All-Around-Fail

Well...today was a big fail both in terms of following the meal plan I am using to make sure I am well nourished during half marathon training AND the actual training itself.

It all started when I was making my "scheduled" lunch. It called for "soup and sandwich" but I didn't feel like soup and I didn't have any bread. So instead I made a quinoa salad - not remotely on my meal plan, but I wasn't concerned.

As the day went on, my legs got more and more and more stiff from the 13K I have run in the past two days. So as I was walking to the bus I made the executive decision that I would take the day off from running. Better to skip and day and be able to carry on with my run tomorrow and the long run on Sunday.

Then when I got home I was super hungry so I made an unauthorized smoothie with banana, strawberry, spinach, cottage cheese, and blueberry juice. I figured it was close enough to my scheduled "snack". For dinner I was supposed to make some sort of chicken pasta with spinach and roasted red peppers. Basically I was hungry (still), didn't feel like defrosting the chicken, and couldn't wait until after I got home from my belly dancing class at 8:30 to eat dinner. So I made perogies.

Essentially I have written today off as an all around fail, so when I got home I had a bowl of pretzles and the last glass of Cream Soda from when I made butterbeer for Harry Potter viewing a few weeks ago. Now, ridiculous as it is, I'm STILL hungry! Jeez. Apparently today is a hungry day.

Note to self: stick to the meal plan/exercise plan to avoid chaos.

Day Three

Today was day three of half marathon training. This morning I was feeling good after yesterday's 8K, but as the day went on and I was sedentary at work, my legs started to cramp up by about 2:00. Uhoh. Tonight I needed to run 5K and let me tell you, by the time I got home from work and had a little rest (the rest is ALWAYS a bad idea) I had basically convinced myself that nobody would know if I skipped the run.

Then I started feeling guilty. Yes, I have high standards for myself. My self-guilt would eat me alive. I committed to the training run, and I can't wimp out on the third day - and only the second day of running!

So I made myself some dinner, planned my route, and watched some How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men before promising myself I would leave the house at 7:30.

So where did I run tonight? I decided I wanted to try something different. Victoria has lots of beautiful areas, and despite living here since September I really haven't done much exploring. So I made a choice. I would start at "Mile Zero" of the Trans-Canada Highway, head past Ogden Point, then wind my way around the waterfront (or as close to the water as I could get), pass the legislature buildings, then come back along Government Street before heading back to my parking spot.

The run was solid. Again I walked lots, but unlike my first 5K, at the end of this I didn't feel like dying. Improvement!

So how did this run "stack up?" Well, I actually went 5.3K according to Google Earth. The whole journey took me until the end of "Dog Days Are Over" so by my very official timepiece I am guessing that the trip took me about 36 minutes. That gives me a pace of approximately 6.8min/km. Quite a bit better than my 8K yesterday, but still a long way to go if I want to get my 10K in under an hour.

If you notice, my return route does a bit of a radical jog. Why, you might ask? Emergency vehicles. Ambulance, fire truck, lights, sirens, the whole thing. So while I initially planned on running further down Government before heading over to Douglas, I decided to avoid the chaos.

Last thing: I have decided my next purchase needs to be socks. The ones I'm running in are not really cutting it. The balls of my feet are starting to get sore right under my big toe on both feet. I wonder if that tells me more that something is up with my stride or that I really should do laundry and stop wearing my old, terrible socks...

And it begins

The half marathon training plan I have chose started with a rest day. Go figure. So really I didn't "start" the running until day two and there was certainly no easing into the program. Run one length? 8K. Last time I ran 8K? Oh right, that was just once, while I was doing my first 10K race two months ago.

Needless to say, I was dreading this run. I expected to be a hyperventilating  mess. Much to my surprise, I got off to a good start. I decided that I would run the length of a song, then take a short walk break, then run the rest of the song, then break. This way my run lengths would be variable and I could hopefully make it through the 8K successfully.

