Today I ran 3.2 miles in 42 minutes flat. The plan was just to run out 20 minutes and get back in the same time, but the new route was slightly downhill on the way out, so it was slightly uphill on the way back. Therefore, I came back two minutes later than I might have. No worries. The important thing is to run and finish. Every finish is a victory.
I've decided to stay at this route for five days to see how it goes, get used to the new route and new routine, before increasing my time on it.
It was nice and cool today. I saw some tires somebody had put out on their yard with a "Free" sign, and I think I'll go back and grab them. I'd been promising Jack that I'd build him a new tire swing.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Day of rest
Today is a day off from running. I might have opted for a bike ride instead, but decided I did need a day to recover. On Saturday, I had run three miles for my fifth day in a row.
Days off are important because your muscles need the time to rest and rebuild. However, I think I've been running enough now that I feel the withdrawals from the endorphin rush caused by not running. I'm feeling run down and sluggish.
My plan is on Monday to start with a 40 minute timed run and slowly work up to being able to run a full hour. By then, I should be able to run five miles.
I understand that for fitness you need only run three miles, three times a week. If you do more than that, you are doing it for other reasons. Sure, my other reason is to lose all the extra weight I'm carrying around. As I increase the times of my runs, the weight should come off. When I get down to a reasonable weight, I may reconsider how much I run.
For now, I'll be running Monday through Friday, then taking a long bike ride on either Saturdays or Sundays.
See you tomorrow. I hope!
Days off are important because your muscles need the time to rest and rebuild. However, I think I've been running enough now that I feel the withdrawals from the endorphin rush caused by not running. I'm feeling run down and sluggish.
My plan is on Monday to start with a 40 minute timed run and slowly work up to being able to run a full hour. By then, I should be able to run five miles.
I understand that for fitness you need only run three miles, three times a week. If you do more than that, you are doing it for other reasons. Sure, my other reason is to lose all the extra weight I'm carrying around. As I increase the times of my runs, the weight should come off. When I get down to a reasonable weight, I may reconsider how much I run.
For now, I'll be running Monday through Friday, then taking a long bike ride on either Saturdays or Sundays.
See you tomorrow. I hope!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Advice to new and returning runners
Here's what I posted to Facebook on June 1 for National Running Day:
I've heard from a couple of people who were inspired by my running posts to start running as well. I have some thoughts to share.
1) Check with your doctor. Make sure you don't have a health problem that could be dangerous if you run.
2) It's hot out there. Try running in early morning or evening to avoid the direct heat of the sun. Drink fluids.
3) Start slow. I actually started about a year ago by alternating telephone poles. Run from one pole to the next, then walk to the next. Build up to a mile according to what you are able to do. In later runs, run two poles, walk one. Then run three, walk one, etc. Eventually you may be able to run a mile without stopping.
4) If you can get to a mile, try running according to time, not distance. So, if you can run a mile in 14 minutes, try doing a 15 minute run. Run for 7:30, then turn around and try to get home in the same time. Increase each run by 30 seconds every time you go out.
5) If you can get to three miles, that's the magic number. At least that's what I heard at a medical seminar on vascular health last year. People who run a minimum of three miles on a regular basis can actually have arterial plaque reverse. That's the nasty stuff that causes heart attacks. BTW, it's easy to check how far you run by using Google maps.
6) Wear good shoes. I have bad ankles and need lots of support. If you get injured, you can have a serious setback. I ran a marathon years ago, but wrecked my foot doing it. That started a slow decline that got me to where I am now. (Obese!) So, be careful. Don't get injured. (Easier said than done.)
7) Have fun. When you get into the right groove, the right frame of mind, it's fun to feel the wind in your hair, the sun in your face and realize you are covering distances that most people will only attempt in a car or on a bike. (But don't dis bikes. They can be a good workout, too.) OK, that's what I wanted to share for National Running Day.
BTW, a Facebook friend sent me this link for a "Couch to 5K running plan". Check it out. It might work for someone else depending on their style:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
What if you never ran before?
