If You Are Not Having Fun ... Take a Detour

If you know me well you know about my family connection to the Olympics - Brendan Hansen, 2012 Bronze Medal in the 100m Breaststroke. I hesitated to write this post because I worry about boring peope. "OH there she goes again talking about that..." but I really believe there is a lesson to be learned by Brendan's story. Here is a recap:

• 2004 world record holder in 100 and 200 m breastroke; Silver and Bronze in the Olympics
• 2008 Olympcs failed to qualify for 200 m event and was edged out to 4th place in the 100; No individual medal; although he did take home a gold as part of the relay team that won Michael Phelps is 8th medal of the games.
• QUIT swimming competively in his signature event - the breastroke .

Why did he quit? He was working his butt off (seriously did you notice how small an olympic swimmer's butt is?) and not taking home the prize. Expectations were high and it wasn't happening. The articles written would say things like frustrated or "Why am I doing this?". Although I never saw these specific words being used, in my mind it boils down to he wasn't having any fun.

So he took a step back. He refocused his energy on something else. In his case the something else was competing in triathalons, getting married and (I'm sure) finding all sorts of other fun stuff to fill his time.

In 2012 he came back to take the bronze in a race that was truly fun to watch even if you aren't me or one of my extended family members. He became only the 13th swimmer in Olympic history to win a medal after turning 30.

Although most of us are not olympic caliber athletes we do have similar struggles. Sometimes the thing we are doing - even if it is something we love - stops being fun. Whether it be athletics, our work, or just life in general. Sometimes we have to take a step back and regroup or recover. Sometimes it's not a full step back but just a mixing up a little. Adding some fun or goofiness to what we are doing.

So when it's not fun anymore don't forget to keep smiling (it's next to impossible to stay down when you smile) and keep moving (even if you have to move in a different direction for a little bit).

Think about your goals for August. How will you get there? What will you do to keep the road to yoru goal fun and interesting?

Run - Breakfast - Ride

That was my morning excercise and all finished before noon! The purists (whoever they are) would probably tell me that breakfast in between is not appropriate. The purists do not have the awesome running and walking friends that I have. We slog through rain, heat, snow and cold often and together. It would take a serious family emergency to make me miss breakfast (or other social opportunity with them). They are my second family.
SOMEONE (ok me) suggested a 6:00 am start for those of us doing 12 today. The 4:30 am alarm had me questioning my sanity and wondering how many others may have been muttering at me as well. Still once you get your butt out of bed it's not so bad and there ended up being 10 of us taking off from the diner trailhead at 6 am.

I started off at 3 and 1 intervals through the first three miles. I was feeling pretty good so I switched to 4 and 1 for the next 3. I tried to push my run intervals a bit. I probably shouldn't do that on long run Saturdays but I had it in my head that I wanted to keep under 12 minutes miles (my long run average). I accomplished that for the first 6. Unfortunately, time and again people say go slow on the way out and pick it up on the way back. And there is a reason for that. I ended up switching back to 3 and 1 and my average for the whole run was over 12 minute miles. Still I finished it and really didn't feel too bad. Here is my run off the Garmin.

I tried to do without gus or chomps this time. I packed rehydrated dried apricots and chocolate covered raisins today. I had one apricot and three raisins at mile 1 (by this time it had been 1.5 hours since grabbing a glass of milk and a blueberry muffin on the way out the door) and repeated every 2 miles. I stopped at mile 7 when I had a very slight intestinal cramp. It only lasted a few minutes but I think next time I'll go every 3 miles instead of 2. I wore the camelback today. It felt heavy and uncomfortable at the beginning but after a mile I was fine and glad I had it. I'm not sure why it was weird at the beginning. Probably wasn't sitting right on my back and I was too intent on my time to fix it. :(

I have to say that doing your homework (weekday workouts) makes a big difference. This route was flat for the most part. There are only three spots with significant climbs and I was pleased to make two of them without wanting to stop before, during or after. The third is between mile 9 and 8 on the return winding up the hill and around the bend to go over the creek. I dragged out my run portion so that the walk came for that. *Shrug*.

