23.5 laps, 40:17 minutes, 30:60 second run/walk ratio
Well, that was a kind of messed-up run. It was cool here today, so I decided to sleep in a bit and got started around 8:30 am. Since it was a "long" weekend run, I used my watch to time intervals, but otherwise it was just like my midweek runs with a few extra laps tacked onto the end.
The first glitch was hitting the split button right at the end of an interval. The interval didn't chime, so I ended up running nearly a minute and a half before I realized I'd been running too long. And the split apparently didn't take, either, because when I got to a mile, my time was off. I checked and found one 3:19 minute split, so obviously I'd missed one, so I hit the split button twice at the end of the lap to catch up.
Then, after about 20 laps, my neighbor from up the road stopped to talk, so I ended up taking about a ten-minute break in the middle of my run.
Oh well. I got my 2.5 miles in, which is the main thing. Time was pretty good after all that messing around, averaged around 16-minute miles.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Week 3: Five miles
1:19:50, 30:60 sec run/walk ratio
Nice run! I got up early—set my alarm for 6 am and actually got up when the alarm went off—and was ready to head out by 7:15. I decided to run in Meadowbrook Park today, for a bit of variation, and it was very pleasant. Arrived at the park at 7:38 and headed out. It was already sunny but not too hot. I kept up my pace the whole way, even pushed a bit on the last mile. The only discomfort was that my digestion hadn't quite kicked in before I left, so I needed the restroom by the time I was finished. Luckily, the restrooms were open today, so that was the advantage of running in the park! I will probably do most of my long runs there.
I fixed up my running watch with a rubber back to cover the metal case. I cut it to fit around the case, with tabs on the end to fold over the watchband, and stitched the tabs shut with buttonhole thread. Works very well.
I had a rough week this week, busy helping out a friend, and not getting enough sleep, so I skipped my in-between walking days, but I did do my 19-lap runs around the house on Tuesday and Thursday, which is the important thing. Tuesday was about 32 minutes and Thursday was 33:30. I felt really slow and tired on Thursday, but also ran counter-clockwise, which is a bit harder. Still, decent times and I got my runs in.
I'm very pleased with today's run. The 30:60 second run/walk ratio is working very well. I don't get tired and keep my pace up. I felt like I could have run another mile with no trouble.
Nice run! I got up early—set my alarm for 6 am and actually got up when the alarm went off—and was ready to head out by 7:15. I decided to run in Meadowbrook Park today, for a bit of variation, and it was very pleasant. Arrived at the park at 7:38 and headed out. It was already sunny but not too hot. I kept up my pace the whole way, even pushed a bit on the last mile. The only discomfort was that my digestion hadn't quite kicked in before I left, so I needed the restroom by the time I was finished. Luckily, the restrooms were open today, so that was the advantage of running in the park! I will probably do most of my long runs there.
I fixed up my running watch with a rubber back to cover the metal case. I cut it to fit around the case, with tabs on the end to fold over the watchband, and stitched the tabs shut with buttonhole thread. Works very well.
I had a rough week this week, busy helping out a friend, and not getting enough sleep, so I skipped my in-between walking days, but I did do my 19-lap runs around the house on Tuesday and Thursday, which is the important thing. Tuesday was about 32 minutes and Thursday was 33:30. I felt really slow and tired on Thursday, but also ran counter-clockwise, which is a bit harder. Still, decent times and I got my runs in.
I'm very pleased with today's run. The 30:60 second run/walk ratio is working very well. I don't get tired and keep my pace up. I felt like I could have run another mile with no trouble.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Week 2: Four miles
1:03 hours, 30:60 second run/walk ratio
Whoo! Pretty good time, if I do say so myself. I got up early (then futzed around and still got started later than I wanted to) and drove down to the mailboxes, and ran Dennison to Valley, Valley to Curry, and back. I felt good and kept up a good pace the whole time. I think this 30:60 second run/walk ratio is really helping. I don't get as tired as I do running 1:2 minutes. I noticed that there is really no shade to speak of at all on that stretch of road. And not a cloud in the sky, so the sun was pretty hot, even before 9 am. But I didn't get too tired and finished strong.
