Category: exercise

In other exercise-related news, I’ve managed to work my way up to 30 pushups and 60 stomach crunches daily. I’m sure I mentioned this before so don’t act all surprised.

I started off almost exactly one month ago with this daily regimen, on 7 June 2004. On that day I recorded 15 of each, and I remember that the 15 pushups were difficult for me. I’m so glad that I’ve been able to increase my pushups so much in that much time. The stomach crunches are another story; yeah, I can do a lot of them, but I still don’t have washboard abs. Realistically, I probably never will. If the muscles are getting toned and in shape, they’re still under a lot of loose skin, left over from my losing so much fat around my middle.

Kinda icky; when I do my pushups, if I look down underneath myself I can see the loose skin hanging down from my midsection. Bleh. It’s both a badge of honor and a source of revulsion to me. Yay, I lost weight. Bleh, I’m not perfect ‘n’ stuff.

My right ankle was sore today. Actually had been since yesterday. Maybe I hurt it at the gym yesterday. At any rate, I figured it was best if I didn’t run today. I’ll ice it tonight and see how it is tomorrow. If it’s better, I’ll just start my schedule on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, push it back a day.

Bummer, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Finished the week with a 3.5-mile run, not quite as planned. Also did the “gentle pickups”, as planned. My legs are sore now. Should have stretched… Oh, well.

I shouldn’t rely on my memory of what my schedule says, it seems. I was supposed to do a 4-mile run. I can’t trust myself to be accurate without double-checking.

That makes my total mileage for the week: 16.75. Still my best week ever!

• Monday: Rest day.
• Tuesday: 2 miles, 4×1:00 AI, 2 miles finish
• Wednesday: 3 mile run (Waterfront/Esplanade? Three Parks Run?) or Rest day.
• Thursday: 4 miles (Four Parks Run) + 3 GP
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: 5.5 miles – Run downtown?
• Sunday: 3.5 miles in my neighborhood.

Total miles for the week then will be between 18 and 21 (depending on if I run on Wednesday or not).
I decided that the lack of AI on Tuesday was a typo. I’m also planning on hitting the gym on my rest days for some upper-body training.

Ran 5 miles to work yesterday. I ran slow, remembering the advice from the training plan I’m following:

“Easy runs mean totally comfortable and controlled. If you’re running with someone else, you should be able to converse easily. You’ll likely feel as if you could go faster.”

So I took it very easy, and when I got to where I normally stop, at SW 1st and Madison, I just kept going. I still had lots of energy left. I finally stopped at SW 4th and Taylor, after going flat-out for a couple of blocks, but I could have continued even further.

I’ve estimated my normal route and distance at about 5 miles so I guessed I’d gone 5.5 miles, since I’d ran five or six blocks further than normal, but on Friday I sat down with some mapping software (Microsoft’s Streets 98, the only one I could find; Mapquest and Yahoo! Maps aren’t well-suited to figuring out distances on routes like that) and found that the total distance was only 5.24 miles. Oh, well, I’m not that disappointed. That gives me 13.24 miles for the week.

I did time myself, and my pace for the run was still under 10 minutes. In fact it was 9:56.507 (total time 52:05.7 for 5.24 miles).

Tomorrow I’m going to run… Oh, crap! I just checked my schedule and I’m supposed to run today! 4 miles with 3 “gentle pickups”. I thought that was for tomorrow… drat. I’ll have to do it tomorrow. It’ll be better for me to do it tomorrow. (Am I convincing myself yet?)

I’m looking at the schedule for next week and there are no “AI” days — Aerobic Intervals. It’s the only week without them. Is that a typo? I’ll have to compare it to the one printed in the magazine to double-check. Next post will be my schedule for next week.

I ran the Waterfront/Esplanade tonight after work. Two-point-five miles. I sucked because I’ve now run two days in a row, but, hey, that’s what the plan called for. I didn’t push myself very hard, as planned, but still had to walk several sections. I walked, maybe, oh, 10-20% of the distance.

So far this week I already have 8 miles total. Tomorrow’s a rest day, though. Then Friday I’ll be running five miles along the Springwater Corridor. Saturday will be 4 miles, bringing my total for the week to 17, which will be my best week ever. Of course, one of the goals of my training for this 10K run is to increase my weekly mileage.

Yay.

According to Streets 98 I ran 5.57 miles last night total!

I rock!

I ran the goal tonight. 2 miles easy pace, then four one-minute Aerobic Intervals (which means I ran a fast pace but not so fast that I went anaerobic), each followed by slow jogging until I could go back to my normal easy pace, then another 2 miles at an easy pace. I’m not sure how many miles the AI’s added to the four miles of easy pace. I’ll research it and post it here tomorrow.

It was difficult, especially the last two miles, but I kept reminding myself that endurance is the primary goal. I’ve got to build up my endurance so that the 6.2 miles/10 kilometers is not a problem. Of course, I don’t want to injure myself in training, but I think I’m far from that.

Tomorrow is an optional day, according to the original plan, and considering all I have going on tomorrow I might not do the three miles I planned. I’ll try… but Master Yoda says there’s only do or do not.

I’m not yet a Jedi, however. After the 10 K I’ll be a Jedi.

My friend Jake, obviously feeling that taking 20 credit hours this summer on top of a 30-hour-per week (and very stressful all in itself) job isn’t fulfilling enough, or stressful enough in combination, has decided to run in the Hood To Coast Relay.

Here’s my public advice to him:

Don’t die, Jake! Don’t die!

Of course, this means that I will once again find myself on that fucking beach in Seaside. Slightly different context, though. And it’ll all be overlaid with the previous contexts and memories I’ve lived through previously.

Who says history doesn’t repeat itself? Or at least echoes, changed but similar.

Oops.

I didn’t go running this morning. Bad, bad me. Won’t be able to make it up tonight, either — got plans.

Good thing I went for a 6.2 mile walk yesterday. I walked the course for the Nike Run Hit Wonder 10K, just to get a feel for it. Took pictures of each mile point, which I’ll post at some point this week. Dayum there’s a lot of uphill parts… it even starts out uphill, going east on Alder from Broadway to 12th Ave… Yikes.

So I’ll have to shift my running schedule. Basically I’ll go with the original schedule posted by Runner’s World. Although I’m going to do the 5-mile run on Friday as I originall planned. Like this:

• Tuesday: 2 miles in my neighborhood, 4×1:00 Aerobic Intervals (AI), finish with 2 miles.
• Wednesday: 3 mile run – Waterfront/Esplanade? Three Parks Run?
• Thursday: Rest day.
• Friday: 5 miles easy run – Run to work.
• Saturday: 4 mile run – Four Parks Run. During run, do 3 Gentle Pickups (GP).
• Sunday: Rest day.

I also noticed that the version of this schedule that made it into the print version of the magazine has another week before the “Taper” week. But since the online schedule fits the time I have left I’m going with that one.