Thursday, June 14, 2007

Operation Portugal: Logging the Miles

Rob and I were saying the other night that we should start posting the miles we log on our treadmill to keep track of our progress. So I'll start with last night as day one, even though I had some good miles before yesterday. I want to be 100% accurate.

6/13: 2.25 miles
TOTAL: 2.25 miles

Right now I walk and run on the treadmill. My standard is to walk a little over a mile, then run a little less than a mile, and then walk slowly to cool down for about a quarter mile. This takes my short, little legs about 35 minutes. I try to run the last quarter mile at a fast pace for me, which is probably laughably slow to be considered a sprint... a ten-minute-mile pace... but it feels like one to me. I love the little "track" graphic on the treadmill that you loop every time you hit another quarter-mile. I divide it up into six points so if I want to go a mile, I know I just have to count to 24 reeeaaaalllly slowly. Seems more bearable that way, as none of the points are too far apart. Is it obvious that exercise is not my thing?

The only time in my life I worked out regularly was at the end of my days in NYC. I'm convinced something about NYC makes you skinnier because the further I get from it, the more I weigh, while my friends who still live their keep getting thinner. Hmm. I'm sure it's all about the city and has nothing to do with my more sedentary lifestyle and increased consumption of food and alcohol. Anyway, for about two months in 2001 I worked out with some regularity. Of course, I only once ran over two miles straight. The combination of wimpiness and asthma does not lend itself well to cardio, but I tried. And when I ran those two miles, I was running at a ten-minute-mile pace without struggle. Given how that pace feels now, I'm more impressed now with my 2001 short stint of exercising regularly than I was at the time. So I hope that the current stint takes me back to that golden era (for me).

This time, I have a pre-Portugal (mid-August) goal as well, which I know I keep mentioning. I want to run the entire Teb's Troops 5K at the end of July. (We are soooo close to our fundraising goal for the 5K. Yea!) When we ran our last 5K, I had to walk a couple minutes. And when we ran our 8K, I had to walk a bit more than that. I hope that with (hopefully close to) daily treadmilling the next few weeks, I'll be able to increase my running a wee bit at a time, so by the time the 5K comes it'll be a piece of cake to run (slowly) start to finish. For those of you in Chi-town, definitely sign up to run with Rob and me. We'd love the company and it's for an excellent cause.

So the count is 2.25 miles... we'll see if posting the miles publicly shames me into success!

2 comments:

Claire said...

I should post my mileage publicly - maybe it would also shame me into shape! I foolishly signed up for a 5K - in two weeks - and have only run once - two weeks ago. I think I need to get moving!

Valerie said...

I recommend interval training -- it will get you running faster in no time.