Monthly Archives: October 2008
1,000 miles and counting
At the beginning of this week I made a promise to myself to step up the intensity of my workouts. Well, three out of the four days I have. After tonight’s workout at the gym, I’m at a total of 35.6 miles of walking, biking, running and elliptical machining (is that a word?). While this blog has always been about running and logging those miles, I’m finding it to be a fun and exciting new challenge to count all these other miles I’ve never done.
Interesting enough, earlier this week I went back to recalculate all my miles for the year to make sure everything is accurate. Of course I was off here and there, but nothing drastic. Anyway, with all my miles this week, I have eclipsed 1,000 miles of exercise for the year. I hit that 1,000th mile on an exercise bike yesterday. While I want to eventually have 1,000 running miles in a year, this will have to do for now. I hope that by taking this approach to less pavement running over the next few months, my body will be ready for longer distances again next year. After dealing with injuries on and off for the first half of the year and then being completely lazy in September, the 1,000-mile milestone feels great no matter how its counted.
A double digit day
Walk: 1.7 miles; Run: 2 miles; Bike: 6.8 miles. All that on a day in which I didn’t really feel like exerting energy. I managed to get a walk in with my dog before a cold rain came along, and by the time 7 p.m. got here I really didn’t want to go to the gym. Since it’s still not a full habit yet, I forced myself to go.
When I got on the treadmill, I didn’t really want to run, so I stopped at 2 miles. My initial goal was just 3 or so anyway and then bike a few miles. I ended up doing a little more on the bike to compensate. The more run-bike routines or bike-run routines I can do, the better prepared I’ll be for a duathlon next year. I’ll save run-bike-run workouts for the weekends. It feels good to get that started now. Plus one point of joining a gym was to do less running, so it seems to all be working out so far.
October is turning out to be a very interesting month for me mileage wise. I’ve ran almost 50 miles so far — twice as much as lowly September — and I’m looking to intensify my non-running workouts this week to end the month strong. All in all, I really like where things are headed with winter quickly coming.
A mini duathlon
One of my goals for 2009 is to take part in a duathlon, preferably the National Duathlon Festival, which will be in Richmond for a second year. If you’re unfamiliar with a duathlon, it’s a run-bike-run race. I’ve gone out for a run and then biked, and I’ve biked and then gone for a run, but I’ve never done a run-bike-run workout … until today.
I did 2 miles on the treadmill, 4 miles on the stationary bike and then another 2 on the treadmill. Everything felt pretty good, although my legs were a bit wobbly the second time I got on the treadmill. That seemed to work itself out after about a half mile. This workout is a good start to know what those transitions feel like. I like trying it out in the gym first. Eventually I’ll take it outside. It was a good day to try it too since it was raining this morning.
My running on the treadmill has gotten steadily faster in these few runs I’ve done. It’s tough to just set a speed and do it on the treadmill, so today I played around with bumping the speed up 0.1 mph every minute from 6.5 mph to 7.5 mph during the first 2 miles. On the second two miles, I worked my way up to 8 mph, bumping the speed up every tenth of a mile once I got to a half mile.
Thankfully today I remembered my iPod … but I forgot my towel and my usual water bottle. I’ll get it right eventually.
On tonight's episode of "Treadmill Running"
I’m not a person to “need” headphones when I workout, but in a gym I find them very, very good to have. Well, tonight I forgot them and I’ll take it as a lesson learned to always remember my headphones.
Anyway, tonight I had planned on running 5 miles on the treadmill, but it just wasn’t going to happen. Headphones make treadmill running much easier, but without them it’s just dull. I did pull out 3.5 miles with a half mile at a 7:53 pace and four quarter-mile intervals steadily faster. The last one was in a 6:58 pace. All told I actually ran 4 miles today since I got in a half mile with my dog earlier. I closed out the night at the gym with 1.1 miles on the elliptical machine.
Now that I’ve gone to the gym a few times, it definitely feels normal. I can’t believe it’s something I have never done before. I think there are so many assumptions about who goes to gyms, but none of them are true. All sexes, genders, races and weight classes are well represented where I go. With the gym moving in a couple of months to a nicer facility, I’m sure the crowd of all faces and body types will continue to grow.
A 10k of a day
Here’s an interesting way to hit 6.2 miles: 1.9 miles walking my dog, 2.3 miles on the elliptical machine and 2 miles on the treadmill. That’s what I did yesterday, and I found it to be a great workout all around. The walking miles were split between morning and evening, but it all adds up, right?
The 5k experience isn't always about racing
For those of you who only like long-distance races, you’re missing something special in your community. It has taken me a long time to realize this, but 5ks have a way of bringing together a lot of different people.
There’s the fat dad looking to get into shape; there’s the mother of three who runs no matter how busy her life is; there are runners who run so fast that it doesn’t make sense; there are people who run so slow that they get passed by walkers; there are the teenage girls who have on way too much make-up at 7:30 a.m.; there are kids who walk after a half-mile, but keep on trucking it; there are cross country teams; there are neighbors who join together to pass out water … this list could go on and on, but the thing I like most is that there’s nothing wrong with any of these people. We’re all there for the same reason.
Today was one of those races (5k Eagle Challenge in Bon Air) in which people of all shapes, sizes and ages were well represented. There were probably way too many kids up front , but this was their event at their school after all. I actually didn’t mind too much (except for the one girl who decided to stop a half mile in and turn around and let her friends catch up) and nobody else seemed phased either.
Like I said in my post last night, I just wanted to have fun. In my head I wanted to beat 25 minutes and hit close to 8-minute miles — actually putting that down in words last night seemed difficult. Well, at the first mile I was at 8 minutes exactly. I was kind of surprised considering how slow the first quarter mile felt, but I was feeling great. The first mile was essentially flat until about the last tenth, which was uphill.
The second mile was up and down some hills — for what I’m used to, they weren’t that big. If you live in the Mid-West, they might have looked like mountains. I ran between miles 2 and 3 just under 8 minutes. Still felt great. Between miles 2 and 3 weren’t too bad either — I’d have to say it was relatively flat. I hit that mile in exactly 8 minutes. The last tenth was as smooth and consistent as the first 3 miles. I probably could have pushed it a little harder, but considering it wasn’t anywhere close to a PR, I wanted my first 5k experience in 420 days to be one that would have me happy to be doing a 5k again. I didn’t want to do anything stupid, in other words.
My finishing time was 24:45 (7:58 pace) — good enough for third in my age group (out of eight, unless one of the unnamed runners listed in the results is in his 30s) and 48th out of 301 runners (should I be happy that I beat so many kids?). While it’s a couple of minutes off my PR, it is a new mark to beat for my 30s. I’d love to get back to where I was last summer with my speed. Eventually I will, but considering my injuries in the past year and my focus on longer distances, I’m certainly happy with what happened today.
To close this post off, I highly encourage everyone out there to take part in a community 5k. If you can get your mind off racing for 10 minutes while you’re there, take a look around you and you’ll quickly realize what a great experience it is.
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