Resting Restlessly And Running

Talk about unexpected outcomes. You know how you always hear how exercising gives you more energy and helps you sleep better? Well, it's kind of true.

Kind of.

See, my energy and sleep deficiencies didn't come didn't show their ugly heads until I stopped exercising. As my eloquent coworker Rob pointed out, exercise is like heroin--you don't realize what it's doing to you until you try to stop. (A heroin addict will have to attest to this, as I have no experience on the matter.)

I hit a huge wall this week, my first without vigorous morning exercise in a month. It's been hard to get up in the morning, hard to stay awake (and FOCUSED) at work, and hard to keep my legs from being all twitchy and antsy all day and night. It's been even more difficult to go to sleep at night and stay there. The sleep thing--not cool. I have a slight obsession with getting enough sleep and nothing kills me more than to lose it in some way. Talk about crabby and dysfunctional.

I've been drinking coffee in the morning to fight the drowsiness, and I haven't "needed" coffee since I started boot camp. Seems a bit backwards, doesn't it? Getting up earlier and exercising before the sun comes up appears to be the perfect recipe for a caffeine dependency. Not so much.

The weirdest thing is that I wasn't a bad sleeper before boot camp and I didn't think I had low energy either. Did boot camp create these monsters or did I just not realize they existed until I took the drug away?

So, why the lack of exercise? Well, because I was told to rest. The ABC trainers encouraged campers to rest during this "week off" (it's a week off for people who are returning to the next session) and not do anything too strenuous. I guess muscles need time to recover. I did some scientific research on Facebook this week to survey my expert friends and uncovered some excellent information. Thank you Marathon Chris and ABC Brian for piping in and explaining that the most important thing to do is to listen to your body. Rest or not. Well, I'm listening to my body, and it turns out it's totally over this "resting" thing. It wants to move!

So, I made it move. And it may have helped ... a little.

• I ran on Monday
• Had trouble getting to sleep Monday night
• Took Tuesday off entirely
• Really had trouble sleeping Tuesday night
• Intended to get up early Wednesday to try the workout videos on my on-demand exercise channel
• Opted instead to sleep in to make up for the lost sleep the night before
• Ran Wednesday
• Slept much better Wednesday night
• And then skipped my planned workout this morning

Half win, half fail.

So I need a plan. And I think I figured it out this morning. I need to workout in the morning on the same day I plan to run in the evening. Two workouts, one day. That way I get to sleep a little later on the day after exerting myself the most. Think that will work? I hope so. I'm trying it tomorrow for the first time, so please hound me if I offer excuses for not getting up early on Friday morning. NO EXCUSES!

Why, oh why is it so hard to get up and exercise when all I have to do is change clothes and move into the living room instead of driving 10 minutes down the road?

So, next topic: running! Wheee!

It's been great to get my legs moving again. I missed running. Unfortunately, I think my body got used to not doing it, and subsequently got used to not doing it while I was in boot camp. It seems as though I had built up some endurance for my thrice-weekly two-mile run and lost it during my 4-week "break" at boot camp (where I only ran about a half mile daily).

My legs just aren't very happy with what I've done to them by reintroducing running. More specifically, my calves aren't happy. Even my shins have joined the pity party a little bit. The leg strain is really reducing the length of my stride and my overall endurance. I'm currently running at about the same pace as the 90-year-old man that was walking at Veterans last night. No joke. I only passed him because he slowed down to turn around and see what the thundering noise behind him was (my locomotive breathing and pounding footsteps). He did offer a "Lookin' good! Drink lots of water!" as I sputtered past him. So sweet.

So, I've got some re-conditioning to do, looks like.

I have good news, though.

