Wednesday, March 6, 2013

6 Miles This Week, Can I Make It??

So far I think I'm doing pretty well. I've made all my runs thus far without walking. I think that is pretty darn good! My speed does seem to decrease a bit with the long runs, but that's to be expected. I'm definitely a slow and steady wins the race kinda girl! I have also learned in the past that if I stop and walk, I continue to do that the rest of the way. It kinda ruins my flow. I also tend to have this block from 1.5 miles to 2.5 miles. I just have to push through and get past it and if I stop and walk, I never get past that point and I continue the walk/run the rest of the way. I do live around a lot of hills so I have found that after running up some hills, running in place for a few seconds helps to control my breathing and allows me to continue. Do you have a running block and when does it happen?? How do you push through it??

I have missed a few short runs due to weather, working late, and random life things that have been getting in the way. I have been faithful to all my long runs though. It is definitely hard to juggle life and the weather. I have been looking at the weather on Sunday each week and our calendar to plan out when to do my runs. It is tough!! The weather has been terrible!! I was able to do my short runs at the gym if the weather was bad, but now we are getting into the 4 mile mark and I just can't handle that on a treadmill. It's just wayyyy too boring. I'm thinking after this weekend life will get a little easier. The 10 day forecast shows all 50's and with daylight savings times, life should be good! 

Since I don't have a running buddy, I run with my phone for safety, music, and to use the Nike + Running App to log my miles. It's amazing! I'm sure most of you remember these from a few years ago, where you had the foot censor and the USB port for your iPod. Well, the app now uses the GPS on the phone so it is much more accurate! It logs your miles, routes, shoes, longest rungs, fastest runs, calories, average pace, and more! It also allows you to state whether your run is inside or outside and on what terrain. It has an awesome feature of adding a power song to pump you up when your losing steam and feedback that let's you know how far, fast, and long you have been running. At the end of each run you select the terrain you ran on, shoes you ran with, and you rate how you felt during your run. I love the shoe logging feature! Big surprise right!!??!?!? This is amazing to keep track of your miles to ensure you constantly have good running shoes. :) It also gives you the ability to post your runs via social media. As I stated before, I'm sorta behind the times with social media. I'd never blogged before, I don't do twitter, and I mostly just have facebook to look at pictures and keep up with everyone, so I'm not a fan of posting every workout I accomplish. I do LOVE the audio feedback since I don't have a running buddy to keep me motivated. You can set it to give you feedback every so many minutes to miles. I have played around with the minutes and miles and found that every half mile really keeps my head in the game. It gives you some encouragement and keeps you updated on your pace so you know if you need to kick it up a notch or slow it down, depending on what you are going for during your run. I use Spotify as my music app and it works perfect with the voice over. I have no problems with it at all. The only issues I have had since I switched from the iPhone, back to an Android,  is the app hasn't been accurately logging treadmill runs. It says I'm running 1 mile in like 3 minutes! That is totally wrong! I haven't been able to fix it, so I haven't been using the app at the gym lately. All in all I'd say the Nike+ app is amazing and I'd recommend it to anyone! It's great motivation and I hope it continues to help me through the longer runs to come! What do you use to keep you motivated during your runs? What type of device do you run with to log miles? Do you listen to music? If so, what type of music do you listen to? 

I hope everyone else's runs are going well!! Good luck this week on mile 6!

5 comments:

