I'm at my fabulous internship, so this will be a quick update. In more ways than one.
Last night I went out on the West Side Highway. I'd found this Google pedometer thing (www.walkjogrun.net) that allows you to draw routes and calculate distances, times, etc. So I decided to keep track of time, starting, and stopping points, and then I'd see how far and how fast I'd gone.
When I was using the treadmill, my jog setting was somewhere between 4.1 and 4.5 mph. I have no idea how accurate the thing is, but I also know that I'm just slow because I'm not really a runner and I'm not in great shape. So imagine my surprise when I entered the info into the pedometer and found that I was averaging just under 11 mins per mile, and I'd run more than a 5k. Apparently I have no concept of my speed. When I told the roomie about this, she confirmed that we were doing around 10 min/mile at the park on Tuesday. I realize this isn't super speedy, but still. This is significantly faster than I'd need to go to finish the marathon in the time allotted, which is my only real goal.
Huzzah!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Post the First
Introductory stuff first:
This is partially for you and partially for me. I think some people may find this interesting or encouraging or at least mildly entertaining. And I would like to have a record of this experience. I may also use this for notes about diet, warm-ups, etc.
In January of 2005, at age almost 24, I weighed about 215 lbs. I'm 5'7". Clearly, this was not good for me. I'd been overweight my entire life, and I finally made a commitment to dealing with it. I followed the weight watchers points plan (though I didn't bother going to meetings), and I started walking and then later jogging almost every day. In less than a year, I dropped 60 lbs and felt amazing. In September 2006 I started law school. This proved to be a challenge to my "never again" vow. I gained about 20 lbs (including a not very cute beer belly), and started feeling like crap again. When my summer roomie first told me about Team in Training, I thought it sounded interesting but I couldn't picture myself running a marathon. Then one morning I woke up and thought, well why the hell not? So now I'm registered. Let the work begin!
Yesterday was my first practice with the team. I've been running on and off (sometimes a lot of off) since January when I put a treadmill in my bedroom. Before I moved to NYC last week, I had gotten to the point where sometimes I could run (a very slow) 5k without feeling it. Other times the pollen made me so wheezy I could barely run for 10 minutes.
I tried to run with the team last weekend, but I was late to the park and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go and then I had some funny skin/circulation problems. It's a long stupid story, so I'll spare you. Anyhow, this time I went with the fabulous summer roomie who got me into this mess and therefore I got to the right place. It was about 80 degrees and so humid I'm surprised it didn't rain while we were there. We did a couple of loops (roomie says about 3.4 miles), alternating normal form with what head coach Ramon calls "tikki tikki tikki." This was basically about focusing on the work the upper body does and noticing how altering arm position changes your stride. They tell me this will help on the hills. I believe it.
By the time we were done, we were all dripping wet. I didn't quite run the whole thing, but a lot of other people stopped to walk at least once. I'm certainly not the best in the group (of beginners), but not quite the worst either. As someone who used to have to stop after 20 seconds of jogging, I'm pretty proud of this.
And now, today, I feel absolutely no effects aside from fatigue, and some of that is from starting my new job this week. I took today off (it was an "off" day in our schedule), but tomorrow I'll head out to the West Side Highway after work. Our Saturday workout is supposed to be an "easy" 4-5 miles. I've never run that far in my life. Hmmm.
This is partially for you and partially for me. I think some people may find this interesting or encouraging or at least mildly entertaining. And I would like to have a record of this experience. I may also use this for notes about diet, warm-ups, etc.
In January of 2005, at age almost 24, I weighed about 215 lbs. I'm 5'7". Clearly, this was not good for me. I'd been overweight my entire life, and I finally made a commitment to dealing with it. I followed the weight watchers points plan (though I didn't bother going to meetings), and I started walking and then later jogging almost every day. In less than a year, I dropped 60 lbs and felt amazing. In September 2006 I started law school. This proved to be a challenge to my "never again" vow. I gained about 20 lbs (including a not very cute beer belly), and started feeling like crap again. When my summer roomie first told me about Team in Training, I thought it sounded interesting but I couldn't picture myself running a marathon. Then one morning I woke up and thought, well why the hell not? So now I'm registered. Let the work begin!
Yesterday was my first practice with the team. I've been running on and off (sometimes a lot of off) since January when I put a treadmill in my bedroom. Before I moved to NYC last week, I had gotten to the point where sometimes I could run (a very slow) 5k without feeling it. Other times the pollen made me so wheezy I could barely run for 10 minutes.
I tried to run with the team last weekend, but I was late to the park and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go and then I had some funny skin/circulation problems. It's a long stupid story, so I'll spare you. Anyhow, this time I went with the fabulous summer roomie who got me into this mess and therefore I got to the right place. It was about 80 degrees and so humid I'm surprised it didn't rain while we were there. We did a couple of loops (roomie says about 3.4 miles), alternating normal form with what head coach Ramon calls "tikki tikki tikki." This was basically about focusing on the work the upper body does and noticing how altering arm position changes your stride. They tell me this will help on the hills. I believe it.
By the time we were done, we were all dripping wet. I didn't quite run the whole thing, but a lot of other people stopped to walk at least once. I'm certainly not the best in the group (of beginners), but not quite the worst either. As someone who used to have to stop after 20 seconds of jogging, I'm pretty proud of this.
And now, today, I feel absolutely no effects aside from fatigue, and some of that is from starting my new job this week. I took today off (it was an "off" day in our schedule), but tomorrow I'll head out to the West Side Highway after work. Our Saturday workout is supposed to be an "easy" 4-5 miles. I've never run that far in my life. Hmmm.
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