Excuses, excuses

Confession: It's been over a month since my last blog post and two days since I went for a run. I have fallen off the wagon. Since I ran my first 5K on Oct. 2, I've barely logged 23 miles. Total. Can that be right? How pathetic.

I had big plans to run a Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving Day, but I didn't do it because I have slacked off so much lately that I can't even trot! Also, the weather forecast on the morning of the race looked like this. No thank you, wintry mix. 

I even had big plans to run a 10K in December, which is now just two weeks away. It's not gonna happen. My training has slowed to a crawl, and now when I go for a run, it feels like I'm starting over. I can barely run two miles without stopping for a walk break. However, I have become a pro at making excuses for why I can't run. I won't bore you with my sob story about how in just the last month, I've made two trips to visit my parents (at least 700 miles each round trip), two trips to Washington, D.C. for work and spent over a week with a severe cold. Instead of rambling on about how busy I've been, I'll just give you the top three reasons I talk myself out of running every day. 

1. Running is HARD.

I run at a turtle's pace. Actually, that's not true. Turtles pass me like I'm standing still. And I usually quit before I reach my mileage goal because I'm out of energy. It seems that everyone else I know runs like a gazelle, and I become jealous and defeated before I ever put my shoes on.  

2. It's dark. All the time.

Since the time change, I have had a baditude, as Kelly would say, and I blame it on these cold gray days. It's pitch black when I leave work, and I feel like the day is over, when really it's just 5:30. Instead of hopping in the car and driving to a semi-lit park, I opt to collapse in a heap on the couch. With a pizza.  

3. It's cold.

I realize this list has become whine central, but seriously y'all, it's COLD. I fully intended to run today, but with a windy high of 47, I just couldn't make myself do it. No matter how much I bundle up, my ears ache and my nose tries to run away. Here in northwest Arkansas, we're right next to Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain - and it gets wicked cold.

Those three are usual suspects, but I can come up with any number of excuses on a given day. HOWEVER, I am determined to stick with this and keep running - through the fall - through the winter - but likely not through a wintry mix. Everyone has their limits.

And here are a few highlights from my super busy month! On one of my trips back home, I got to see my sweet baby niece turn ONE!

While I was in Washington, D.C., I visited lots of museums and took a nighttime tour of the monuments with Trea!

Here we are posing with Thomas Jefferson.

And while in D.C., I discovered the heaven that is Chop't. Thus, I almost ate my weight in a salad sandwich. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Yet another reason why I must get back to pounding the pavement!

Sidelined

I'm injured. There, I admit it. I've been running for weeks with increasing pain in my ankles, and I can't ignore it anymore. I began with pain in my knees, but that's gotten much better. I still notice a little twinge in my right knee when I run, but it's not constant like it was for a while. I thought the pain in my ankles would be the same way. I thought I was in pain because I'm new at this and the pain would decrease as I got stronger. I think I'm wrong.

I'm not sure when it started, but it almost never goes away. I haven't run since Sunday, and I'm growing very impatient. I was happy about making progress and the potential to lose weight and get in shape. Now I feel like I'll have to start over when I'm able to run again - if I'm able to run again. Are some people just not cut out for running? I certainly hope that's not the case. It seemed to take an eternity to build up my endurance to handle a three-minute sustained run. The thought of stopping for an injury and having to start over makes me crazy.

I have pain in both ankles, but my left is the worst. It hurts all the time when I walk - except when I wear heels! Oddly enough, I wore flats to work yesterday and was limping and miserable. Today, I wore heels and felt fine. I made sure to rotate my ankles as I sat at my desk, in case they only felt better because my shoes kept them from flexing as much as walking in flats. That gave me no problems at all. I thought maybe I had rested long enough and was looking forward to going for a run this evening. But as soon as I kicked off my heels and put my feet flat on the floor, all the pain came rushing back. So instead of running, I'm on the couch with ice on my foot.


I've been reading all kinds of scary articles about sprained ankles, strained ankles, stress/hairline fractures, tendinitis, and trying to figure out whether I underpronate or overpronate. I'm very confused and getting worried about potentially making the problem worse if I try to run through the pain. I know the obvious solution is to go to a doctor, but I'm hoping rest and ice will take care of it. When I feel better, I'm also planning to go to Rush Running to see if I need different shoes to control whatever awkward motion is causing me to have issues. I still can't believe that I'm barely six weeks into this, and I'm already having problems. Just call me Grace.

