there.

Something to Ponder

File this one under Deep Thoughts, dear readers.

I was in the grocery store the other day, flipping through a women’s magazine, when I caught a blurb from some anonymous-to-me actress who is apparently starring with Tom Cruise in a movie.  (Clearly I am extremely knowledgeable about Hollywood culture!)  Like every actress who plays Tom Cruise’s opposite, she was thin and toned and very Hollywood, for lack of a better word.  She was talking about her diet, and she said something along the lines of, “Oh, of course I don’t have an eating disorder!  I love to eat.  In fact, I love to eat so much that I eat so many vegetables until I feel like I could burst.”

Forgive me for my hazy memory, but my recollection is that all she talked about eating was vegetables.  They were her favorite food, her secret weapon, the way that she could eat as much as she wanted without (shhh…) getting fat or developing an eating disorder.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Vegetables are great.  I love them too.  But here’s the thing: I don’t eat them until I feel like I’m going to burst.  I don’t eat anything to the point of bursting.  I want to ask this actress, “Is stuffing yourself with vegetables the only way you ever feel full?”  Because if it is, I strongly suspect that she’s not eating enough fat and protein.  The science suggests that fat and protein promote feelings of satiety.  Perhaps evolution is at work here: fat and protein are building blocks in the body.  Much of our body composition is fat and protein.  These macronutrients can also be used for fuel, of course.  Carbohydrates, however, are mostly fuel, so maybe our bodies are tuned, biochemically speaking, to keep searching for food until we’ve eaten enough fat and protein to provide the body with raw materials for repair and renewal.  And remember: in simple terms of macronutrients, vegetables are mostly carbohydrates and fiber.  Maybe our bodies know they need more than vegetables.  I know I certainly need more than vegetables, even though I am delighted to have them on my plate.  They aren’t enough.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go eat breakfast.  I’ll be topping my oatmeal with peanut butter and my coffee with some full-fat coconut milk.

The Sooner You Run, the Sooner You Can Drink Wine!

Week of June 10, 2012:

Monday: Yoga (Gentle Hatha #3)

Tuesday: Off (rained out!).  I snuck in some push-ups and crunches before bed.

Wednesday: Bike commute

Thursday: Short run (favorite 30-minute loop)

Tonight there was a clear sign that I have acclimated to Texas.  It was sunny and 90+ degrees F when I set out for my run, and as I settled into a rhythm, I thought, It’s not too hot out tonight!

Let me repeat: Sunny.  90+ degrees.  And somehow that was okay!  Amazing, I tell you.  Okay, I will confess that there was a gentle breeze and lots of shade for the first half of my run, and the shade especially was quite lovely.

Today I think I needed a run because I’m feeling a bit down and frustrated about my experimental results.  Things were going so well, but now as I am finishing up the final set of animals, the data are unraveling.  Dammit!  I’m not sure if it’s a numbers issue, if I’m just seeing outliers that are throwing off the averages and the stats, but I am not enjoying this dip in my progress.  I can feel my motivation slowly draining away as my momentum feels like it’s being halted right in its tracks.  But at least tonight I had a good run, and I ate pan-fried quesadillas and steamed kale while drinking a very tasty Malbec.  I’ve also (mostly) cleaned up the kitchen, packed my lunch, prepped for breakfast, and now I’m typing in my pajamas.  I wanted to watch a film about turtles called Turtle: The Incredible Journey, but I seem to have run out of time tonight.

Since the film is about animals, and I am a biologist, do you think it would be okay if I watched it at work tomorrow?  I mean, all the men are watching soccer games this week, so can I watch a turtle movie instead?  Yes?

Bonus photo: my encounter with a real-life turtle last year, a day before my birthday.  I caught her trying to cross the road and felt compelled to whisk her to safety.

Early to Rise, Early to Sweat

Week of June 10, 2012:

Sunday: Long run!

Friends, I did it!  This morning I climbed out of bed at 7:40 AM, and by 8:40 I was locking my door and heading out for a run.  I really wanted to get my 60-minute run done early, before the heat of the day set everything on fire, and so that I could be free to work on other things for the rest of the day.  I have a Skype tutoring session at 2 PM and a dinner guest coming over at 6, and it would be nice to get some cleaning and organizing done today.  (Oh, Chronicle, I cannot keep up with your voluminous pages filled with things I want to read.  That’s why you end up piled on my kitchen bar, waiting for me to clip the articles I want to read.)

Anyway, back to the run.  It was humid but not hot this morning.  I was dripping with sweat 20 minutes into my work-out, and it was tough to maintain a steady pace.  The end of my run was the most challenging, as I kept reminding myself to stay strong, maintain good running form, don’t fall apart, we’re almost done!  I could feel myself slipping into tired, sloppy running mode—that sense that you are slogging through the minutes and trying to forget that you are still running.  I kept calling myself back to the moment, back to the run.  I like to think that it helped me finish my task with a little more effort.

