Dear Running gods:

It's going to be a very long winter, and I don't deal very well with freezing weather. Please help me stick to this insanity through the next six months.

Love,

Maria

I need gloves!

On a sunny fall and crisp afternoon I went back to run at the National Mall. My fists were so cold, I could not even notice whether my knees were hurting. I saw the Vietnam and Lincoln Memorial, ran along the Reflecting Pool and the Constitution [mini] lake. Lovely sights. The first mile was downhill, so I beat all kinds of speed records, but the way back was rough, like running through molassas. My legs are very tired now.

Rain Rain Go Away!

Had to run in the rain today. Happily, it was a warm afternoon. I wore a plastic windbreaker and ended up wet wet wet from head to toe, inside the windbreaker included. I am slowly progressing in distance, which I gather will not be my problem, it will be speed, for sure. 

Shakespeare ganó

No time to run today. Instead, I went to a talk given by the director of Pericles, the play I will see in Sunday. It was fantastic!

Knees

I may have found the answer to my knee concerns. A guy in youtube (that does not sound like sound credentials, I know) explained in his video that you are supposed to move your feet really fast when running, in order to minimize the time the foot is in contact with the ground and to keep your feet under your body. I was doing the exact opposite: slow long strides. Trying out the new technique, I had a flashback to old cartoons where characters would quickly move their feet back and forth in the air before taking off running. Let's see if this comical stride solves my knee woes. By the way, my youtube guru, Sage Canaday, finished 16 in the Boston Marathon this year. And even more impressively, two years ago he won the Washington Mountain Climb, a punishing 7 mile run up a mountain in New Hampshire. It hurts my own knees just writing about this race.

Alma Mater

I run during my lunch break. I have only an hour to go down to the gym, change, run, shower and be back at my desk. When I was on the 1 mile program, no problem there. On the 5 mile program, it is getting harder to accomplish. One way I am working around this constraint is cutting down on the warmup and cool down portions. I run so slowly, the whole thing is a warmup. Also, to save time, I run close to the office, so when the run is over, I'm at most a couple of blocks away from the office. This search for efficiency has led me to my Alma Mater, that good old merchant of knowlede. I am getting reacquainted with the buildings and the quads. The roads are narrow down there, with few traffic lights to impede the run. Yesterday was my third run around campus.

Summer-like Morning

A sniper was perched on the top of a building in the corner of my office this morning, so DC police cordoned off several blocks and sent us home as we we arriving this morning. That allowed me to have a nice and relaxed suburban run in a warm and sunny day, and now I'm drenched with perspiration.

I wanted to have a chance to run on grass to find out whether it is the hard urban surfaces that cause my kneecaps to bother me when I'm running. The muld pain disapears as soon as I start walking or stop running. I'll have to do further research. 

Yesterday was the first day since October 31 that I did not run. I consider it a win to have ran 15 days in a row! I'm going now for another 15.

Running in the City

When I began running (two and a half weeks ago) I would try to get to a park before I started the run part of the workout. The goal was to avoid having to interrup the run while waiting for the traffic light to change. That meant that getting there took longer than the warmup time and also that when I completed the workout, I would end up far away from the office. 

As the running distance has increased, I have been forced to become more efficient in order not to take more than my lunch break (an hour) for changing running and showering.

I have now ran two days in the city jungle, without much direction, just going wherever the pedestrian traffic lights take me. It is actually quite entertaining.

To My Kind Reader

I welcome and enjoy every one of your comments. I am unable to respond to them on this app. I would need to go to the website and reply from there. Too much hassle. Apps are weird and buggy.

5K Day 5

Lesson learned: Do not eat right before running. Not even if time flew and you forgot to eat before and you ate hungry and wondering whether you will have the energy to run on an empty stomach. The good news is that I did not decorate the environs of the White House with my egg salad and arugula sandwich. Everything stay put, but I did not feel A-OK. 

Obstacles

As with swimming, the absolute hardest thing about running is to stop doing whatever you are doing and just go running (or swimming). There is a powerful inside voice that tries to persuade you to go tomorrow instead: you are tired, too much work, something hurts, too hot, too cold, rainy. 

It took me years to tame that voice and now I never miss a swim practice unless it is absolutely impossible for me to go. 

Since I started running two weeks ago, I have not missed a day, even though the program recommends (flat out tells you) to do it every other day. I decided that because I'm currently running such short distances, I could just go running every day to speed up my training process. Today it was raining and the inside voice was kicking and screaming to stay put and skip the day. Voice silenced: run completed.