The advice above works for me because I used to be a runner and I'm trying to make a return to fitness. What if someone was obese like me, but had never run before? First off, the graph on getting checked out by a doctor is now FAR more important. So, get checked out. Get checked out again, if necessary. Then, what I would do is start off just walking a mile.
if a mile is too much to walk, then walk what you can. Then, the next day try walking one extra telephone pole (or lamp post or whatever reoccurring landmark works for you). Keep adding to the distance with each walk until you can get to a mile.
Then, if you want to try jogging, start out by walking a mile and then at the halfway mark just jog from one telephone pole to the next. If that is too much for you, then go back to just walking for a week. Try it again the next week.
If it feels OK the next week, just do one telephone pole during the mile walk for a week.
The next week, do two jogs on your mile walk. This time do them at about 1/3 and 2/3s into the walk. Do that for a week.
The next week, do three jogs, this time at about the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks. See how that works? Slowly add telephone poles each week, spacing them out, until you are able to jog every other telephone pole.
By then, you should be able to pick up the program I laid out above. But remember, there is nothing that says you MUST follow the progression the way I laid it out. If you are struggling at one level, just stay at that level until you are comfortable. Or take a step down and do lower intensity workouts until you feel you can push up to the next.
It doesn't matter how much you do, so long as you exercise regularly. As you walk or run, what you are doing is building up your base. Every mile you walk or run makes it possible for you to walk or run more miles. It's like building up a brick wall. You lay down one layer of bricks with your first runs. Then additional runs get added on top of the earlier runs. The more you run, the taller your wall gets. When I started training for the marathon, I used to run by a building that was just at the beginning of construction. At first they put in the foundation. Then they added the framework and walls.
That's another way of thinking about the early runs. They are laying the foundation for your longer runs that will happen down the road.
Also, if you feel chest pains, arm pain, sluggishness or inexplicable exhaustion -- for example you do a workout you should be fine with but you are strangely tired from it -- stop what you are doing and call your doctor.
Good luck. If anyone tries these out, let me know how they work for you.
BTW, a Facebook friend sent me this link for a "Couch to 5K running plan". Check it out. It might work for someone else depending on their style:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
What if you never ran before?
The advice above works for me because I used to be a runner and I'm trying to make a return to fitness. What if someone was obese like me, but had never run before? First off, the graph on getting checked out by a doctor is now FAR more important. So, get checked out. Get checked out again, if necessary. Then, what I would do is start off just walking a mile.
if a mile is too much to walk, then walk what you can. Then, the next day try walking one extra telephone pole (or lamp post or whatever reoccurring landmark works for you). Keep adding to the distance with each walk until you can get to a mile.
Then, if you want to try jogging, start out by walking a mile and then at the halfway mark just jog from one telephone pole to the next. If that is too much for you, then go back to just walking for a week. Try it again the next week.
If it feels OK the next week, just do one telephone pole during the mile walk for a week.
The next week, do two jogs on your mile walk. This time do them at about 1/3 and 2/3s into the walk. Do that for a week.
The next week, do three jogs, this time at about the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks. See how that works? Slowly add telephone poles each week, spacing them out, until you are able to jog every other telephone pole.
By then, you should be able to pick up the program I laid out above. But remember, there is nothing that says you MUST follow the progression the way I laid it out. If you are struggling at one level, just stay at that level until you are comfortable. Or take a step down and do lower intensity workouts until you feel you can push up to the next.
It doesn't matter how much you do, so long as you exercise regularly. As you walk or run, what you are doing is building up your base. Every mile you walk or run makes it possible for you to walk or run more miles. It's like building up a brick wall. You lay down one layer of bricks with your first runs. Then additional runs get added on top of the earlier runs. The more you run, the taller your wall gets. When I started training for the marathon, I used to run by a building that was just at the beginning of construction. At first they put in the foundation. Then they added the framework and walls.
That's another way of thinking about the early runs. They are laying the foundation for your longer runs that will happen down the road.
Also, if you feel chest pains, arm pain, sluggishness or inexplicable exhaustion -- for example you do a workout you should be fine with but you are strangely tired from it -- stop what you are doing and call your doctor.