I really need some new running clothes. Socks and shorts especially. I have shirts I can wear, but only two pairs of shorts. One, the elastic in the undershorts got hard and cracked and I cut it out so now the undies ride up. The other, the elastic in the waistband is all stretched out and they don't stay up as well as they should. So, neither one is in good shape. Now that there's a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in town, maybe I can buy clothes there. And my running socks are all wearing out. I want some more Wright Socks, I'll have to send for those.
I didn't take a water bottle with me, because I didn't feel like wearing my waist pack. It was okay for a four-mile run, but I think I'll need to start carrying it for my long runs from now on.
My new sport watch arrived yesterday, just in time! So I was able to time my mile splits and chime my intervals and all. Very nice. I didn't take the time to prepare a rubber thing to put under the case so it wouldn't short out, so I just wrapped my arm in plastic wrap. Which worked—the watch didn't short out, anyway—but it sure made my wrist sweaty. Need to figure out something for that.
I've sort of decided to do the Las Vegas Half Marathon instead of Long Beach. For one thing, the Long Beach hotels were mostly sold out already and the ones that were left were expensive. And the time—which I figured out was only 10 weeks, not 11—is really too short for decent training. Plus, I'm going to visit a friend in October, so it would be two out of town trips in one month, which I don't like doing. So I think I'll shoot for Las Vegas instead. It's not until December 5, so there's plenty of time. And I was checking the hotels, and I can stay at the Luxor! For not very much money! I love the Luxor.
Anyway, two weeks down! I'm on my way!
Whoo! Pretty good time, if I do say so myself. I got up early (then futzed around and still got started later than I wanted to) and drove down to the mailboxes, and ran Dennison to Valley, Valley to Curry, and back. I felt good and kept up a good pace the whole time. I think this 30:60 second run/walk ratio is really helping. I don't get as tired as I do running 1:2 minutes. I noticed that there is really no shade to speak of at all on that stretch of road. And not a cloud in the sky, so the sun was pretty hot, even before 9 am. But I didn't get too tired and finished strong.
I really need some new running clothes. Socks and shorts especially. I have shirts I can wear, but only two pairs of shorts. One, the elastic in the undershorts got hard and cracked and I cut it out so now the undies ride up. The other, the elastic in the waistband is all stretched out and they don't stay up as well as they should. So, neither one is in good shape. Now that there's a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in town, maybe I can buy clothes there. And my running socks are all wearing out. I want some more Wright Socks, I'll have to send for those.
I didn't take a water bottle with me, because I didn't feel like wearing my waist pack. It was okay for a four-mile run, but I think I'll need to start carrying it for my long runs from now on.
My new sport watch arrived yesterday, just in time! So I was able to time my mile splits and chime my intervals and all. Very nice. I didn't take the time to prepare a rubber thing to put under the case so it wouldn't short out, so I just wrapped my arm in plastic wrap. Which worked—the watch didn't short out, anyway—but it sure made my wrist sweaty. Need to figure out something for that.
I've sort of decided to do the Las Vegas Half Marathon instead of Long Beach. For one thing, the Long Beach hotels were mostly sold out already and the ones that were left were expensive. And the time—which I figured out was only 10 weeks, not 11—is really too short for decent training. Plus, I'm going to visit a friend in October, so it would be two out of town trips in one month, which I don't like doing. So I think I'll shoot for Las Vegas instead. It's not until December 5, so there's plenty of time. And I was checking the hotels, and I can stay at the Luxor! For not very much money! I love the Luxor.
Anyway, two weeks down! I'm on my way!
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Week 1: Three miles
51:08 min, 28.1 laps, 40:60 sec run/walk ratio (approximate)
So, here I go again! It's been almost a year since I last posted... my attempt to run the Las Vegas Half Marathon last year failed after the first long run. I vaguely remember being so tired and skipping runs and finally deciding it just wasn't going to happen. I had a long, tiring, depressing winter, and didn't exercise at all. Except for shoveling snow. We had a very cold winter with lots of snow, and it would have been near impossible to get out to do any runs even if I'd wanted to.
