Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Road Runner

Beep Beep!

Most of my running has been on the road, or the walking trail and sidewalks in the neighborhoods around here. Several neighborhoods are harder than others for the fact that their sidewalks are old and not in good shape. When crossing the street, there seems to be no slope for the stroller to go down, so my running pace is slowed while I tilt the stroller up and over the bump in the road.

But lately I have been going to the gym (when Joel is off from work) and running on the treadmill. It is not as scenic, and watching the Pentagon Channel and CNN are not my choices to watch while running. But I have my ipod and run to the beat of the songs. The first time I went was because I wanted to see if I could pass the Army Physical Fitness Test run. For my age, I would need to complete a 2 mile run in 20:30. At first I thought, "Piece of cake! I mean, come on! Surely I can run this in 20 minutes!". Well, good news for the Army....I still can't do it! My time that day for the 2 mile was 22:50. Ugh! More than 2 minutes to cut off that time. In October when I turn 32, the time to beat will be 21:42. Hmmm, that is a little more doable, but I still want to run it in the 20:30 time. So, more training.

The good news is that the training (such as it is) works! When I started on March 10th, my pace was clocked at 14:55. Respectable, but I knew I could do better! 4 miles in 1 hour....that is pretty darn slow in my personal book. Some days are slower than others because I am having to push Nathan in a stroller. And on days when I am at the gym on the treadmill, I admit it is harder to slow down because you have to make the effort to program the machine to adjust to the pace.

I won't bore you with the details of 15 runs I've made over the past month or so, but I have noticed that my pace has slowly declined. For example---

Day 1-March 10-14:55 for 1.9 miles

Day 6-March 20-13:11 for 3.21 miles (5k!)

Day 9-March 27-12:44 for 3 miles

Day 11-March 30-11:20 for 2.01 miles (on the treadmill-trying to do the Army 2 miler PT test)

Day 12-April 1-13:53 for 2.23 miles (just to show you I can have an "off" day).

Day 15-April 6-11:06 for 1.8 miles

So, since starting I have dropped 3:49 off the pace of my mile! YIPPIE!! I am not a distance runner just yet. I can run fast, not long, but I know over time this will progress as well. And this is not a constant run either, but rather running and walking combined. So far I think like running on the treadmill for training purposes because of the speed it gives me, but outside because of the beautiful weather that we are having around here. Hmmm, decisions, decisions......


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