Testing My Limits (2010 Run 6)

Date: 1/26/10
Time of Day: 9:45 PM
Location: Marriott Route

Conditions: 30 degrees F
Music: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, Blind Side by Michael Lewis

Clothing: Long sleeve wicking shirt, tights, shorts

Shoes: Nike Air Pegasus 26+

 

A couple of days ago, I signed up for the Nashville Predators Fangtastic 5k, which occurs on February 6th. I also didn't think about how the 6th is less than a week-and-a-half away and I haven't been able to run longer than 3 minutes since the beginning of the year. I also didn't think about how the Predators tend to add "Fang" to words to make them hockey related. It's sort of like Bring It On where normal prefixes are replaced with "cheer-", as in "cheertastic", "cheertastrophe", "cheermare", etc. But as per usual...I digress.

 

I had a couple of things on my mind last night: I needed to run to get back into my routine, I needed to finish my audiobook (Born Standing Up by Steve Martin) and I wanted to test my limits AND see how fast I could finish 3.1 miles. Okay, so technically that's four things.

 

I've only run the Marriott Route last night, but my plan was to go out-and-back twice, which would take me a little over 4 miles. My plan was essentially just to run when I felt I could run and walk when I felt I could walk. For the time being, I've abandoned any strict adherence to the C25K and will just focus on running. It seems that if I run more days in a week, I'll be able to maintain my fitness better. Obviously, I'll push harder on some days than others.

 

The run began with a nice 7 minute run before I decided to walk. The bottoms of my feet were hurting a bit, 7 minutes being the longest run I've had this year. I walked for about the next 5-6 minutes (I didn't really track my walking time) and kicked into gear again at the stoplight, with my plan of running to the end of the route, turning around and running back to the stoplight.

 

Instead, I ran from the stoplight, to the end of the route...and then ran all the way back to my starting point. I ran for 17 minutes and - for the first time ever - completed an entire length of the course running. According to Nike+, I had covered 2.34 miles at that point, which means I had just run for over 1.2 miles (because I started running before the course turned). I then turned around to start my second out-and-back, walking back to the point that I had stopped running the last time. I figured it wouldn't be too much stress to cover the only part of the route that I had walked earlier, meaning that I would have run every inch of the route. And I did just that...it took me about 3-4 minutes to cover the portion of the route I missed (admittedly, I forgot to look at my watch at this point, focusing more on completing the part I had missed earlier).

 

I stopped a little past the point where I had started earlier (because I wasn't sure if I had run through the crosswalk before...I wanted to be sure to cover it). I hit my turnaround point, walked back to the stoplight and started running again. And ran for the next 10 minutes until I reached the last bit of sidewalk near my starting point. I had run for a grand total of almost 40 minutes.

 

When I hit my finishing point, I stopped the Nike+. According to that, I had covered 4.65 miles in 1 hour and 8 minutes. Which means my pace was slightly over 14.5 minutes - and I walked my two walks fairly slowly. After the first out-and-back, it had my pace at slightly over 13 minutes...which means my pace is significantly improving.

 

I'm not entirely sure how stopping running has improved my pace...but it has. And it felt awesome. The test run, I think, is going to become a weekly thing until I can complete at least one out-and-back without stopping (it's the all-uphill beginning that gets me, I think). And then I'll work on completing a second circuit and so forth.

 

6 down - 204 to go!