200 Situps

A key to success in training to run long distances is cross-training. Especially for someone like me who has no strength or tone to build from. To me, that means doing non-running exercise-ish things on days when I'm not running. In addition to my physical therapy exercises (which consist of a lot of ankle weights and some other random lower-body strengthening), I started the 200 Situps program last week.


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The program is simply a structured training routine to build up to 200 situps in 6 weeks. It's really similar to Couch to 5k in that way, and like I mentioned in a recent post, that structure makes all the difference for me. I got the iPhone app, because I needed another green app to complete my app color-coding scheme (KIDDING! ...sorta), but it's not at all necessary. The whole plan is laid out on the website.

Today was Week 1 Day 2, and I'm loving it so far.

There's also a 100 pushups plan, 200 squats (WHAT??!?!), and 25 pullups. If this goes well, I'll try pushups next!

I know one bloggie friend is already on board (hi N!), doing both the situps and the pushups... who else is with us??

Climate Change

Hi from Palm Springs! I'm here visiting my dad. It is a stunningly gorgeous day. So I went out for my run this morning, and it pretty much knocked me flat on my ass. I know that the climate is dramatically different, so I've made sure to hydrate extra since I arrived yesterday, and took my jogging pace pretty easy. But ohh boy, is it dry here. The temperature is beautiful, but the sun was beating down on me, zapping my energy. I felt like it was following me around just to torture me. Just a complete 180 from the Oregon moisture that I'm used to.

I cut my 30 minutes a little short because I was feeling so dehydrated. But I still feel really good about going out today. It's hard to find motivation when I'm not in my normal routine, but I mustered enough to get my heart going today. Also? Running around my dad's neighborhood... not too shabby!



I'm curious what the climate will be in Orlando this fall. The race is at 10 pm, so hopefully any weirdness with humidity or possible high temperatures will be mitigated by the late start time.

The Course, Of Course!

I was just poking around the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon website, you know, because I'm not obsessing or anything... and saw that a detailed description of the course has been posted!

All I knew prior to today was that it was on the brand new half marathon course, being used for the first time at this race. I don't know the geography of the park at all (I'm much more familiar with Disneyland), but I hope that the course includes the Magic Kingdom, running down Main St. USA and through Cinderella's Castle. I'm a little worried that it doesn't, because wouldn't it say if it did? The website says the map will be posted at a later date. Either way, I'm totally stoked about this.

Here's what our friends at WDW have to say:

"Start at the newly re-imagined ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex running down Victory Way and then west on Osceola Parkway toward Disney's Animal Kingdom® Park. Make your way past the Tree of Life, Expedition Everest™, Dinosaur® and then race back to Osceola Parkway and head toward Disney's Hollywood Studios™. You will enter the park in the shadow of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™, run down Sunset Boulevard through Pixar Place, past Toy Story Mania!, then through the Costuming Tunnel in the Backlot on your way to Lights Motor Action! for your big debut! Race through the Streets of America, past Star Tours and Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular on your way to Epcot®! The course will wind through the idyllic village of Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resorts and lead you through the international gateway entrance to Epcot®, where you will pass United Kingdom and Canada before finishing on World Showcase!"

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Structure

For the last few weeks, since I finished Couch to 5k, I've been floundering a bit. I really liked having the structure of the training program, and without it I had a long series of crappy workouts where I felt like I regressed in my training a bit, or at least stopped making progress.

Although I really want/need to start looking to October now, I'm not advanced enough at this point to start most of the popular half marathon training programs. Many of them require that you're regularly running 3-5 miles several times a week before beginning. Which totally makes sense.

But there is one expert, Jeff Galloway, who has helped about a bazillion people run successful races from scratch with his quirky-ish method. I tried it out last night, and I haven't felt better in a long, long time. I was skeptical, but now, even after 1 workout, I am a complete believer.



Galloway's "thing" is his run-walk-run method. Interval training. When I first was reading his claims that so much walking throughout a run, even for seasoned runners, results in faster times and stronger finishes, I was reminded of Professor Harold Hill's "Think Method." He's the main character in the musical The Music Man, who scams an entire town by selling them on his idea that kids can learn to play instruments just by thinking the notes.

