Saturday, March 28, 2009

Numbers

Today's run: 6km in I-don't-know-how-long

This morning I went for my longest run so far - 6km. I was pleased to be able to run this far already, and I was actually able to run the whole way without walking. But I am now very annoyed with myself... as I waited to cross the road at some traffic lights somewhere, I paused my stop watch. I would hate for my times to be even slower than what they already are because of waiting for lights to change. Problem was, as I started running again, I forgot to restart it. Consequently, I had a brief moment where I thought perhaps I had run 6km in 32 minutes (the time my watch said when I got home), followed by the realisation that I had actually paused my watch quite a while a go! I can only imagine my time was ridiculously slow.

I now have the conundrum of what time to enter into my online log. I can't not enter a time (I'm a maths teacher, I love having numbers and statistics), but as I haven't run this distance in a very long time I don't know what to estimate either.

A conundrum indeed.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

First goal achieved

Today's run: 4.9km, 39 mins, 10 secs

Well in fact my first goal was to run for 5km without stopping to walk. I ran 4.9km today, but I'm not quibbling over 100m... the route from my place to my parents place is only 4.9km and I wasn't going to jog on the spot to make up the distance! It's nice to see that at least each time I start running again it takes me less to get back to running 5km again.

My next goal is to run 5km regularly three times a week. This week it was my 'long' run.

In other running related news, I went to the Athlete's Foot today to look at some new runners. As comfy as mine are they have over 600km on them and I know they are very worn down. But I didn't want to buy from there as the sales person was quite pushy. She tried to get me to get some orthotics, which I know I don't need and have never used, and tried to sell me a Nike + armband system, when I asked about the Nike + that goes with an Ipod (and which is much cheaper than the armband one!). I did however try on a comfy pair of Mizunos (the equivalent of what I have now) but they were $200 and ever since I got my mortgage a couple of years ago, I have lost my ability to spend money. Now, at face value that sounds good (and it usually is), but it has actually gotten to the point where I find it hard to justify buying ANYTHING that isn't a bare necessity. However I fear the life of my old runners is coming to an end....

I will have to work myself up to splurging on a pair soon!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Ipod running

Today's run: 3.2km in 24 mins, 17 secs

For my last birthday I got an Ipod from my family. It was such a great gift as I'm a miser and won't spend money on things I don't really need, but it's a great toy to have. I have put some music on there, but I haven't set up a running playlist yet. It's on my must-do list for this week. But just playing my songs on shuffle was great this morning - it's something to keep my mind on and it keeps me up tempo.

I need to have a look on the net for some ideas for songs that would be good to run to. I think Eye of the Tiger is probably the most popular choice from what I've seen so far!

Monday, March 16, 2009

I love daylight savings!

Today's run: 4.9km, 41 mins 32 secs

Today I ran over to Mum and Dad's for dinner like I used to in the good ole' days. It's nearly 5km, and the best bit was that I ran almost the whole way, just a couple of walk breaks thrown in. Not a bad effort!

The best bit was that it's still daylight savings, and so when I left it was still daylight at 6pm, and when I got there about 40 minutes later the sun was only starting to go down. I'm not looking forward to winter when it's dark when I get home from work....

OK short post today... lesson prep for school awaits (man, work gets in the way of a good time!)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Chafing sucks

Today's run: 3.2km, 30 mins 9 secs

Today's run was really more of a walk. After running 3km straight for the first time in a long time yesterday I was all out of energy, and besides that I had some bad chafing between the thighs, and under the arms. After a few steps I could feel my skin rubbing and it was quite painful. The best thing I got out of this "run" though, was that I got out there, hopefully starting "getting out there" as a habit!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Third run, and I mean run, not run/walk!

Today's run: 3km, 22 mins 36 secs

And as the title said, I ran the whole way. That seems like such a small achievement in one sense, but in another I've only done two walk/runs before this, so to still have the muscle memory / ensurance to be able to run (ok, well shuffle) 3km is great! It was a beautiful morning for it too - blue sky, lovely temperature.

Now to get back into the habit of some consistent running... with work at the moment (well, I guess at any time really) that's a challenge.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

I broke my one run streak...

by running for a second time this week! Unvelievable. Soon it will be a habit again!

I ran on Saturday morning after a bit of a lie in. It's so nice not to have to rush around. Got up and got myself ready and did a walk / run around my usual loop. It's amazing how much fitness you can lose so quickly - the loop is only 3.2km. I ended up with a little detour past the newsagent for the Saturday paper and past the cafe for a take-away cappuccino and proceeded to spend the rest of the morning on my balcony reading the paper with my coffee. 'Twas lovely, and I roused myself to get showered after my run and ready for the rest of the day a little before midday!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Take two...

My second attempt at "I'm going to start running again." This one came about because when I did the City to Surf last year with my uncle, I kept bugging him and teasing him that we would do it again this year. Then I stopped running. I spoke to him the other day and after for ever replying with "Nope, that was a one time only deal" and being incredibly sure he would never do it again, he's now said that he would.

So since I couldn't run 3.2km tonight without alternating running / walking 50:50 I had better get back out there a bit!.

Goal 1: Run my 3.2km loop without stopping.

Let's see how this plan goes.