Where's The Cheese??

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Earlier this week I posted a blog entry noting that I'd been dragging. Had that heavy, body-feels-like-dead-weight and head-is-filled-with-molasses (cliches, anyone?) feeling. I'd pretty much written the condition off to a change in the weather, with heavy heat and humidity finally coming in, combined with an increase in my exercise intensity.

My best friend Trisha called today and said she'd been thinking about it and wondered if my new plant-based diet had anything to do with my recent tiredness.

"You know, I hadn't made that connection," I said. "I guess that could be it."

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I'm Not Smart Enough to Own A Garmin

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Garmin Forerunner 405Forgot to mention in yesterday's post that not only did I take the plunge and buy a stationary bike this weekend, I've also committed myself to being a "real" runner by closing my eyes, handing over my VISA card to be swiped, and purchasing a Garmin Forerunner 405. 

Unfortunately, as I learned upon coming home and taking my shiny new Garmin out of the box, I'm not smart enough to own and/or operate a Garmin. Given that a recent review in Runner's World describes the watch as perfect for the "technology challenged," I'm not sure what this says about me. All I know is that I'm going to need to hunt down some 7-year-old computer genius to tell me how to work this thing. 

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I Bought A Bike

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I bought a bike. Not a real bike, but an upright stationary bike. I can barely manage to walk a straight line without tripping so I thought it best I not place myself on two wobbly rubber circles and wheel myself into traffic. The local hospitals are busy enough without my adding to their stress levels.

Here's how I bought my bike. I walked into Play It Again Sports, hopped on three different models for a total of about 30 seconds each, then pointed at one and said, "That'll do."

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Furman Training: Run Less Run Faster

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I've spent the last couple of weeks researching various training programs. I'm running the Chicago Marathon on October 11th, which means my "go" date for summer training is June 21st... right around the corner.

After reading and discussing the matter with several knowledgeable running friends, I've decided to put my fate in the hands of the Furman marathon training program. My friend Thad, known in the blogging sphere as Runnerdude, posted a recent entry about the program.

The appeal of the program is that you only run 3 days a week. The flip side of that is these are focused (read: hard) runs. No casual chit-chatting with fellow runners on this program. The first run is intervals on the track and the pacing charts are brutal. The second run is a tempo run, usually run at 70-80% effort. The final run is the long run but unlike most programs that encourage you to do LSR's (long slow runs), this program keeps you moving at almost race pace. And the mileage is insane. Week one kicks off with a 13-miler and I think we do our first 20 miler by week 4. Most programs spend all summer building up to the 20 miler.

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