I was grateful for company on the way back too. Caroline B started at 7 am to do 10 and turned aournd when she and I met on the trail. We finished the last five together. Having someone to chat with always makes the miles go by pleasantly.

We all had a wonderful breakfast and visit. I estimate there were at least 22 of us at breakfast. The Collegeville Diner is right on the Perkiomen Trail and doesn't mind sweaty, disheveled looking runners and walkers a bit. The food is good too!

I drove home and got on the bike. Here is the route via Garmin. It was just over 10 miles as planned. In the interest of full disclosure I had trouble coming up Rose Valley Road. I had to get off and walk the latter part of it. I just didn't have enough in my legs to keep moving. So I have a challenge now - to make that route without getting off the bike.

In and around where I live it's hard to stay flat. I learned that early in my running. You can stay flat but you have to run circles basically. And really I don't want to stay flat I have to do hills eventually. I knew that my chosen route today was going to be a net descent for the first 5 miles. I purposely chose Rose Valley Road to come back figuring that if I struggled at least it wasn't as busy a street as 252. What I forgot was that Rose Valley Road goes downhill even further before coming back up again. UGH!

I'm questioning my route for tomorrow now. I wanted to extend my distance to 15 and was going to go out Providence Road to West Chester Pike and come back through Ridely Creek State Park. I wonder now if I'm ready for the hills on Providence Road. They would be earlier in the ride, not as steep and I will not have run 12 before them so maybe it will be ok. I'll see how I feel in the morning. The alternative is to put the bike in the car and head out to the Schuylkill River Trail. I can't avoid hills forever nor do I want to but I could practice them on shorter specific rides during the week. I don't want to do too much too fast and get hurt or discouraged.

Balance

Last night a group of us went to the Audubon Loop for hillwork. Our goal was 5 times up and down the hill. Amy earned Queen of the Hill honors for doing all 5 in good stead AND then going up for another half. Peer pressure is big in this group but none of us joined her for that last bit.

I power walked the uphills and jogged the downs. I told myself at one point that practicing the downhill is just as important. One can rationalize anything if one tries hard enough. I didn't feel like I had it in me to do run the uphills. I'm wondering now how much of that was the heat & humidity, the bike ride I did first or just plain mental breakdown. Maybe a combination? As we jogged over to the hill I was already wondering if I could do it. I wondered if riding my bike was such a good idea first. I think I psyched myself out of running the hill before I even got there. I was just so anxious to get out and ride.

So how do I balance the biking with the running? I don't know the answer. I've tried to research it but - as you might expect - the advice is all over the place. As with running it will be read, ask questions, try stuff and see what works for me.

So what do I want to accomplish right now?
- I want to build a base of riding miles.
- I have three half marathons in Sept, Oct and Nov so I want to keep running. And even after that I'm not giving up running. It's my understanding that the two actitvites are not mutually exclusive and in fact compliment eachother.
- I'm also old - at least my body is - and one, preferably two, rest days have become a necessity.

After thinking (yes, probably over thinking) this last night I've come up with a plan that allows three days a week riding, three days a week biking and two rest days.

Monday - OFF
Tuesday - Run(speed or hills)
Wednesday - Ride
Thursday - Run(tempo or progression run)
Friday - OFF
Saturday - Long run followed by easy bike
Sunday - Long bike ride

I'm going to also try to work in 4 week blocks. 3 weeks of increasing miles and the 4th week cutting back. I'm following phillyfit's marathon schedule through the 15 miler which doesn't exactly follow the 3 up one back schedule so I'm going to work with total miles (bike + run) through The Philly half in November and see where that leaves me.

Any of you who have tried to follow my progress in this blog before know that I'm prone to changing things up. I don't really like that about myself. It is what it is but I'd like to do better. I'm hoping that by working on total weekly miles I'll be better able to stick with the plan better. Stay tuned and thanks for reading. I welcome your comments, thoughts and advice.

