A Runner’s Balancing Act

1. Make the summer your “off season” and expect to put in far fewer miles. Even professional athletes train in cycles to optimize their athletic gains. Your body needs a period of time to recover and rebuild especially if you are constantly training for races in the fall, winter and spring. I remind myself of this often when I start to feel like less of a runner because my weekly milages are falling under 20 miles a week.  In AZ the weather is the worst from mid June through mid September. I’m pretty lucky because that’s only 3 months. If I lived in colder climates I’d be dealing with crappy weather from October through April.

2. Find your comfort cutoff. Get a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer that measures both the temperature and humidity. Then track the conditions before you leave on your run and after you return (if you run at dawn or dusk this can actually change quite a bit). Keep track of how you felt in each temperature and humidity combination. This way, you can start to get a feel for where your comfort cutoff is. I get up most mornings around 4:30 am and check my thermometer. I know if the temperature is above 80 degrees while the humidity is above 30%, it’s going to be too hot to run outside by the time the sun comes up (and I go back to bed or hit the gym). Your tolerance may be different. Knowing your range will allow you to watch the weather forecast and predict the days you might be able to run. I keep an eye on the “overnight low” forecast since I usually run at dawn when its close to that temperature. I’ve found that the midday high prediction really has no bearing on the overnight low.

Besides the humidity and the temperature, the last factor you’ll want to track is the presence of the sun. I have found I can run in temperatures between 85 and 100 fairly comfortably when its dark or very cloudy. Especially if the humidity is lower than 25%.  I have also found that 80 degrees in direct sunlight, feels a whole lot hotter than 80 degrees in the shade or darkness.

4. Start exploring the gym. I’ll be the first to admit that being in the gym SUCKS. I am a nature girl at heart and I’m sure that’s one of the reasons I love running so much. On top of that, I’m also an endorphin junky so when I do go to the gym its a rare occasion when I venture out of the cardio room. But since mother nature and I aren’t on such good terms during the summer I make do with the gym. The problem is that the treadmill is BORING. This summer I hired a personal trainer for a few sessions since I have very little knowledge or experience with weight training. Now when I’m stuck going to the gym, I run on the treadmill for about 25 minutes and do 25 min of weights. It works well for me because I am far less bored. I do different muscle groups each day so it’s always something new. There are such a variety of exercises you can do in a gym that no day has to be exactly the same. I usually spend my time on the treadmill planning my weights workout which keeps the boredom away. Another thing I really like about weight training it leaves me feeling pleasantly fatigued, where 25 minutes of running wouldn’t be enough to give me that “ahhhh” feeling as I walked out of the gym.

5. Do intervals on the treadmill. By mid July I cannot stand the thought of getting on the treadmill. The boredom can be crushing. I combat it with doing intervals – after all the treadmill is the perfect place to run a prescribed pace for a specific time. You spend all that time staring at the numbers on the console, might as well make it work for you! I like the book “Run Less, Run Faster” to pull interval workouts (I convert the paces to MPH using an online calculator). But you don’t have to be that precise. Make up your own intervals if you want. Just varying the speed breaks up the monotony. Instead of thinking “geeze I’ve got 45 more minutes to stare at this wall”, you are thinking “just 5 minutes till the end of this interval” By running harder, you can run less and still get in a great workout that will help you PR come fall.

Snapped this photo of the sunrise on an early morning run last week.

After another LOONG hiatus, I am back. This time I’m not making any promises that I am back for good. I come and go as I please on this blog and at this point I’m making no excuses.

I thought I’d just give a little update incase you are wondering if I fell off the face of the earth. I am here! I am well. And yes of course I am still running. The summer is upon me again and so my running has been relegated to mostly very early mornings or the treadmill. I’m doing about 17-25 miles a week at the moment, and happy with that since I’m mostly just trying to stay in shape. Race specific training won’t start up again until mid-September.

I am excited to report that I’ve been doing resistance training more regularly and really enjoying it! I have a good friend that is a personal trainer and she agreed to give me a 8 sessions if I paid for her 3 month gym membership – working out to $20 a session. I jumped that that opportunity! After those 8 sessions, I feel stronger, much more toned and way more confident in the gym. I’ve become pretty comfortable with different types of resistance equipment and I’m able to throw together an a routine on the fly that covers all the major muscle groups. Upper body and core anyway. I’m still shying away from lower body work because I don’t want to compromise my runs by making my legs sore.

I’ve been kinda fascinated with this new world of fitness that isn’t 100% cardio and even more fascinated by the results I’ve had. I feel like I’m getting more fit, with less work, and less boredom. I’ve been soaking up all the information I can get my hands on and trying a lot of new things. I’m hoping that this summer I’ll be forced to get out of my comfort zone even more with the oppressive heat limiting my running to the treadmill.

If I’m lucky, I’ll be inspired enough to blog about it.

If you want to follow my training more regularly please friend me on Facebook or Daily Mile.

Happy running.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I really appreciate all of your encouragement and insight. It’s comforting to know that I am not alone in my experiences.

The clouds are starting to clear –  figuratively, not literally, since it has been raining for the last two days. What I mean is that I’m starting to feel at home in my own skin again. I felt surprisingly good on my 9 mile run this weekend and over the last couple of nights I have fallen asleep easily and slept all night long.  After work most nights, I’m finding that I’m able  to sit on the couch with my husband and enjoy his company while watching an un-interesting war documentary without losing my mind. In fact I’ve spent quite a bit of time on that couch over the last few days just taking it easy. I find it amazing that I am able to do this. Usually anxious thoughts would prevent me from taking time to rest and I’d feel guilty for being unproductive. As I’m coming out of this, I am realizing just how much my body and mind are needing to recharge. I’m also noticing just how much I have used running to relieve anxiety. I honestly feel a little bit like I’ve already run on days that I haven’t! Hard to explain, but it feels a little bit like those lingering endorphins you have throughout the day after you’ve had a good early morning run. Its so weird!

So what’s next with running? I’m not sure. I am supposed to be doing a half marathon in Tucson at the end of this month, but I have a feeling I will let that pass. We shall see. I don’t have any huge goals for running at the moment. I’m sure there will come a time when I’m ready to make some, but not today. I’m definitely going to keep running. But I’m talking it day to day.

I’m sorry for the lack of commenting on all your wonderful blogs. I hope to get caught up in the next few days. Have a wonderful week and happy running!