Rain, rain, go away!

This is the second time I run outside when it is raining. I shouldn't complain much, as at least, it hasn't been rainy AND cold. As anyone who knows me well will know. My sole problem with rain is getting my hair wet. I have to work the rest of the day, people! I neeeeeed to get a flatiron to keep in my purse.

PRT letting me down

Angie warned me that the running app she recommended is glitchy. She did not explain how, but I have already found out: the GPS won't record the entirety of your run and therefore stops counting distance. I guess I am already too deep into my training regime to start with another program. I could use also just use another pedometer, and I am not keeping track of how much I run, just trying to keep up with what "the coach" tells me to do. 

First Injury!

On day 3 of my 5k training, I suffered my first (let's hope last) running related injury: my forearm got hit by an incoming bike handlebar. It hurts like crazy but I can move my wrist and fingers, so it's likely just going to be a big ugly bruise. Biker hopped off his bike and went to see what trouble he was going to get into, but i just waved him away: "it was an accident." Bikes should not be allowed in sidewalks. Now I'm back at my desk icing it. I am hoping I will be able to go swimming tonight. I try to never miss swim practice.

A mile!

A mile! A mile! I ran a mile! 

The great outdoors

Do runners scout possible running routes as they go about the city?

I woke up this morning thinking that I could run around all the blocks that surround the White House. It is part of my obsession of finding routes that are not interrupted by traffic lights (and traffic). With a few minor glitches (the timing of the warm up walk), I can report that it is a very long uninterrupted loot that I will take advantage of for many weeks to come.

I had a 6 minute run, 45 second walk, 3 minute run. Piece of cake!

I hate this blog app

It just erased what I had written today as I was trying to correct a typo. Now it's gone forever. 

Day 10

Today was a good old beautiful day. Warm and sunny, not a cloud in sight. My run was equally extraordinary. It consisted of two four and a half minute runs, with a 60 second walk in between. 

I headed towards the Vietnam Memorial but it was so packed with people (Veterans day is next week, I think...), that I circunvented it and ended up at the feet of the Lincoln Memorial, then ran next to the newly renovated reflecting pool towards the Washington Monument, and finished my cooldown walk at the WWII Memorial. I love this way of sightseeing, and am finding charms in the Nation's Capital that I had not appreciated before.

I have a good feeling about being able to run a full, uninterrupted, dignified mile by the end of the week. Will the 5k be too much of a stretch?

Day 9

I ran through the Vietnam Memorial. It is as beautiful and poignant on the run as it is when you slowly interact with it. 

 

Today, it was 4 runs of 2 minutes and 15 seconds with 45 second walks in between. I can feel how it is building up the running blocks towards a mile. I am hopeful I will be able to run a fun mile by the end of this week, albeit rather slowly. 

New Plan

Coqui made a great point last night. I need to run a 5k for the experience. Makes a lot of sense. Scares me, though. I need to do this in late December, or better, early January, before I start the half marathon training.

At this point, I cannot even run a mile. But I have to build up the courage to set a goal and go through with it. 

It's funny because the mind plays dirty tricks. There is a swim meet on December 5 that I have no qualm signing up for, bum shoulder and all. But just to think about a RUN, makes me anxious. More reason to do it.

I participate in about half dozen swim meets a year. It keeps me motivated to train. Also, it builds my racing skills, which are different from my swimming skills. You need to learn how to race. I imagine it is the same with running.

Day 8

I've heard that swimmers have one underdeveloped muscle, and running has made this quite real. So far, my runs have been pain-free, except for those darn hamstrings. They are tight, not painful, but quite tight. I picture them crying for mercy when I'm running. The only remedy has been massaging them with the foam roller. You've got some catching up to do, hammies! Get with the plan!

I ran on Constitution Gardens again, around the lake or pond or lagoon there. I hope I never fall into that murky water, as my corpse not be found ever again. I even made it to the side of the WW2 memorial. This is turning out to be a great way to sightsee around the Nation's Capital! I might one day make it all the way down to the Capitol, but only when they take all that scaffolding down.

Day 7

I thought of Bill Cosby's dad as I was running today. I just kept going uphill. Not like climbing the Rockies uphill, but just enough to make me wish the "trainer" would tell me to stop running and walk for a little bit. 

Another disappointment today was realizing my "running" is just barely faster than walking. J was walking along the same route and the plan was I would finish the run and walk the rest of the way with him. I was maybe 3 blocks ahead of him when I turned around. 

51 more weeks to go until the marathon. I'm going for it!