Check your progress

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

It was a run day and I knew that the snow melting on the trails would make it a sloppy nightmare so I resigned myself to the roads again and chose the same course I’d done for my last run.

I’ve been feeling pretty good about myself and figured running the same course faster would be no problem and then I could write about that and be proud and stuff. That’s what I was thinking while lacing up the running shoes and getting ready for the run. It was a warm winter day – somewhere around 50 degrees and so, what the hell, I should be faster.

I kept thinking that way as I began the run. I’d parked about twenty feet from the road and by the time I’d reached it, that thought was fading. I should have been running on hard pavement, but the way my legs were moving, it could only be sand. I looked down to check. Nope. Pavement. What the hell?

As the reality of ‘tired legs’ set in and I’d covered my first mile, I started to do a little rational thinking. I typically avoid this because it can keep me from doing things I’ve decided to do, but the fact was that I’d ridden hard the last two days and that on top of my longest run in nine years should have alerted me that running faster probably wasn't a good plan.

I had been running about 20 minutes when I began to think about a place to stop for a breather. The bridge over the river? With all the snow melt, the Chagrin River was running high and fast and was worth a study, I told myself. I wouldn’t be stopping because I was a lazy slug – no – it would be more like studying nature, serenity…that kind of shit. When I hit the bridge, I slowed, which was hard to do at the pace I was moving, but then sped up again (only I would have noticed) and decided to stop on the way back.

When I hit the turnaround, I glanced at my watch. I’d gotten here in 25:30 three days ago and was expecting to see 27 minutes or more. I was amazed then when I saw 24:30 instead! All of the sudden I figured I could turn total misery into success if I could only hold what seemed like a survivor’s shuffle (something that vaguely resembles running and often done towards the end of a long road run or race. It’s not really running, but you feel like you have to do it to say you ran the whole thing or whatever) for the return trip. No thoughts of stopping on the bridge now as I crossed that swollen river. No way. I was heading for a p.r. (personal record – it’s the fastest you ever ran/shuffled a particular distance)!

Now I was glancing at my watch even though I had no clue how the times I was observing related to how I’d run the same course earlier. I was sure I would be able to make it faster when I began to feel that old familiar cramp coming on in my calf. Now, I know from experience that this means slow down or walk, but how could I? Less than an mile from the car and I hadn’t stopped doing any exercise in going on three weeks. No. No way. Forget about good sense…I’ve always thought that was overrated!

As I made the last turn for the short run to the parking lot and the car, I glanced again at my watch. It was under 49 minutes. When I finally pushed the ‘stop’ button, the time registered ’49:45’ which meant that I’d shaved 1:15 off the course from three days earlier. Not that it was any big deal – I was still as slow as hell, but I did run faster when I was feeling tired and sluggish.

There is a moral here and it’s about checking progress. Once again, there are much better ways than using a scale, which tells you nothing about fitness or body composition. I’m obviously getting more fit. I may not be happy with the rate or the times I’m running as compared to years ago, but I am making progress since I began and that is important to note. You don’t have to do it by covering a course faster, though that is a good indicator - you can measure progress by checking your training heart rate (THR) over the same distance if, let’s say, you’re walking. Where your THR might have gotten to 100 beats per minute when you began training, if it drops to 90 for the same walking time, you’re in better shape. Pretty simple, but it can be an important motivator. Just knowing it’s working can make a huge difference in your continued commitment to the program.

Oh yeah, I walked another 20 minutes later in the evening with Holly and Dakota. It was no big deal, but I burned another 100 calories, which was really like 600 since I didn’t stay home and eat more ice cream - the only alternative to a walk.

Run duration: 49:45. Walk duration: 20 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 145 bpm for run. 70 bpm for walk.

Calories burned during workout: 875 for run. 100 for walk.