A New Plan

This running thing definitely keeps me busy and thinking. The past 2 weeks (maybe longer I tend to be obsessive about these things and lose track of time) I've been working on a new plan. I read a lot and as you may imagine some of that is about running. As with anything else I take in all the 'advice' and keep what makes sense to me and put the rest aside. Some I throw out but most I keep tucked away on the chance that it just doesn't make sense in my current mindset but might later on. But I'm digressing... surprise surprise.

I've started on a plan of tracking weekly mileage. I know that I must do the long runs if I'm going to survive the races I've entered but there are weeks when the long run is tricky because of my schedule. So I've opted for tracking weekly mileage and with some advance planning I can make up for lack of long run by adding the missed miles to my weekday runs. I'm also back to taking Mon and Fri off from running and going back to running back to back Sat and Sun whenever possible.

I looked at what I had been doing recently and settled on 25 miles to start. I also switched my view of the week. I was used to putting Sat and Sun at the beginning (ala Phillyfit) but switched that. This works better with my way of thinking which is that the week starts on Monday.

So this week, which began Feb 20 looked like this:

5, 3, 5, 0, 0, 8, 3.5 = 24.5

I only managed 3.5 and ran on Monday anyway because a) it was a holiday and b) I had been slacking prior to this. I'm working in 4 week cycles so the next three look like this:

0, 2, 4, 2, 0, 11, 6 = 25 (same total as week 1)
0, 2, 4, 2, 0, 13, 6 = 27 (10% increase over weeks 1 and 2)
0, 3, 7, 3, 0, 0, 0 = 13  (Half of week 3, and the weekend off)
The next 4 week cycle will start with week 3's total for two weeks then increase by 10% followed by 1/2 again. And so on. Stay tuned.

Ultimately I'd like to keep my long run mileage up and going up. Instead of "starting over" after every race. My goal race in 2012 is the Philly Half. I have other races planned but I'm going to treat them as training runs and keep up my mileage for those weeks. Somewhere I plan to work in a week off from running. Probably every 3 months. I'll talk about that more later when I have it figured out.
Today's run was 3.5 miles on the Rocky Run trail in Middletown Twp by the Wawa dairy. My ankle didn't like it, but I did! :)

Day 21: Trail running!

I had the best time trail running with Phillyfit today. You can read about it here.

Day 21. Three weeks of running every day. I had 8 on my schedule. I don't think I quite got there. It was a little over 7 I think. All my gadgets failed me today. My watch measured .1 and then froze. After running about 5 (according to a friend's measurement) with the trail group I went out for another 2 or so. My friend John T came with me. We were planning to do 3 and 1's after running most of the 5 on the trails. My gymboss reset itelf again. It worked but not properly. *sigh*.

I ran in old shoes today know that we would get dirty and possibly wet. The shoes are not  completely spent but I will have to decide soon if I want to purchase trail shoes or just keep running on my regular shoes which may mean they will wear out quicker. That's a decision for another day though. I had too much fun on the trails to think about that now.

Day 13

1 mile today the 13th consecutive day of running. It almost felt like cheating. I felt like I could have gone further. And maybe when I get further into this I will boost my minimum to more than 1 mile. For now though I'm happy to still be doing it.

I'll be running most Saturdays with the group from here through the start of Phillyfit. I'll use that for my longest runs as best I can making up any difference on my own. I'd like to do trail runs with Pete's group. That will certainly keep my pace down for the longer runs. I can work on speed during the week.

One run at a time. :)

Right now looking forwad to trails tomorrow with Pete's group and New Years day run on Sunday with a bunch of Phillyfitters.

I just did some addition on my training schedule and as of tomorrow (assuming I complete the miles) I will have completed 40 miles since December 18. Not bad for half a month. And there are 99 miles on the schedule for January. At this rate I'll need to start breaking in new shoes in mid Feb to be ready for Lehigh Valley.

