Where I Stand

This week has not been a very good one for me in terms of staying on track with the exercise or the diet. I have had a much more difficult time waking up in the morning and staying within my calorie limit. I am hoping to turn over a new leaf again and get right back on top of this. I have a big announcement coming soon in terms of running but in the mean time I will tell you where I am at with the overall picture.

I weighed myself this morning at 177.5 pounds. A drop of 14.5 pounds since the Fourth of July. I am extremely proud of this and hope to take off another 14.5 pounds by the middle of next April (slow and steady in this race wins it for me). As my running mileage increases I fully expect to drop a decent amount of weight.

In the last few weeks I have set some personal records at various distances.
9:21 mile
18:08 3k
19:25 2 mile
30:00 5k
53:25 5 mile

I certainly have a long way to go to hit my goals by that is why this is a long term project.

I am still debating about running tomorrow morning's scheduled six miler because of this ache above my ankle. Maybe I will get it the weekend off. I will figure that out tomorrow morning. More later.

Another running discrepancy!

My training program called for a three mile run this morning but I decided to set my iPod's Nike+ to a 5k to make sure that I ran a full three miles in a good time. I wasn't looking for a personal record or that speedy of a time. Just a solid workout.

According to my results on the Nike+ I ran the 5k in 29:56, which would be a personal record.



Meanwhile the Runkeeper map (after being adjusted like always to display a better picture of my actual run) shows a 3.01 mile run.



Usually, I lean more towards the map but this time there were more than a few instances of having to run around some construction that is not seen in the map. I am thinking that the run was probably around 3.05 or 6 but I am going to round up my time to a full 30 minutes and call that my new PR. I have little doubt that if I knew I was going to set a PR that I would have been able to do it in that time and I was not that far off in reality.

This makes this three new personal records in short order. I may need to refrain from doing this and just set a pace prior to runs. Multiple articles that I have read stress the importance of not going out too hard as it may cause injury. I would be wise to heed this advice.

Two mile PR and Nike+ fail!

As I have been saying I wanted to use my two mile run this morning to show myself something special (at least in my mind it would be). I was determined to make my two mile run count for something and break my previous two mile personal record of 21:55. I didn't think it would be that difficult to do so I went a step further and wanted to crack 20 minutes on it.



Well I blew 20 minutes out of the water! I started out quick because of a great pick up song playing on the iPod and slowed down to make sure that I would have energy to push myself at the end. In 20 minutes I ran 2.07 miles and my two mile time ended up at 19:25. A full two and half minutes better than the last time I tried the two mile run in this manner. How exciting!

First mile - 9:51
Second mile - 9:34

In fact that second mile isn't too far off my personal best for the mile at 9:26. It has been a year since I last tried that and this may get me to try it again.

One downfall of the morning was that I was unable to use my Nike+ sensor. This would have just been its third run but I couldn't get the iPod or the iPhone to pick it up. FAIL! Hopefully I can exchange it because that is a little ridiculous.

A 5k best

I decided to test out my tight calf muscles today after a couple of days of walking and some great stretching. Two previous runs resulted in a pretty painful feeling amounting to my calf muscles being in vice grips. I am happy to report that today it did not happen. Instead I just needed to walk a couple of quick times to provide a small breather and little relief. I hope to be out of that soon and be able to run it faster.

Even better news was that I finished this 5k in 34:42 beating my previous personal best by a full 14 seconds.



I am extremely happy about this and look forward to getting even better.

Personal Records

Alright, these are not meant to be a marker on my overall talent but just stating what I have done so far and what I will be beating over the next several months. I was never a runner in high school or college and am in fact really just getting into the sport.

Personal Records as of 5/5/09
Kilometer - 4:29
Mile - 8:29
Three Kilometers - 16:03
Two Miles - 22:55
Five Kilometers - 34:56
Ten Kilometers - 1h17:55
Half Marathon - 3h00:03

These times are just the starting point for me. I will get a lot better over the coming weeks. In fact, I bet I run my best two miles yet this week.