Exercise and Running

 

I haven’t done an exercise article in some time.

 Not because I’m sitting around eating apple fritters and downing chocolate milk. Oh I’m doing that too but mostly there isn’t a lot to report on. Notice how slyly I turned my “running” blog into an “exercise” blog. You didn’t even notice did you? All this talk about getting up early on the weekends and finding some raw, unseen power to crush mile after mile under my New Balances... Ha!

 I’m still putting in work but life has been a little busier these last few weeks. So I’ve transferred a lot of my city running to the treadmill, in addition to other cardio work that’s honestly just as tough.

I dare anyone to walk the stair climber for 30 minutes and not be more whipped than 3 miles jogging in the heat.

Last week was vacation which means no work outs, zero. We need to take a break sometimes from work and play--remember what is was like to sleep in for a few days in row. I’m not sure what exercise falls into. Most days it seems like work. It’s consistent and difficult and I don’t usually want to go. The week before vacation was a home project, my mom needed a French drain for her condo. The week before that it rained. Well, it rained at some point. I do remember being happy with the approaching clouds when I rolled back to sleep after checking the weather at 6:00 am. In-between I’ve done a few 4 and 5 mile jogs on the treadmill but no long runs in the heat.

This is beginning to sound like excuse making I’ll grant it. But my foot needed the rest anyway. I’ve had some irritation again after my longish run (9.5) almost a month ago. It wasn’t serious but it always hurts after longer days.  The heat hadn’t moved in to the area yet but the sun was threatening to make it feel hotter than the temperature showed. I needed to push myself that day because I hadn’t run a long distance in some time. I had a few 6 and 7 miles but nothing over that since the colder days.  

Right now at least I’m not concerned with training for specific races. The idea with a lot of runners is they join a group with a goal in mind. Sometimes it’s a 5K or a 10K. Often they can be ready to do a whole marathon with the right mindset and coaching. For me permanent fitness is the goal. It probably sounds like a lazy way to avoid doing the work of actually running every 3 to 4 days. But I’m not training for a race and I have other ways of making sure cardio remains the goal. I make sure I get at least 30 minutes per day 5 days a week. 

The weekend running is all bonus time and I enjoy it as much now as I did when I started.

I mentioned the 80/20 training method in a previous post. The idea is to run 80 percent of your total distance at a slow pace and 20 percent at a quick pace. This builds endurance by strengthening legs and lungs. It works well for indoor (treadmill) stuff but I don’t love it for the outdoors. I hate looking at the watch all the time and I’m still not comfortable jogging slowly. I haven’t given it the effort it deserves but I have time to figure it out.