Category Archives: Running

Completed Couch to 5K!

Running

So I officially completed couch to 5K this week.  I’m still not running 5K because I run slowly, but I now run for 30 minutes without break.  My next step was to do a 10K trainer program.  I’m hoping more miles will also help me increase my speed on the shorter runs.  But, annoyingly, both treadmills in my gym are out of order.  They recently replaced one of them with a new machine.  The new machine is much lighter than the old one and has been broken consistently since installed.  It also shakes too much when I run on it, so I avoid it when possible.  But now the other machine is broken too.

I’ve written before about how I prefer running on a treadmill to running outside, but I may need to reconsider if the treadmills don’t get fixed soon.  This also means changing up my schedule- I would need to run at 7 am while it is still cool, instead of using the gym after lunch.  I’m actually pretty worried about this.  I’ve spent 4 months developing a routine, and going running 3X a week is pretty automatic at this point.  Rebuilding that habit at a new time will pretty much mean starting over.  And there is a cascade effect since all of my morning habits will be displaced as well.  So, I’m still thinking it over.

 

A walk on the beach

Running

This week, I had a really grueling bike ride on Zwift, so I thought I would take a day off and go for a walk instead of running.  The weather was warm, so  I thought walking to the beach would be fun.  I ended up walking about 10 miles, so it wasn’t quite the rest day I intended.

In my wandering around, I managed to circumvent security and end up on a private beach.  Totally not my intent, but the beach is much nicer than the public beach for sure.   The private beach was filled with people in the water as well as sunbathing.  Interestingly enough, once I walked back to the public beach, I saw that there were hazard flags- rip tide and strong current.  No one was in the water, though plenty of people were laying out.  So if you are on the private part of the beach, you have no information about the dangers.

One other thing that I noticed is that I started coughing the minute I hit the beach and I noticed quite a few others coughing as well.  I had thought that respiratory distress only occurred during serious red-tide blooms, but apparently not.  In fact, one of the beach status report fields is how many coughs and sneezes are heard within a 30-second window.  (Yesterday morning’s value was “slight”, with only a few coughs heard by the evaluator.  I would say it was higher than that by the time I got there mid-afternoon.)

The walk was pleasant.  Even before you get to the beach, most of the walk is adjacent to the water.  There are small strips of park/ beach between the main road and the water, so you can stop and watch the waves on the way.

 

 

 

Learning new things is hard

Drawing, Running, Starting, Writing

I’m a process kind of woman.  I like following a set procedure whenever possible.  It increases efficiency and reduces errors.  This is similar to my love of habits.  Having to think carefully and then motivate yourself to do that thing is hard.  It takes away from the energy that you could be spending on actually doing the thing.  Learning new skills is hard because you are usually spending effort on multiple fronts- learning how to physically or mentally do the thing, thinking about the best way to do the thing, figuring out how to fix your mistakes, etc.  That is why I really like courses for learning new skills.  Some people may chafe under the rigidity of a course, but I find the structure freeing.  I just follow the instructions/lesson plan and I can focus the bulk of my energy on learning the skills I want.   It is all execution and no overhead at that point.

That is part of the reason why I describe my process in so much detail, such as in my recent post on diagnosing my calf problems or my posts on revising my novel.  Are my processes the best ones?  Probably not.  But it is likely sufficient for a novice.  A beginner doesn’t need the best system.  They just need one good enough to get them to the next level.  As I build my skills, I will likely optimize my processes.  I may abandon them entirely.  But I hope that my posting my processes here, I can provide a shortcut for the next person.  Right now, I have three big projects: revising my novel, learning to draw, and improving my fitness level.  I let my novel draft sit for over a decade because I didn’t know what to do next.  I haven’t drawn since high school, and I was never good at it.  I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do.  And fitness, goodness, that is a complicated subject.  Couch to 5K is simple enough, but try to figure out a simple weightlifting routine, and things get complicated fast.  There are tons of resources for all these topics on the internet, but sifting through them is time-consuming.  So, hopefully, my work on these projects will provide

Right now, I have three big projects: revising my novel, learning to draw, and improving my fitness level.  I let my novel draft sit for over a decade because I didn’t know what to do next.  I haven’t drawn since high school, and I was never good at it.  I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do.  And fitness, goodness, that is a complicated subject.  Couch to 5K is simple enough, but try to figure out a simple weightlifting routine, and things get complicated fast.  There are tons of resources for all these topics on the internet, but sifting through them is time-consuming.  So, hopefully, my work on these projects will provide a set of great resources and a framework to accomplish these projects efficiently.  Obviously, everything will be filtered through the lens of what works (and doesn’t work) for me, but I’ll try to provide an alternate approach if I find one.