One of my Twitter pals suggested that I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.


I ordered it today and am looking forward to checking it out. It's about a man who tries to run but can't understand why he has excruciating pain in his feet. After seeing several doctors, he seeks out an ancient Mexican tribe that can run for days at a time - with no warming up, stretching or even decent shoes. According to him, running is natural, and we should all be able to do it pain free. Mammals have been doing it for millions of years - why not me? I guess I'll find out. Until then, I'll be on the couch. Pouting.

Geese, ink and a sunset

I’m going to run a 5K. I’m serious. Since my last post, I have run five times and logged almost 15 miles. In just a week and a half, I’ve almost doubled my mileage, and I’ve been running more regularly. Trea and I have run more than 31 miles since we started a month ago!

Last week, we moved up to level three on Podrunner, so we’ve been alternating walking with two 90-second runs and – wait for it – two 3-minute sustained runs! Just a month ago, I was barely managing a 60-second run, and now I can run for three minutes and not completely want to die. I’m making progress!

I had one bad run last weekend at the new (to us) track near the dog park. I overslept and by the time we made it outside, it was HOT. Way too hot to be running. We had no relief from the sun, and I wasn’t able to finish the run, even though Trea kept going. We learned our lesson; summer is too hot even for a mid-morning workout. We either have to get up early or go late in the evening. After that experience, we have given up on running that area and are sticking with our old track at the goose pond park. There we can stay in the shade almost the entire time, even though that means reversing our course a few times and facing the geese. It seems to be breezier there, which helps give some relief to this insane Arkansas heat and humidity. Plus, it's pretty.


Trea went out of town last week for a few days, and I had to run twice on my own. Before he left, we completed a level three run one time, so I knew I could do it, but just barely. That 3-minute run is tough, and I would’ve quit if Trea hadn’t been with me. Running with a partner has created somewhat of a competition between us. Speed isn’t a factor because he’s way faster, and I’ve accepted that. But if he finishes a run, I’m going to finish a run (unless there’s a chance of suffering heat stroke).

The first time I tried to run without him on level three, I seriously doubted my will power and endurance. So I cheated just a little bit. I took Bella with me. I knew that even if I wanted to quit, she would drag me down the trail and make sure we made it to the end. My plan worked, and I finished. My pace suffered because I spent the entire time holding her back from an all-out sprint. She was so happy to be running with me, but she made it harder instead of easier. She needs a lot more leash practice. That's project number two this summer.

On my second run without Trea, I left Bella at home so I could focus completely on what I was doing. I was so proud of myself for finishing and not giving up. I even sprinted a little ways – when I was chased by an angry flock of geese. That was not cool. Some of those geese are almost waist-high and enormous! It’s pretty intimidating to find about 20 of them blocking the path - and embarrassing to have onlookers laugh at my peril. (I may or may not have squealed and flailed my arms as I ran.) But if I have to choose between overheating at the dog park or goose encounters at the pond, I’ll choose the goose pond and try to stay out of their way.

We should have run tonight, but Trea had an appointment in Fayetteville. We went to Brainstorm Tattoo to have one of his existing tattoos touched up. Last year he got a large tattoo of an owl on his arm. It's done in black and gray wash, which means the artist mixed water with the ink to soften the shading. We loved it at first, but after it healed, it faded more than we had anticipated and looked old and unfinished. So tonight we went to a new artist to add color.

This is before.

This is after a two-hour session. We go back next week to fill in the tree.

Even though we're happy with the way it looks today, tattoos are always more vivid immediately after you get them, so we know this color will fade quite a bit over the next week. However, even after it fades, it should still look much deeper than the simple black and gray that he had before.

As we were driving home, I snapped a picture of this sunset. This orange cloud made me happy, and happy clouds make me think of Bob Ross.

We're getting back on schedule tomorrow and, if I can muster the courage, we're moving up to level four. Level four makes a 3-minute run look short, so I'm worried. Also, some of you have mentioned that you aren't able to leave comments directly on my blog. I've updated the settings, so you should be able to comment now. Let me know if any issues still exist, and, of course, thanks for the encouragement!

