Maintain a decent level of fitness on only 2 days a week running

I think that this goal is possible, but with my schedule it wasn’t possible. In order for me to do the workouts I had planned on doing initially, I needed more time in the day so I could actually get enough sleep to stop myself from being sick all the time and to stop myself from being chronically fatigued during my waking hours.
Now that I have time, I don’t think I’ll experiment with just running 2 days a week, I’ll work on getting my workouts per week back up to 5 or 6.

Overcast day here in Seattle. Did an easy 5 1/2 miles. My second day in a row running. Ran past the crowd at Seattle Center gathered for American Idol tryouts. Smaller crowd than I would have expected, but maybe because it was already 2pm or because everyone was already inside?
Fighting an achilles injury that I think I got from playing Ultimate on synthetic turf.
Ran up a trail on the side of Queen Anne hill and there were blackberry bushes there and I stopped and savored them for 10 minutes before finishing my run. This makes me remember why I like running.

Got a decent nights sleep and the rain is coming down and my thought as I was heading into work this morning was that I waant to go running at lunch today. We’ll see if this happens, but that is my state of mind right now.

With the hours I’ve been putting in, I find myself unmotivated to run because I’m tired.

Back to normal weight. I’ve figured out that I do need to eat when I’m at the shop and now I am eating when I’m there.

Was down to 122 again last night. Hopefully this was just dehydration from running in the sun yesterday.

The run was fine, although a little sluggish, but that’s to be expected when recovering from illness. At least the green stuff that was caught in my throat has turned white so I should infect anyone. The most sluggish part of the run, I think, was my mental state. I don’t have any training goals for running so I was just going through the motions which was quite frustrating. Maybe that’s why people have such trouble running; they have nothing to really point toward, only abstracts like losing weight. I find I’m at my best when pointing toward something specific and when I’m locked into a set training routine where one workout flows into the next: track workout for speed followed by an easy rest day to gear up for a hard tempo run and then another easy day. No run, no run, no run, 8 miles, no run, no run, no run just doesn’t seem to have the same flow.

At least my running fitness hasn’t started to noticeably deterioate.

Failing miserably thus far. I am only find that I have time to work, buy supplies to restock the store, work, eat, shower and sleep, although I’m not nearly getting enough sleep so my body decided to betray me and break down in sickness. Kind of an odd sickness, it’s all in my throat. My head feels fine, no headache, my body feels fine, no aches or pains or temperature fluxuations (am I even a word?), and my appetite and energy levels seem fairly normal. No time for running. When I’m not working I just want to catch up on my sleep.

Who’s going to clean the house? Keep up the yard? Paint the house this summer? I do find that I am becoming a bit more productive since I find myself with such limited time. Days running since in the two weeks since I’ve had the shop: 2. Not good. Fitness level…adios.

I’ve determined that I am not going to have the time to run faster: it’s like having a full time job and not that I’ll be putting hours in at the espresso shop and won’t have it to spare.

So the new goals is to maintain a decent level of fitness until I actually have the time to train hard.

Right now I’m thinking of trying to run on Wednesday nights and either Saturday or Sunday . I’ll do either a tempo run or long repeats on the track for Wednesdays and then a 15-20 miler on whichever day works out best.

Two more weeks of training and then I’ll be doing my normal schedule so this will start on Monday the 22nd.

I’m too lazy to look up when Forrest Gump came out, but I do know that I have been running since before then.

Yesterday, I was just kind of zoning out on my run. I was doing a fairly easy 8 mile run, although I did throw in a 3 mile tempo stretch at about 5:45 pace, and just cruising up Dexter from the Fremont Bridge and heading back to my car and the end of my run. So I’m lost in my own little world, not really thinking about anything, just running. And idiots have to scream out their window at me, startling me and actually making me jump. I continue up the hill. Think to myself, “at least they didn’t yell, “run, Forrest, run!’” I’m sure that will come later as the weather continues to get better and more idiots get out on the road and want to show their cleverness. Such fun to look forward to.

Maybe I should just be happy that they notice me running and just leave it at that.

Okay, so I come into work today after not running again yesterday. The Achilles tendon was still too sore. It does seem better this morning so I’ll probably do at least a token run tonight or at lunch.

My observation for today happened when I went in the kitchenette. I was cleaning my fruit and vegetables for the day and one of my co-workers commented that she wished she could eat healthier. I told her, it’s easy. Just bring healthy food in and eat it when you’re hungry instead of waiting for the company or co-workers to put food out and eating whatever junk they provide. She thought that was too difficult.
Big wonder that I work with such a “large” workforce. It’s one of the first things I noticed when I started working here (the sheer physical size of the individuals). These are the folks who take the elevator down (or up) one flight of stairs to get to the cafeteria. Am I being too mean here?

but, alas, still going nowhere. Tested my calf for a mile and didn’t feel any real pain, but just to be safe I’m going to give it more time. Let me tell you those stupid elliptical machine just aren’t the same as running. I feel so unsatisfied when I get done.

The plan, or at least the tentative one, will be play Ultimate tomorrow, do the stupid eliptical machine Saturday, play Ultimate Sunday and then see how I’m feeling. I may just throw in a string with three easy days (4-6 miles) and then really test it out when I’m in Palm Springs.

Okay, so I did something to my right calf during Sunday’s Ultimate game (4-2-06). Nothing that I noticed, though, untill I went running on Monday. It was a little painful to run and a bit difficult to walk afterwards, but I gutted it out thinking it was just tight and that I’d stretch at the gym (which I did). Now, let’s repeat on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
I’m a little slower than normal so it’s finally Friday and it dawns on me that something during the game injured it and that running is further aggravating it. So I manage to not go running at lunch and only play a minimal amount in my Ultimate game and we lose. I really, really don’t like losing.
On Saturday I once again restrain myself from running and do the elliptical machine for an hour.
I play both games on Sunday and we win both and I don’t go running afterwards and now it’s Monday and it’s feeling better, but I’ll give it a day or two more before I run on it again. This is depressing to look outside and see the sun shining and I’m not going to be running in it tonight.