2016 running

As I run my way up to being 50 I am excited to get back into a regular routine. I want to be able to think of myself as a runner again! This last year or so I have felt like I am lying when I tell people I run. That is gonna stop, even if I have to stop saying I am a runner. But I’d rather reconnect with my fitness and feel like I am doing some positive benefit to my body.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks has been the music. I can’t play for extended periods of time (re: rehearsals and performance) on days that I run. My concentration gets really unfocussed and I just feel too exhausted. I experimented with running short distances on music days, which was actually doable. But I don’t like to run for short distances so that doesn’t really work for me. But I am not going to need to worry much about that as one of my bands is taking a hiatus and curtailing regular practices. Sad to leave the band, but not so sad to be able to wrangle my life back!

The other big stumbling block for me has been excuses. I have just been accepting them too much. Life often gets in the way, so not all excuses can be ignored but I want to be able to get past them more often than not. I have thought about a race to build a training regimen around but I am just not feeling that, my interest in participating in races is low. I sort of feel I need to find the ambition within myself rather than relying on something external. Some people are great with external input, but personally I’d rather not. Plus if it is just me that is involved and just my fitness that is being improved then I think I have more flexibility to be myself. if I want to take a Zumba class (as if!) for example, and not run, then I can.

So I started running with Altra zero-drop running shoes about 3 years ago. I love them, well loved cause my second pair was a completely different model and I have struggled to enjoy them. They are heavy and bulky and Altra really outdid themselves in the ugly dept. But I bought them and committed to them so I have been using them. As I was thinking about restarting running last week I decided that I had enough and I bought a new pair. I went with one of the lightest cushioning models as they looked a lot closer to my first pair (which by the way have become my favorite pair of daily shoes. I can even put up with the duck look (Altras have a larger toe box so they look a tad funny.) Today was my first run with them and so far I love them. The model is Altra One 2.5. Looking forward to the next run with them!

Another impediment to my running has been my damn Garmin watch. I have had it now for 5 years(?) and it does still work but I have had several issues with it. I have a Forerunner 405. I love the data and have become addicted to the stats. A couple months ago a person would not move on a path and despite my hugging the right side I ran into her. My watch flew off and the band had pulled off. Garmins are designed to be able to swap out the bands with different colors(? Are runners really that focussed on how they look? Ha, what am I saying of course we are!) I say designed to swap them out, but I never said easily. Or even remotely possible for that matter. My Garmin is now held together with duct tape, awesome. Around the same time I sent their tech support and email to inquire about editing my runs as I often forget to restart or the power dies or some other issue and I need to add on an extra mile. They responded that I could do it with the new online system and it is true, you can. However the online system doesn’t work that well IMHO and I have trouble getting the watch to sync with the computer which keeps me from seeing my stats. Oddly, the previous run will be there but not the most recent one. I may have figured it out by changing the “force send” setting. We’ll see as I just did that.

Today’s run, first in a month or so, was almost 4.5 miles at a 10:02 pace. It felt really good to run, but I did get pretty pooped and had to will myself to keep going. My feet got a bit sore towards the end of the run and they are a bit achey right now. I attribute this to my lack of running and new shoes (should have done a much shorter first run, but I always ignore that fine advice.) I am looking forward to a solid night’s sleep tonight!