Good luck. If anyone tries these out, let me know how they work for you.
It begins with Day Five
It actually started again almost a year ago, when my oldest son, Jack, announced that he wanted to play soccer that fall. He never runs, and I knew he was going to have to start running that summer if he was going to have any chance of keeping up with the other players.
And I knew he needed me to run with him.
The problem was that I had not really run in about eight years. In 2000, I ran the Los Angeles Marathon. That had also been inspired by Jack. When he was born in 1999, I said to myself "I need to take better care of myself. I need to start running again."
When I started, I thought it'd be a good idea to join a running group. One group that was closest to me was the L.A. Roadrunners, who were training for the marathon. I said, "Sure why not?" So I trained for the marathon, and I even got Amby Burfoot at Runner's World interested in a story about me getting up off the couch to run a marathon because of my newborn son.
Here's the unpublished story, by the way, and here's pictures from that run.
Long story short, it was a VERY bad idea for me to run a marathon. Marathons are designed to destroy your body. Any weak point in your body it will find, exploit and destroy if you are not careful. I have flat feet and weak ankles. I wrecked my left foot in the marathon, and all Amby Burfoot could say was "Sorry about your foot." No surprise that Runner's World would lose interest in the story.
I tried to keep up my fitness with biking and some milder jogging. For example, I ran the Komen Race for the Cure 5K and the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life in 2003. But my heart wasn't in it. My foot had improved, but did not come back 100 percent. I was also working nights as a copy editor, and starting in 2003 I started teaching part-time during the day.
The two-job schedule squeezed out time for exercise, and I became too much a fan of the snack machine at the newspaper to keep me going through the night shift that often ended at 1:30 or 2 a.m. Yeah, I know. Excuses, excuses.
Health problems started to crop up. Chest pains in 2004 led to a heart catheter procedure that didn't find any serious problem. It got my attention, but I didn't respond with an increase in exercise. In 2006, a clot in my liver required me to go on blood thinning medication. In 2007, kidney stones were added to the mix. The weight kept going up, and I got less interested in exercise.
Even playing with the kids in the backyard got difficult. My feet and my knees would would hurt sharply just from a few minutes of tag. "OK, that's it," I said. "I shouldn't run anymore."
One good thing was that in October 2008, the doctors took me off the blood thinners. Living on blood thinners is not easy. You have to get frequently checked to make sure you're not about to hemorrhage, and you worry that small injuries could become a big problem. Because I had plenty of bumps, bruises, scrapes and chafing issues as a runner, I had another reason for avoiding running.
The other thing about blood thinners is that you have to be very careful about alcohol. You really shouldn't drink any, and if you do drink, only drink a little. By October 2008, I really had lost the enthusiasm for drinking alcohol. That was a good thing.
Still, by July 2010 I had become obese and unmotivated. My knees and ankles hurt, but Jack wanted to play soccer. I still knew how to run, and I knew I could help him if I ran with him. One thing that did help was that I was no longer working two jobs. I have no income now, but that's another story.
So, I came up with a simple plan:
1) I bought soft braces from Walmart for my knees and ankles. They worked. I could jog without pain.
2) We started slow, jogging/walking telephone poles for a mile around the neighborhood. That's explained further in in some posts I put up on Facebook recently.
It worked. Jack built up some strength for soccer. He got better, and I got more fit. He plays baseball now, and it seems to be more his speed. But I kept jogging, and slowly increased my distance until today.
Today I met my most recent goal. I wanted to be able to run three miles for five days in a row. I made it. Today's time was 36:42, and I'm feeling better than I have in years. I have no problem getting up at 6 a.m. to run in the cool, early morning. My body seems to wake me up automatically, even if I try to sleep in. I dream about running now, and the dreams are fun and inspiring. It is as if my subconscious is applauding what I'm doing. So, I can say that I have turned a corner and really am running again. It does begin with Day Five.
There will be no marathons in my future. But there will be smaller, consistent runs, aimed at regaining fitness and losing weight. It will take me time to lose the weight, but I will get there. And I will keep posting to this blog to help stay motivated. So check in now and then to read about what I ran and what I saw each day.
