Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Hunger

Since I've begun this regular running program, I've found I'm hungry ALL THE TIME. I only run 3 days a week. I do not run 7 days a week. I do not understand why 7 days a week I'm STARVING. The other part I don't understand is that it isn't like I've gone from complete and total inaction to exercising 3 days a week. Prior to starting the running program I was doing water aerobics (which I'm still doing) 3 days a week and swimming laps 2(ish) days a week. Swimming actually burns more calories than my walk/run does. What the hell is going on here? I don't get it. But damn I want to EAT it.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Training - Week 5

As of today I've been working the program for 5 weeks. Today I felt like I am going to fail big time at this. Like completely and totally fail. Like why am I even bothering. Like if there was any way to get my money back I would. (There isn't and that's probably a good thing since I would and be disappointed in myself forever) (Ok well probably not forever) 

Anyway, this morning I felt like I was failing completely. But to back up, for the past few weeks I've been doing my 30 minute runs barefoot.  I've found that I really enjoy running barefoot. In the gym on the track I can feel every board in the track. I can feel the nuances on the ground as I put my feet down. It also seems to make my calves hurt less. Now if I'm being positive I've shaved 1 minute off my mile time and am able to legitimately run 50% and walk 50% of my basic mile. That's huge for me. but this isn't a 1 mile run it is a 13.1 mile run.

This evening I'm back to a little more positivity. Mostly because I have no soreness in my legs. I bought a new pair of shoes yesterday that are minimalist running shoes. I bought a pair of New Balance which have a 4 millimeter drop.  They are almost perfectly flat - with no extra padding under the heel. Now had I been on the track I probably would've done better. Instead I decided to try the road near my house. It is 1 mile long. It is also completely hilly and I've apparently never noticed it when driving it almost daily. It was also 85 degrees out this morning. The combination of those two things made me give up after only 2 miles instead of the necessary 3. I'm like a goddamn flower in the heat. I just don't take it well. Last weekend I went to Alabama to visit my sister. I had to cut a mile off that Sunday's run as well because of the heat.

Fortunately the average in Florida in February is in the 70s and according to my old man running friend that's ideal running temperatures. And I'm going to presume that since we're running at the ass crack of dawn we'll be closer to the 50 degrees than the 70s anyway. That makes me happy. I have 28 weeks left to train. With one weekend exception I'll be doing a long run every weekend. Maybe I got this.