Me? Running Expert? HA!

I cannot believe it. Someone has asked me for running advice. Shut the front door. Do you have any idea how strange that is for me? If you've known me for a long while, I bet you have some clue.

Well, I responded to my friend's request for advice and I thought some of it might be valid enough to post here for the world (aka my 8 followers) to see. So, brace yourself for the sage advice of an experienced (2 months experience) runner.

***The Request***

How do you like C25K? I've been thinking about giving it a try. I actually tried it last winter and gave up after a week and a half. It was around the holidays and I didn't have enough time to really give it a fair shot. And I'm not a big fan of running on a treadmill. Now that the weather is nice and I can run outside, I'd like to try it again. Any advice?

***My Advice***

First of all, you have no idea how strange it is to me that someone's asking my advice about running. Bizarre-o! =)

Second of all, yay for trying it again! I totally tried Week 1 at some point and quit after my second run. I actually think it's a requirement of the program that you poop out at least once.

Let's see, my advice...

First of all, don't plan on sticking to the timeline of the program. The only people who can pull that off are already runners. Even my BFF Jeff, who is a friggin dancer, had to repeat a week or two. Let your body decide when it's time to move on. If at the end of Week 1, you find that you're still dying at the end of the 60-second run, do it again ... and again, and again. I think I did it 3 or 4 times before I bumped up. I'm on my 3rd or 4th go-round with Week 2 right now

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, get the app. It's AMAZING. You can play your music while the app is running and Mr. C25K (or Ms if you prefer) gently interrupts to say "Walk now" or "Run now." The first time I tried (and I've heard this from other friends too) I used a timer and it was a bitch. It's so nice to be able to jog along and not worry about what the clock says.

Which brings me to my next point: keep your head up. No, not like "Cheer up Charlie," but literally keep your head up. I tell myself "Look at me, I'm just running along, no big deal." That way I'm not staring at the ground. That makes your shoulders slump and cramps your windpipe (I think). Also, you can't feel the breeze or look at your surroundings if you're staring at the ground. Plus, keeping your head up is just good for morale. =)

Next point: run somewhere pretty and flat. If you can trust that the ground under your feet is flat, you don't have to look down. If the surroundings are pretty, you can enjoy them while you're wheezing.

Ignore distance for now. I didn't start paying attention to my distance until I knew I was comfortable running. Paying attention to distance made me get frustrated if I wasn't hitting my mark every run. And that's discouraging. Just run to run. Who cares where you end up or how far you go? That's not the point.

Next, don't stop running until your time is up. Seriously. Don't do it. Who cares if you're tired or if your legs hurt; it's nothing you can't recover from, right? Don't be a wuss. (That's what I tell myself when I want to stop.)

Be careful with your "brisk" opening walk. If your prone to shin splints like I am, you'll shoot yourself in the foot by warming up too vigorously and then being in pain for the rest of the workout. I didn't pick up my warm-up pace for quite a while. Oh, and don't get too excited and start running fast. Take little bitty steps and run slow.

Don't worry about what you look like. I was worried for a while that I didn't LOOK like a runner running. I thought I just looked like I was blobbing along clumsily (and I was). So instead of concentrating on looking like a runner, I concentrated on keeping a strong core and paying attention to which muscles were working. Not only was this distracting, but it helped me figure out how to use a bunch of muscles to do the hard work.

Oh, and I'm always super stressed about how loud I'm breathing. I solved that problem by turning my headphones up so I couldn't hear myself. HUGE HELP!

Finally, try some sort of accountability system. That's what my blog is for. It's really helping to know that there are at least a few people who wait to read what I have to say.

As far as running in the summer, I don't have much advice. I'm kind of worried about it myself. The one run I've done so far in humidity didn't go well so I'm not encouraged. I may try a treadmill, I may try morning runs...who knows.

Okay, I think that's all I've got for now. If I think of anything else, I'll pass it along. Oh, and if you're up for a buddy run for encouragement, let me know. I'm happy to meet you somewhere.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Wedgie Picker

Hey, hey, hey! So, I had a FANTASTIC run today and I'm so friggin' excited! What a pleasant follow-up to Sunday's monster run, right?

The weather was perfect: cold, sunny, no/very little humidity.

I was feeling good, too, and was definitely ready to stretch my legs out.

The scenery was beautiful: green and springy, and I followed a very fast-walking wedgie picker for the second mile. I swear he picked his wedgie at least twice on that lap and played with his underwear in between picks. No, he wasn't beautiful scenery, but he made me laugh out loud every time he did it. (Don't worry, my mid-workout laughs sound like dry heaves, so he was clueless.)

Anyway, I was worried at first because I started walking at a quicker pace than I usually do, and my shins started cramping pretty much right away. Never good. Then, I caught a peek of an old softball teammate (HI MICHELLE!) and that just made me happy.