Gymboss Fail

Today I went out for a run around Media. I took my gymboss not really sure if I wanted to do intervals or not. I strated off pushing the button on the Gymboss figuring I'd see how I felt after the first 3 and decided then. Well the Gymboss decided for me as it went kaplooey after the first interval. It got stuck on notifying me that the interval was over. Thank goodness I had it on vibrate not high beep or I probably would have had to go home. As it was it vibrated on my wrist for the entire 3 miles. I probably don't have to tell you how annoying that was. The upside is I ran about 99% of the distance.

I rebooted the Gymboss and it stopped buzzing. I think it needs a new battery. When it works though this is a fantastic tool for run / walk intervals. I can set it to whatever interval I want and I can have it vibrate when it's just me or have it beep loud when I'm with a group all doing the same interval.

Here's another challenge for this week. I had hoped to get a running buddy or two to meet me to run but I guess more folks have to work this week. I used up the rest of my vacation days. So the challenge is to keep getting out there Wed, Thurs and Fri alone. There are plans for group runs on Sat and Sun already.

Christmas Trail Run.

Yesterday marked the completion of one week of at least 1 mile running or walking. 6 of those days I ran. On Monday I walked. I've decided that from here on out if I decide to walk it should be more than a mile. But truly the purpose is to keep moving so it's not a big deal really. My total for the week; 19 miles.

I knew I wanted something a little softer on the knees today but I didn't want to ride all the way out to the Perkiomen or Betzwood trails. Pete, one of the Phillyfit coaches, runs on trails in Middletown Twp so I decided to check out that option. All these years and I didn't even know these trails existed. I decided on the Linvill Trail. Checking the map I felt comfortable that it followed a route that was safe for me to run alone. It was.

The trail was by no means flat so I power walked up the steeper climbs. I was not breaking any speed records but I was moving well the entire time. The trail was covered in leaves and in one spot they covered a puddle with a thin layer of ice which I ended up crashing through. It was cold! I was having fun.

The trail connects to the Indian Echo trail which I remember comes in off 352 where the (former, I think) Girl Scout Camp is/was. I ran 15 mintues out and turned around. It was very quiet and pretty. I saw a lot of squirrels and smelled a lot of wood burning from the fireplaces in the nearby homes (many of which I could see from the trail). It was a cold morining - low 30s- but clear blue skies.

I crested the last hill on my return and I heard the dog coming. I couldn't see it but I could hear the chain around it's neck and the footsteps (pawsteps) through the leaves. I stopped. Out of one of the yards comes this adorable sheep dog looking thing. It bouned up the hill, ears flapping and greeted me. Adorable looking or not I am not fond of strange dogs. "I won't hurt you, if you don't hurt me" I told the dog. The dog continued to dance around me urging me to continue to run. I didn't see or hear anyone at the house, but I was still a little hesitant to run as the dog would likely have tripped me up with its enthusiasm. Then I heard someone call "Maaaagiii". I looked at the dog "Maggi! Go home!", I said. To her credit she looked torward home but looked back with a tilt of her head that said, "Yeah, I don't think so".

Another minute passed and I didn't see anyone coming from the house and whoever it was didn't call again. So I decided to start walking toward my car and Maggi followed. I heard the storm door on the house slam and out came a man in sweat pants with bare feet trying to get a jacket on as he ran toward the trail. "She just wants to say Merry Christmas" he said. I smiled back at him. "She seems friendly enough". He called to her and she started to go to him so I continued my run toward the car. Maggi was beside me in a flash. I ran back toward her owner and she began running wide circles around us - just out of reach. If dogs could laugh, she was. Finally the man, barefeet and all, began running up the hill away from me and Maggi bouned after him. When she was a good distance, I hightailed it to my car laughing all the way.

I will go back to that trail. It was fun and there is much more to it than what I saw. I'm wondering if I'll meet Maggi again.