Did I make a HUGE mistake?

I think I may have spoiled myself. ANd boy did I pay for it this week.

A couple weeks ago, I st arted running during my sons' hockey practices and games. Ran laps around the rinks, which is about .1 miles per lap. Granted, it's on concrete, but it beats running on that darn dreadmill.

Well, this week I had a couple of scheduled runs where there was no hockey. And that only meant one thing -- back to the treadmill. UGHHH!!! It was AWFUL!! First night I didn't even finish.

I may be running outside sooner than I realize though. It has been CRAZY WARM this week for February. Temps into the low 40s, and rain. Which means the snow is MELTING. There are actually some pretty good patches of grass already visible in our yard.

I know, wishful thinking that it will last. I'm pretty sure that we're still due for a couple more good snowfalls and at least one more good freezing spell, below zero.

I've still been doing my EA Sports Active workouts on the Nintendo Wii. Yesterday I hit the halfway point in my 6 week challenge. 4 workouts per week, about 30 minutes each. And they're FUN. I even got my wife started on a 6 week challenge of her own this week. Good times!!

I think I'm going to go see about a new pair of shoes today. I'm past due for those I think.

6 in 60?

Yesterday's endurance run was scheduled for 6 miles. My son had hockey practice at the "outdoor" rink in Kenai, so I decided I would run my 6 miles there. His practices last an hour, so I knew the big challenge would be, could I get the whole 6 miles on before practice ended. I told him that if I didn't show up in the locker room right at the end of practice, that I'd hopefully be in shortly. After getting his skates on him, I headed out to start running, since I also knew that I had a scheduled warmup to do as well. I figured I could probably get away with shortening the cool down walk.

The distance around the outside the rink is about a tenth of a mile, which means 60 laps does the trick. Luckily, I don't have to count them myself. That is what my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 with the accompanying footpod is for. It beeps when my cooldown period is over, based on and again at the end of the set mileage. I love that thing. I just wish I could locate my heart rate monitor strap again.

So my run went pretty good. Better than I expected really. I ran my 6 miles in 58:33, and I had hoped to do it within an hour. I even got slowed down a time or two by hockey players from the previous game clogging up the running lane as they were leaving, but you don't mess with hockey players. You just slow down for a few seconds, get around em when you can, and then carry on. I haven't downloaded the info yet to get a full analysis of my speed throughout, but even simple math tells me I was averaging just over 6 MPH, so I feel pretty good about that.

Next week's workout pattern is the same as the first two have been, but I run 7 miles on Saturday. After that, things start to switch up a bit.

I also found a new club I want to join. It is the United States Running Streak Association. Their website is located at www.runeveryday.com. In order to get your streak listed, you have to run at least 1 mile per day, every day, for 1 full year. I'm going for it!!!

I found one more thing this week that has helped improve my workouts -- a list titled "The Top 100 Workout songs of the 80s." I've always been into music quite a bit. RIght now, my music genre of choice is country, but most of that doesn't make good workout or running music. The list I found was pretty darn good. I found that I already had about half of it on iTunes. I downloaded the rest this week and now use it as my main workout music.

An Improvement on my 40 Minute Run

So this week, I ran somewhere besides on my treadmill for the first time in a long time. It felt so much better not to be on that machine. But the machine is a necessary evil for now due to weather. At least most of the time.

Last night, my son had hockey at the Soldotna Sports Center. This is an indoor arena, but there is still room to run around the rink. And that is where I did my running tonight. One of my sons made fun of me the other night for not making it a full 4 miles during my 40 minute run on Tuesday (I got to 3.93). So, tonight I pushed a little harder, and it paid off. I completed 4.11 miles, plus a total of .61 miles during my warmup and cooldowns. Running somewhere besides on my treadmill feels so much better and so much more natural!!

My next run is Saturday. 6 miles. I'm looking forward to it.

Running Outside -- A Special Report

Well, tonight I did something, kind of, that I've been thinking about for awhile. My son had hockey game, and his game tonight was at the "outside" rink. I say "outside" because it is only quasi-outside. The rink itself is inside a large warehouse type building, but there's plenty of large doors to the outside, and there's not any real heat inside the building other than a couple heaters that are over the bench areas to keep the players warm.

So tonight, I decided that I would run laps around the rink during his game. I had a 40 minute run to do, plus 5 minutes each for warmup and cooldown. The games last an hour, so I knew I had time, if I could tolerate the cold. Temperature was about 25 degrees, and it was comfortable. Especially once I started running.

I got in just over 4.5 miles total, including the warmup and cooldown. During my run time, I was averaging just over 10 minutes per mile, which is much better than my dreadmill times. I'm glad I did it, and despite the advice of my personal trainer, I may start running outside more often now that I know how it is. Although, I would probably have to get a better fitting face mask than the one I use for biking. And I WILL need a mask for running completely outside. At least tonight I had the building to protect me from any wind.

It was a great run, and great to be outside!!

A Super Saturday, and an All-Around Good Week

So, this was my first full week on my 20 week training program. It went really good. I'm proud to report that I didn't miss a single run or workout. I'm putting my trust in The Penguin. I decided to use a training program from his book Marathoning for Mortals, and the official program began this week, culminating with a 5 mile run today. Actually went for a total of 5.52 miles including the 5 minute warmup and 5 minute cooldown. I'll try and see if I can post the program I'm following. I've got a photo copy of the program in PDF format.

This week, I have actually started thinking about doing the unthinkable -- running OUTSIDE in this cold weather. Of course, the day after I first started thinking about this, the temperature dropped from the mid 20s to about 10 below zero. So much for that idea. I also mentioned it to my unofficial trainer who told me to stay on the treadmill to help save my knees. More sound advice.

I do need to do something about the atmosphere in which I run though. Currently all I do is listen to music while staring at bookshelfs full of empty photo albums. Today I even thought I should take a picture of "the view" to post here on my blog. I'll try and have that to post next week.

I have been riding my bike to work again for 2 weeks now, and boy am I liking it. Didn't realize how much I missed it. On Friday I rode to work in the morning, but took the car back after lunch. SOmeone I didn't even know said to me, "No bike today?" as I was entering the building. I explained how I had ridden that morning but drove back due to the fact that I had to go to Kenai after work, which is a little farther than I care to ride in the snow. It's nice when people I don't even know help to keep me on track. You never know who recognizes you and what you're doing til they call you out.