Recalculating

One of my favorite commercials these days is the one where there’s a guy driving a car and he doesn’t follow the path the GPS voice (whose name is Mona in our house) tells him to. Mona then says, ”recalculating.”

That’s what I’ve been doing the last several months. I love running but I let it become too big of a part of my life, to the point that I wasn’t looking for work as hard as I should have. I was running my 20+ miles a week but neglecting this other thing to the point of making a mess of things. So I stopped running for about four months. Just stopped cold turkey. I wouldn’t let myself get out there and have this bit of relaxation because of my poor habits.

Note-- scale does not accurately reflect actual weight.

My weight went from 167 to its current level of 185. It’s a tiny bit harder to draw a deep breath, and my size 32-waisted jeans fit more snugly than they did last summer. It became time to do something about my problem.

In the meanwhile, Astro our new treadmill took up residence in our spare room last fall, next to the not-unpacked boxes from our move in four years ago. This means I had to start dealing with my problem. Can’t be having a big, expensive treadmill in the house unless you’re gonna get on there. Astro and I have gotten acquainted—I can set up routes in my old neighborhood in El Paso, Manhattan (The Little Apple), Tuscaloosa, here in Athens, or wherever I want. I bang out about ten miles a week with the elevation set at 1.0 so as to give my legs a little push. My mile times are closer to 9:00, but I expect that since I’m carrying extra weight.

It’s about an hour and a half each week, which jives with something I saw in a recent Runner’s World. It said that if you start running 1-2 hours a week you slash your risk of dying of cancer or a cardiovascular condition. The next page says 2 ½ hours a week will help you reap all of the youth-promoting benefits.

My whole mindset started with a magic number of 20 miles a week that I read years ago, so I’m adjusting my mindset again to allow myself the chance to run about 3 times a week, a little more than 30 minutes a shot, for a total of roughly 11 miles. I’m giving myself permission not to run. This allows me more time to network, write cover letters, and do the things I should have been doing before.

Who knows, maybe by clearing up the job situation, my running life will improve because I can run during the time I would’ve used job hunting. Or it could be that the reverse is true, that by running less I achieve more by having more energy throughout the day. We’ll find out.

Recalculating…

HELP! JANE! STOP THIS CRAZY THING!

            The first years of my running life were largely untethered—I didn’t belong to any running community so I didn’t know how or what to do in order to get results. One thing I got right was following a build-up plan in the back of a beginner’s book on running that had like a 12-week training plan that got you up to running for 30 consecutive minutes. I’ve been a runner ever since.

            But this time in my life was in Clay Center, Kansas, population 4,500. There was a county hospital that had a very good fitness/wellness center that was about 1.5 miles away from my apartment. So I’d get home from work, run up there, crank a few miles on one of four treadmills, and run home. Each treadmill had its own overhead TV so the miles flew by as I watched a basketball game or whatever. I would always try to figure out whether I’d get done by the end of the half or game—it helped with my need to have numbers to crunch.

            I was always persnickety about running outside. Too hot? Too cold? Too windy? Time to get in the car and drive up there. Eventually I got married and lived in a neighborhood that didn’t have easy treadmill access. The more I ran outside and committed to running, the more incredulous I became as to how I did the treadmill thing.

            With that as a backdrop, meet Astro:

            Astro is our new state-of-the-art NordicTrack 1600 treadmill. It does everything except get you a beer. About a month ago Mrs. Woodrow decided a treadmill would be a good play. It does make sense, as the weather has turned cooler and she has knee problems that the more forgiving surface can help with. Many things in our home get names (in addition to the dog, Beasley). Our charcoal grill picked up the name R2D2, The blender is the Bass-O-Matic 6000, our cars are named Sparky and Scooter, and so on.

            Anyhow I’ve been running on there about three times a week since we’ve had it. I can run on the beach, in Italy, or in Austria due to our subscription to iFit. It also lets me program my run before I begin. Yesterday I ran in my neighborhood without leaving the house. I recognized everywhere I ran, it just didn’t recognize elevation so I played with it a little. It also has me running on the wrong side of the street because the Google Maps camera faces behind the car. So I’m running in one direction but the pictures it shows indicate the car/camera are going in reverse.

            There is also a 400m track for speed/tempo days. I don’t use this much since it gets a little monotonous especially with these other features. It has a 1/8” plug so I can plug my phone in and listen to podcasts safely which I don’t do on the road.

            The only concern I have at this point is that my legs don’t feel as energized after a treadmill run as they did after I ran on the road. I’ll get used to it because I’m just barely scratching the surface on this. I tinkered with the elevation on my 3.4 miler from yesterday and I ran about as fast as I have recently and my legs felt a little charged the rest of the evening. I’m not really sure when I’ll run in my neighborhood again— having a treadmill is a time saver plus we have some adjustable hand weights for me to do walking lunges and shoulder presses.

            Never thought I’d say it but I’m a treadmill guy once again.

It's Supposed to be Fun

            For some reason I got it stuck in my head a long time ago that I was a real runner if I made it to 20 miles per week. Probably something I read in one of the running magazines that said it should be easier to lose weight if you run that much or more. This sounded good to my ears, given that I was overweight as a kid and got picked on for it. I didn’t really focus on eating or my other habits—just get to that number and you’ll be fine.

            That was my mindset as I achieved my weekly goal of 20+ miles for 29 consecutive weeks in 2016-17. That’s about 689 miles over nearly seven months miles when additional miles north of 20 are included. I worked hard, ran five times most weeks, and made sure I got out there when the weather was cold (for Georgia) and when Mother Nature turned up the temperature. I ran in Houston when K-State played in the Texas Bowl, in Kansas City for my niece’s wedding, and clicked off a sub-22:00 5K on a steamy Saturday morning in March.

            So I’m very proud of my effort level.

            My mistake is that I focused too sharply on the goal and not on the fact that running is supposed to be fun. I always enjoyed stepping outside my door and taking off, but I didn’t allow myself much deviation in the routes I chose. I have a couple of four-mile courses, two that are five miles, plus various loops I can use to add a little extra distance as needed. It was good running, it just got to be monotonous. That plus some life changes ended my streak the first week in June.

            Giving myself permission to not run took a little getting used to. I felt like I had to get out there or I would get fat and out of shape. Like I was chasing something that shouldn’t be chased. That I would become the 11-year old kid on the playground that I used to be.

            But I’m relaxing now as I work back into things, just with less structure and intensity. I am making a greater effort to run socially—I ran with our Fleet Feet group at 7 AM on the Fourth of July, and I met the group at a local pizza shop for a three-miler that has a free beer at the end. Plus I’m giving myself the OK to not run if I feel like it. I feel like my fitness level hasn’t really dropped off—my paces and splits are about the same.

            I’m still setting goals though, just lowering the bar to between 15-20 miles a week and creating less stress and more fun in my life.