It was wonderful to be done by 10 AM today, and by 11 I was showered, eating oatmeal, and drinking coffee.  I could practically hear my muscles thanking me as I gave them carbohydrates.  You are welcome, legs!  Thanks for a good effort today.

In other news, I’m bringing back the star chart!  I haven’t done one in about six months, but I realized that I missed my star charts.  June is off to a good start, as you can see.  I desperately need to be doing more yoga, as my back has been pretty tight from all the biking and running.  I feel like I’m in good shape, and I’m happy about that, but I also fear that I’m losing some flexibility because I have abandoned my yoga practice.  It’s time to get back on the mat.

Have a great week, my little speed demons!

Sock It to Me, Texas

Week of June 3, 2012:

Friday: Off (hanging out with friends)

Saturday: Errands via the bike

Damn, Texas, you are HOT!  And I mean that in the worst way possible.  I like to tell people that Texas weather is really nice for eight months of the year, but those other four months are brutal.  June is one of those months.  Today I was on and off the bike as I rode around taking care of business.  I stopped by the lab to take care of two quick things, I dropped off library books, and I rode over to HEB for groceries.  The bike ride itself was pretty good—the “riding breeze” always makes summertime bike rides more pleasant—but when I got home, I was exhausted.  It took me almost an hour to get myself motivated to take a shower.  First I had to drink a big glass of water, eat a snack, play on the internet, and think about how tired I was.  But once I was in the shower…heavenly.  It was heavenly.  It’s funny to me how so much of life seems to be a matter of activation energy or the amount of effort it takes to start something.  “A body in motion tends to stay in motion” (in a frictionless universe, of course), as someone said long ago on a motivational tape of mine.

Tomorrow morning I am going to do something I never do: I am going to get up, eat a quick snack, and head out for a one-hour run.  Yes indeedy, I can do this.  I want to get 60 minutes under my feet before the day is too hot.  I also have plans with other people later in the day, and I’m worried that if I don’t run first thing, my run won’t happen.

I can do this.  (I can do this, I can do this…)

* * *

Here are a few fun posts I found today while cruising around the interwebs, all from the awesome blog (never home)maker:

* No Workout is Too Short or Too Slow.  I basically live by this mantra, and it seems to keep me in good shape and good health.  Slow walk around the block?  Let’s go!  Only 20 minutes to run today?  Hand me my sneakers!  The work-out today is a bike commute to work?  I’m ready to ride.

* How to Run Long: LSD for Beginners.  A good reminder that we become distance runners one step and one mile at a time.

* Long Run Fuel: Marathon Chunks.  I can’t wait to make these, but you can be sure there will be chocolate chips in mine.  Also, I think these bars seem like the perfect late-afternoon fuel for a marathon workday, don’t you agree?  I swear, some days my life feels like a marathon.

Happy running, my dears!

Run While the Evening is Cool

Week of June 3, 2012:

Sunday: Bike commute + short run

Monday: DIY yoga

Tuesday: Bike commute

Wednesday: Bike commute + grocery shopping

Thursday: LONG RUN!  Booyah.

Yesterday we had a blissfully cool day, which was perfect because I had been worrying about when I was going to squeeze a long run into this week.  I didn’t do a long run on Sunday because I biked to campus and I didn’t think my legs were up for five miles of running on top of the biking.  Plus it was beastly hot on Sunday, which always makes running so much harder, no matter what the distance.

Last night, the evening was mild and perfect for hitting the pavement.  I ran out to my favorite park, did a few laps. and ran home for a total of 50 minutes.  The last 10-20 minutes were tough, presumably because that’s about the limit of my “comfortable” endurance these days, but I still felt pretty good for a long run.  Slow, but good.

Oh, and did you see up there that I actually did yoga this week?  YOGA!  It had been so long since I unfurled my mat, and it felt so good to work out some of the kinks in my legs and back.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Regrouping

By day…

And by dusk.

Week of May 27, 2012:

Tuesday: Off (drank wine on an unexpected but interesting date with a neighbor)

Wednesday: Morning run (Did you catch that?  I said morning!  Shocking, I know.)

Thursday: Bike ride commute + grocery shopping

Friday: Evening run, in the heat and sunshine

Saturday: Bike ride commute + grocery shopping

What a strange, interesting, wonderful week.  I don’t quite know what to say.  I went out three nights out of four, drank wine with two handsome men, got another bad evaluation at work, was delighted by experimental results, and felt myself tingling with possibility.  I also ran three times and biked three times, and I miss my yoga practice.  I alternate between feeling off-balance and in love with the unknown versus feeling completely focused and in control.  I don’t know what’s going on with me.  Sometimes I’m humming with happiness, and other times I’m crying over broken glass.

One way or another, it’s going to be a summer of change around here.  I think I’d better start doing yoga again so that I can keep my footing even if my world gets turned upside-down.