I've been trying off and on since spring to get back into the habit of doing some kind of exercise, and for the past month or so have been taking two-mile walks three or four times a week. (I try to do six times a week, but something always seems to happen to make me skip a day or two.) This week, I started on Tuesday. Because we've had a big fire here and the road was filled with fire trucks and such, I decided not to walk on the road, but just to go around the house. And, to keep it interesting, I decided to run a bit while I walked. And it was fun! And I got all enthused! So I walked two miles on Wednesday, then ran/walked around the house on Thursday, with a good time of 33:30 min. So I decided, what the heck. Maybe I can do another half marathon!
I walked two miles yesterday, then today I did my three-mile run around the house. My time was pretty bad, but I've only just gotten started back, so I don't mind too much. I felt good the whole way, though, and didn't tire out. Okay, 51 min is 17-minute-miles. That's not that bad.
Anyway, I'm shooting for the Long Beach Half Marathon on October 17. That doesn't give me much time to train, so I'm going to just relax and not worry about the time. Because of the way it's laid out, Long Beach has the same time limit for the Half Marathon as for the Marathon—7.5 hours. So I've got plenty of time to finish! I'm going to just try to finish in under 4 hours. Hm, a 17-min-mile half marathon is 3:42 hours. I can do that.
Since I've only got 11 weeks to train, I've worked out a schedule of 3, 4, 5, 6.5, 8, 9, 10, 11.5, 13, and 6 miles. That will get me up to 13 miles two weeks before the race, with a 6-mile recovery run the week before. And a couple of 1.5-mile increases instead of 1-mile. It's tight, and I'll have to be careful to run slowly enough to avoid getting injured, but I think I can do it.
One week down, 10 to go!
So, here I go again! It's been almost a year since I last posted... my attempt to run the Las Vegas Half Marathon last year failed after the first long run. I vaguely remember being so tired and skipping runs and finally deciding it just wasn't going to happen. I had a long, tiring, depressing winter, and didn't exercise at all. Except for shoveling snow. We had a very cold winter with lots of snow, and it would have been near impossible to get out to do any runs even if I'd wanted to.
I've been trying off and on since spring to get back into the habit of doing some kind of exercise, and for the past month or so have been taking two-mile walks three or four times a week. (I try to do six times a week, but something always seems to happen to make me skip a day or two.) This week, I started on Tuesday. Because we've had a big fire here and the road was filled with fire trucks and such, I decided not to walk on the road, but just to go around the house. And, to keep it interesting, I decided to run a bit while I walked. And it was fun! And I got all enthused! So I walked two miles on Wednesday, then ran/walked around the house on Thursday, with a good time of 33:30 min. So I decided, what the heck. Maybe I can do another half marathon!
I walked two miles yesterday, then today I did my three-mile run around the house. My time was pretty bad, but I've only just gotten started back, so I don't mind too much. I felt good the whole way, though, and didn't tire out. Okay, 51 min is 17-minute-miles. That's not that bad.
Anyway, I'm shooting for the Long Beach Half Marathon on October 17. That doesn't give me much time to train, so I'm going to just relax and not worry about the time. Because of the way it's laid out, Long Beach has the same time limit for the Half Marathon as for the Marathon—7.5 hours. So I've got plenty of time to finish! I'm going to just try to finish in under 4 hours. Hm, a 17-min-mile half marathon is 3:42 hours. I can do that.
Since I've only got 11 weeks to train, I've worked out a schedule of 3, 4, 5, 6.5, 8, 9, 10, 11.5, 13, and 6 miles. That will get me up to 13 miles two weeks before the race, with a 6-mile recovery run the week before. And a couple of 1.5-mile increases instead of 1-mile. It's tight, and I'll have to be careful to run slowly enough to avoid getting injured, but I think I can do it.
One week down, 10 to go!
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