Getting Out of My Comfort Zone

Well, I've been thinking a lot since this morning's post about the struggles I've had to lose weight.  Like I've mentioned on my first post, I've tried to be consistent about running in the morning since August.  

The thing is, I haven't lost more than 4 pounds and have been trying to watch what I eat, staying away from crappy food and eating healthier, but nothing has changed.  

I've been thinking all day about what I could should do differently.  And I think something has finally clicked with me.  When I try to run I try to stay where I'm comfortable.  But when that happens, I'm not pushing myself enough.  According to the Women's Running article, dated December 22, 2015, called "Running for Weight Loss,"  

"The pace or effort at which you work will determine what you are using as a fuel source and therefore ‘burning’. The lower the intensity you aerobically work at, the easier the effort feels; this means you are predominantly using stored fats as your fuel source for this activity and therefore fat is being burned. The harder you begin to work, the more you begin to use glycogen as a fuel source, meaning you are burning more calories."

I'm not pushing myself outside of my comfort zone enough, so I'm not digging deeper into my fat stores.  At least, that's how I'm imagining it.

So, my plan for tomorrow is to get up and go for my early morning run and try to push myself by adding some speed intervals.  Like for example, run normally from one phone pole to the other, then speed up until the next phone pole, and so on.  Don't know how much I'll be able to do, but I can, at least, push myself.  I want to get back to this...

Dreadmill vs. Snow-covered Road

This morning I looked out the window at the gently falling snowflakes and wondered if I should run outside or on the treadmill.  I chose the treadmill.

It was about 25ºF outside and beautiful.  The snow was falling gently down and I thought how wonderful it would be to run out there.  Then I looked at the snow-covered road and remembered my run on Friday and how I didn't like how my feet kept sliding backwards with every step I took.  

I then considered the dreadmill downstairs, in the dungeon basement, and how dusty and hot it gets when I run down there.  I've got a box fan that I always turn on high and it blows cool air on me, which makes my run more tolerable, and I usually bring down my Kindle Fire and a Bluetooth speaker and watch TV shows or movies on it which keep me distracted.

I enjoy running outside, especially without music.  I prefer listening to the sounds around me instead, and at certain times, it has been important that I did.  I love hearing the water trickling down the field during the spring melt, birds chirping, and especially the sound of some critter sneaking around in the brush at 5 A.M., in the dark, on the side of the road, which ended up being a skunk.  Had I not seen Pepé Le Pew first, I would have had to have a sub that day.  And every teacher knows that it's more work to prepare for a sub than to just go in.

So, why did I choose the dreadmill?  I guess it's because I didn't want to struggle with my footing, especially when the snow on the side of the road camouflages the shoulder, seeing how there are no sidewalks on my road, and I'd hate to twist my ankle.  That would not be good.  So I hooked up my Kindle Fire and Bluetooth speaker, turned on the fan, set the timer on my iPhone to 30 minutes, and did my run while finishing CBS's Sunday Morning show.

Because I wasn't running outside, my Strava app would be useless.  I have a Jawbone UP tracker that I wear all the time, even when I sleep, so I set it to track my activity and let it track my run.

I then plug in my time and pace manually on the Strava app just to keep track.

Now when you look at my pace (shown by the bars) you can see that I slowed down at one point in the middle.  That's called walking while I blow my nose, otherwise, I kept my treadmill pace between 4.5 and 5.

So, it was a good run, and I'm glad I did it.  I'm always happy that I did my run or any workout, it's getting into it that's the challenge.

No run today.

I've sadly had less than 6 hours of sleep last night, and I don't deal well with that. Let's just say I'm thankful it's the weekend, but it doesn't make the loss of sleep any easier to deal with. 

I could look at today as a failure, and I probably should.  But instead, I'll look at it as a day to relax and reflect on what I have planned for my students this coming week.  I also realized during the night, as I lay wide awake trying to fall back asleep that I didn't say what I ran yesterday, so I'll get to that today.

What I don't like about running when I'm off is I wake up hungry, whereas when I get up at 4:45 A.M. I don't feel hungry yet.  So when I get up later in the morning, I eat.  That means I have to wait at least an hour to go for a run, so around 9:30 yesterday morning I was on my road running in the crusty snow, my feet sliding a few inches backward with every step.  The temperature was about 20ºF and warm.  It was almost too warm for my run back.

Now I say run.  I have to work on my thoughts when I run.  I'm constantly struggling to think of things other than how hard the run might be.  This means that I end up going from running to stopping and walking, a lot.  Even though I try to think of other things, when I get my head thinking of stopping, I can't push past that.  I've done lots of reading about mind over matter, and I'm considering seeing a hypnotist.

So, yesterday I ran my worst time since I've been keeping track.  Below are my last two runs.  Note that it was 2 weeks since I last ran, and I considered 11:31/mi on the slow side for me.  I know that many would consider this extremely slow period.  But my best time since August has been 10:41/mi.

When I reflect on how my run went, it wasn't my best, but then I have to remind myself that I also did laps around anyone who wasn't running or walking, or doing anything physical.  Like me.  Today.  My plan for tomorrow is to go for a run and make it a good one, too.