After a short amount of time, I passed a 500m mark - apparently the route I chose is measured - a welcome surprise! Speaking of my route, I used Google Earth to map out a route. I learned that from Clover Point to the end of the Ogden Point breakwater is approximately 4K - perfect for an out-and-back 8K.

My run/walk plan was working well. Before I knew it I was approaching the Ogden Point breakwater. Now just to run along it, turn around, and head back. The first 4K of the run was pretty painless. The remaining 4K would not be so easy. Probably due to my lack of experience running more than 3K at a time, my legs were just not prepared for such a length. I definitely walked more on the way back, but all-in-all I finished the 8K in approximately an hour. Not a good time at all, but at least I completed the run!

When I got home, I felt good. I even felt like I could go to the gym! But, no surprise, a tasty dinner, some quality time with my book, and an early bedtime won out and day two of the half marathon training plan came to a successful end.

And then running seemed like a good idea...

I hate running.

There is really no way to sugar coat it. When I run I feel like a fish out of water. My arms flail wildly, my face turns about eight thousand shades of red, my curly hair expands to epic proportions, my breathing gets all short and gaspy, and more often than  not either my legs or my lungs feel like they are going to explode - sometimes even at the same time!

So why on earth would I decide running was a good idea? Well, this most recent venture stems back to my first teaching practicum. I was staying with my aunt and uncle, teaching up a storm (English 8 and Social Studies 11) and somehow or other I decided I wanted a challenge. Because clearly reading 50 books in a year while going to school full time, working part time, volunteering regularly, and trying to balance a 75% teaching load for five weeks wasn't enough.

Anyway, running is the challenge I chose. So I was browsing around on the Running Room website and discovered a 10K close to my hometown about a month away. I was sold. Then I discovered a 5K two weeks away (two days after finishing practicum) in my hometown. I was ecstatic. I registered for both and started running. Well. I ran once. Cue incapacitating cold. Not only did this bring my running plans to a standstill, it also seriously slowed me down on practicum, but I digress.

So I have the death-cold for about a week. Now I've got one week of practicum (which I clearly hadn't prepped for) left and about seven days until my first run. My future career obviously takes priority and running again gets thrown on the backburner. So I do my first run, a 5K, with only one practice run of probably 1.5K distance. Never mind that the course was one of those "run up the mountain, run down the mountain" situations. Blegh.

Official 5K time? 37:57 for about a 7.5 min/km pace. Not so excellent considering it was only 5K, but then again not so bad considering my general lack of preparation. Not going to lie, I was pretty proud of myself.

But the big challenge, the 10K was still two weeks away. In the next two weeks I tried to step up my running. I figured I would run every other day. My plan was to do 3K three times, 6K two times, 9K once, and then do the 10K. I was sort of managed to do this - but not really. I ran 3K three times, 6K once (which actually turned out to be more of a 5.1K - oops), and that was it. I tried to do the second 6K but ended up failing miserably. I ran about a kilometer before I gave up, turned around, and went home. Running had defeated me big time.

So race day arrives. I carpool to the race with a good friend who is also running. I do the ridiculous group stretching that starts the day. I line up near the end of the pack (let's not kid ourselves), and then the gun fires. A couple minutes pass, and then the crowd around me starts to move. I'm running, I'm in the zone (or something) and before I know it I have passed the first kilometer marker. I keep running, past the 2K mark, the 3K mark, then I've got the early stages of the exploding lung thing going on so I take a walk break. Run, walk, run, walk. That's how it goes for the next 5K or so. Then end is nearing. 2K left. And let me tell you, that was the longest 2K of my life. Remember, my longest training run was about 5K, so I'm exhausted. That, and I definitely didn't have enough breakfast to fuel me through 10K - live and learn I suppose!

Official 10K time? 1:06:54 for an approximate pace of 6.8min/km. Better.

So that is my running history. I intended on keeping up with running when I moved back to Victoria for summer school - but as usual life got in the way. So here we are, two months later, and I hadn't run at all. I have registered for a 10K in September, and I have decided to take on a half marathon training plan so that I can (if all goes well) do a half on October 16. This is the plan. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.