2010: off to a running start

Quote du jour: The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start. —John Bingham

Off to the Portland First Run 5k 2010. Thankfully, the snow and ice are gone from downtown Portland though not from my house. It should be around 40, which is pretty warm for New Year's. A good sign, mehopes.


Exercise du jour: Week 6, day 3, C25k. Run for 25 minutes straight. Maybe a bit more, if I get caught up in the excitement of my first 5k. I'm going to take Dr. J's advice of starting slow, and ... we'll see what happens.

[Merry stumbles out of bed, eyes half-closed, grabs a gold star, and tacks it up on the blog. Then heads back to bed.]

Didn't do that great, but it's done. And next time will be better. And I lost 1/2 a pound somewhere along the route. And I'm going back to bed.

Goals shmoals

Tanji's goal: to accidentally lose shred the reindog coat.

My problem is that I tend to follow this approach to goals:

1. Define the goal.
2. Set a date when I want to have achieved that goal.
3. Go off and do something else, la la la.
4. Realize, with surprise, that it's the deadline date already and I haven't done a damn thing to prepare.

Sometimes I'll vary this theme, e.g. get started toward the goal, then get distracted by a BST and go off on a tangent.

This time, it's different. (Maybe I've learned something. Don't count on it.) By the end of the week, I'm going to run in a 5k. I'm not completely fit enough to run the whole way, but damn it, I'm going for it. It's a great way to start the year, and it's a way to get me prepared for reaching the ultimate goal. God willing, I will run another 5k later on in the year, and run the whole way. Smiling even.

I'm planning ahead for what I want to accomplish next year, exercise-wise, and breaking down the goals into mini-steps so that I'll have more of a chance to accomplish them.

Note: For a much better explanation of this goal-setting problem, see Cranky Fitness.

Exercise du jour: Walking, yoga

Damn this view...

From Saddle Mountain

Achieving a goal is like climbing a mountain and then seeing all the other mountains ahead. On the one hand, it's nice to make it to the top, on the other hand... I'm not going to run out of challenges here. Not for awhile, at any rate.

I started the couch to 5k program not worrying about any kind of pace. Blithely, I assumed it would all work out. After about 5 weeks of doing the program, I started doing the math.

The couch to 5k program is based on the assumption that you're running a 10-minute mile. Now, there are men out there who will expand their testosterone-filled hairy chests and boom that this is absurd, only girly-girl types run that slowly, 'real' men need to run a 6-minute mile, damn it!

Bless their beady little hearts.

I've been living the vida sedentary for years. I'm overweight and my knees like to remind me of this fact. (Plus, I want to go on record that I do not have a hairy chest.) The only way I'm doing a 6-minute mile -- or better -- is on my bicycle. (That's one thing I love about cycling: even someone as out-of-shape as I am could do a mile faster than an in-shape runner.)

I estimate that my starting pace a few months back was something in the neighborhood of a 17-minute mile. I can't tell for sure, I'm just guessing, but I'm definite that it was close to a walking pace. This doesn't strike me as bad; it was enough that I had the stamina to run for over 20 minutes continuously without having to stop.

Having achieved that goal, now I can see that it would be good to try to stretch things. My knees can take this much, maybe they wouldn't mind if I pushed myself a bit and ran at a faster pace? That's the new goal, anyway. I'll try re-doing the couch to 5k, this time with feeling.

Exercise du jour: The schedule was derailed by the holidays, so today is the last official day of my original couch-to-5k program.

If the friggin' ice will melt off the friggin' sidewalks, I can run outdoors and get an actual number as a baseline for the 30 minute run.



Think warm thoughts, 'k?



Done! Running 30 minutes definitely improves the mood. To say nothing of saving on the heating bill. Maybe in a couple of days the snow/ice will go away?

Putting the world on notice

To whom it may concern:

This is an official notification of the fact that I am expecting great things.

By the end of 2009, I am going to damn well be thin.
(My definition of 'thin' at this time is 'normal weight as defined by the BMI.' I know that's not always an ideal standard, but it is as good as anything from my current perspective.)

By the end of 2009, I am going to run a 5k, and do so easily. Smiling, damn it.
By the end of 2009, I am going to cycle a metric century (100km). Smiling, damn it.

Further goals will be posted as I become aware of them.

Be warned, world.


Photo courtesy of NASA.