Friday, January 14, 2011

new milestones, new motivation and new shoes

So... it's been a while. A long while, I guess. You may have surmised from my lack of blog posts that my big plans to "train for a marathon" went out the window at the first sign of difficulty. But you would have surmised wrongly! (Is that something one can do? Surmise wrongly? Well, you know what I mean).

So, I'm not going to lie: December was a rough month. What with the dwindling sunlight, the dropping temperatures, the increased workload and the traveling to Indiana, there wasn't a ton of time to do much walking, jogging or anything else. I managed to squeeze in a couple of walks here and there, but my training schedule went pretty much out the window. Still, I have to give myself a bit of a pat on the back for doing what little I did - especially in such desolate and frigid conditions as those found in beautiful Columbia City, IN.

Anyway, now that I'm back to the Central Valley things are a little bit easier. Although I missed a month on my training schedule where I was supposed to ramp up the proportion of running-to-walking on my 30 minute routines, I've found it has been surprisingly easy to pick up where I left off. So far, I've gotten back into "shape" to be able to handle alternating one minute jogging, one minute walking intervals for 35 minutes. The good news is that, with each session, I am increasing (unconsciously!) the distance I am covering during the same overall duration of the "workout". Yesterday, I went 2.8 miles (4.5 km - almost a 5K!) in 35 minutes, which I was particularly proud of. According to this dataset, that's about the middle of the pack (46th percentile, or z of +0.09 for you stats geeks!)

Of course, everyone in that dataset went the whole 5K while I just went 90% of it. BUT STILL. I am pretty pleased with my progress, considering that when I started this whole venture, I literally had to lie down for a good half hour after barely walking a mile (at a slow pace, mind you!).

Anyway, I guess these healthy trainer-types know what they're doing. The steady incremental changes in the magnitude of my exercising seems really to do the trick! The visible changes in my ability have really been motivating for me. I can't wait to see what the next couple of months have in store.

Another thing that has been particularly motivating for me have been my new favorite app of all time: "RunKeeper Pro", without which I would have to constantly worrying about how many seconds had passed since the last time I switched from running to walking (or vice versa). I don't get any kickbacks from the company for saying this, so you know it's valid (although, if the makers of RunKeeper are listening, I am open to endorsement deals).

Finally, I placed my order for good running shoes, as everyone (but especially bro Seth and friend Jim) strongly recommended. They were indeed pricey but I am looking forward to taking them out and seeing how they help (or not).

Alright, so that's it for now. Thanks for listening and cheering me on (or waiting for me to crash and burn!), the peer pressure helps!