Breaking habits

Some perspective here… I started running after my daughter was born (she who turned nine last week).  I would complete some short fun run in late summer or early fall, keep running a little as the rains came, and then stop by Halloween, only to pick it up again in about March, when the work schedule eased from insane to merely crazy and a “lunch hour” actually included sufficient time to change, jog two miles, and change back (thank you, baby wipes).  All that to say, I’ve got a nearly-decade-long habit of not running through the holidays and cold months – and that, dear friends, is the habit I’m trying to break.

So with that said, I will admit that I’m pretty proud of this:

 

 

Yes, there’s a couple goose-eggs.  Yes, those “4” weeks are likely generous.  But this is huge progress in consistency for me. 

*  *  *

However, it’s not sufficient progress to jump right into a training plan for Capital City half marathon.  So the past two weeks I’ve been focusing on running enough days per week (at least four) and getting a long run (it’s all relative).  Two weeks ago, I got close – but no long run (swim meet weekends, I tell ya). 

This week it came together.  Woohoo!

 

I’ll recap last week’s training a bit later – I want to think about my plan for this week first – but today’s run was pretty close to glorious.  I have been enjoying its high all day.

Slowly...

Here's what the last two or three weeks held...

Date	Distance (mi)	Duration	Pace	Felt	Effort
01/13/13	3.45	00:34:08	09:54	tired
01/09/13	2.76	00:25:11	09:06	good	4
01/08/13	4	00:38:28	09:36	good	4
01/07/13	1.12	00:15:00	13:23	tired	3
01/05/13	3.39	00:38:17	11:16	tired	2
01/03/13	2.63	00:24:30	09:18	alright	3
01/02/13	2	00:45:00	22:30	alright	3
12/29/12	4.58	00:50:02	10:55	tired	3
12/26/12	4.65	00:48:00	10:19	alright	3

Hardly impressive, to be sure, but a 6-mile week and a 11-mile week are far better than a goose-egg.

Running is hard right now.  Physically hard.  Mentally hard.  There have been a lot of  distractions, deferrments, sleepless nights, and obstacles over the past several weeks.  I'm not sure if they've sucked the joy out of my running, or if they've just kept me from running long enough that I have to start from some level of scratch.  I'm thinking it's the latter.  I'm hoping it's not the former.

All I know to do, though, is keep getting out there.  Tomorrow, I may be able to run at lunch; if not, I will fit it in after work (which would be my usual plan, but we're in our one week of 20-something degree temps for the year and running after dark on icy streets in 27* and dropping is not my idea of safe).  There's holes throughout the week to find time to run - and almost none of them have me resorting to the treadmill at 5:30 a.m. (the worst-case scenario I can't quite bear to invoke right now).  These runs may be short, they may be slow; they may hurt or leave me gasping or wondering why I can't hold any sort of pace.  But they will get done.

Back at it...

So, yeah, December has been a nothin' month...

All the various levels of crazy converged to make it such that the only runs I could make happen on a regular basis were our Saturday-morning-with-the-Math-Teacher runs.  There were a couple others spattered in there, but yeah... not much.

But all told, I do not in any way consider that to be a failure.  Given that my usual pattern of the past several years would have been to stop running sometime in October and not begin again until, oh, March, I'll call a few single-digit weeks a rousing success in the "maintaining consistency" department.

But... after that zero-mile week last week, enough is enough.  I got back into it with a Monday morning "Saturday" run with tMT and her lovely daughter (aka the speedster).  Easy three miles, no big deal.  But I'd forgotten that it would count for Kiley's Christmas Virtual 5K!

So.  Pretty pleased about that.

Took yesterday off (I don't think I got out of my pajamas yesterday).  Today I'll get in a few miles while the kids swim.  I've got several weeks of base-building to get in before starting my training plans for a May half-marathon and the Portland Marathon in October (yep, those are my A-races for 2013). 

So.  Back at it...

So much for that...

Seems I picked a bad time to declare a running streak.  The general craziness of life added to some low-grade ick combined to kill the streak this week.  I got a full week in - and then I got to 9pm Friday and realized that I hadn't been on the treadmill.  And I didn't have it in me.  I didn't have it in me on Saturday either (six hours standing at a swim meet will do that).  So the streak was thoroughly busted at that point.

This morning I woke up to a break in the rain and a house of still-sleeping people. I got dressed and headed to my favorite path to catch the sunrise, all ready for a great run.  Except... that great run didn't show up.  The five miles turned into a painful 1.5 out and a walk back to the car. So, counts for a run in December - but not much else.

Coincidentally, I forked over the cash for Portland Marathon entry yesterday.  Great day for a bad run.

Obviously, something's up.  Not sure what, exactly - could be a bunch of different things (flu season, work stress, poor sleep, REALLY poor eating choices...) (oh, gee, maybe the combination?  Smart, I am.)  Hopefully I'll be able to sort that out over the next couple weeks so this blah-streak doesn't last into the New Year.

