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What’s the Difference?

Many of you have noticed that I haven’t said much about my running lately. That’s because I’ve really been struggling. And no one likes to blog about what a failure they are.

I’ve never liked distance running. Not even when I was young and in my athletic prime. I don’t like it any better now, but I know it’s a necessary evil. What I don’t know is why I can run better/farther/faster on some days than others? What’s different?

Is it something I am eating/not eating or drinking/not drinking? Is it the temperature? How about the humidity? Is it the route? It can’t be the shoes.

Or is it because as I struggle to run three miles I’m thinking, “If three miles is this hard, what’s ten going to be like? TEN. More than three times as far as this.”

I did get a bit off track in late-August when I had to have some medical stuff done. I didn’t quit, though. But when I resumed training, I was nowhere near being able to run for 29.5 minutes (my personal best, sad as that is). I think 15 straight was the most I achieved over the past few weeks.

Yesterday was a bad day for me. For whatever reason, I ate more for dinner than I have in weeks (2 large slices of pepperoni pizza and a salad). Then later, I ate a bowl of ice cream. I’d eaten ice cream the previous night, too.

So this morning, as I set out, I wasn’t all that optimistic about my chances. But here’s what I managed to do… run for 22 minutes, walk for 3 minutes, run for 3, walk for 2 and run for 1.

Was it all the extra carbs? I hope not! I can’t make a habit of that. I’m only 8 ounces shy of my 30-pounds lost milestone.

Or was it the extra water I’d taken in? The cooler temperature (63 degrees and cloudy)? The fact that I ran a counter-clockwise instead of clockwise route? The fact that I avoided a couple key hills? Or is it because I’m not carrying that 10-mile monkey on my back, as my friend Kathy referred to it?

Unfortunately, you read right. I am not doing the Army Ten-Miler after all. Call me a loser. Go ahead. You can. I know it is disappointing. But I also know that 10 miles is just beyond me right now. If I liked running, maybe I could do it. Maybe. I don’t know.

I do know I’m going to keep plugging away. It would be nice to be able to say, “I run three miles, three times a week.” And I am still losing weight. My BMI is right on the edge of “normal” and “overweight.”

It would make me even happier to say I have finally returned to normal.

Time will tell, I guess.

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Today’s Number Appears to Be Seven

Summer finally arrived in Maryland, and pretty much all of the East Coast, with a vengeance.

Sunday was the first day of oppressiveness. I can’t take the heat. I know this. I am a cool weather girl. It must be my Irish roots.

I did run on Sunday morning. I lasted about 15 minutes.

Monday, I didn’t even think about running. Tuesday either.

Today, when I woke up after a mere three hours of sleep, I wasn’t thinking about it either. I was tired. But after a good dose of my favorite Seattle’s Best Hazelnut Coffee, I decided to give it a whirl.

I knew it would be uncomfortably warm — 77 degrees with 77% humidity — but it was cloudy. I assumed it wouldn’t be as bad without the sun glaring down on me.

I was right. It wasn’t as bad, but it was still bad. I lasted just under 27 minutes, and I only ran about 2/3 of that.

Now, I know I can run for longer than that. I did 29.5 minutes on Friday for goodness sake. But Friday it was only in the upper 60s and humidity was relatively low.

So, am I being a real wuss? Should I just keep pushing through the feeling that my body is burning from the inside out?

I have just over seven weeks to go from being able to run 2.5 miles to running 10 miles. If it doesn’t cool down, soon, I’ll never make it.

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A Numbers Thing

I’m not much of a moviegoer, but I do watch movies at home occasionally. One of my favorites, which will always be a classic in my mind, is Erin Brockovich. That girl has serious ‘tude.

One memorable scene is when George, Erin’s soon-to-be-boyfriend, asks for her phone number. She says something like, “You want my number? Which one do you want?”

He laughs and says, “How many numbers have you got?”

“I got numbers comin’ outta my ears!” she says. “Like, 10.”

“Ten?” puzzles George.

“Yeah, that’s how many months old my baby girl is. Sexy, eh? How about six? That’s my other daughter. Eight is the age of my son. Two is how many times I’ve been married. And divorced. Sixteen is the number of dollars in my bank account. 850-3943, that’s my phone number. And with all the numbers I gave you, I’m guessing zero is the number of times you’re gonna call it.”

See what I mean? Attitude!

I have some numbers to share, too.

First… 29.2. That was my BMI back in May when I started this adventure in reduction. BMI (body mass index) is calculated based on one’s height and weight. It’s a general but fairly reliable measure of fatness.

A BMI between 15.5 and 24.9 is considered normal. A BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 means you are overweight. A BMI of 30.0 or above means you are obese.

After having lost 25 pounds, my BMI is now 25.5. That’s much better, but I am still considered overweight. Losing five more pounds will give me a BMI of 24.8. I’ll be NORMAL! I’ve always wanted to be normal… (Wanna know your BMI? Try the Center for Disease Control’s BMI calculator.)

Wait, I have more numbers to share.

