A Reason to Run

I think I've said it before, but just to be clear, I hate running. Even when I was an athlete in high school, I still dreaded running. I loved playing football, basketball, and the like, but I hated conditioning and hated running. I've come to grips with my dislike for this activity and I do it anyway. It is a fantastic way to get in shape and stay in shape. The late fitness guru, Covert Bailey once said, "show me how fast you can cover a mile, and I will tell you what kind of shape you are in".
So, this morning, I'm on the treadmill at the gym, doing my heart rate thing (keeping it between 135 and 145), thinking "I know I can go faster than this, I know I can cover a mile faster than this." But the end game here is to burn fat, not to cover ground asap. I then got thinking about the 5k's I want to do this summer. I can think of 3-4 I want to run. The first one that I was really planning on was a 5K on the 4th of July in Centerville. BUT, I had another one brought to my attention that I think I will do first.

Let me introduce Deak.

Deak has an extremely rare Chromosomal abnormality, simply titled Ring 18. Deak's parents are friends of my little sister. I've only had the pleasure of meeting Deak once, but I feel like I know a lot about him due to reading his mom's blog. He is one cool little kid, and he inspires me quite a bit. And despite all of the odds stacked against him, he is a fighter and so are his parents.

Deak's mom has put together a charity benefit 5K on May 14th in Kaysville.

I am so there.

Here is a link to the race: Deak's Run for Hope

Go there, read about Deak, read about his life, and you too will be inspired.

So, I've got some getting ready to do. I'll still be doing my heart rate based training each week, but I'm going to throw in some training to improve my stamina and cardio efficiency to get ready to run. Thanks Deak! See you on May 14th!

Still Running

Though you could hardly call it 'running'. More like a slow jog. I upped my jog distance today to .3 miles at a time. Then walking .15 in between. The amount of time over 1 mile stays the same as last week. .7 miles jogged, and .3 walked. Felt pretty good today though. The weather is turning nice, and I need to take some time and get outside and actually try this on the local high school track and eventually the pavement (as you hear my feet and knees scream). The humorist in me thinks that the people watching me from behind on the treadmill must just be giggling to themselves.

Running Man II

Did the running training again today. Time was the same as Tuesday, about 14 1/2 minutes, but I did more jogging this time. Hmmm..... you say, why did you not improve your time if you did more jogging? Thats because I went slower on my jog pace.

It breaks down like this:

Jog @ 4.3 mph for .25 miles
Walk @ 3.5 mph for .15 miles
Jog @ 4.5 mph for .25 miles
Walk @ 3.5 for .15 miles
Jog @ 5.0 mph for .2 miles

So, total was jogging for .7 miles, and walking .3 miles. Like I said, I want to get it to where I can jog the whole mile, then work on improving my time.

Running Man

Good thing I don't have to run the 5K tomorrow. I don't know if I would make it. Well, I would make it, but I would walk a lot of it. I did my mile this morning in 14 minutes 25 seconds. The clip today was jog .15 miles, then walk .15 miles. At the end of it, I thought "no way I could do 3 times this distance." But thats why I have to work up to it. My goal for March is to be able to jog the entire 1 mile.

The weight loss wasn't as much as I'd hoped yesterday. But, I'm still somewhat optimistic that I can reach my weight loss goals for the contest. It ends in 2 short weeks.