Need to be less lazy

So after posting my schedule last week, I ended up screwing it up in the first week. I had 3 runs scheduled: Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Problem was there was little room for flexibility, since Thursday night to Saturday night was a Jewish holiday.

Thursday morning I woke up early to run, but it was drizzling and I just didn't feel like going out in the rain. I thought I'd have time later in the afternoon. In the end, I ended up staying late at work (yet again!) and by the time I came home the holiday had started. (And I don't run on these holidays.) And so there went the opportunity for 3 runs in the week.

I did run my scheduled 8 miles today, but again I was lazy in getting out the door. I woke up early, but procrastinated getting out to run. By the time I was out there, it was already pretty hot. That, combined with my missed run, meant I had to stop twice during my run. Once at the halfway point, and once just after 6 miles.

With my Garmin 305, I really get these great graphs. You can see that even though my pace was slowing, my heart rate was rising as the run went on. (You can see how I was really exhausted at the end, and significantly slowed down.)

Still Running

So I managed to run 3 times this week. Only the second time all year that I've done that. Also, since I was too lazy to run in bad weather last Sunday, I swapped my long run to Tuesday, which became Wednesday. And so I ended up running 16 miles this week. Doesn't sound like much, but it's been about 5 months since I've been running this kind of mileage on any sort of regular basis.



This brings me to a question I've always had. (I may even have blogged about it in the past, but it's not worth looking for to link to it!) "They" always talk about the 10% rule, where you're not supposed to increase your mileage by more than 10% a week. I never really understood how that works at the very beginning of one's training.

For example, if one has only been running 4 miles a week, should this be the progression?
4, 4.4, 4.8, 5.3, 5.9, 6.4, 7.1, 7.8, 8.6, 9.4, 10.4
(10 weeks from 4 to 10)

Or is something like this ok?
4,5,6,7,8,9,10
(only 6 weeks from 4 to 10)

The second approach increases by more than 10%, but only by one mile a week. That really doesn't seem like much to me.

Now that I've said that, I'll point out that I've put a new training schedule at the bottom of the page here. This is what I've scheduled for the next few weeks while I try to re-build my base:
16, 16, 16, 19, 15, 16, 19, 19, 19

Now that I'm looking at it like this, I think I'll have to work on that. I kept it slow at first, since that 16 mile start is somewhat arbitrary. As I mentioned, I haven't been doing that for a while. But for whatever reason, I can't really start lower than that. But that's why I don't increase too quickly.

The last few weeks I had planned to introduce the speed and tempo runs. But I may need to get the mileage up a little more. As per the FIRST book I love, my base (for 3 months!) should be "closer to 25 miles per week". I'll probably see how I'm feeling - as I already feel it in my legs. Most likely I won't be able to really stick to the FIRST plan to closely this year. Which is too bad, really.

Birthday Post

Um, yeah. It's been a while. Thanks for the few people out there who keep me honest.

So... I haven't really been too good with the exercise thing this year. Up until today, I've run 109 miles for the year. (By this time last year, I'd put in 263 miles. In 2007, with an injury, it was 294. So I'm a bit behind...) I've basically been running about once a week - which is pathetic. In related news, I weigh more than I ever have in the past. Ugh.

In good news, I've signed up for the NYC Marathon this year. It's hard to imagine getting back into that kind of shape, but I need to have something discrete to train for. It's not really reasonable for me to try and beat my PR, but I'd like to get sub-4 hours. (That's a 9:09 pace, which I have a hard time maintaining for 3 miles now, let alone 26.2. But I've got almost 6 months.)

Finally, today's my birthday. (Hard to forget when you're on Facebook!) A good time to turn over a new leaf. I hope to make a lot of improvements in my running, my eating, and my blogging. :)