Wanna guess what 29.5 is? The number of minutes I ran today. Awesome, eh? It’s awesome to me.

Even more exciting to me is 2.47. That’s the number of miles I covered.

Finally, 11:54 is my pace. As in my average speed was 11 minutes and 54 seconds per mile. That means not only did I run longer today, I went faster.

My run route (courtesy of MapMyRun.com) is shown above. You can see my workout stats, too.

I forgot to mention 283. That’s how many calories I burned.

And, finally, 0. That’s how many more of my numbers you have to read about.

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Rain Running

I did actually do the run thing yesterday. Despite the rain.

For the record, it was not my intention to run in the rain. But when I checked the radar, this is what I got.

See the straight, green line? There’s obviously an error. Radar readings and/or clouds are never that straight. But what’s really weird is that the line is across the exact middle of my run route.

When I left my house, it was not raining. Once I hit the green area, about 90 seconds into my run, it was raining. The radar is never that exact. Today, it was.

Here’s a lovely picture for you. You can’t really tell by looking at this shot, but I was soaked.

Between the sweat and the rain, there wasn’t a dry bit of skin anywhere on my body. The rain actually felt kind of good.

That big bottle you see in my hand holds some of the water I need to drink every day. It’s only 50 ounces, though. I have to drink 14 more ounces on top of that. It’s a lot of water, but it helps.

Thank goodness the bathroom is 10 steps from my desk.

On another note… I calculated my pace today after the run. I forget how much ground I covered and in what amount of time, but it worked out to 12:18 per mile.

Now, if I can keep that up for 10 miles, I won’t be one of the humiliated folks who get kicked off the ATM course for being too slow.

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Today’s Grossbit

Wanna know what’s worse than a cat yakking up something on the floor of your office?

Fending off two dogs tripping over each other in the mad scramble to get to the stuff and eat it.

On a positive note… I rarely have to clean cat puke off of my floor.

It was raining this morning when I woke. At first, I thought, “Yay, I don’t have to run.” Moments later, that thought became, “Crap. There are only 58 days left ’til the Army Ten Miler and I still can’t run a solid 30 minutes.”

When I signed up for the race, in my overly optimistic delirium, I remember one of the questions being something to the effect of how long I thought it would take me to run ten miles. Having no idea, I said three hours. That wasn’t the right answer. Apparently, two and a half hours is the max. If you don’t maintain a 15-minute-mile pace for the first five miles, you get re-routed at the five-mile mark.

Now that would be embarrassing.

So I need to go run in the rain. Or shortly after the rain. It’s time to get really serious here. Wish me luck!

WAIT… one more thing about cat yak. We’ve always referred to cat puke, whether it was a hairball or just stuff, as “yak” in my family. Back when Eric was a wee lad, I remember a conversation we had about violins. He wanted to know what the strings were made of.

“Yak hair, I think,” was my reply.

“Ew!!!” he moaned, all loud and disgusted. It took me a second to realize he thought I meant they use cat yak to make the strings.

“No, the animal,” I had to explain. “You know, a yak.”

Having this picture then would have made things much easier to explain.

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Developments

A couple of notable events happened today.

I ran my first 20-minute session! I was excited. Well, if I’m being honest, “excited” is probably not the best descriptor.

I was tired and quite sweaty afterward, but also happy to have done 20 minutes. Despite the fact that the dreaded humidity has returned to Central Maryland. After a string of three consecutive days with morning temperatures in the upper 50s/low 60s, that was pretty hard to take. We experienced those temps at the WV place, where the AC didn’t run much at all from Thursday through Monday afternoon, which is when Hubby left to come home.

Wanna know why Hubby didn’t come home until today (Monday)? He had to wait for the guy from Frontier Communications (our phone company) to come and install our Internet service. Yep, we have finally entered the digital age. Not because were were going through withdrawal or anything, but because we plan on installing a security camera. The Internet service is necessary to transmit the images to us in Maryland, or wherever in the world we happen to be. Assuming we have access to the Internet from that place, too. So now, if our alarm goes off, as it has in the past (twice for no clear reason), we won’t have to call the Sheriff to go and check things out until we know for sure that there’s a problem.

Finally, I might have the answer to the odd fatigue I’ve been whining about.

Eating before running didn’t help, it just gave me abdominal cramps. Drinking lots of water did help, I felt better after making sure I ingested 64+ ounces the day before. But I still felt a little off.

A couple of months ago, my primary care doctor told me to start taking an iron supplement since I was borderline anemic, which is not uncommon in certain women my age. No big deal right? That’s what I thought.

I went for my yearly endocrinologist visit today. She always asks if my meds are the same. When I mentioned the iron, she was concerned that it might be affecting the absorption of Synthroid since, for months, I have been taking both together every morning. A couple of hours later, she called me with preliminary blood results that, sure enough, indicated I have not been getting enough Synthroid into my system. Iron, like calcium, cannot be taken at the same time or even within hours of Synthroid.

I’ll have to see if that’s it. I sure hope so.October is approaching fast. I know 20 minutes is good, but it’s nowhere near 10 miles…