So, like I said, I tried it out last night. For my pace, the recommended interval is run 2 minutes, walk 1, repeat. The results were incredible. I worked out for 30 minutes and walked for 10 of those (intermittently), and finished exactly 2 miles in the same amount of time (30 minutes) that it would have taken me had I been running the whole way. I felt myself able to push so much harder, knowing that I was only running for 2 minutes before I got a break. My increase in pace happened naturally, it wasn't a conscious effort, and it felt good. Really good.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes me. I have a feeling it's going to be my key to success in training for this giant race that's approaching more quickly than I care to think about.

Update: Bridgeway Run for Autism 5k Results

The official results are in! My time for 3.1 miles was 46:51 (minus about 5 seconds before I crossed the start line). I'm not a competitive person at all, but it's pretty cool to be 9/22 in my age group (female 25-29). Granted, it was a run/walk, so lots of people were walking behind me, but still. Pretty cool.





Back to my nap!

Bridgeway Run for Autism 5k

Today was the Bridgeway Run for Autism 5k. I'm so happy to share that I achieved my goal of beating my previous time and setting a personal record!! I'm still waiting for the official results to be posted, but my time was somewhere around 46:48, 2 minutes faster than my only other 5k time.



I've been consistently running around 15-16 minute miles (see? I told you I'm a slowpoke).. so considering that I've still never run a whole 5k without walking a bit in parts (and I took a few really short walk breaks today), I'm really proud of my time.



The morning could not have been more perfect for a race. Sun shining, temperature around 60 degrees, no wind. The course was familiar, since it was in a city park where every Eugenian has spent a lot of time, but it was fun seeing it through new "race" eyes. Crossing over the river and back on 2 different bridges was especially fun.

Time for a fun little story: the race was small enough that the announcer gave some people shout-outs (by looking up their bib #) as they crossed the finish line. As I came through, he said, "Here comes Amy Isaacson...with a HUGE smile on her face!" It took him pointing it out for me to actually notice how goofily I was grinning. How great is that?


Learning to multitask, taking iPhone pics as I jog along...

We're signed up to run another 5k on the same course about a month from now. Going to try for another PR. In the meantime, I'm going to start looking more seriously into Jeff Galloway's half marathon training program (originally recommended to me by another local running blogger, Kara!). He has a run/walk interval method that's similar to what I liked about Couch to 5k. I'm sure I'll be writing more about it here if/when I start the program.

Looking forward to spending the rest of the day napping, hot tubbing, cheering on Andy's ultimate frisbee team, and smushing my dog. Happy!

Another 5k, Please!

We just signed up for a race this weekend!

It's the Bridgeway Run for Autism. I'm running (er... "running"...) the 5k, and Andy signed up for the 8k (so thrilled for him!). It's at the same park, Alton Baker Park, where we ran our very first race ever, the Truffle Shuffle, back in February. It's also the site of Bark in the Park next month, the next race we're scheduled for. That one's a benefit for Greenhill Humane Society, where we got Ollie, and I'm giddy with excitement. He gets to run come with us for that one.



My goal for Sunday is to set a personal record (or as the fancy running people call it, PR). That means beating my only other 5k time of 48:53 (15:47 mile). Barring sudden illness or injury in the next 4 days, I'm feeling very confident about that goal. Even though I'm still struggling to run 2 miles consistently, I'm pretty sure race day adrenaline will help me through to at least get a speedier time, if not run the whole thing.


Sunday's race map: along the river!

I'm really glad we signed up for this. We won't be able to run the 5k I'd been really looking forward to, the one that's in conjunction with the Eugene Marathon in a few weeks (we'll be out of town for a wedding). So...yeah... bring it on! Can't wait to let you know how it went!
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p.s. My back's doing a lot better. I've gone out to run twice since my little break, and the first run felt great. The second one, yesterday, was pretty miserable, but I think I just hadn't quite fueled myself properly and it was just one of those days. We all have those days, right?

An unintended [positive] consequence of running regularly is that I'm starting to pay attention to how my body feels at certain times of the day or when I'm feeling particularly stressed, relaxed, well-rested, or not. I'm even beginning to make conscious choices about what I eat in order to increase my chances of feeling good all the way through my evening runs. I've always had this psychological disconnect between my emotions and my body; it made me numb to the pain/guilt of the way I treated my body (eating poorly/not exercising). But now that I'm opening that door a tiny bit, there's a kind of exhilaration that's starting to emerge. It's coming really, really slowly, but I can feel it.

Whew. Heavy stuff.