dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 5 miles this morning in 38:18.  My legs felt a little stiff and tight at the beginning, but that slowly went away.  I practiced my alternative forms of breathing again, trying to see if it really makes a difference.  The basic idea of my new breathing technique is that I shape my mouth like an "O" and try to open up the back of my throat like I am singing, with the hope that it will open up my airways.

Early on in the run the HR was 132 while running uphill at about 8:10 mile pace (probably worth about 7:50 on flat ground).  This was the first time that I have seen my HR this low while running uphill.  I didn't believe my count at first, so I counted the HR again for 20 seconds instead of 10 and got the same result (my HR monitor broke a few weeks ago, so now I just check the HR manually).  About midway through the run I checked the HR on a mild uphill segment of trail because I realized that I was no longer breathing the way I was at the beginning of the run, as I was focusing more on breathing deeply rather than opening up the airways.  My HR was 144 which tells me that what I am doing with the breathing really is what is fixing things, because the HR spiked when I did something different.  I noticed that my throat felt tight until I started trying to open the airways again, but once I started focusing on opening the airways, my HR dropped once more.  When running downhill I measured my HR as low as 126 on a few segments, but it generally stayed around 132 just like earlier as I was running a little faster.

As I was getting to the end of the run I decided to see if I could still maintain an open airway even when running fast, so I sped up for 1:35 and took the HR at about the 1:00 mark, and again right as I started to slow down.  I am not sure how fast I was running, but the HR at 1:00 was 162, and at the end it was just a tiny bit higher, maybe 165.  I will take it as a positive that the HR was under 170.  I finally am starting to feel like things are getting back to normal.  I think that I will run 5 miles again tomorrow to be sure that I am maintaining things without regressing before trying to increase the mileage further.

I ran 5 miles again this morning.  Things went well enough that I think I will run 6 miles tomorrow.  There was a strong headwind during the first half of the run, and when running at about the same pace that I was running at yesterday my HR was only slightly higher despite the wind.  Total time was 39:2x for 5 miles.

Shayon had a Dr. appointment early this morning, so I decided to get my run in later in the afternoon after work.  What I didn't count on was being busy working on my thesis until after 10pm.  I was glad I didn't run in the morning, because when I woke up my legs weren't feeling super great (not horrible, but they could have been better), but I needed to make time for my run in the afternoon and I am kind of kicking myself a bit for not getting it done.  I think that not having the humidifier running the last few nights may be what led to not feeling great in the morning.  It is hard to get enough rest if you can't breath well, and I think the humidifier helps.

The plan as of Thursday was to run 7 miles today, and I felt good enough to run the full distance.  The only problem was that I had limited time after Kimia got her run done because we had to go to a baptism.  So, instead of running less I just ran the mileage faster.  I ran the 7 miles in 40:49 (about 5:50 average), running the downhill second half in 19:59 (5:42 pace).  My legs felt very good at that pace, as I did not feel like it took much muscular effort to do so.  My problem is that I am out of shape (I have not even run a full mile in under 6:00 pace in over 2 months, and I ran all 7 that fast today), and I couldn't get my breathing under control for long periods of time.  It is much harder to keep my airways open and relaxed when I am working hard.  The end result was that I had to work pretty hard to run sub 6:00 pace, even though my legs did not feel stressed (other than feeling oxygen deprived).  It felt good to work a little harder, although I suspect that breathing hard may not be the best as I feel like my airways close off a bit more after I run hard, almost as if my throat is irritated and tightens up in protest.

I ran 6 miles this morning in 45:59.  Hit the turnaround in 24:14, and finished the second half in 21:45.  I was rather pleased with how easy it felt, and to top it off my HR didn't get out of control despite speeding up averaging between 132-138 during the second half (it was downhill, but I still count it as progress).  I did have some trouble keeping my airways relaxed during the first half of the run, but overall the run went pretty well.

