Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Limited Not

I'm currently dealing with an IBS flare up. For me, that means tummy pain, lots of it, and very poor sleep quality resulting in me being tired all the time. So, while I wanted to keep on going with the Power Abs 30 day cycles, I had to pause a while back. Well, it was a pause at the time. It's a stop now. I even had to reduce my CrossFit classes because of the lack of sleep. 

And yet, I've kept up with my running goal. Such is the power of a streak. 

I have not wanted to run these last few weeks. Not even a little bit on most days. On the few better days, I'm happy to go out the door, but otherwise, it's a fight to get dressed for it. I'm doing it anyway, because I'm being stubborn about that streak. I want to hold on to some exercise - which is supposed to be good for IBS! - and it's got to be running, because I can't work my abs hard with the way my abdomen feels, and I would have to drive to do CrossFit, which is a huge psychological barrier when I'm not getting good sleep. 

Even with not wanting to run, my running is improving. I keep notes on my runs in the Map My Run app that I use to track my 10 mile per week goal. Each run gets logged so it can be counted towards the 10. Each log gets a few notes, and lately those notes have been my shorthand for, "my legs are feeling good and solid in their motion, they are ready to keep going, but my tummy pain and exhaustion make me really not want to be running at all." 

The goal is doing its job, even though I'm running really slowly while really tired. I am building up running endurance in my joints that I can use as a base for backpacking this summer. I am not letting IBS stop me from doing that. 


Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Back on Track

I kept the streak alive last week, and got back into the groove for this week's goal with a 5.85 mile run on Sunday. I know, now, that I can run 3 miles during my exercise release time during the week, but I don't prefer to do so. At the pace that I am running, 2 to 2.5 is a more manageable distance for the time I have available. 

I have a regular 3 mile route that uses the nearby Greenbelt, but I only ran that once in the 4 times that I did 3 milers in the past couple weeks. I didn't like how crowded it was, and I had to cross a major street. My next 3 mile run was neighborhood laps - I did two 1 mile laps, alternating directions, then two half mile laps, alternating directions. Laps are good for staying close to home, but also pretty boring. I finally landed on a nice big loop that gives me 3 miles with minimal stoplights and no crossings of major streets. 

My first 6 mile routes had me crossing major streets two or three times (depending on some options). After I figured out my big 3 mile loop, I made some adjustments and figured out how to do a 6 mile loop by running the 3 mile and then looping back around inside it. 

I see a poorly drawn J - maybe I should change my route to make it prettier.


My legs are starting to get used to the running. They don't feel so much like lead when I run, and I'm getting less soreness from even the long runs. I did feel sore on yesterday's run, but that's not from running. That's from doing a whole bunch of squats at CrossFit on Monday - which was only my second class of the year. 

I had not been to CrossFit since late December until last Saturday. I wasn't feeling very well. Mostly it was my IBS flaring up. My tummy hurt and I didn't have enough energy or motivation to get myself to 5 am CrossFit. And, frankly, I benefitted from the rest. I had been pushing myself pretty hard in November and December. 

I haven't started back up on the Power Abs program; I'm thinking of doing another cycle in February in preparation for the CrossFit Open in March. The important thing is I'm not beating myself up over any of these "failures" - I'm doing my best. That's all I can do. 


Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Streak Building

I find streaks highly motivating. I like routines. I like being able to check off little boxes once I finish each task. 

The problem is, no matter how well things are planned, streaks have a tendency to break. 

Life gets in the way. Illness. Unexpected travel (well maybe not this year). Injury. Low motivation... 

I did not run as scheduled on 1/3, for a variety of reasons. And that meant I had to complete my 10 miles per week goal in just 6 days, 5 of them work days (especially in winter, it's much harder for me to squeeze a run in on a workday). 

So, I knew I had a challenge on my hands last week. I was proactive about it, by choosing to run 3 miles each on Tuesday and Thursday. Those runs are during my exercise release time at work - essentially, I take the single hour allotted and split it in two, taking 90 minute lunch/exercise release "lunch" times in the middle of the day, wherein I exercise and then hurry up and eat lunch. Typically, I'll run 2 to 2.3 miles, which leaves me plenty of time to foam roll, shower, and eat before I have to go back to work. 

Knowing that I had to make up some miles, I changed those over to 3 miles runs. In order to make sure I had both time and energy for that, I've paused what would have been my third cycle of Power Abs in a row. I will be starting Power Abs up again, because I like how it feels, long-term, when I devote extra time to building up my core. But it is going to wait until after the current tummy issues clear up. 

On Saturday, I had to do a 4 mile run to make 10 miles for the week and meet my goal for the 6th consecutive week. And when Saturday dawned, I was not in the mood whatsoever to run. My husband and I had to go out shopping in the morning, which was fine for my running since Boise was covered with freezing fog most of the morning. 

I ended up waiting until nearly 3 pm before I ran - but by that point, the sun was out and the temperature was marginally above freezing. Each mile was cold and uncomfortable, but the pace was actually decent for me, first mile at 12:30, next two sub 12, last one 12:05. I could have stopped when I closed my loop at 3.96 miles, but instead I ran on until I hit 4, because that's the way I run. 

6 weeks of 10 miles per week. 60 miles. The streak is building, and I will keep going as long as I can. 

And if I should fail, then I will start anew. 

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Will the Streak Break?

I managed to do 10 miles per week of running through the month of December. 5 weeks, a nice little streak. And I had even gotten myself set up so that I was only running 3 days per week, with a long run on Sunday and then two short ones during the week (Tuesday and Thursday). But last Sunday, I made a judgment call not to do any running, because I was getting over a cold, and it was raining pretty much all day. 

That means I need to do my 10 miles between Tuesday and Saturday (because of course I didn't run on Monday). Yesterday, I decided to extend my normal distance from 2-ish to 3-ish. If I do that again on Thursday, then I'll only need to run about 4 miles on Saturday - and then, if everything goes well, 6 miles on Sunday to start week 7 of my streak. 

I was going to reroute my neighborhood route to go from 2-ish to 3-ish, but I ended up not taking the time to map it out. So, I went with an old standard - the golf course run. From my front door to the place where the Greenbelt is intersected by a golf cart crossing is about 1.5 miles. It's a nice little 3 mile out and back - a 5K if I run just a smidge farther. 

Actually running it yesterday felt kind of horrible, since I have been having some tummy pain issues and I was running on not much sleep on top of that. But normally, it's a nice short run. There weren't too many people out and about on the Greenbelt. It didn't feel crowded at any point, but I did see a good number of people variously walking, running and biking. Must have been the sunshine drawing them out, because it was darn cold outside. 

But I got that 3 miles in, which should help me get my miles even without running on Sunday. There's always a bump in the road for streaks, and the trick is to either get around them or practice self-forgiveness if the streak breaks and just start over. Streaks can be rebuilt. 

But I'm still going to give keeping this streak a live the best chance I can.