Day 50: Week in Review

Man up, hausewife!

Thursday: 30 minutes, 2.5 miles (soooo close to 2.6 I could feel it!)
Did what I said previously: 5.0 for the first 0.5 of each mile, then 5.5 for the second halves.

Next up: Adding a 5.5 to 1.0–1.5. If I can't do it, I can try alternating the next night on the 5.0's (a minute at 5.5, then back to 5.0); then the next night, try to make the middle one entirely 5.5, and then try again. I bet this doesn't make sense to anyone else but myself, but screw it, it's my blog and workout journal, I can write in hieroglyphics if I want.

The rest of the week was pretty horrid. Horrid in that I pretty much walked like a 90-year-old, because I figured it was better than nothing, and I just didn't have the energy to do more than that. My friend Donna thinks I might be anemic. It's either that or I have chronic fatigue syndrome or general malaise (I was actually diagnosed with this once) or some other crazy illness, because shit just ain't right. Gots to get me to a doctor ASAP.

Friday: 30 minutes, 1.5 miles
Walked at 3.5 the entire pathetic way.

And you thought that was bad:

Saturday: 30 minutes, 1.0 mile
Walked (if you can call it that) at 2.0 the whole way. For some of the time, I even had my head resting on the treadmill console. If Jillian Michaels had seen me, I would have had my ass kicked.

Sunday: 30 minutes, 1.0 mile
At least tonight I kept my head up!

So the record remains at 2.5 miles in 30 minutes (though I'm oh-so-close to breaking that 2.6-mile marker), or 43:03 minutes for the entire 3.3 miles. Good to know I have seven weeks left to get my act together.

Day 57: Week in Review

Gonna fly now (just not tonight -- it's been a long week).

Wednesday: 30 minutes, 2.5 miles
Broke last week's 30-minute record today! Slowly inching up on 3.3 miles in 30 minutes. Ran at 5.0 the whole way, save for the last minute, when I went to 5.5. I also didn't count my five-minute warmup walk in this. My goal, I suppose, if I'm to improve in the 30-minute category, is to up each half mile by 0.5 incrementally. I could also do this for the whole 3.3 miles if I'm going by total distance.

So that means next time I run, I'll run the second half-mile of Mile 1 at 0.5 more than I had been previously. The time after that, I'll add 0.5 to the second half of Mile 2. Then after that, 0.5 more speed to the second half of Mile 3 (and maintain that for the last 0.3 miles, cranking it up even more for the last minute). I can front-end it one day at a time onto the first half of each mile, so it would basically take me, hopefully, six training days to up my speed by 0.5 for the whole distance.

This means tomorrow when I run, I have to go at 5.5 for the second half of Mile 1. I can do that!

Does any of this make any sense to anyone other than myself?

Friday: 30 minutes, 2.5 miles
Did what I said above: Ran 5.0 the whole way, save for 5.5 for the 0.5 to 1.0 miles. Next time, I'll do the same, plus go to 5.5 for 1.5-2.0. Plus ran the last minute at 5.5. Nice!

Saturday: 30 minutes, 2.0 miles

Was feeling insanely tired from cleaning out my son's room. If you have children, you know what physical and mental energy this entails, especially if said child is wandering in and out of the room giving annoyingly specific input about what you're allowed to discard and what you're not. It's usually not in sync with your own thoughts on the matter. This led to me walking for the first five minutes, then alternating walking (3.5)/running (6.0) in one-minute increments for 20 minutes, before finally walking the last five. I know, crapout, but I'm trying.

Sunday: 30 minutes, 1.2 miles

Sigh. There's a reason for this performance. Here we go: I spent most of today writing my final paper for class, and Mad Men is on in 51 minutes. I needed an easy day. Sue me.

For now, the record stands at 2.5 miles for 30 minutes, and 43:03 for the whole 3.3 miles. Getting there!

Day 64: Week in Review

My kids yammering away at me while I'm trying to run can be as distracting as Ric Ocasek as a fly.

I think I need a better plan. I tend to procrastinate because I'm always busy, then I do all my runs at the end of the week. I need to space them out better so I'm not going nuts on Saturday.

I'm also debating if I should continue to try to up my running speed by 0.1 every week till I can do the 3.3 in 30 minutes, or if I should consistently just run the 3.3 and slowly bring my time down. I think it should probably be the latter. I just have to run the damn thing -- any improvement week-on-week is a good thing.

Here we go!

Wednesday: 30 minutes, 2.3 (almost 2.4 miles)
First mile was a 5.0, then did 0.2 miles at 5.5, then walked at 4.0. Got effin' hot again and nauseated. I have to learn to modulate and control my body temp, or at least remember to turn the AC on beforehand. Then I cranked it up to 6.0 for the last seven minutes or so to equal last week's record.

Friday: 30 minutes, 2.2 miles
Ran after happy hour. Probably not a good idea. Oh well.

Saturday: 30 minutes. 1.8 miles
I walked most of the way tonight. I think I pulled a muscle in my lower back in Huntington tonight. Plus Sasha was yammering at me and I couldn't play any music because Jackson was playing the Wii. Then I stepped off the treadmill when it was starting up because I needed to adjust the fan; I thought I had pressed "Pause," apparently didn't, stepped back on what I thought was a stopped treadmill, and flew right off of it, just like you see in the movies. My kids thought it was funny. I'm glad they think I'm funny.

Sunday: 43:02 minutes, 3.3 miles
That's what I'm talking about. I know that seems like an awful time to pretty much Everyone Else on Earth, but I shaved about two minutes off of my time, which did include five minutes of warmup walking. Then the first mile was at 4.5, second and third miles at 5.0, and last 0.3 miles at 5.5. I'm just excited that I'm slowly improving. Tonight's inspirational running music: "You Might Think," by The Cars.

So as of now, my records to beat (depending on whether I'm running for only 30 minutes or doing the whole 3.3 miles) are:
--30 minutes, 2.3 miles
--3.3 miles, 43:02 minutes