Life on the Treadmill
In January, Christa and I purchased a treadmill to have in the house. I wanted one at home because I did not have enough time over my lunch hour to get full runs in. I’m not so sure Christa wanted it, but I think she really likes it now :)
I have used our treadmill 3 days a week every week since we made this excellent purchase. I get up at 5:30AM and get my runs in each week and love it....sort of....
My biggest problem with being on a treadmill is dealing with the boredom. When you run outside, I feel like you can run longer distances because you have the fresh air and changing scenery around you to keep you occupied. When you are inside, you have the morning news and iPod (Mike & Mike in the morning for me). I'm not running hard runs (as can be attested by my posted Facebook times), but it still is a mental challenge to make it through an entire workout.
I am curious if anyone else reading this post has advise on how to overcome the desire to just stare at the timer and count in as many ways as possible how much longer you have to go. I have found that I try to break up my runs into 5 minute blocks. If I am doing a 30 minute run, then I concentrate to getting to the number 6 (6x5=30). I do my best to not look down at the timer unless I think I am getting close to my 5 minute section.
MAN! I cannot wait to get outside again and get some fresh air!
Since this is supposed to be a du-blog, I guess I should talk about my failure to work on the biking aspect of the sport. I did get a morning ride in last week of 10 miles, but I have not been on the bike since. Its a 2 sided attack as to why. First - 5:30AM is really early in the morning every day! I don't care who you are! Second, Riding on a trainer is more boring that running on a treadmill!
I did realize this week that I need to buy new tires for my bike. I bought the bike in 2005 and it still has the stock tires on it. A great picture of the my bike is here! I did some looking around and discovered.....TIRES ARE REALLY EXPENSIVE!!!! Looks like its going to be about $90 to get a new set. Any advise on these would be appreciated!
Ahh.....enough for now.
TTYL!
Hello everyone! This is the first entry to my new blog!
Yesterday I registered for the Minneapolis Duathlon. It’s a 5k run, 18 mile bike, 5k run race. It will be the most extreme thing I have ever accomplished physically in my life! I am going to try to blog about my training for this event as a way to chronicle everything about preparing for this race (plus it seems like everyone else is doing stuff like this, so why not?)
First, a little history……
On November 29th, 2009 I had my last cigarette. I did not have this great revelation or new motivation to quit; I just decided I didn’t want to do that anymore. I did start having thoughts however about wanting to be in shape because I did not want to be that dad that was too lazy to play with his kids in the back yard. I can now say that since that day in November, I have not had a single slip up and have been smoke free!
In January of 2010, I decided to start going to a gym. I had never gone to a gym before, but it sounded like a good thing to do. I started going to a gym that is about 10 minutes away at Fitness 19 over my lunch hour. I started by doing some running on the treadmill and using the weight machines. I found that I was able to run a 9 minute mile pretty easy. I wasn’t breathing hard and my legs felt fine, while running anyway.
It took about 5 weeks and I learned what overtraining was (boo). I ended up getting knee bursitis. After 6 weeks of rehab at Twin City Orthopedics, I learned to listen to my body a little more!
After the physical therapy and a lot of reading on sites like http://www.active.com, http://www.runnersworld.com and http://www.coolrunning.com I decided to start a training plan and set the goal of running the Worthington Turkey Day 10k. I decided that 6.2 miles would be a pretty incredible feat for me since I am not a runner.
For the entire summer of 2010 I ran. I would wake up early before everyone else in the house would wake up and run. I ran around the lake by my house. If I didn’t run in the morning, I would run over my lunch hour. My weeks consisted of 3 days of running (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and 3 days of weight training (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). I also started watching my diet more to help improve my performance. I began using two web sites: http://www.runkeeper.com and http://www.myfitnesspal.com . I started tracking my inputs and outputs along with my weight.
I did run the Turkey Day 10k race! It was 37 degrees when the race started! When I started this endeavor, my goal was to just finish the race. As the summer went on, I adjusted that to finish in under an hour. The month before I started thinking I could do it in 50 minutes. I ended up finishing in 392nd of 587 racers with a time of 58:21. While unhappy with the time, I still have the feeling of accomplishment for finishing.
This summer, my plan is to train hard and consistent. I feel like since I have a year under my belt, I will have a better idea on what it will take both physically and mentally to achieve some goals.
Speaking of goals, here is what I hope to accomplish this year:
1. Complete the Minneapolis Duathlon in 2:05:00 or less.
2. Complete the Turkey Day 10k in 50:00 or less.
3. Run a few 5k races over the summer.
4. Log at least 600 miles on the bike this year.
Along the way toward accomplishing these goals, I will post thoughts and results for all to share. I will also try to post fun links I find along the way. I will try to keep a training plan up to date and welcome feedback from anyone who reads this with your thoughts, goals, advice, etc.