Ahhh, then the best part: I ran full throttle down Beast Hill's sister, Loch Ness Monster Hill.

Weeeee!

My tactic until today had been to run down that hill on my toes to help stretch out my shins. But today I felt like running fast, so I let gravity do the work and let it loose. Way. Fun.

Oh, and one more thing. Seeing as how my last two runs haven't been exactly fun, and those last two runs were "backwards" runs at Juilfs, I turned my path back around and went the "right" way.

I'm never going backwards again.

I'm happy to discover that the backwards tactic could have been the reason for my poopy exercises, and not just my lack of progress. Whew!

Lastly and most importantly, I finished the two miles with 2:36 on the clock!!! That's 36 seconds faster than my personal best so far.

WOOOOHOOOO!

If my math's correct, that brings me to a 13:42 pace.

I feel victorious today. I'm fired up. I'm going to celebrate by wrapping up my third pass at Week 2 -- and starting Week 2 again next time I run. Ha! Yeah, I still feel like I'm going to die when I'm at the end of my 90-second run, so I'll do this week a few more times until that feeling passes. I will say that I think I could do with shorter walking/recovery intervals. I'm catching my breath a lot quicker now. Another victory! Yippee!

Okay, I need to get off here, so let's see ... next run? I'd love to say Thursday, but I don't want to commit because I'm in the home stretch of moving out of the old apartment. If I'm in a crunch on Thursday, I'll pass up running. If I'm in good shape, I'm all over it.

Little Victories, Episode 1: Today's Run Sucked

Well, it's true. Today's run was not fun. I had several elements working against me today, and I almost succumbed to the most vicious one: laziness. But, I didn't. I went to the park and I finished the workout. Little victory #1: Left the house. Little victory #2: Finished the run.

Let's see, here's my list: tired from moving, sore from painting (squatting, reaching, rolling, etc.), queasy and uncomfortably from cramps (sorry guys), sleepy from being waken up by my screeching and fighting animals, and a little congested from one allergy or another.

So yeah, despite all that, I got up and went. And I hated it the whole time. This is no, "I'm so glad I went because it all got better when I started running" story. Legs hurt, stomach hurt, arms hurt, COULDN'T BREATHE!

Little victory #3: First run of the season in high humidity (86% on my Weather Channel app). With that, I'm officially not looking forward to running this summer.

Let's continue the whining, shall we? I actually cut my second to last running interval short by about 5 seconds. Pathetic. Why not just go the last 5 seconds? It's not like I wouldn't have recovered somehow, right?

On that note, little victory #4: Running the last leg even though I excused myself from doing it after the second to last leg. I did it slow, and it hurt, and I whined internally the whole time, but I did it.

Little victory #5: Despite my whining and moaning and lack of oxygen, I somehow managed to finish only slightly behind my normal pace. Two miles in 28:20 (instead of two miles in 28:00).

Finally, little victory #6: I felt great after and for the remainder of the day. Lesson learned, again. And I'm glad I got to run after having so many days off (haven't worked out since Tuesday).

Sorry for the rant. Let's call this a slump. I think my future motivation on these crappy days will be to step back a "week" in the workout. I could have done Week 1 today and finished fine. It would have been less painful and I wouldn't have been so close to quitting. But is that okay? Do I allow myself that concession?

What about you? I still want to know when you know you need to walk instead of run. Do you ever give yourself an easy workout?

Next run: TBD.

This is the last week of the moving fiasco that is April. Things will be getting easier. I am considering giving myself a try at a treadmill workout. I haven't tried it yet. What should I expect? Easier or harder?

The Blunders and Burdens of Being a Bouncing BBW

I have made a conscious decision to skip my run tomorrow evening.

[Ducks and covers to avoid thrown shoes]

Excuse me, but I still have to clean out the old apartment and I've been delaying too much already. Some things can wait (running). Some things cannot (cleaning to avoid extra expense). And who throws a shoe? Honestly?

Anyway, since I'm skipping my workout, I figured I'd punish myself by writing one of my "I'll tell you about that later" blog entries.

Today's topic? Boobs.

Do I have your attention now?

As I've mentioned before, I'm a BBW -- a big-breasted woman, as I believe we called it in my high school color guard.

(Yes, color guard. I know. Later. Now, focus. Don't make me type, italicize, bold, and enlarge the "B" word again.)

We're talking big. Like, break-your-own-nose-if-you-run-without-proper-support big. It's relatively hard to tell when you look at me because my stomach and fat rolls #1a through #4c, combined with my chest, make my torso look like a lumpy box instead of a top-heavy light bulb. Which speaks to the size of my stomach and rolls, because I have really broad shoulders too. (I'm painting a really pretty picture of myself, aren't I?)

This is all relevant, I swear.

