I am who I am

After stopping for 3 weeks (I’m a lazy fuck), I went out on a run again. My only fitness related activity during these 3 weeks was reading an awesome book by Alex Hutchison “Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise”. It’s a great book. It’s a great survey of the sport physiology literature, and addresses all kinds of exercise related questions with solid evidence based discussions. I consider myself relatively well versed in physiology and exercise, but I’ve learned a lot reading this book.

But, back to the topic: I was expecting to have a horrible run, but surprisingly, it went really well. I reverted to the week 3 workout on my Run5k iphone app. Even though I stuck to the walk/run interval the app set for me, I was able to run pretty fast during the run intervals, and actually pushed myself to a point where I could feel myself getting a nice aerobic workout. This is a new feeling for me. Previously, my shins hurt so much when I ran, that it completely consumed my run. Now, I can focus on the running, and it’s fucking awesome!

Also, the choice of running music helps, a lot. I set up a Linkin Park station on Pandora, and I was jamming the whole time. Feeling like this definitely helps get me out of bad at 6.30! 

I went for another run! Holy crap!! I might be getting the hang of this after all.

P.S. I went with my girlfriend. We were both wearing matching clothes (blue shirts & grey shorts), armbands with iPhones and apple headphones, and a little cutesy dog on a hands free leash. We looked like such fucking yuppies :)

I went for a 30 min run (and by run, I really mean jog/walk) this morning, and actually enjoyed it. It was a pretty wimpy distance, 2.31 miles, but hey you gotta start somewhere, right?

I got myself a brand new armband for my iPhone yesterday ($4 shipped w/Amazon prime). I plugged in DJ Steveboy’s Week 3 of couch to 5k mix, strapped the dog to my waist and ducked out the door. I set my iphone’s timer to beep at the 15 minute mark (the halfway point) so I would know when to turn around and head back. While this week’s particular mix has more walking than running, I started running before the warmup period had ended, and didn’t stop running right when the cooldown period began. So, I actually ran more than half the time.

I took extra care to watch my running form; mainly, staying tall looking a decent distance ahead (I have a bad habit of hunching down and looking at my feet), making sure to avoid landing on my heels or overstriding, and making sure that I’m not pounding the pavement as I run (185lbs at 5’8” almost puts me in Clydesdale territory; I also found out that I’m capable of landing hard even as I land on my midfoot and/or forefoot).

It seems to have worked because I didn’t kill my tibialis anterior. This muscle is the reason I quit running several times before. It never was an issue of fitness for me; I could play 3-hour soccer games just fine, but running even short distances had my shins in such pain that they felt like they were going to burst.

Hopefully, if I keep up conditioning myself slowly and watching my form, I’ll be able to run regularly. Maybe sharing a running log with a supportive audience will help me stick to it. Wish me luck! 

My running buddy :)

I put on my new running shoes, grabbed my (slightly) overweight corgi mix and went to the park. We did the first session of the couch to 5k program together. That involved a 5 min warmup walk, then alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes, and a 5 minute cool down walk.

The goal is for both of us to be able to run 5km in 8 weeks. He needs to lose about 5lbs; it would also be nice if I lost some fat weight. Which means I should probably do some weight training as well to keep my muscle mass.

I’m wearing my old running shoes to work today!

I went to our local running shoe store today and got fitted, finally. I’ve always just grabbed the cheapest pair of running shoes at Dick’s, without any extra additional thought. Having never been fitted for running shoes before, I didn’t know what to expect, so I wore my current running shoes - the ones that make my shins hurt when I run. Turns out they make people take their shoes and socks off, so now I look the stereotypical dorky Midwestern guy with cargo pants and gym shoes.

Oh, turns out I have flat feet with only the slightest overpronation. I ended up getting a New Balance MR860v2 stability shoes (not shown). I’ll take an action shot as soon as I go for my first run in ages. For the record, I did my last 5k (about 4.5 years ago) in 27 minutes and 50 seconds.