Calf Stretches for improved Couch to 5k

Running

So, as I previously posted, I’ve been doing the Couch to 5K running program.  I want to talk about the method I’ve used to find the needed calf stretch to fix the tightness in my right calf.  I didn’t go into much detail about the problem-solving process previously, so I wanted to go a bit deeper here.

As I said then:

But, I do feel a huge difference in tightness between my right and left calves.  So I tested a bunch of stretches for tight calves, and found one targets exactly the tightest part.  One stretch I can do, and because it is targeting a specific problem, I can see improvement with every run.  This sets up a nice feedback loop that keeps me stretching.

Tightness in my calf doesn’t quite cover the problem.  I actually ended up with numbness/pain/tightness in my right calf after about 10 minutes of running or walking.  I could power through the rest of the run, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that this is an increasingly bad strategy.  The typical calf stretch, and the only one I knew, is the lunge.  This was pretty much the only stretch I remember from gym class and consequently the only stretch I regularly do.  But hey, at least it is a calf stretch!  The lunge doesn’t feel great, and I certainly had less range in the right calf compared to the left, but it didn’t feel like it was really the problem.

The lunge stretch, in case you don’t know it:

So I started to look for different calf stretches.  I did each one slowly, paying close attention to the differences between right and left AND if the feeling was similar to the feeling when I was running.  I learned that I have even less flexibility than I thought, but more importantly, my soleus muscle was in serious need of attention.

The minute I tried it, I realized that this was my problem.  I’ve been doing this stretch for about a month, and the pain/numbness is completely gone!  I can still tell that there is a difference between the left and right sides, so I am continuing to do the stretches.

This improvement makes it less likely that I will injure myself running, and undoubtedly has helped my performance.  I highly recommend applying this method to find a stretch to target specific problems that crop up during your workouts.

5 tips for getting through the Couch to 5K program

habits, Running

Well, it has been a long time since I blogged.  A ton of things have changed in my life, which are probably better covered in another post.  So, for now, let’s just dive in to my current pursuit- completion of the Couch to 5K running program.  I’ve done this program a few times- sometimes all the way to the end and sometimes giving up in despair after a few runs.  There are a few things I’ve discovered that make the program much easier (for me, at least).  So, here are 5 tips I’ve discovered that make the learning to run via the Couch to 5K program much easier.  Very small tweaks can be the different between success and failure.

5 things that make learning to run easier

  1. Run on a treadmill.  This makes pacing so much easier.  You don’t suddenly hit a hill and then cannot complete the week, like you would running outside.  And yes, even very small inclines can totally wreck you if you aren’t fit.
  2. Get an app.  I’ve done this by manually tracking the time, but that is too much mental effort, especially if you are being physically challenged.  I’ve been using the Couch25K app by Zen Labs.  The free version tells you when to switch between running and jogging.
  3. Set a consistent time to run. Yeah, habit building 101!  The last time I did most of the program, I ran in the afternoons on weekends, and at 6:30 am on weekdays.  In practice, I frequently overslept on weekdays, and could rarely get in 3 runs per week.  I also am much looser and more energetic later in the day, so later times makes runs much easier for me,
  4. Don’t run fast.  This is the most common piece of advice out there about the program, and it is totally true.  If your run was a total nightmare, then back off the speed.  This is much easier if you are using a treadmill. I walk really fast (~ 4 mph), so the first few tries, I decided that running had to be at least 6.5 mph, or else it was not really running.  This time around, I’m being more gentle, and using a running speed of 5.2 mph.
  5. Pay attention to your body.  Does something feel tight or weird when you are running?  Does your left whatever feel different than your right whatever?  Google it, and make sure you are doing an appropriate stretch to fix it.  Even if you are following a suggested stretching program, such as the one recommended by the Cool Running site (“Stay Loose”), it may not have the stretch you need.  And personally, I very much dislike stretching, so running through a 12 stretch program is unlikely to happen at this point in time.  But, I do feel a huge difference in tightness between my right and left calves.  So I tested a bunch of stretches for tight calves, and found one targets exactly the tightest part.  One stretch I can do, and because it is targeting a specific problem, I can see improvement with every run.  This sets up a nice feedback loop that keeps me stretching.