I ran four miles today with no trouble at all. My iPhone app was doing really well until the VERY end when my mom called, and so it says I only logged 3.69 miles, but it’s wrong. PLUS, the GPS has me zigzagging all over the road. I used mapmyrun.com to figure it out precisely, and I got to 4.07. It was pretty good, too, and I didn’t have much of a problem. I didn’t have to stop and walk much, maybe once every mile, and I walked for about 15-20 seconds. Nothing major. It was very cold today, so I ran in long pants and a sweatshirt. The sweatshirt came off around mile 1.5, and my the time I was around mile 3, I wish that I had worn shorts. The weather was around 40 degrees. That’s a good way to learn, and now I know that in 40 degree weather, if I’m going to be running more than 3 miles, I should wear shorts and a thinner long sleeve jacket. Larry gave me good advice today that if it’s cold out, I can jog in place, or do jumping jacks, or something to warm myself up before I go outside. That way I won’t have that freezing cold at the beginning of the run, but hot at the end of the run problem.
Either tomorrow or Sunday I will do my “long” run for the week, and this week it is going to be six miles long. I haven’t decided what day I’m going to do it yet, because I don’t know if my legs will be sore tomorrow or not. I think Saturdays are generally a better day for my “long” runs because I sometimes work on Sundays at Macy’s, and that will screw up my calendar. Saturday during the day, I usually have plenty of time to run. The schedules I’ve seen go like this for a Sun - Sat schedule:
Sunday - Rest
Monday - 3 or 4 miles
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - varies over weeks: 4,5,5,5,6,5,4
Thursday - 3 or 4 miles
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Long run - also varies: 6,8,10,11,12,9,8, 13.1!
I’m on the very first week right now, so my long is six. I’ve screwed up by not starting on Sunday, because Friday I did 4 miles, then another 6 tomorrow, then Sunday a rest. Then I’ll start over correctly on Monday again. According to that schedule, next Saturday I’ll be at 8 miles! Holy crap! That’s a lot of miles. On my rest days, I would like to do some strength training (not my legs, though), some yoga or pilates for stretching, and also some walking. Walking is low impact, but it would still be good for my leg muscles to be warmed up.
I also read that if I’m planning on being out for more than an hour, I should carry water with me, and drink some every 20 minutes. In the summer I used to carry my camel bak bottle in my hand, but that was only for about 2 miles. I don’t think I would like to carry it for 6 or 8 miles.
It’s hard to figure out good routes to take. My friend Eric lives a few towns over in Townsend and it’s 9.9 miles from my house, so I will run there for my 10 mile run, and then I will make him drive me home. It’d be fun to hang out with him and have lunch or dinner, but how will I get dry clothes to his house without driving there first? This is all very complicated. Perhaps I will have to hang out with him before the 10 mile run, and give him a bag of stuff for that special day. That sounds like a good plan. I can just shower at his house, and then we can do something fun as a reward for me running 10 miles. Perhaps I can convince him to give me a massage! Heh.
I also wanted to take the train to a rail trail that is in Ayer, but if I do that, I can’t bring anything with me because I don’t have anywhere to store it. It seems like I’ll have to drive my car, leave stuff in my car, and then go out for lunch (Larry said there are lots of good restaurants in Ayer). But I would much rather read on the train, bring a small backpack, and keep it in a locker somewhere. But there are no lockers at the train station or at the rail trail. Bummer.