Hot stuff

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, but I promise I’ve been running – sporadically. Thank you so much to those who have asked how this project is going! I appreciate your interest and need the self-imposed guilt trip when I have to explain why I haven’t gotten on a regular running schedule yet. I’m working on it.

A few weeks ago, I went to south Arkansas to visit my parents. I was so proud of myself for going for a run while I was there because the few times in my life that I’ve ever had an exercise routine, it all goes out the window when I go out of town. However, I pushed on and ran (and walked) a little over two miles in their neighborhood, which was, I imagine, very similar to running on the face of the sun. I doubt I’ll run there again until this HEAT eases up. That weekend was the first time I began noticing knee pain. Since then I’ve had pain in both knees, sort of on the front and inside the joint. It’s no fun, and it’s all the time. I hope this passes soon. If any of you are runners, I would appreciate any advice you could give, especially if this is normal for a beginner.

Trea and I have been running primarily at the park nearest to our house. It's beautiful...

...even though it has snakes.

It’s a pretty walking trail around a pond, and last weekend we took Bella with us. She hasn’t had much experience walking on a leash with so many distractions, so Trea spent the majority of our time teaching her not to tackle people. But all in all, she was pretty well behaved, and we’re going to try to take her more often.

We got too confident for a minute and decided to let her off her leash so she could splash around in the creek. We’ve had a decent amount of rain, so it was moving pretty quickly and it’s definitely too deep for us to cross without swimsuits. She promptly dove in, swam across and got out on the other side where we couldn’t get to her. I don’t have any pictures of that because I was too busy calling for her to come back. Thankfully, she jumped in and swam back to us after only a few minutes of freedom. We won’t make that mistake again, but boy, she had fun.


I ran tonight for the first time in five days, and that’s actually an improvement on my routine. I’ve been averaging only one run a week, usually over the weekend. It’s still a huge challenge to manage my schedule so I can run in the evenings after work. Mostly because it's HOT. I don’t think running in the morning on weekdays would work out because if I start at daylight, by the time I drove to the park, ran, drove home, showered and drove to work, I would be super late. My neighborhood doesn’t have the luxury of things like sidewalks or even a shoulder on the road. I live in the woods on a huge hill with winding, steep roads and blind curves. People like to drive down the center of the street at top speed, so I’m risking my life every time I step out for a stroll instead of driving to the park. The fact that a morning run won’t fit into my schedule is unfortunate because the few times that I’ve gone running on the weekends, I’ve gone in the morning when it’s cooler and felt a thousand times better than on my evening runs. Oh well. I’ll run early in the day when I can.

Tonight we ran at a new park, and I have mixed feelings about the experience. It’s a pretty area, and we saw a couple of rabbits and a beautiful creek that puts the other park to shame. However, it’s a lot larger, so we went long stretches without seeing any other people. That’s nice in a way, but the old park is smaller and I didn’t realize until tonight that the people are a much-needed distraction for me. When I see a funny dog or an elderly couple walking together or a kid who refuses to ride her bike and makes her dad push it along, it takes my mind off what I’m doing. Tonight I had no distractions and was fully aware of how hot it was and how tired I felt. Even though I ran my fastest time so far today, it wasn’t as enjoyable. However, it was nice not to worry about being chased by geese and to not have to hop over goose poo on the trail, which was the case at the old park. I guess it’s good to mix it up every once in a while.

My training still consists of alternating walking and running with Podrunner intervals, but I’ve moved up to the next level. I begin with a five-minute walk to warm up, then I alternate running and walking every 90 seconds. The full workout lasts about 30 minutes, and I complete six 90-second runs in between brief walks. I should be able to complete this workout just once more before moving up to the next level and increasing the amount of time that I run. It’s tough, but I’m making progress. I know 90 seconds isn’t very long, but it sure does feel like it. I’m keeping track of distance and time through Nike Plus, which I purchased after I had already completed a couple of workouts. So according to the records I have on Nike Plus, I’ve run a total of almost 16 miles and burned more than 1,400 calories. Not bad for a newbie!

Day One, Take Two

I ran again tonight for the first time in 10 days, so I'm pretty much starting over. This challenge has taught me that I can't just drop an exercise regimen into my existing schedule. This is going to require change. After I ran last week, I almost immediately felt like I was coming down with a cold and was sick for the rest of the week. Now I know that I need twice as much sleep to let my body recharge. Bedtime will have to change drastically, which means the rest of my day will have to be managed more efficiently.

