Today (written on Friday) was a distance running day, but I cut it a bit short. I'm still getting adjusted to working out five days a week, although I do really look forward to my activities in the afternoon. I also find it hard to go an extra mile when I'm close to home, so I think I'm going to add more loops in to the earlier parts of my workout so that just getting home afterwards will put me up to the 5K distance. I don't have a problem running the whole thing, but I think I just need more motivation.
I'm at the point in my progress where I'm not sure whether I really want to run the 5K on July 10th or not. I doubt whether or not I can do it, and I worry that I will end up disappointing myself. I guess I need to quit fearing disappointment so much and just go for it, though. Besides, I think finishing it will be all that much sweeter if there are doubts about it now. :) I really can do this thing - I may not run the whole thing, but I will finish, and I will finish running!
Today's workout:
2.32 miles
13:27 min/mile
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Day 37 and Day 38 or So...
Maybe I should quit numbering the days I work out. Because there have been a lot of them, and a lot of them I haven't written about. I'm too busy squeezing extra working out days into my schedule to write about them most of the time...
Anyhow, this week I started my new program of running on MWF and doing lower impact exercises on TH. I think I like the extra activity in my life, and I have found new excitement. This week I decided to start swimming, which I will probably stick with for a while. I'm trying to teach myself to properly swim freestyle. It's really hard for me because I'm used to swimming freestyle with my head above the water. I was amazingly surprised at how much easier it is to swim below the water and how hard it is to coordinate arms, legs, and breathing. I tend to do a lot of kicking, and I tend to want to breath a lot more than is efficient... My throat is very sore today from all the water I inhaled yesterday, mostly through my nose (ugh worst feeling ever), but I saw drastic improvements from the time I first got into the water to the time I finished for the night. Thirty minutes flew by, and my arms are delightfully sore, which is a similar level of soreness to what my legs felt when I first started running. Now I have a new set of goals to work towards in an activity that works different muscles than running, which should give me a good overall fitness.
An active lifestyle... I like having it.
Anyhow, this week I started my new program of running on MWF and doing lower impact exercises on TH. I think I like the extra activity in my life, and I have found new excitement. This week I decided to start swimming, which I will probably stick with for a while. I'm trying to teach myself to properly swim freestyle. It's really hard for me because I'm used to swimming freestyle with my head above the water. I was amazingly surprised at how much easier it is to swim below the water and how hard it is to coordinate arms, legs, and breathing. I tend to do a lot of kicking, and I tend to want to breath a lot more than is efficient... My throat is very sore today from all the water I inhaled yesterday, mostly through my nose (ugh worst feeling ever), but I saw drastic improvements from the time I first got into the water to the time I finished for the night. Thirty minutes flew by, and my arms are delightfully sore, which is a similar level of soreness to what my legs felt when I first started running. Now I have a new set of goals to work towards in an activity that works different muscles than running, which should give me a good overall fitness.
An active lifestyle... I like having it.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Day 36: A Walk in the Park
I am really enjoying explorations of the neighborhoods surrounding my apartment complex. And I love the hot weather lately - getting REALLY sweaty on a run makes me feel like I'm really workin' it!
I didn't have a lot of time, so I decided to just do a mile. I warmed up for a few minutes by jogging around Kiwanis Park, then I found a shady area in the grass to do my stretches and started off up the hill. I decided to try jogging two blocks and walking one and alternating like that as long as I could. The blocks started getting kind of irregular after a little while, which made that plan a little more difficult, and there were a few stops here and there waiting for cars to pass so I could cross the street, but I still managed to shave some time off of my mile pace.
I misjudged and ended up going 1.5 miles. I got a phone call that interrupted my run in several ways. I walked so I wasn't breathing heavily during the conversation, and the GPS program I use to keep track of mileage and pace shut down for a time. Hate it when that happens!
I'm considering switching to running in different ways on different days of the week. I think on one day of the week I'm going to run the C25K program, which is based on time, and one day of the week I'll run for distance (maybe a 5K walk/run), and one day of the week, I'll do a short run for "speed." I kind of want to add swimming and/or weight lifting twice a week to my routine, but I'm not sure where to squeeze it in to my schedule...