  1. Yay, a new post! Is it sad I've read it and am commenting right away? I definitely use music when I run and funnily enough during my run yesterday my headphones died (I do use $10 ones from Walmart so them dying isn't shocking) about 2 minutes into my run. I ended up doing the whole almost 2 hour run with no music. I got a lot of thinking done! The music I listen to when running is mostly country and top 40, anything upbeat. I have playlists and throw in songs to pump me up when I know I'm going to need them, like Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" and Carrie Underwood's "Quitter." Since I am still in the dark ages and don't have a smartphone I actually use a Garmin GPS watch to log my miles. I really like it, it's been working well. Tells pace, distance covered, calories burned, keeps track of mile splits and records for 5 and 10K's and longest runs.
    To motivate myself, I always make mini-goals during my run. Start out by planning to run for x number of songs (say 9, which is about a 5K), then say, well if I've done 3.1, I can do 3.5, then if at that point I'm at 35 minutes, I go, well I can run till I reach 45 minutes. Then if I'm at 4.5 miles, I go well, I can do 5, etc. I find making mini-goals for myself during my runs really helps. Yesterday I went out planning to do about 3 miles and by setting mini-goals throughout the run I ended up doing 8.25 before I stopped to walk. I ended up doing 10 miles, which only 0.3 miles of that was walking.
    PS: You guys are doing awesome! Can't wait to see/hear how the half marathon goes!

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  2. I have a Garmin GPS that I use for long runs. You can set a desired pace (like 10 min/miles) and it will alert you when you're slowing down. I used to use the Nike+ with the shoe tracker, but it never seemed to get my mileage right even after calibrating it a million times. I also really like MapMyRun.com. You can go online and map out a loop if you're looking for a specific mileage (they have an app too) with GPS capabilities.

    I'm doing six miles on Saturday too! This week I'm running downtown @ Memorial park. They have a 3 miles loop with tons of folks running, really good eye candy :-0. It's nuts that I'll drive 30 mins for a run, but my running partner and I tend to get brunch after so that makes it work it.

    My music selection kinda sucks right now. I haven't updated my playlist in months. It's so bad that in my last half, I think my music cutoff around mile 8 and I didn't even realize it until after the race was over. I like Rap, R&B and Pop and I like to start races with "Let's GO" by Lil John.

    Happy Running!

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  3. Cathy - Oh no! I'm so impressed you kept running without the music! I'm not sure I could handle it without music. I use Bose headphones. They are pretty pricey, but they are the only ones that seem to actually stay in my ears without hurting. I've had them for a few years now and they are fantastic! I think Amazon sells them for a bit cheaper. I like the little games idea! That's crazy you can go out to think you will run 3 miles and run 8 or more! You are doing amazing PS! You are just going out and doing 10 miles whenever! That's awesome!!

    Jessica - Hahaha I like the Let's GO. I haven't heard it in awhile. I just recently added some older rap songs to my playlist. I do need to set it up a little better to keep me motivated. The MapMyRun sounds pretty cool I am going to need to check it out because it is starting to get difficult to figure out a good path for the longer runs. I heard the garmin watches are pretty awesome. I don't know much about them. How does it notify you? Good luck with your 6 miles on Saturday! I'll be doing my Sunday and the weather should be in the 50's!! And PS I'd drive somewhere too if it meant I had a running buddy and a good place to eat after! :)

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  4. Go Elise!! I tend to get my running block between 1.5 to 2.5 miles too. I think it's because the first mile or two are no problem, then as I start to get tired but still have like 3 miles to go it seems like a daunting task! Trying to distract myself and pushing through it seems to help. I'm a bit weird and I've actually been loving running on the treadmill! The ones at the school gym have TV's on them so I put on a show and am totally entertained. As it gets nicer out and I start running outside again, I'll definitely need to start using my ipod and listening to music again. I'll definitely try the spotify app! I usually listen to country (big surprise) but I think I need some new running music. We'll have to share playlists and figure out which songs work best for running. :)

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  5. Hi ladies, I was just browsing about on Nike Running's FB page and I chanced upon your blog. Very nice btw! ;-) I think I'll take a page from yours and "clean-up" mine: www.chronikeler.blogspot.com (sorry for the shameless plug ;)

    As for running blocks or "stumbling blocks", mine is the last mile & ½ of a 3.5mi run doing Mission#5 (@hard levels) of NikeFuel Missions (http://nike.com/missions) It's pretty much well documented on my aformentioned blog above.
    No amount of "Pump It" by the Black-Eyed Peas or "The Distance" by Cake can push me past through the last mile½ :( I fade and run out of time.

    Well, good luck on your runs ladies!

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