7/27 - Living Lean and Epic Runs

This quote is the logic behind the Living Lean program I was following (and will begin following again soon). I find I have trouble following things when I disagree with them fundamentally. With this program, I balked at the "Living Lean" and mostly the "Living Lardy" designations the program chose. I understand shame works for some people, but for me it just gets my back up and I get defiant. It didn't help I couldn't change the message that popped up every time I logged in, due to an incompatibility with the Vitality website my company uses that originally directed me to the Living Lean site. It seems when you log on through Vitality you lose the ability to edit your profile. It took me a week with the Living Lean help desk to figure that out, and I'm the one who figured it out. Lost a little confidence in them there. However, I do believe some of the message and the tricks they employ are helpful, and I will return with a modified approach.

I very much prefer the "Living Clean" message, and plan to use that instead of Living Lean in the future. I'm in the process of defining with Living Clean means to me. It's something close to primal eating, though I haven't quite worked it all out (nor gotten all the "unclean" foods out of my house yet). I'll probably have more to say on that tomorrow, as I plan to spend some time on it then.

Today's achievements:

I actually slept about 10 hours last night. I'm not sure what happened to make that possible, but it's certainly noteworthy in my world. 

Today I headed out for a 9 mile run, decided within the first mile that I'll never be able to run a marathon next year, then proceeded to cover a total of 16 miles. 

I started with a 2 mile jaunt to the park. I ran the first mile, but by the end of it was so uncomfortable I started walking. I don't know the cause. Maybe because I haven't run since Monday, though I did cross-train Tuesday and walked a fair bit Wednesday. Maybe because I was afraid to slip on the wet slate sidewalks. All I know is my feet and legs hurt and I was at almost a 13-minute-mile pace. I seriously was working out a training plan where I would continue to attempt 10 mile runs every weekend until I could do them without this type of discomfort. There was no way I could conceive running a marathon next year based on the training plan I devised, when i couldn't run a 9 miler today.

I decided I would walk the 9 miles, if nothing else, and attempt to run them again tomorrow. There are Japanese marathon training plans that have people walking all day long, just to get time on their feet. My modified plan now included attempted 10 mile runs every Saturday and walking 10 miles every Sunday. Once I got to the park though, I found my legs remembered how to run, so I started running. 

I swear to you I ran this park earlier in the summer and logged it as 5 miles from start to finish. Google disagrees. So does MapMyFitness. While running it today, I was convinced it was 5 miles. Before I reached the turnaround, I'd decided since I'd mostly walked to the park (I ran the first mile, but conveniently counted the entire trip as "walked") that I would run my 9 miler in the park then walk home. This meant I would run the park twice. As long as I was running it twice, I might as well do the whole 10 miles. I need to be at 10 miles by August 11 anyway. What's one more mile? Then I could run 10 next weekend as well and be certain I can run the entire race on the 11th. 

I ran the first leg of the park non-stop, except when I had to stop for stoplights. When I reached the beginning of the park I walked for about 500 feet while I ate the banana I'd brought with me, then headed off running again. I again ran the park non-stop (except stoplights), until my phone/GPS/music abruptly cut off at what I thought was the 9 mile mark. It was perfect timing, since I'd had 9 miles on the calendar for the day. I thought about continuing to the beginning of the park, but by then I'd stopped running and could not convince my legs to start up again. My feet hurt from pounding the pavement, and I resigned myself to walking home. 

The walk home was 3 miles, and it surprised me how well my legs felt by the end. Yes, tired. But it's obvious running and walking, while using the same muscles, use them in different ways.

When I got home I immediately put my phone on charge in hopes I could recover the MapMyFitness data, and sat down to Google Maps to figure out exactly how far I'd gone. Imagine my surprise when Google calculated my trip at 16 miles!

I was able to retrieve the run info from MapMyFitness, and it corroborates Google's data. The phone died right as I crossed Green, just shy of 3 miles from home. That's not a bad pace, considering I walked the entire 2nd mile and I'm not yet in half marathon form. This actually beats my first half marathon time, which was somewhere around 3:07ish. 

It did take me about an hour to walk those 3 miles home, but I got there, got showered, and got my grocery shopping done. I'm not feeling too shabby right now either. 

My plan is now to repeat this adventure again next week, only not to attempt running that first mile. Just walk up to the park, run it twice, and walk back. If I could run 11 miles today after the harrowing trip TO the park, I can run 12 next weekend with a more leisurely opening gambit. This actually bodes very well for my marathon training plan. 

Unfortunately, with sleeping in and running longer than expected, I did not get much else done today. I did manage to get a speeding ticket on the way to the grocery store. That's probably going to cost me about $230. Interesting how specific the speed they clocked me at: 51 in a 35, making it exactly one mile over into the higher cost bracket. Also, Superman was clocked at exactly that same speed several months ago. I call bullshit, but fighting it would cost time and money I don't have. Considering I am a fast driver, and I was over the speed limit as I punched it to get through a yellow light, I will meekly bow my head and take the punishment. I only get busted once every 4-5 years, so I can't complain too much. Still. It's fishy and it gets my goat just a little to think I'm paying more than I should. I can see maybe I was going 45. I don't buy 51.