It struck me last night that I have been working at this for almost four weeks and I still can’t really run a mile straight. I have on a track but not just out running. Even as I have upped my time for running,from one minute to a minute and a half to two minutes, I don’t feel as though I am getting closer. I am worried. So I have to do something about this. Obviously my half assed plan of building up running time might take too long to ever run a mile, let alone three. So I thought instead of tracking time I would track distance and increase that. Seemed like a good plan. I have read that you start with half a mile and work your way up. That was the plan for this morning, run half a mile, walk for two minutes, run half a mile, walk for two minutes.
But that didn’t happen. For some reason, as I lay in bed not wanting to leave I decided to run a full mile and walk for two minutes and then run another mile. Why the ridiculous plan? Because that was the way I did it on the track. So I walked for a quarter of a mile and ran. And ran and ran and ran. Up the damn hill and down the hill and up the damn hill again. Ten minutes later I had run a mile. Without blowing chunks! I actually lied to myself half way through and told myself I would stop at three quarters of a mile, just finish going around the block but then when I got there I was so close I just kept running. Plus it was down hill. I tried to remember everything about breathing so I didn’t get a stitch in my side and Runkeeper kept telling me how far I was going and how long it was taking me – my ass is slow, and I tried to keep my back straight and my head up. I’m pretty sure I sounded like something from a bad movie, pulling breaths in and pushing them out with a pathetic damsel in distress sounding “heh, heh” coming from me. This is why I run as early as I can. It ain’t pretty.
I then walked for two minutes. And then did I do it again? HELL NO!!!! But I did increase my time from running two minutes and walking for ninety seconds to running four minutes and walking between two and two and half minutes. This changed as to whether I ended on a hill – which I always finish. But if I ended on level ground I found I was able to go much more quickly. And I didn’t really mind just running around the block. It helps me to track distance, around the block about two and a half times is a mile. For my cool down, I ran for two minutes and walked for one. This is better than what I was doing last week. So I am going to try to stay with this.
As for goals, they are now pretty easy to set up. Next week I am going to try to stretch out the mile to a mile and a quarter, or a mile and a tenth. I am going to up my time to five minutes running. The end result of this is that I ran/walked for a little over four and a half miles this morning so I am increasing. The bike is an easy goal setter. I am up to biking ten miles on the bike. Next week I would like to up that to eleven miles, and so on and so on.
Here’s a question: Should I up goals in both activities every week? Or should I up one activity at a time? Does anyone have any advice on this?
Finally on Friday I am hoping to do my first brick. I plan to bike for about thirteen miles and then run a mile immediately following. I am, for some reason, super excited about this. Hopefully it won’t rain.
Hot Flash 