1. I ran 0.76 miles straight without stopping last night.

2. I know this because I downloaded a new app for my iPhone last week in preparation for my return to running. It's the app counterpart to the most amazing website. Thank you, coworker John, for introducing me to MapMyRun.com. Have you people heard of this yet?! Please check it out. You can plot your runs and enter your run data on the website (either as a registered [free or paid] user or as a non-registered user). The site uses a Google-like map and you just click to add your path and it tells you how long the route is. It looks like a normal road map, but you don't have to follow the roads to plot your path, which is SUPER helpful for me, the park runner. Also, if you register, it'll keep track of your data for you over time. The iPhone app just uses GPS to automatically plot and measure your route for you. Then it stores all the info (including calories burned, distance and time, and pace) on the website. WOOHOO!

(This is how I now learned that the "1-mile" path at Juilfs, one of my favorite parks, is not a mile. It's a bit short, which explains why my mile times there were always so phenomenal. Booo! But, but, but ... the path at Veterans is exactly a mile. Yippee!)

So, as you can tell, I've been running without Mr. C25K this week. I have not abandoned him; I was just experimenting with my new toy. I will return to him tomorrow, now that I know how long my running routes are. I'm ready to start busting through these puppies!

Remember, keep on me about the morning workouts. Please and thank you!

Meat Murderer

Ladies and gentlemen, I have some news. Many of you already know this from Facebook, but you're going to hear about it again anyway.

Hello, my name is Beckey, and I ate hot dogs on Monday. And some meat-like substance in a cheeseball today. And I'll be eating at Five Guys Burgers & Fries on Tuesday.

That's right. After nearly 5 months, I have abandoned the vegetarian-ish lifestyle (pesco-vegetarian, if you want to get specific -- I ate fish and dairy products -- there's your word of the day).

Before I get into the whys of my decision, I'd like to share this comment string from Facebook because it still makes me laugh.

Me: I did it. I had hot dogs. Nearly 5 months down the drain.

E.O-S.: you broke your vegetarian diet on a hot dog?! mine was pepperoni pizza :) i couldn't resist it any longer.

L.E.: Hahahahaha mine was bacon!

Pork seems to be the common vegetarian diet murderer. Odd.

So yeah, I guess I can close that chapter in my life, at least for now. I hate that 5 months doesn't seem like a long time, but I can truly say that I gave it one heck of a go. I did a good job. I just ... got tired of it.

Vegetarian food suited me well for a while. I like vegetables. I only feel strongly about one or three meat dishes. And I was on a change kick.

Well, beans get old, I'm over change, and those one or three meat dishes were making appearances in my dreams (hot dogs, pepperoni, hamburgers, bacon). Plus I found that I was more prone to junk food cravings that I've ever been. Not cool.

I struggled with the decision for a few weeks and battled mostly with the not-so-pretty images of the meat industry. And the meat industry ickyness still weighs heavily on my conscious, but I don't feel there's much I can do about it. Even grain-fed, cage-free chicken has problems. I'm not getting into it right now, nor do I want to get into heated discussions about it, but know that I'm okay with my decision and I do feel that I gave it plenty of thought.

I've also decided to be picky about meat and not just eat it because it's in front of me. It should be something I really, really love. Something that's "worth it." For example, I don't see myself sitting down to a steak dinner anytime soon, or eating pork chops or pork roast -- all things I didn't like much to begin with. No, no. Instead, I'll save my meat dishes for quality items, like buffalo wings, bacon, burnt hot dogs, really good burgers, and Italian subs at Penn Station. High class, no?

So, that's that. I know a handfull of vegetarians that have been doing it successfully for a long time, and who never see themselves looking back. But I know more people who have given it a really, really good try and have given up at some point. Those people, as well as my happily-carnivore friends, are not by any means bad people because of their meat-eating habits. I never have and never will think of those meat-eaters badly for the diet decision they have made. Therefore, I refuse to think of myself as a bad person for murdering innocent animals for the sake of a bacon fix. Humph. (It's worth noting that my vegetarian friends don't think badly of carnivores either.)

So, moving on ...

