good (new york) times
I was such a nut.
I miss sitting at the Metcalf Street breakfast nook with two silly girls, two stupid cats, and one good friend.
OK, I need a plan. I need several plans. I AM going to do my Wralkathon, but S. posed this question last night - should it be this year? Even if I plan to walk the majority of the 26 miles, smart prep is essential. I haven't done so much as a 5K this year (though there is one coming up on July 27, as well as the Niketown 5K in September that I will for once join my school in running.)
What I have done so far: gotten out of my comfort zone and made exercise habitual. I originally planned to take two weeks to "establish a base fitness level" per the advice of some running websites I studied up when the Wralkathon first crossed my mind. This is actually the middle of my fourth week, and I finally feel ready to start running. (Had a pretty good debut last Thursday, but didn't hit the road again till today, and that did not go so well.)
Thus, the need for a plan. I found one online that made me laugh (but knowing me, maybe I should just go with it): Schedule a 30-minute walk every day. Insert 5 - 10 seconds of running every 1 - 2 minutes of walking. Gradually add 5-second increments of running. Weeks and weeks and WEEKS later, you are magically running yourself a 5K. Hokay. And then there's S.'s advice: on a run, no walking, even if you have to run at a senior citizen shuffle. And then there's the advice I like the most, courtesy of active.com: Run till you're tired, then walk till you're bored. Then go home. Sounds like a plan!
I want to keep hiking till my work schedule kicks in. I want to hike in the morning and add a mild run (maybe like the above) in the evening. Or hike, then swim. Or swim, then run. My longest workout is probably the hike, 38+ strenuous minutes up, and about the same amount of time down. Maybe I don't need to add anything on those days. But with swimming, although it's enough activity to put me soundly to sleep afterwards, it's 30 minutes at the most. S. says I may not need to add anything, arguing that although it's just 30 minutes, it's 30 minutes in which I'm using pretty much every muscle group I have. But I do wonder if I should be kicking up the cardio to closer to 60 minutes every workout. I pointed out that four weeks into regular exercise, I have not lost or even shrunk my joey. S. advises patience ("Belly fat is the last to go," he assures me) but I feel like I should be doing more.
Anyway, tomorrow is Kuliouou IX. Not gonna push it too hard (especially if the heat is like today's) but I do want to get out, as my last hike was four days ago and I've had two days completely off (except for a six-minute jog this morning).
1 comment:
establishing a baseline is a good idea if you're looking for improvement. improvement is going to come as long as you continue to exercise. it may come as just feeling less tired, or time improvements.
one other thing to consider is that how long is your wralkathon? you may find yourself unprepared for the sheer amount of time you're going to spend on it without breaks/naps and such. that's what happened when i ran my first half-marathon (back in the day). it kick my butt mentally.
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