is it wrong to think of more than survival

so yesterday i ran - and completed - my first 10k in i believe 7 years. probably stupid, more miles than the higdon plan says i should be doing at this point, and injury from overtraining is a growing concern (my ankle seems to hurt after most every run). but i saw it on the calendar, it was a flat course, i was up early anyway, so i did it. i started well, locked into a slow steady pace of around 10:30-10:45, stopping only at the water stands, even enough breath to talk to another guy who was in about my boat -- hadn't run for years, was just about a month back into it, just aiming to finish not for time etc -- and keeping an eye on and trying to stay together with others around me, hoping for pacing that way. (note to self, one of those watches will be a good birthday present to get myself. the ipod thing is too awkward.) i admit, after the halfway mark i did walk a couple of times besides water stops. very briefly though, and i thin in my head for conservation purposes more than necessity. i didn't want to be walking through the finish line. but as a result my times did slip a little in the last couple of miles. still, i was feeling fine throughout. finish time was something like 69 minutes.

when i was younger, running these more often, even 60:00 would have been a sign of illness or injury. of course, those were the days before chips so i don't have recorded times, but i was generally in the 50 minute range i think. no speed demon, but certainly there's a big difference between 8 and 11 minute miles.

speaking of chips, in a way i'm really sorry this one had them. i mean, thinking of what it was like for me just a month ago to run a mile, the fact that i started and finished in decent shape is a huge accomplishment. but i just had to go online and check my time, just had to check my standings etc. so the time, i can live with. shorter runs i'm aiming to do more like 10 min/mile these days, but realistic enough to know that for the long run i have to slow down, and this was a stretch so i was being convervative. nothing wrong with that. seeing that i finished ahead of more than 10% of the field was good. i just naturally don't want to be last. seeing that some of those were younger than i was nice. but seeing that i was dead last among my peers (40's men) wasn't happy, nor was the fact that so many 50's men were way ahead.

what i don't know is whether it is realistic to have both pace and endurance goals at this point. given the end goal, marathon survival, i think the endurance part is far more important. that i'm doing the number of weekly miles i'm doing, that i am on pace in terms of how long my long runs are vs the training plan, that's all good. but i'm still troubled by the thought that i'm just so slow. as i look at my logs vs the training plan i see i'm doing more miles, and maybe that's the thing/solution. i think i'll try a couple of weeks following his distances more closely. maybe if i do so, and see what i can do about those times, then as i get longer i'll be able to handle a slightly better pace. worth a shot, anyway. i mean, the pace i ran this 10k, if i could hold it thru a marathon, would still be a hair under 5 hrs which isn't terrible, i think, for a 50 yr old first timer. geez, listen to me, worrying about time, when i need to be worrying about survival. i need to step back, celebrate the achievement of running 6 miles yesterday when two months ago i was smoking a pack of unfiltereds a day and couldn't run 1, and leave it at that.

moving right along

So just a quickie, as i'm in the office, but did want to record that i went out this weekend trying to stick to the idea of lengthening my long run most weeks, and so i mapped out what i thought would take me around 6 miles, and set out. whether because i lost gps signal or what i don't know, but from around 1.75 mi i was going blind, and kept plodding along figuring that after an hour or so i'd have hit my goal distance (and i pretty much remembered that 6 mi route, and followed it, so i thought i was fine). i was surprised at how good i was feeling the whole way, though it was hot and i really do need to address silly things like sweat in the eyes and hydration if i'm going to keep this up through a baltimore summer. but anyway, there i was certainly pausing/walking more the second half than the first, but only briefly and maintaining what i thought was a pretty good for me pace to the end. sadness when i got home and on my computer found i'd only gone 5.4 and not the 6+ miles that i thought my route covered, but still, given how poorly i was feeling after 5.25 last weekend, this is a step in the right direction.

unfortunately, i intended to run last night, at least put in 3 miles or so, but fell asleep before i could lace on my shoes, and when i woke back up it was around midnight and i thought that too late even for me to head out. so i'll call that my day off, blame it on the need for extra recovery time after my weekly long, and hope i can get back on schedule for 4-5 good days this week. at least it's cooled off, which means i'll be more likely to do my additional walking instead of bus going to/from work, which seems to help. but shin pain this morning walking means i've really got to think about what shoes i wear i guess.