Anyhow, yesterday's routine:
1.5 miles
12:55 min/mile
I didn't have a lot of time, so I decided to just do a mile. I warmed up for a few minutes by jogging around Kiwanis Park, then I found a shady area in the grass to do my stretches and started off up the hill. I decided to try jogging two blocks and walking one and alternating like that as long as I could. The blocks started getting kind of irregular after a little while, which made that plan a little more difficult, and there were a few stops here and there waiting for cars to pass so I could cross the street, but I still managed to shave some time off of my mile pace.
I misjudged and ended up going 1.5 miles. I got a phone call that interrupted my run in several ways. I walked so I wasn't breathing heavily during the conversation, and the GPS program I use to keep track of mileage and pace shut down for a time. Hate it when that happens!
I'm considering switching to running in different ways on different days of the week. I think on one day of the week I'm going to run the C25K program, which is based on time, and one day of the week I'll run for distance (maybe a 5K walk/run), and one day of the week, I'll do a short run for "speed." I kind of want to add swimming and/or weight lifting twice a week to my routine, but I'm not sure where to squeeze it in to my schedule...
Anyhow, yesterday's routine:
1.5 miles
12:55 min/mile
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Day 35: National Running Day
I have learned that I need to fully charge all of my devices before I start running. I had to return my skullcandy headphones to the company for a replacement pair (sad day), so I've been using stereo bluetooth headphones, but I didn't charge them before going. I thought I had charged them recently, but not so, and so I ran the last mile without music. Boo.
The route I ran was actually pretty great. I think I will use it from now on for my longer runs. It goes up through Kiwanis park - I run around once for a warm-up, then stretch in the shade under a tree - and then up a hill through residential areas, down past Seven Peaks water park, and then back up 9th East. It has a good mixture of uphill, downhill, and flat, pretty evenly spaced blocks so I can tell myself to run until the end of the block, a lot to look at, and not very many cars.
Something that I may change is to not run past the guy holding the Little Caesar's sign. He harassed me about buying a $5 pizza on my way home. Ew. That's about the last thing I want to think about after running 3 miles: greasy lukewarm pizza. I guess the incentive is that he makes me want to run faster because the faster I run the less I have to hear of him...
I had to guess at my pace, and I say 2.9 miles in 38 minutes. No clue what my pace was because the mileage is foggy at best, but I did feel like I ran it faster than usual so I could get home for institute, so take it for what it's worth. It's a lot warmer out now, so I'm breathing much more comfortably without all that cold air in my lungs.
I'm going to set a goal to get my mile pace in the 12 minute range for the 5K. I think I can do that by then, but I certainly can't do it now. Sometime between now and then I also want to flat-out run a full mile without stopping. That goal is slightly less reasonable, but it's something I've done before on a treadmill, so I know that I will be able to do it on the road as well. It's all going to happen; I just have to be patient with it!
The route I ran was actually pretty great. I think I will use it from now on for my longer runs. It goes up through Kiwanis park - I run around once for a warm-up, then stretch in the shade under a tree - and then up a hill through residential areas, down past Seven Peaks water park, and then back up 9th East. It has a good mixture of uphill, downhill, and flat, pretty evenly spaced blocks so I can tell myself to run until the end of the block, a lot to look at, and not very many cars.
Something that I may change is to not run past the guy holding the Little Caesar's sign. He harassed me about buying a $5 pizza on my way home. Ew. That's about the last thing I want to think about after running 3 miles: greasy lukewarm pizza. I guess the incentive is that he makes me want to run faster because the faster I run the less I have to hear of him...
I had to guess at my pace, and I say 2.9 miles in 38 minutes. No clue what my pace was because the mileage is foggy at best, but I did feel like I ran it faster than usual so I could get home for institute, so take it for what it's worth. It's a lot warmer out now, so I'm breathing much more comfortably without all that cold air in my lungs.
I'm going to set a goal to get my mile pace in the 12 minute range for the 5K. I think I can do that by then, but I certainly can't do it now. Sometime between now and then I also want to flat-out run a full mile without stopping. That goal is slightly less reasonable, but it's something I've done before on a treadmill, so I know that I will be able to do it on the road as well. It's all going to happen; I just have to be patient with it!
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