Always pragmatic, and not to be disheartened through aiming too high, my first goal now is to simple run for 30 minutes - without stopping - and to do so comfortably. Pretty reasonable.
The early part of the week saw me increasing to 2 whole minutes of running and 1 minute walking repeated 11 times, and this went pretty well. That elongated "week" is shown below. Mr Garmin is becoming a bit more accurate and consistent in the pace he's recording as the running sections become longer, and keeping him charged up has also helped. Mind you, it shouldn't be long before my new 900mAh rechargeables hit the doormat.
Todays walk in the woods was at Cannock Chase, about a 40 minute car ride from where I live. My daughter has been at a Guide camp this weekend up there, so we went up a couple of hours early with the other two kids and had a walk around Castle Ring and some of the local pathways. Always thinking of you, I took a couple of shots of the green stuff, careful not to include the big coal fired power station totally failing to blend into the local surroundings.
Then, this evening came the time to increase to 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking, 8 repetitions on the normal route. And it went fine. It felt much more like real exercise as this is starting to push at (my pretty low) stamina rather than train muscles to work properly. Total run distance is now about 2.4 miles.
You might note that from my "YATP" post, that I'm not following very much of anything at the moment, other than what feels right. I think that I have the balance OK at the moment between pushing on and avoiding injury. Where I am now, I see one more at 3:1 before I go up to 4:1. We'll see how things go.
In the meantime, I watching out for local 5K races to try out in a month or two, so I have a goal to follow this one.
Mr Stumble 
3 comments:
Andy,
You’ve got guts! This attribute will come in handy once you get over the 30 minute running hurdle. You are just now starting to feel what it’s like to really exercise. I continue to be impressed that you have hung in there after your initial injury. Folks like Ann and Amy who get hurt after they’ve run a few years are driven not to give up. But you are only now starting to see a glimmer of what drives the rest of us; yet you continue as if you’ve been at this for years.
There is no dishonor in missing a race. We’ve all missed races. Despite that fact that we all thought you were certifiable for expecting to be able to run your first 5k so soon after taking up the sport, we’ll be here to cheer you on as you start working towards your first real competition.
Your progress looks good. You just keep doing whatever your body tells you to do. You’ve got nothing but time and there isn’t a fixed formula for any of this. Every runner sort of feels his way around. There are some basic principles associated with training as an endurance runner, but there isn’t any cook book approach. At the end to the day you need to do exactly what you’re doing.
Also ... great pics! You’re putting us all to shame.
Phil
Hey, you should read some of my posts from 2003. I say things like "I ran a mile without stopping!"
I think walk/run is great. I went to one of Jeff Galloway's day long seminars here in Phoenix two years ago (it was on the day of the 2004 Olympic Men's Marathon, I remember), and I asked him what he thought of the naysayers who claimed that slow or walking marathoners were corrupting the sport.
He looked at me and smiled, and said, "I would ask them to show me where exactly in the marathon rules it says you can't walk!" He was so passionate about this.
It's easy to get caught up in time goals and forget that you're supposed to be having fun out there! Let me tell you, I struggle with this every time I go out. I compare 2004 Ann to 2006 Ann, who is recovering from a chronic foot injury and 19 lbs heavier. Like I could compete! We just have to go out there and do the best we can on that day. And have fun!
By the way, I still do walk/run all the time in training and in longer races. I try to run 5-10k races straight through, and I can unless it's really hot or something. Walk/run has the effect of interval training as it increases your aerobic capacity. I don't think it makes you any less of a runner.
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