Back in February, my friend Anne wrote about the challenges of finding a good, supportive sports bra if your chesty and active. (Feel free to check out the entry over at thefitbridesmaid.) And it is challenging! I remember being very young and being frustrated with the beating my chest would take from running the bases at softball or up and down the basketball court or in gym class. It didn't help that I developed at an extremely young age (one of the side effects of being an overweight child) and was surrounded by girls my age who had chests flatter than Clay Aiken's. My mom did buy me sports bras, but not great ones -- just whatever was cheapest and they didn't help much. Not her fault. The bouncing still hurt and looked ridiculous.

I think it was at the end of high school when I finally decided to start wearing two of them at once to try to tame the beasts. That helped, but I was embarassed when someone asked me why I wore two. At that time I didn't have the attitude I have now and didn't think to say, "Because I'm a whole 'lotta woman, little girl! I bet you don't have to wear one at all, do you?" Ha! Nah, I don't even have the guts to say that out loud now. In my head, it's a different story.

But the day finally came when I discovered the miracle bra. I wish I could remember how I found it. I don't know if it was a friend's recommendation or Oprah that pointed me to Enell . These are full-coverage, fugly bras for BBWs and beyond. (Okay, I think I just invented a future lingere shop name, right there. Copyrighted ... you can't steal it now!)

No, they aren't one bit attractive; they cover your front from your collar bone to your belly button practically. They're only moderately comfortable; they're made to be really, really tight to batten down the hatches. And they're expensive! Well, expensive as far as sports bras go, anyway.

But I couldn't care less. When I put that puppy on, not only am I fully secured and virtually bounceless when I run, but I'm very nearly Clay Aiken flat, which I haven't been since second grade.

So why am I telling you all this? Because everyone likes to read about boobs, right? Riiiight.

[Cue the inspirational music and wind machine while I step up on my podium]

Actually, it's because I want you all to know. I want you to know, in case you don't experience it first hand, that there are some additional challenges involved with being an active BBW. I want you to know about Enell bras so that you can spread the word. I want you to be able to console the next struggling, burgeoning little girl you come across and I want you to tell her that there's hope. She can do whatever she wants to do and she doesn't have to be embarassed by her bouncing bosoms.

[Crescendo music, shots of hopeful BBWs.]

She can run, she can jump, she can lock 'em and load 'em and reach for the stars. I want you to help me empower her!

[Wide shot of cheering crowd. And, scene.]

Are you crying yet, because I just welled up a little. Sniff.

Do you feel more educated? Or more violated? Do you have experience in this area? If so, I'd love to hear your words of wisdom, as I'm sure other readers will.

Okay, so, future run TBD. Moving madness should decrease significantly after this weekend, but will not be complete until April 30. Maybe I'll try to run before cleanup on Friday, or Saturday morning? Bah!

Moving Backwards?

Don't worry. The title of this post doesn't mean I'm regressing in my running abilities. In fact, I ran at Juilfs today and finished my two miles with precisely two minutes left of C25K Week 2; I am still holding steady at a 14-minute mile pace.

Give me a moment -- it still blows my mind that I can actually "run" two miles. Clearly the founders of my athletic self-esteem -- my elementary and high school gym teachers -- were "you can do whatever you set your mind to" kind of guys. Thank you, Mr. B and Mr. Jamoke (alias).

*I do want to explore how to and how not to encourage children to physically push themselves and to stay fit. I'll tell you now that letting them get away with whining, walking instead of running, and sitting out of gym class is not effective. Prime example, right here.*

Anyway, while I didn't lose any ground in my progress today, I didn't move forward, and that's frustrating to me. I like to see improvements. That's the best motivator, right there. Unfortunately improvements take work, and work takes motivation, and motivation takes improvements.

Poop.

So, my first set of questions: How do you stay motivated? Do you exercise simply for the joy of it? How do you get through those days or weeks of zero progress? What about setbacks?

Back to the backwards thing. Like I said, I ran at Juilfs today, my tried-and-true favorite childhood park. But, to test things out a bit and to shake up a routine, I ran it backwards.

Now isn't that a fun mental image? I'll let you sit with it for a while before ruining it. Fat girl ... breathing like a freight train ... red, red face ... stumbling backwards down a hill. Go ahead and laugh. I would!

Okay, time to focus again. Today, I ran the opposite direction on the path. I figured the Beast Hill is a long, slow incline and it's counterpart is a steeper, shorter incline. Why not run/walk down the long one and run/walk up the short one? Well folks, it was nice. It didn't improve my time at all (again, discouraging), and it didn't make the 90 second run feel any easier, but it kept me from trying to drag my butt up Beast Hill. And I got to run downhill, which is way fun -- kind of like Phoebe running on Friends.

I don't know the moral of today's experience. I changed my path to avoid a challenge and finished in the same time anyway.

Question set #2: Do you avoid challenging courses or do you take them head on? How's that working out for you?

