March’s Last Run

Waking up early Tuesday morning and looking out the window, I saw dark clouds in the sky that grew even darker on my way to the grocery store. I hightailed it back home after buying a few things because I wanted to put a run in before it started raining. The forecast was for the rain to arrive by Tuesday evening but it appeared it might start pouring much earlier.

The workout planned for the day was the 4 minute run with 1 minute walk Galloway training method. I tried to start running harder than usual without a proper warm up. The difference was I took a full minute walk break between intervals. Usually I start running again after about 40 seconds of walking even before my watch starts alerting me for the next repetition. This was just an experiment since I already know that my body doesn’t get into a good groove without starting slowly and warming up first. Not only that, my inner ankle tendons tend to hurt more because it is subjected to heavier pounding so early in the run. Needless to say, it was a rough start and my stride didn’t feel smooth until after about 3 miles.

I wanted to treat this run like a regular interval workout but since I have to be careful with my ankles especially at the start, I couldn’t really pick up the pace hard enough to the capacity of my heart and lungs. So the four minutes of running is closer to a tempo pace rather than a lung busting effort.

Well, I finished my usual hour slower than my last 4:1 workout two weeks ago. This experiment made me conclude that it is better to warm up slowly at the start then pick up the pace later with the reduced walk time, than running hard from the start and taking the full 1 minute walk break. The toll on my ankles is also lesser with the proper warm up. Another lesson learned. Even though I’ve been running for 30 years, running like life continues to be a learning process. What may have worked well in the past may not work now because of changes in your body as you age. The experiment continues.

By the way, the rain never came, the skies cleared, and the sun was out when I finished the run. 

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Dizzy Running

Last Mondays’ blog post briefly mentioned my recent problems with dizziness and lightheadedness. Let me tell you how it feels. It feels like you are on a rocking boat. These dizzy spells and lightheadedness are driving me bonkers because they haven’t subsided. Last Tuesday I couldn’t even get started running because I was unable to decide if the dizziness was bad enough to make me pass out if I exerted some effort. I went out the door twice then returned inside wondering if I should just ride the stationary bike instead. I tried running on the treadmill to see if I can tolerate the dizziness and after 4 minutes went outdoors again. I slowed down the pace as much as possible to limit the up and down motion of jogging and somehow I managed to run for 45 minutes without falling down or passing out.

 I had seen the doctor the previous week and he instructed me to make another appointment if I didn’t get any relief, so I called right away after I returned home. I was back in the doctors’ office yesterday (Thursday). He found some fluid in my ears and I don’t know what would cause that. I don’t know human anatomy to that extent. I’m more familiar with the muscular and skeletal system. The doctor ordered me a nasal spray antibiotic, a generic form of Dramamine for the dizziness, and Sudafed to dry out the ears.

I had planned on running after the doctors’ visit but was undecided on what route to take or how many minutes to do. Well, I found a goal that I could reach for. Let me make the connection here. During the visit to the doctor, I had a co-pay of $15 for my insurance. However I only had a $20 bill and the doctors’ office didn’t have any change. I was supposed to pay them on my way out because they might have some change then. Well, in my haste to go to the pharmacy, I forgot to pay them. So this is what I decided I was going to do: run to the doctors’ office to pay them, then run back home. I’ve run this route a few times before and I already knew it was about three miles out and three miles back. It would be a good test run for me and my dizziness. The first 5 minutes was a warm up to test my equilibrium, then after feeling okay, I started picking up the pace. For the next 55 minutes I managed to do 11 repeats of 4 minute pickups with 1 minute recovery jogs (instead of the usual 1 minute walk break). By the time I finished, I had Completed 6.72 miles in 1 hour for a pace per mile of 8:56! Who would have thought I could do that??? I hope it wasn’t a GPS malfunction. Maybe I should be dizzy more often!

Side notes: It has been warm the last few days, I had to run in a tanktop in mid-March. Getting sick sucks especially when you don’t know the cause of your ailments. Being alone makes it worse and that’s probably the only time I miss having someone here with me.

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