To finish, let me show you where I was a year ago, and how far I have come today:
And I knew he needed me to run with him.
The problem was that I had not really run in about eight years. In 2000, I ran the Los Angeles Marathon. That had also been inspired by Jack. When he was born in 1999, I said to myself "I need to take better care of myself. I need to start running again."
When I started, I thought it'd be a good idea to join a running group. One group that was closest to me was the L.A. Roadrunners, who were training for the marathon. I said, "Sure why not?" So I trained for the marathon, and I even got Amby Burfoot at Runner's World interested in a story about me getting up off the couch to run a marathon because of my newborn son.
Here's the unpublished story, by the way, and here's pictures from that run.
Long story short, it was a VERY bad idea for me to run a marathon. Marathons are designed to destroy your body. Any weak point in your body it will find, exploit and destroy if you are not careful. I have flat feet and weak ankles. I wrecked my left foot in the marathon, and all Amby Burfoot could say was "Sorry about your foot." No surprise that Runner's World would lose interest in the story.
I tried to keep up my fitness with biking and some milder jogging. For example, I ran the Komen Race for the Cure 5K and the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life in 2003. But my heart wasn't in it. My foot had improved, but did not come back 100 percent. I was also working nights as a copy editor, and starting in 2003 I started teaching part-time during the day.
The two-job schedule squeezed out time for exercise, and I became too much a fan of the snack machine at the newspaper to keep me going through the night shift that often ended at 1:30 or 2 a.m. Yeah, I know. Excuses, excuses.
Health problems started to crop up. Chest pains in 2004 led to a heart catheter procedure that didn't find any serious problem. It got my attention, but I didn't respond with an increase in exercise. In 2006, a clot in my liver required me to go on blood thinning medication. In 2007, kidney stones were added to the mix. The weight kept going up, and I got less interested in exercise.
Even playing with the kids in the backyard got difficult. My feet and my knees would would hurt sharply just from a few minutes of tag. "OK, that's it," I said. "I shouldn't run anymore."
One good thing was that in October 2008, the doctors took me off the blood thinners. Living on blood thinners is not easy. You have to get frequently checked to make sure you're not about to hemorrhage, and you worry that small injuries could become a big problem. Because I had plenty of bumps, bruises, scrapes and chafing issues as a runner, I had another reason for avoiding running.
The other thing about blood thinners is that you have to be very careful about alcohol. You really shouldn't drink any, and if you do drink, only drink a little. By October 2008, I really had lost the enthusiasm for drinking alcohol. That was a good thing.
Still, by July 2010 I had become obese and unmotivated. My knees and ankles hurt, but Jack wanted to play soccer. I still knew how to run, and I knew I could help him if I ran with him. One thing that did help was that I was no longer working two jobs. I have no income now, but that's another story.
So, I came up with a simple plan:
1) I bought soft braces from Walmart for my knees and ankles. They worked. I could jog without pain.
2) We started slow, jogging/walking telephone poles for a mile around the neighborhood. That's explained further in in some posts I put up on Facebook recently.
It worked. Jack built up some strength for soccer. He got better, and I got more fit. He plays baseball now, and it seems to be more his speed. But I kept jogging, and slowly increased my distance until today.
Today I met my most recent goal. I wanted to be able to run three miles for five days in a row. I made it. Today's time was 36:42, and I'm feeling better than I have in years. I have no problem getting up at 6 a.m. to run in the cool, early morning. My body seems to wake me up automatically, even if I try to sleep in. I dream about running now, and the dreams are fun and inspiring. It is as if my subconscious is applauding what I'm doing. So, I can say that I have turned a corner and really am running again. It does begin with Day Five.
There will be no marathons in my future. But there will be smaller, consistent runs, aimed at regaining fitness and losing weight. It will take me time to lose the weight, but I will get there. And I will keep posting to this blog to help stay motivated. So check in now and then to read about what I ran and what I saw each day.
To finish, let me show you where I was a year ago, and how far I have come today:
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