Next run should be Thursday. Venue undecided. Let me know if you'd like to join!

A Change of Scenery

How exhausting! I mean, watching people carry my heavy furniture really wore me down ...

Right.

Actually, I have to commend the movers I used yesterday, and declare wholeheartedly that I will never as my friends to move furniture again, as long as I have $100 to spare. In case you're interested, check out Move Cheap for your next change of scenery. Cheap, awesome, polite, quick. You just have to rent and drive your own truck.

Okay, sorry for the tangent, but it explains a bit of my post today. Change of Scenery. Yes, I'm finally in my new apartment and thoroughly enjoying the wooded view out my window. The birds are singing and the wind is blowing the brand new leaves on the trees. It makes me glad the stupid cable guy didn't come like he was supposed to yesterday. Otherwise I wouldn't get to hear the nature--and fire trucks and airplanes -- out my window.

The cats are adapting nicely-ish. Well, one is still hiding under the bed, but she's happy there. She lets me reach under and pet her and has come out just a few times. Trixie? Well, she looks stressed, doesn't she?


The good news is she's not picking fights with the other cat. (Background info: Scaredy is the new cat, though she's a few years older than Scaredy. I adopted Scaredy from a co-worker in mid-January. They don't get along ... yet.) In fact, Trixie is currently snoozing under the bed with Scaredy. VICTORY!

I'm adapting nicely to the new place too. I slept well last night, which is a victory for me. I generally don't sleep well in unfamiliar places. It helps that I was in my own bed.

Another change of scenery for today: I ran at a different park this morning. I headed to Veterans Memorial Park in Union Township (disappointing website with very little info). There's no informational signage around the track to let you know exactly how long the path is, but this one website I found said 1+ miles. That is unacceptable to me. 1+ what? Booo! The power is in the details people!

Anyway, I think, if you take the right path and loop around this one little part against your insticts, it's 1 mile and 50 feet or so. There are handy little spray-painted quarter-mile markers on the concrete. At least I think that's what they were. The mark at what appears to be 1 mile is a smiley face.

So, needless to say, I can't exactly track my progress today because I tried a new venue with unclear distance markers. But I can say I didn't have shin splints today, and my breathing was fairly under control. It's still very apparent that I need to repeat Week 2 for the third time; I'm still ending my 90 second runs thinking, "OH GOD I CAN'T DO IT!" Let's just say there's nothing quite as sweet as Mr. C25K interrupting my playlist to say "Walk now." I'm going to marry him.

I'm curious, though. How do you know when to stop running in your run/walk workout? Do you use time, distance, or just feeling? How do you judge when to start running again? Do you let yourself catch your breath entirely or do you keep your heart rate going? If I ever chose to end my dependency problem with Mr. C25K, I'd like to know. I'm not good at pushing myself without outside influence.

Future running plans: Probably Monday or Tuesday. This week is going to be really nice so I'd like to take advantage of it. Although, I still have a lot of moving activities to take care of, so these plans are, sadly, tentative.

Quick Update: A Setback in Week 2

Good afternoon.

Yes, that's right, it's a Thursday afternoon and I'm blogging ... because I'm not at work. I took two days off to move. Yes, that's right, still moving. Yuu-uu-uuck. I just took a brief lunch break and thought I'd take a few moments to ensure you all that I did run this morning as planned.

An interesting thing happened, and I'm not entirely sure why. I finished with a full minute on the clock, whereas last time I ran this workout (Week 2), I had a full two minutes on the clock. The difference between these two occurrences? I started the workout walking with someone else -- my mom.

Now, she's a slow walker, even by my standards (which is slow), but she walked quickly with me for the five-minute warm-up. I guess it wasn't quick enough and I didn't even realize that I might have been walking slower than usual. But, I'm thinking that's the main cause for my slowness. In fact, for a few of the running portions, I thought I was going quite fast.

Eh, whatever. It was gorgeous at the park today, so it was worth it.

One last thing. 'Tis the season for 5Ks, and I know I've brought it up before, but I need to decide if and when I can try one. Many of you offered great feedback on the kinds of runs I should try, and I defintely agree. I appreciate the advice too; I would never have thought to distinguish between a serious 5K and a fun one. But now that you've mentioned it, I know exactly what you all mean.

There's a 5K run/walk happening in my neighborhood, literally a baseball's throw away from where I live now -- okay a really LONG baseball's throw. It's at the end of May and the route is quite hilly, so I'm a little reluctant. There are also a few throughout Cincinnati that I'd like to take a shot at: the Reggae Run (organized by one of my professors), the Reds 5K, and the Hyde Park Blast. Basically, anything with a party at the end is going to be a safe bet, I'm guessing.

Okay, I must get back to packing and moving. Forgive the short and icky post; I'll do better next time. Check back soon for my feature on BBW* exercise.

*See the asterisk at the end of my last post.