Streaking past forty...

So, I turned 40 on Black Friday.  Pretty darn perfect (in a good way), if you ask me.

Thursday morning, as the Math Teacher and I were getting out for our unofficial Turkey Trot, we talked through how we're going to keep going through the holidays.  Lots of kid activities, holiday stuff, messed-up schedules, and other craziness are certainly getting in the way.  However... MT's turning 40 next month too.  (I think she's relishing these two weeks where I'm nominally older than her.)

After a little counting, we realized that from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve this year is 40 days.  So, why not run each day?  So that's our plan.  We're running at least a mile each day from last Thursday to New Year's Eve - and then probably adding New Year's Day too. It's like birthday candles - one for each year, and one to grow on.

I'm making it a little easier on myself, though.  Friday, while my husband and daughter were out doing the Black Friday thing, I stayed home and in my pajamas all. day. long.  It was wonderful.   I found myself down in the playroom, which is crammed with stuff and stuff and more stuff, working my way to the stash of Christmas presents that need to be wrapped (we're actually pretty darn close to done shopping for the kids, just need to figure out one or two more things for the boy).  I had my music, I had my peace, I had plenty of time.  And next thing I knew, I had two corners of the room fairly well organized - the one with the presents, and the one with the treadmill.  I'm not joking when I say it has been YEARS since that treadmill was available for use.  It was cold and wet, and I didn't want to go outside, but neither did I want to abandon the birthday run streak on day two, so I changed into my running clothes, sent a child to get the fire extinguisher (just in case), and plugged it in.

It worked.  Miraculous!

So now I have a backup plan against the crazy wet cold weather the Pacific Northwest tends to deal out this time of year.  No better way to start the next decade of this wonderful life.

Getting my mojo back...slowly...

Seriously, it can't be nearly a month since I posted.  And yet... it has.  Yikes.  Long, boring story short, it's just been nutty around here.  The running's been up and down - twenty miles one week (including the Cupcake Classic, that was fun!), then eight, then a big fat zero.  But that ended today with a slow-and-sloppy three-miler.  Yea!

Tomorrow - I'm jumping in at the last minute on a local 10K race.  This is the first time I've ever done anything off the cuff like this - it's exciting!  I'm picking up my friend at 7:30 - a wholly civilized time, especially with the extra hour from daylight savings - and heading to the local trail to register for a 9:00 am start.  LOVE it.  This ought be fun.

One last thing - Amy at Run Mom Run is hosting a giveaway - Yurbuds earbuds.  I TOTALLY want to win this (might make the treadmill a touch more bearable, eh?), so please DO NOT feel you have to go enter. :)  Or, y'know, protect your own interests and enter.  Could be fun for you.

I will get back to this.  I need to give you a recap of our fun Cupcake Classic, this race we'll do tomorrow, a fun evening run with Christmas lights in October and a "for rent" sign on the cemetery... and whatever else comes up in the next few runs.  Until then, friends...

That which comes next...

Realized this morning that I haven't written anything in two weeks.  It took a while to find my groove after the race - and I was floundering there for a bit.  Once I realized that the "oh, sure, I'll keep this up with no structure whatsoever" plan wasn't going to work (like it ever would with me), I realized I needed an actual plan.  And some actual structure.  And maybe some actual goals.

Toward the end of the last training cycle there were a bunch of things I wanted to add, but I didn't want to screw up the race by adding something novel and botching it, or injuring myself, or... whatever other convenient excuse was easily backed up by all my reading (there's a stack of running books and magazines on the bedstand).  Now would be the time to add them, right?  What I've got on the list:

• Cross-training - pretty much anything other than running. Cycling or swimming are obvious potentials.
• Strength work - whatever it may be, machines at the Y or kettlebells in the living room.
• Flexibility work - oh, yeah, I need this in a bad way.  I have never in my life been physically flexible (the other kinds of "flexible" don't come easily either, but I'm pretty set in those ways).
• Nutrition - every so often I have to re-focus on what I'm eating in relation to what I know about nutrition (quite a bit, actually).  Usually that time to re-focus comes when I realize I'm not in any way following what I know.

So guess what happened?  I looked at this list and got completely overwhelmed.  I don't have any legitimate excuse to not tackle any of this - I have gear and videos and knowledge and even the gift of time (three and a half lovely dedicated hours per week at the Y when the boy has his swim practice).

It's not coming easily, though.

I have managed to get started.  Mostly by setting aside all that stuff up there.  I looked at a couple training plans and just picked one to follow, even though I'm not planning any big races until next year.  I'm reinventing my running schedule, and my only goals right now are running at least 15 miles and at least 3 times per week (achievable, but requires planning).

Once I get settled again, I'll work on adding to this.  But for now, this is enough.