Cardio

Did about 22 minutes of cardio this morning. This is the fifth day of the early rise gym routine. I have a lot of background with running starting with cross country in high school (about a million years ago) Part of running back then was beating back the dinosaurs with our clubs. It was more like today's biathalon instead of running and shooting, we were running and clubbing. Ok, diverted a bit there. It's my comedic nature...

anyway, I was recently training to run a marathon, when I twisted my ankle wicked bad. I was taking out the trash, so the injury was unrelated to the grueling running schedule, but since I was going back to a full time job, I decided not to get back into that time consuming cycle. A little divergent there, as well, but background helps.
My point is that I was asked how someone could increase their speed in their running routine. I suggested interval training, which is what I am doing now.

This is easier to keep track of on a treadmill. Every third minute, boost your speed up a few notches above your normal pace. When that minute is complete, drop the speed back down. Repeat through your run.
After doing that for a half dozen runs, switch it up. This means that the faster pace is kept for two out of every three minutes. After another half dozen runs you should be able to have the entire run at the new faster pace.

I am not talking about jumping a significant amount. If your normal pace is 5 mph, the increased pace might be 5.2 mph. If you keep the interval training going, after a few months the pace should be up to maybe 5.5 or 5.6 mph. Do only what you feel comfortable with, and always consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.

On another note, I have now lost 5 pounds since starting at the gym 11 days ago. This is a combination of eating better (not eating great, but better - more whole foods) and the exercise. Next week I am going to start the Reset program. The average weight loss on that five day program is 6 pounds. We'll see what kind of numbers I can put up.

21 days

It takes 21 days to make or break a habit. Think about that for a minute. This could be going to the gym, quitting smoking, eating breakfast, quitting drinking, or whatever else you can think of.

When I quit smoking, it was cold turkey. (why is that so appropriate this time of year? I wish I had some cold turkey to make a sandwich)Back to the quitting smoking, the physical cravings are supposed to be gone in 5 to 10 days, but the mental ones are done at 21. Not that the feeling of something missing isn't there occasionally, but the mental 'habit' is gone.

What would you like to start or stop? For me, it's getting up early to go to the gym. Today was day 1 of that. I got on the scale the other day, and I weighed 202. Not good. When I was training to run the marathon (October 2007) I weighed in at 175. That was a lot of miles, but I have sworn to keep it under 200 ever since I was at around 220. Time to get it done. video version

10 miles

How far is ten miles? In today's mobile society it doesn't seem very far. But try walking or running ten miles and suddenly you get a different perspective on it. How did people 100 years ago manage??? well, the simple answers are they didn't go far, or if they did, it took a long time and they usually never returned to their point of origin.

Speaking of point, what is the point here? I ran 10 miles today in my marathon quest. Farthest run I think I have ever had in my life. My bursitis is gone. My joint pain is gone. I am not even getting sore. I am totally amazed.

My challenge now is keeping hydrated on the runs. Up to ten miles, you can get by without water breaks; not that you should, but you can. At least I can, because I did, but I need to preset water out on the course. And most times I don't even know "the course." I need to get more organized or have a support team. any volunteers want to hand me water every other mile? : )

I am so happy and grateful now that my health is allowing me to pursue my marathon.