Never too late to start

A bit of background, perhaps, in order here. I was always more of a nerd than an athlete, but did manage to play soccer and thus run a lot when I was younger, which I continued (running, that is) off an on for many years. This despite the fact that I have been as much as a 3-pack a day but more generally about a pack-a-day unfiltered Camel smoker since college (with a couple of breaks, but probably no more than 5 of those 30 years off in total). I never really thought anything of finishing a run or even a race -- i did a number of 10k's over the years -- with a cigarette.

But then i developed a thyroid issue that caused my doc's to tell me to stop running, and it took a real long time to resolve, so i haven't really run at all in something like 7 years.

Well last year they got that thyroid thing under control, and I've had this nagging sense that i need to get off the couch and start running again. of course, from there to actually doing it is something else altogether. Late last year I had this inspiration that I would sign up for a marathon (which I've never even attempted but always wanted to) which would serve the multiple purpose of giving me a reason to train consistently and even to quit smoking (though I told myself first I'd start running, and when/if it felt like the smoking was interfering, then I'd tackle the smoking thing).

A huge blessing in this process has, by the way, been the mapmyrun app for the iphone. I love the way it logs my runs -- keeping me honest -- and even keeps me on pace while i'm running. just a plug here; it's probably no better than any of the suunto or garmin running watches with gps capability, but free or close to it.

anyway, i dipped my toe, so to speak, late last year when i went out to the local running store and bought myself a good pair of shoes (one thing i learned the hard way years ago was that cheap shoes are a surefire ticket to injury). then i was on vacation and had access to a gum with treadmills for a week and got myself in (almost) every day. i wanted to -- needed to -- start slow, so it was just for around 20 minutes a day, alternating between walking and jogging pace (with a whole lot of walking, to be perfectly honest) but felt good. by the end of the week i was at least able to handle a 5 or 6 minute stretch of running at around 8 minute mile pace.

then i got home from that vacation, and it was cold out, and i couldn't figure out a schedule when to run, and frankly i discovered the hills in my neighborhood were a lot harder to handle than a treadmill, so i was pretty erratic in my efforts. i'd go out for a couple of days, then nothing for a week or more. never covering more than 2 miles, and even then doing a lot of walking, even a quarter mile at a decent pace was a struggle.

so, i thought, maybe these old lungs aren't handling the smoking/running thing as well as they did when i was younger. so on the day that i registered for the marine corps marathon, i also bought a box of patches instead of a pack of camels. that was around six weeks ago.

since then, i've discovered that i can run consistently when i don't try to force myself to wake up at 5 to squeeze in a run before work, but instead run around 10 or later at night. that breakthrough has done wonders for my sticking to a regular routine and not skipping days. i've been following a hybrid of training plans (in the 'couch potato to marathon in 6 months or less' genre) trying to get out several days a week at least, alternating with weight training to strengthen my quads so i don't develop knee troubles again, slowly adding miles, walking instead of riding the bus to work (around 1.75 mi each way) when the weather's nice. these past few weeks i think i've run 4 days a week, and the progess is both noticeable and frankly, making me more willing to keep it up.

last weekend i pushed too hard and tried a long run of nearly 5 1/2 miles; it started with a very long (2mi?) seemingly gentle downhill that killed my shins that hurt on the way home (i can do a gentle uphill no problem, it seems, but down is much harder) and i still can't do the big hills on my loop without walking at least partway, though i'm getting much closer to the top these days. a mile, mile and a half before pausing for a walking bit to catch my breath is pretty common too, which is a far sight better than when i started. last night i went out for what i told myself would be just a quick one, it started to pour just a few minutes in but instead of heading home i pressed on, did a really good 3 miles with just a couple of walking pauses, feeling great at the end. at this point that 3 mile length is a good barometer of how i'm feeling, it seems. i'm amazed at how easy that is compared to just a month or two ago. i've forced myself to slow down which is helping my endurance (if not my ego) substantially...i'd been running around 7 1/2 - 8 mph pace which forced me to walk a lot, now i'm running at more like a 9-10 minute pace and so walk far less. the plan is to continue building both how long i can run without walking, how long i can stay out, and my pace, but leaving the pace for last.

anyway, i thought i'd start putting occasional notes to myself here to supplement the data logs that the phone is collecting, we'll see how long that lasts....