The only way to improve something is to step it up a notch!
I had discussed with my brother during Spring Break of how to improve my running (both distance and pace) and one suggestion he gave me was to get used to running two days in a row, which will build up general stamina in terms of just running more, but also build me up to the point where I can run almost every day (eventually). Over the course of running the Week 6 schedule (2 intervals of 12 minutes), I noticed I really wasn't making much improvement. Ultimately it came down to how much energy I had the day (as well as the time) of the run. Not to mention I'm still recovering from being sick (from the cold, not the stomach flu), so that's been affecting my running. Nonetheless, I decided I wanted to change things up, and do something to see some improvement. I've barely been able to finish these Week 6 runs, and I'm going to be moving to 30 minute runs soon enough that I really should be able to handle 12 minutes much better than I have been doing. So I decided that I would run today (Sunday - note that I'm still considering it Sunday evening right now) as well as do a run tomorrow morning prior to classes. Firstly, Monday/Wednesday/Friday all work very well for my class schedule, so it's easiest to run on those days. Secondly, this allows for a schedule of 4 runs per week, which is perfect, considering I have been doing 7 runs every 2 weeks.
Today's run went quite well actually, after just saying that I've been struggling a bit. Which is funny, because I moved to Week 7 today, which is 3 intervals of 12 minutes. Let me say, going from 24 minutes of running to 36 minutes of running is a huge leap, and I definitely noticed the difference. But I started my run in the late afternoon (4:30) and I don't know if that played a factor, but I just ended up with a lot more energy overall, which was great. I completed each interval without walking (which once again, is funny, because my last run on Friday, I had to walk part of, and that was only 2 intervals) and made it to 4.35 miles, which is my new distance record for a run. My pace was one of my slower ones of the last few weeks, but that is expected, considering that I had to run for much longer. But I did keep the same pace for the entire run, which is fantastic; this means I'm doing a much better job of pacing myself, which is something I've always struggled with. Oh and since I had a longer run today and I'm planning to run tomorrow, I decided I will repeat a Week 6 run, to make it an easier transition for my body.
Saturday morning, I went to Dixon with Ryan (Nick was on a stupid field trip and couldn't go). We rode a bike for about 10 minutes (my legs were killing me for whatever reason, so I didn't feel the need to go any longer) and then we hit the basketball court up, shot for a bit, and then got started with some basketball games (5v5 for most of it, 4v4 in one game). I had a hard time finding my niche in the game, considering that the last time I played a game of basketball with a team was back in fifth grade. I really did a poor job of communicating to my teammates at first, just due to my inexperience with a team, but after the first game, I really stepped it up. I played all my offense in the key basically, and I had a ton of offensive rebounds. Made 2 baskets total, and in the third game, I couldn't make a single shot. Was probably 0 for 8 shots (all right by the basket); someone told me the rim must be greased because the ball just did not want to go in for me. But hell, with a bit of practice, I bet I could be a powerhouse. If I even made half the shots I took, we would have won each game so easily.
While at Dixon, I also weighed myself, as usual. Ended up at 223, which is another loss of 2 pounds since last week. That's great, because it's a healthy weight to lose per week, and that's also considering eating a lot of Easter candy. So that's good. I haven't been using my food journal since the beginning of Spring Break, but I do keep a pretty accurate mental note of how much I've eaten (including the calories), so at the end of the day, I'll just give myself a mental note of whether I should eat food number 1, or food number 2, based off the nutritional value. On top of nutrition, I've decided to start limiting the amount of red meat that I eat. I'll still eat it for now, if it's either made for me, or I'm at a restaurant or whatever, and it's calling my name (I mean, burgers are like my favorite food...), but I just want to cut down the amount I eat. I never mentioned this, but I stopped buying hot dogs (just horrible for you anyways), and haven't had bacon in a while, and eating more poultry rather than pork for example. Only thing I eat is black forest ham lunch meat for sandwiches, and I have had a couple of pork chops in the last couple of months (in terms of the food I've bought and made for myself). I was tempted to buy some canadian bacon yesterday, but the limitation of red meat made me decide not to buy it, which ultimately is probably a good decision. Eventually, I want to go without eating any red meat for a period, which will then hopefully lead to trying out being vegetarian for a little while. Mainly just to try it out, and challenge myself to it. But also to just aid towards my overall health - making me think of more health conscious foods over fatty meats.
And my last thing to talk about. I keep mentioning and coming up with new goals (hah like those push ups? Haven't even tried continuing, although I really should, as well as doing some weight training. Maybe this week...) but I've got something to throw in about running. All of my goals lately have been to accomplish it by my birthday, such as my big goal of weighing 210 pounds (or 200 if 210 is accomplished early enough), so I wanted to give myself a running goal. First, I want to be able to run 5 miles without walking (at any pace, just have to finish it), as well as be able to run a 6 minute mile. Simple enough. Within the next couple of weeks I should be able to run 30 minutes straight, and from there, it's just building up my stamina to last that long on a run.With the mile time, I wonder if I could do that by now. I'm sure I could get down to a 7 minute mile easily, but we'll know when I start timing myself. There are a couple of tracks around town that I could use that are close by. I want to use a track because it'll be more accurate than my phone's GPS, which wouldn't be a great representation of my distance and pace, in comparison to a track. Once I finish the running podcasts that I've been using (which will be in the next 2 weeks if everything is on schedule) then I will time my mile to see where I'm at now, and then will work on getting down to a faster mile by the end of Summer. Combining a faster mile as well as the endurance to run longer, should help me towards a decent 5k time.
I realized that was a lot that I just talked about, but it was all on my mind, and nothing else has really been happening this week/weekend, so I thought I'd share. Oh and I'm 2/3 through The Fellowship of the Ring, some of these chapters are just so damn long. Anyways, stay fancy.
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