I have a big day coming up this weekend! The Redlegs Run for Home 5K is SATURDAY! EEEEK! I'm more excited than scared, but I'm still a little scared. Mostly I just can't wait for it to be over. To prep for the run (and for reasons surrounding a family situation), I took this week off.

I did run on Sunday, though. It was so incredibly hot at 10 a.m. that the run was a bit of a loss. The best part is that I finally got to run with my bestie, Jeff. He was kind enough to stick with me for the first lap and a little more before taking off to get a good 10-minute run in. This is the first time I've run with someone who's ahead of me in the game since my freshman year of college. He was kind enough to let me lead and set the pace; I felt supported by having him just hover next to me the whole time. I'm not sure if I did better, worse, or the same with the company. I did enjoy it, though, so thanks for joining me Jeff!

Oh, and I successfully ran for a good 3:45 before stopping, which is a new record for me. Yay! After that, it was all bad. Hot, hot, hot!

Okay, one excessively long post down, and it's time to hit the road. Please check back this weekend for an update on my first 5K!

Breaking Free From Codependency!

Guess what I did today? Well, most of you already know from Facebook, but I totally just ran a 5K at my wonderful Juilfs Park. 3.1 miles. I called the park to confirm the track distance today and figured out that measuring 3.1 miles is quite easy. Running it is a different story.

This is a huge milestone, people! In fact, it's two huge milestones. One, I finally did more than the usual 2 miles. Two, I did it all without Mr. C25K, with whom I have a a relationship that was slipping into codependency. I found myself starting to think I couldn't run without his help. Well guess what! I can!

To top it all off, I just did it with some pretty impressive times. You should note that I don't think I've ever, EVER run as well as I did tonight. Not even when I was fit--oh wait, I was never fit.

Heh.

Anyway, here are my lap times (forgive the inaccuracy of the first two ... I haven't figured out how to use the lap feature of my phone's stopwatch):

Mile 1: 12 something
Mile 2: 26 something
Mile 3.1 (5K): 40:47

Congrats to Leslie for guessing so close on Facebook! WEEE! You're More to Love Running famous now! Shut the front door. Still in disbelief. I also stretched my first running interval out to over 3:30. I can run over 3 minutes at a time. What? Oh, and I'm pretty sure I did a few more that were over 2 minutes long.

And, I feel amazing right now. Nothing hurts. I cooled off quickly (I'm actually freezing because I'm sitting on my balcony) and with little sinus resistance (a topic for another post).

Now, it's important that I point out that it wasn't easy. Yes, the weather was great: it's a cold and drizzly kind of day. Yes, I was itching to run after an icky personal day yesterday and this morning. But yes, I had to work hard.

And ... it worked.

I did a lot of talking to myself:

"Just let your legs work; they'll tell you when to stop. Breathe. Keep going. If you stop at that tree, you're okay, but if you go to the next one, you're awesome. Just run, just run, just run, just run. Do it. Go. Run. You're doing great."

I always hate hearing how positive self-talk can help you, but I knew from the other day that negative self-talk can really bring you down. So, I thought what the hell, let's give it a go.

And ... it worked.

Oh, and I've mentioned before how important loud music is to me while I'm running. I breathe very, very heavily and really loud, and when I can hear myself breathing, I tend to try to quiet it. Not good. Well, there were breaks in my playlist today where I could hear myself breathing. Today's solution? "Get over it, Beckey. Breathe as loud and obnoxiously as you can. Make people look."

And ... it worked.

So, I'm freezing and starving so I'm going to call it a blog night. Here's something to look forward to, though. Today I decided to sign up for the Redlegs Run for Home 5K. It's a 5K run sponsored by the Cincinnati Reds. Rumor is you get to run across home plate when you finish. How cool. Thanks to Jacqi and Allison for reminding me of this run, and to Sarah and Nikki (and maybe Jeff) who I will be forcing to run with me. Love you! I'm friggin' paying to run? Are pigs flying yet? Oh that was a few weekends ago, right? Right.

HAPPY RUNNING!