Archive for: walking

Training Update: Almost Back to Running

Posted by Jim on December 7, 2011

Yesterday I did another five miles walking on the treadmill.  Actually it was more like late last night/early this morning.  I didn’t get started until nearly 11:00 pm and the walk took an hour and a half.  I left the incline at 2% and simply walked at a comfortable 3.3 mph except when cooling down at the finish.  I really just wanted to get in the miles.  I wore my heart rate monitor, but I averaged a very mild 109 for the walk.  Again, my goal wasn’t to do an aerobic workout so I didn’t worry about my heart rate during this workout.

Today I figured I could start doing a little bit of running on level ground.  I went to the church’s track and covered 3 miles by running a lap, then walking a lap.  I felt good and the pulled muscle didn’t seem to be a problem.  I’m trying to be cautious because I know if I re-injure myself I will have to drop out of the 10k race coming up.

Today’s run was at the warmest time of day, but still only 40 degrees.  I wore my layers, double socks, gloves and hat.  After a couple laps my core was warmed up and I felt comfortable.  It’s been raining throughout the day, but I did manage to find a window of no rain during my run.  I just had to be sure to avoid the multiple puddles of water on the track.  Yeah, I finished with wet feet.

Categories Clothing & Equipment, Training
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Treadmill 5-Mile Walk

Posted by Jim on December 6, 2011

I didn’t run yesterday because my pulled muscle was still hurting from Friday’s run.  I can walk just fine, so today I decided to walk my workout.

I didn’t get time to work out until after dark.  So I headed to the garage to avoid the dark and the rain for my walk.  I tried to mix things up a bit with a varying pace of 3.5 to 4.2 mph and varying inclines of 0 – 8%.  I used the inclines to keep my HR as close to my target zone as possible.  I took a 90 second “incline break” every 8.5 minutes.  These replaced my typical walking breaks.  The total walk was 5 miles in just over 80 minutes.

I’m hoping that this injury will heal soon so I can get back to running.  I still have the 10k trail race coming up in two weeks, so I want to be ready.

Categories Training
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Training Update: October 10 – Present

Posted by Jim on October 29, 2011

Since I started my marathon training a few weeks ago, I thought I’d update you on what I’ve done so far.  Keep in mind that I started running again only a couple weeks ago and I am at least 40 pounds over weight.

October 1 – Decided to do something about being out of shape.  Okay, I’m in shape…but that shape is round.  So I started paying more attention to what I eat and thinking about an exercise plan.  I weighted myself in the morning at 261.50 pounds (I use a doctor’s scale).

Note: I like to weight myself everyday and average my weight for the week.  I know, this is not recommended by the weight loss gurus, but it works for me.  I don’t have a problem with getting discouraged.  I like to know how food and exercise affect my body every day.  So each morning I step on the scale to see how I’m doing.

October 10 – Okay, I’ve given it a lot of thought and decided that it’s time to finally achieve the goal I set twenty-eight years ago…to run a marathon.  The weather is beautiful, so off to the 3/8 mile running track at our local church.  39 minutes later I finished my first run of 3 miles.  I ran 5 minutes and walked 5 minutes until I finished.  It felt great to get out and run again.

October 12 – Today I decided to try running on the crushed rock path at a local park.  The running surface and the couple moderate hills on this one kilometer (.62 miles) course slowed me down a bit.  I ran 3.1 miles in 43 minutes.  This time my run/walk ratio was 6:4 (6 minutes running and 4 walking).

October 14 – Three miles has felt great so far.  I’m not in as bad of shape as I expected.  My volunteer work doing trail maintenance at Cloudland Canyon State Park (and my time on the park’s disc golf course) seem to have helped me some.  So I chose to run 4 miles today.  My 11:36 pace was about a minute faster per mile than my 3 mile run on Monday.  Run/walk was 6:4.  Felt great!

October 16 – Back to the park to run.  Finished my 5K (3.1 miles) about 3 minutes sooner than my October 12 run.  But I felt like I was pushing it a bit after the first 10 minutes.

October 17 – Week two and I started with a 3 mile run at the church.  This time I changed my run/walk ratio to 7:3.  The 3 minutes of walking seemed to be just right.  Again, my pace improved.  I expect this to happen a lot for the first few weeks as my body starts to get adjusted to running again.

October 19 – It’s a cold and breezy 48 (F) degrees.  I threw on a technical shirt, a cotton tee and my warmup jacket and pants.  I also wore some cotton gloves and a winter headband.  Felt wonderful as I finished my 4 mile run in 45 minutes.

October 21 – Time for my long, slow run.  I added a mile to my longest run last week and finished my 5 miles in just under an hour.  It was a cool, but comfortable 62 (F) degrees.

October 23 – My Sunday run was 3.1 miles on the slow park path.  I forgot my watch, but I estimate it was about a 40 minute run.  My run/walk ratio was 8:2 today.

October 24 – On this beautiful sunny and 72F day, I ran a good pace (for me) of 10:47 for my 3.8 mile run.  Some minor pain in my right ankle, but nothing bad.

October 26 – Three miles at the park in just over 38 minutes.  I like to mix up my running paths like this.  The hills and soft surface at the park are rather enjoyable.  Still running/walking an 8:2 ratio.

October 28 – Today…I’ve not gone to bed yet.  My long run was a 10K (6.2 miles).  I ran a very slow pace to finish in 1 hour, 23 minutes.  I’m not worried about the time on these long runs.  Right now I am building a base and time is not important.  Thighs were a little sore the last mile.  That let’s me know I’m getting in shape.

Categories Training
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