Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I ran again today.  Yayy...  I mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating:  the first mile sucks.  I started out at the 5mph pace again.  Everything that sucks about running happens in that first mile.  Really, before I even start running there is the whirlwind of life.  "I'm too busy to run" "I have a cold" "I'm hungry and I should eat first" "The basement is cold and... not pleasant."  Whatever.  Why bother?  So, just going through with lacing up the shoes and changing shirts... and shorts, etc. and getting on the treadmill at all takes effort.

The last run was Sunday.  This is Tuesday.  One of the fun things about exercise is the delayed reaction.  It makes it hard both to know if you over-did it as well as under-did it.  I was not sore on Sunday... or Monday... or even Tuesday.  When I finally started running, however, my muscles decided they were sore.  But, sore muscles are working muscles.  This was not injury pain, this was exercise soreness.  So, suck it up and keep running.

Beyond that comes the "I don't really have to do this" and "I can't do this, I'm already gassed" and that kind of thing.  Basically, everything except experience says to stop running before mile 1.

When mile 2 comes around, though, everything is progress at that point.  It's no longer a question of pushing through, it's just sustaining.  I'm warmed up, I'm settled in, I'm over the hump.  I also start thinking more positively.  I started setting goals.

Right now, the only goal is consistency.  Can I run when I plan to run?  I plan to run on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday afternoons.  The 2 mile thing takes less than 1/2 an hour.  I decided I should not set distance goals right now, because that mostly will mean my workouts will take longer and then it just becomes all the more inconvenient to know that I don't have that kind of time.  I'd rather keep the time the same and work on speed development.  Technically, I'll be running farther in the same time, but at least I'll know that I only need 30 minutes to succeed.  That's seems more reasonable.  That seems more achievable.  Plus, the other side is that it's more of a conditioning factor-- a cardio challenge, more than a muscular/skeletal challenge.  That's more interesting to me.

So, I cruised along to that second mile thinking about stuff like that and feeling pretty good.  In fact, as the last minute was in reach, I bumped the speed up to 6mph to the finish to make sure that I finished under 24 minutes.  23:56.  Booyah!  After that, I started looking at the calories.  I was under 350, so I walked at 3mph until that barrier was overcome.  Then what?  Then I waited for the song to end.  It was Young MC, "Bust a Move" after all.  C'mon fatso...

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