Every day on my way to work I pass a gym. This gym has big windows so everyone can see out and we can see in. Every morning I watch all the little mice on their treadmills running to get nowhere. Now I have nothing against treadmills, except for the fact that they suck your soul out of you. After all, they are a tool like anything else and can be helpful when used properly. But what I don't understand is why someone would want to pound away on a spinning rubber mat surrounded by sweaty people who all have headphones on and are doing their best to ignore you? Sure, if it's raining or snowing or cold or too hot, ok, I get it. But when it is 60 degrees out and the sun is rising over the harbor and the streets are quiet? Why are you trying so hard to remove all of the fun out of running? Go outside!
As I said, I will give some leeway if the weather sucks; to each their own. Some people just don't want to run in crappy weather. There are also sometimes when there are circumstances where your only choices are treadmill or not running. If you find yourself in that dilemma go ahead and run on a treadmill. Otherwise treadmills should only be used for one purpose and one purpose only; to dance!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Off the Rails
Recently I feel like my training has been a real struggle. Going into the relay I felt like everything was clicking and that I was running the best I have ever run. Now, not so much. Since the race I have managed to put on about 6 pounds, even though I have adjusted my diet to be much healthier, and I feel like my running is complete crap. I've had more days in the past month where I have been really disappointed with my training than I ever have before. The closer I get to the half marathon in August the more I feel like I am just not ready for it.
I'm not sure exactly what is going on here. Part of the reason is the weather. It's just really difficult to put out a solid, hard run when it is 92 degrees out. No matter what I want to do I just can't give 100% for an hour in temps like that. I can accept that, but it is still frustrating as all hell. But to solely blame the weather would be disingenuous and too easy. Something else is going on here. Mentally I have found it much harder to keep my focus and it often feels like I am just going through the motions. I've been really looking forward to running the half in Providence and had big plans to set a huge PR so I don't know why I can't seem to stay focused on it. It seems that the more weight I gain and the more bad workouts I complete the more I get sucked into a downward spiral of negativity which leads to more bad thoughts messing up my head.
You know it is a bad sign when you are trying to choose which marathon to run in October and you begin to favor one over the other solely because it is two weeks later than the other. That's where I am at right now. BayState is two weeks after Smuttynose and I keep finding myself picking BayState only because it would give me two extra weeks to train. Two weeks is nearly useless in terms of marathon training and won't somehow end up putting me over the final barrier to greatness. And yet here I am, picking a marathon because it is a bit later on the calendar. I'm not even sure I want to do BayState again, that's the sad part.
Today is another big workout, and another hot day. The way my numbers have been lately I have a better chance of qualifying for WIC than ever qualifying for Boston. I'm going to try to pull it all together and get back in the rhythm. Not much else I can do.
I'm not sure exactly what is going on here. Part of the reason is the weather. It's just really difficult to put out a solid, hard run when it is 92 degrees out. No matter what I want to do I just can't give 100% for an hour in temps like that. I can accept that, but it is still frustrating as all hell. But to solely blame the weather would be disingenuous and too easy. Something else is going on here. Mentally I have found it much harder to keep my focus and it often feels like I am just going through the motions. I've been really looking forward to running the half in Providence and had big plans to set a huge PR so I don't know why I can't seem to stay focused on it. It seems that the more weight I gain and the more bad workouts I complete the more I get sucked into a downward spiral of negativity which leads to more bad thoughts messing up my head.
You know it is a bad sign when you are trying to choose which marathon to run in October and you begin to favor one over the other solely because it is two weeks later than the other. That's where I am at right now. BayState is two weeks after Smuttynose and I keep finding myself picking BayState only because it would give me two extra weeks to train. Two weeks is nearly useless in terms of marathon training and won't somehow end up putting me over the final barrier to greatness. And yet here I am, picking a marathon because it is a bit later on the calendar. I'm not even sure I want to do BayState again, that's the sad part.
Today is another big workout, and another hot day. The way my numbers have been lately I have a better chance of qualifying for WIC than ever qualifying for Boston. I'm going to try to pull it all together and get back in the rhythm. Not much else I can do.
 |
| Alright, I'll shut up now. |
Edit: Just got back from today's run and it went ok, but frustratingly so. First half was feeling good and the pace was spot on. I picked it up and found I was going faster than expected but it still felt great. Then around 50 minutes in I started to crash. It was taking all of my energy just to keep a moderate pace, not even marathon pace. This was not a crazy-hard workout but I still felt like ass towards the end. Managed to step it up for the last few minutes but goddammit. Seriously, goddammit. One thing to note; going the bathroom afterwards I noticed that I was pretty dehydrated, that could have been an issue.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Dog Days
It's freakin' hot out there. I actually cut my hour-ten run short by seven minutes today because I was starting to feel the effects and didn't want to end up in a bad state. The heat was definitely beating me up and anytime I got my pace down to around the 7:20's my breathing would start to skyrocket. Luckily I had the foresight to bring along some Gatorade but even that only helped out so much.
It's not that I was feeling bad during the run it's just that I could feel how limited I was in terms of pace. It didn't matter what I wanted to do there was a hard limit set by the heat that I didn't dare try and break. So how did it go overall? My max heart rate hit an unheard of 201 bpm. 201! Damn, that's just crazy talk for a run that averaged out at a 7:40 pace.
I guess this is the part where I could say, "Hey, remember when we were all bitching about the cold and snow in December and how we couldn't wait for summer to get here? Well you get what you ask for." But then I would have to smack myself and tell myself to shut it. No sense in lamenting about days gone by. For now I'm going to get back to drinking another 60 ounces of fluids in an hour. I told you it was hot out there.
It's not that I was feeling bad during the run it's just that I could feel how limited I was in terms of pace. It didn't matter what I wanted to do there was a hard limit set by the heat that I didn't dare try and break. So how did it go overall? My max heart rate hit an unheard of 201 bpm. 201! Damn, that's just crazy talk for a run that averaged out at a 7:40 pace.
I guess this is the part where I could say, "Hey, remember when we were all bitching about the cold and snow in December and how we couldn't wait for summer to get here? Well you get what you ask for." But then I would have to smack myself and tell myself to shut it. No sense in lamenting about days gone by. For now I'm going to get back to drinking another 60 ounces of fluids in an hour. I told you it was hot out there.
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