After I got over my illness, I still didn't run for a few days because I was busy with some household projects. I helped Trea stain our deck.

And now it's beautiful.

And I changed our bedroom from this:

To this:

We planned to run on Tuesday, but that was the day of the great flood, after which we were delighted by this:

So after all our hard work, tonight I ran. I decided just to go out in our neighborhood instead of taking extra time to drive to the park. About five minutes into it, I remembered something very important: we live on a mountain! I'm still using Podrunner, which alternates walking and running to build up stamina, but today I also used Nike Plus for the first time. Now I have a sensor in my shoe that keeps track of my progress and coordinates with my iPhone. As I listen to music with my iPhone, a female Nike Plus voice will come over the speakers and tell me how I'm doing. As I was running as hard as I could up a very steep hill, I heard her say, "Activity stopped," and my music went silent. Activity STOPPED? Seriously?? Well, thank you very much, Nike Plus. Apparently my pace was so pathetic that my shoe sensor thought I had retired to the sofa. I let the Nike Plus lady know she better check again. I was able to restart my music and track my workout where it left off. It was a little irritating to be insulted by my own phone, but at the same time, I definitely needed a boost. Classifying my hardest effort into "activity stopped" was just the motivation I needed to get to the top of the hill.

I have a profile on Nike's website, and each time I sync my iPhone with my computer, my running progress will automatically be entered onto the site. You can see it here: http://my.nike.com/ataylor13. Today I logged 2.05 miles in 28:27 minutes. That includes both running and walking. I have a long way to go before I can run two miles, but I'm determined. Now that I know how difficult this will be for me, I can plan appropriately and get back on track.

Day one

When I told Trea about my goal, he immediately hopped on board and decided he's going to run too. We do everything else together, so I should have seen this coming. Later I began to believe he was only interested in this new hobby because new hobbies mean shopping for new gear. I needed new running shoes, so we both got new running shoes. I first looked for an arm strap so I could run with my iPhone, but someone talked me into getting an adorable little iPod shuffle instead. Guess who else got a new iPod shuffle to match mine. Well, mine is pink; he opted for silver. So after a weekend of impulse shopping and talking about running, today we put our gear to the test.

We went to the park/goose pond walking trail in our hometown, which turned out to be a beautiful area. I had never been on the other side of the pond, and I have been missing out all these years. There's a flowing stream and little waterfalls from all the rain we've had lately; it's perfect. It was a nice, cool evening, and there were lots of other runners out to inspire us. I had downloaded Podrunner interval training for us (Thank you, Amber!), which helps you slowly build up from walking to running. The rhythm of the music tells you how fast to go and when to switch from walking to running. It was so helpful! We started out at a brisk walk, and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. We saw the most perfect runner in the world, and I said, "Look, that's going to be us in a few months." And then the music changed.

After switching from walking to running a few times, I was ready to call it a day. The flowing stream that I loved so much 10 minutes earlier infuriated me when I saw that it was flowing right over the pathway - and into my new shoes. And after the perfect runner lapped us for the 23rd time, I decided that I hated him. Running is hard, y'all. Thankfully, my running buddy had enough energy for both of us and was always a few steps ahead encouraging me not to give up. I finished the whole workout, which was about 25 or 30 minutes of walking and running, and then we walked a little farther to cool down. Podrunner says to complete this workout at least two more times this week. I hope my shoes are dry by Wednesday. I also hope I don't smack my running buddy if I have to hear one more time, "That wasn't bad at all."

See Anna run?

I'm going to run a 5K. But the problem is I don't run. Or venture far from the couch.

I'm 29, and my pants don't fit. I'm lazy and I eat pizza multiple times a week. I go to work, come home, go to work, come home, go to work... I need a goal. I need something outside of work that's productive and good for me. Something that makes me happy.

Will running myself into exhaustion make me happy? Likely not at first, and you'll get to read about that. But I'm going to push through the pain, fit into my old pants and accomplish a goal. It's going to be very difficult, and that's why I've started this blog. I hope that someone reads this and holds me accountable. When you see me, ask, "How's the running going?" If I don't have anything to report, please be judgmental and express your disappointment in my lack of commitment. I'll thank you for it later.