New Running Record

Without walking or stopping, my new record is a 32 minute run that I accomplished today. I've been struggling with moving on in my runs, and improving, and I realized that during my intervals, I lose lots of momentum whenever I walk. For example, last week I started a week 7 run, and did the first 12 minutes no problem, then 3 minutes of walking, and as soon as I started to run again, my entire body just hit the wall. My legs got super stiff, it felt as if I had never gotten a break after all, and I just lost all the motivation to keep going, being as uncomfortable as I was. So I decided that I wanted to change up my running, and steer away from the intervals, since the recovery intervals were hindering my progress.

Friday (May 4th) I ran a fairly easy 2 mile run without any breaks, at a 9:45 pace (started at my regular 9:30 pace and slowed down to a 10 minute pace by the end of it). Then went to Dixon on Saturday to just shoot hoops for a bit, and do my weekly weigh in. Sunday, I had meant to run, but I never had a decent oppertunity to do so due to a baseball game, and eating at certain times of the day, as well as when I woke up (woke up at 11, rather than 9, as I hoped for). Nonetheless, I got out there this morning, and wanted to try something longer than 2 miles, in hopes that one of these days I'll be ready to consistantly run 30 minutes without breaks. I wouldn't settle for less than 2.5 miles, but I was really going for 3, and just push myself extremely hard to finish it. And let me tell you, physically, I was done at 2.5 miles, as I got extremely exhausted by that time (right around 26 minutes or so). But mentally, I wanted to finish at least 30 minutes. And if I was going to do 30 minutes, why not just run the extra minute or two and finish off 3 miles (since my pace slowed down to about 11 minutes by the end, was 10:34 overall)? So, barely, I managed to finish, but I did it. Just over 3 miles in a little more than 32 minutes. Toughest run, BY FAR, that I've ever completed. I was afraid that if I didn't stop a couple minutes prior to 3 miles, that I might collapse - somehow I got through it though. It was actually funny, with about 3 minutes left, I crossed paths with an older man, and he gave me this look of pity, it seemed like. Almost as if he knew just what I was going through, and gave a bit of a smile. It was the look of, I'm sorry you're struggling this much, but you can do it. I know, that was a lot to interpret just from a look, but it really felt that way.

I'm thinking that I'll continue this, and start doing the week 8 podcasts until I'm ready to step up my game more. It's 30 minutes straight, but Wednesday, when I run next, I'll probably start my pace a bit slower, around 10 minutes, to make sure I don't overexert myself too much. I can see 5 miles without breaks in my future, and hopefully before my birthday, but it will sure be difficult to reach that point. I'll probably be asking my brother to help build a running schedule for me, to increase my mileage to 5 miles, in the next week or two.

I had mentioned my weigh in at Dixon. Down 3 more pounds to 216. 16 more pounds to go, in just 7 weeks! That's averaging 2.3 pounds per week, and so far over the last 11 weeks, I've lost 34, which is an average of about 3.1 pounds. Very doable. And as my birthday approaches, I will probably crack down more, to ensure that I reach my goal. Nonetheless, I'm positive that I'll reach 210 by my birthday, which was the realistic goal that I set (after making 220 my original goal). It'll be interesting to see where I'm at by the end of the summer, assuming I'm around 200 at my birthday, and then working and continuing to work out and eat better throughout the summer.

Besides all that, nothing really happened last week, and this weekend I'm going home to celebrate my brother's and aun't birthday on Sunday, but I'm still going to Dixon on Saturday morning for my weigh in and be a bit productive as well. Also, Wednesday will be making a vegetarian chili recipe that I found. Pretty easy, few cans of beans, few cans of diced tomatoes, bit of produce like carrots/celery/onion, and a bit of seasoning. I've always wanted to make chili, but some of the recipes can be quite complicated, or require plenty of ingredients. This one is quite simple. Also I'll be making some minestroni soup at some point, and found a good looking recipe for a cajun dirty rice dish. All vegetarian, but I don't mind. Trying to slowly reduce my meat intake, specifically with red meats anyways. Oh and I've recently been making some stir frys, just a pack of frozen stir fry vegetables, add in some cooking teriyaki sauce and sriracha hot sauce, and quite a good, low calorie dish.

I guess that's about it. 'til next time, stay fancy.