Always keep on running

[davidn]

I'm really glad that I started keeping this graph now, because in addition to the reward of being able to just add to the curve every time I come back from the gym, it gives me a permanent reminder of where I was before I started all of this. Experiencing such gradual improvement over time, it's easy to forget how much I've improved... it's hard to imagine that having to alternate running and walking for minute-long stretches used to be too difficult for me to keep up for twenty minutes.

I feel the difference on every tier of the plan, though. Week 3 started off as pretty much identical in difficulty to week 2 (or it felt like it - now I look at it, it was obviously a steady increase), but introduced running for longer periods of time. When I took a further step up to week 4 and did the first workout where I was running for five straight minutes twice during a session, I actually felt that that was my peak and that it was more painful than enjoyable now - but after extending the week slightly and gradually trying to extend the periods where I was running, I absolutely snoozed through the fifth workout this afternoon without even the power of metal to keep me going.

I'm seeing distances of over two miles pop up on the display for the first time now in my half-hour sessions, and am capable of running for eight minutes non-stop at a stretch. Perhaps on Sunday I'll allow myself to move up a level again and start the cycle once more.

I still weigh one hundred and seventy-one pounds.

Comments

[davidn]

I've been told by other sources (Whitney) that weight training is the thing to add to lose weight as well... even though I said I was starting this because of creeping into the "overweight" range for the first time, I've never felt that my weight is really an actual problem - though it would be a nice additional metric. I'm actually the ideal weight for someone 5'11" tall (which is unfortunate seeing as I'm 5'7").

It's quite rewarding in itself just realizing that I'm not inherently unfit, and that I can do this if I spend some time conditioning myself - thank you for your encouragement as always :) I had been wondering what I would do after I ran out of tiers in this programme, so it's... nice to know I have the expert mode to look forward to...

I'm not sure where I'll find my limit or the point I decide that this is... sufficient - but the runner at work I keep mentioning is now training himself for a couple of fifty mile races. I think underneath his skin he looks like the Terminator.

[kjorteo]

Now that I'm basically done losing weight, my maintenance mode is three more-or-less-three-mile jogs (25 minutes on a treadmill at 7.5 MPH/1.0% incline/bumped up to 8.0 and 1.5% for the last two and a half minutes just to finish strong, which actually works out to be a little over three miles, or three laps around the outdoor track, which usually comes in at a little over 20 minutes and just barely under three miles) and three half-hour weight days a week.

The nice thing about running is that it's all relative, so there is never a ceiling. If I decide that routine is too easy and I need to start working harder or something, I can just play with the treadmill's speed and incline some more. On the track, just pretending that it's a time attack and I'm racing my ghost or something (there's no set time here, you're done after three laps, if you want to go home and get back to whatever it was you were doing then go faster) seems to make it an inexhaustible source of pushing myself. It's not about the absolute numbers, and relative performance is never outgrown; you can always "go as fast as you can for that one part."

But yes, being fit and physically capable is its own reward, and you're already excelling at where you are so far on that. :)