I ran out on the Pittman wash this morning.  I ran out on the wash, but by the time I was coming back, construction workers were already on the trail.  So, I had to take a detour home which added a little extra distance.  I will call it 6.1 miles total, although it was possibly a little longer.  Total time was 48:13.

Breathing was decent today, but not great.  I tried something new as I was running (focusing on the air coming in rather than how I was breathing), and this didn't work.  Once I stopped doing that my HR dropped back down a bit.  While controlling my breathing seemed to help at the beginning, I am starting to think that it may have outlived its usefulness and that it may not be helping anymore.

I ran 6 miles this morning in 46:32.  I had to guess on the distance a bit as I had to bypass the construction zone, but I wasn't off by much, if at all.  My legs felt good, but when I run lately my legs always feel good.  It's the breathing that is an issue, although that has been improving slowly.  I think it may be about time for me to finally get an appointment with the allergist, as my own tinkering seems to have gotten me as far as I can get at the moment.

I was probably just being paranoid, but I was worried that I might be increasing the mileage too quickly, so I only ran 5 miles this morning.  Total time of 38:47.  I ran out by the railroad tracks today to see if I could legitimately use the area as a place to run since the pittman wash trail is getting shut down.

I ran 7 miles this morning in 55:00.  I don't know why, but I had trouble keeping my HR low again.  I started controlling breathing again after the halfway mark and that helped, but my HR never got as low as it has been recently.  This is in contrast to yesterday's run where my HR was as low or lower than it has been on any individual occasion since things started to improve.  I am thinking more and more that I need to change up my diet a bit to see if I can reduce the junk that is always back in my throat.  This basically means that I need to cut out dairy foods for a while.  Hopefully that will work, but it will be a big change for me.

I ran 3 miles this morning while waiting at the dmv to renew my car registration.  I ran 3 more miles later on after I got home, and I pushed the pace for most of it, making it home in 17:40 after reaching the halfway mark in 9:50.  I was happy with how it felt to run hard, as my legs didn't feel too bad, and for the most part I felt smooth.  The breathing was not as good as it could have been, but it could have been worse, so I am not unhappy about that.  It helped to have a tailwind and net downhill for the last 1.5 miles, but nonetheless I was a little surprised and impressed with how fast I was able to run considering how out of shape I still am.

7 miles this morning in 53:57.  Hit the halfway mark in 28:30, and came back in 25:27.  HR was much lower than at the end of last week (129-132 for most of the run), but breathing felt weird.  I wonder if the weird feeling is actually what I should be feeling and is "normal" for other people.

Easy run this morning, running 7 miles in 53:40ish.  I felt decent, and the HR was in an acceptable range for most of the run.

Easy run.  Was planning on running 7, but time was limited and I ran 5 miles instead in 38:45

didn't run today because it was stake temple day and Kimia and I got up at 4:15am to go to the temple.  Didn't have time later in the day.

Things have been hard lately from a running perspective.  I have had trouble motivating myself to run because I feel to an extent like I should step away from the competitive side of running, and maybe just run for general fitness/health reasons.  The problem is that the competitive side of running was a big part of my motivation to run, and I have a harder time motivating myself to get out the door when I don't really have a goal attached to the effort.

I am still thinking things over, so I may still decide to pick up the mileage and train more competitively again, but right now it is hard given the health problems that I had, and knowing that those problems are still not completely resolved.

7 miles today.  I didn't have a watch so no time for the run.  I ran most of the 7 miles on the track at UNLV, and other people were running too.  This motivated me to run a little faster than normal (if I had a watch I probably wouldn't have run as fast) and when the running group started a timed mile shortly after I passed them I sped up so that none of them would pass me.  After a couple laps when I realized that I was pulling away from the group I sped up a fair amount to see if I could lap the leaders.  I never really got close to lapping the people at the front, but I put about 200m on them over the last 2 laps.

I ran 5.5 miles today, averaging about 7:00 pace for the run because I was on the treadmill at school, and I just wanted to get the run over with (treadmills are boring).

5 miles

8 miles

8 miles