January Adventure

So with just hours to go I realized I hadn't done a January adventure, and time was running out. (A fitness adventure a month is one of the few resolutions I made this year.)  So I packed my running clothes into a bag and brought them to work. It's finally warm enough to be outside, and so just before 5 I changed, stashed my work clothes and purse in my car in the basement garage, and headed out to the mall to complete my second week training session for couch to 5k.


So what qualifies this as an adventure?  Well, I never did this before. I often thought about taking a mall run, but never have.  I've done plenty of mall walks, mostly at lunch and sometimes in winter dim early mornings, but never in running clothes, actually pounding out the miles.

Not that I'm actually pounding out the miles. At this early point in my training (end of second week of a nine-week program) I'm running very short intervals so that its only nine minutes of running in thirty minutes total.  None of it is fast, so that for the thirty minutes I'm only averaging four miles an hour (I just can't walk very fast).  But I'm out there in public doing it - and that's the real adventure. There were plenty of tourists and other after work runners out there, and I risked running into someone from work. But with my glasses off and headphones on, mostly I was in my own little world and the runs, small and feeble though they were, felt fine.  I did encounter a colleague as I rode down in the elevator - a healthy and gorgeous millennial girl who thinks exercise is a natural part of life - of course I would go trot around the mall for entertainment on a Friday night.  She does triathalons for her amusement.

It was really nice being out there in the fresh air as the sun set. I had no problem keeping to a rhythm during the runs, with the help of the ipod. But boy did I stiffen up during the drive home. I did some foam rolling just now, I hope it helps.

I did go back and read all my blog entries from two years ago, the first time I started running.  It seems like I totally stuck to the program through week five, when the runs get long - twenty minutes and then progressively up to a full thirty minutes of running (which they assume is enough running to complete the 5k but which won't be enough for me).  I didn't like the long runs, and decided to stick with twelve minute runs with brief intervals of walking.  Then I started to taper off, and wasn't doing three sessions a week, but instead barely two.

So this time I want to stick with the three runs per week - another reason I went after work today. It feels like my body needs the rest time so that more than three runs would be too many. But I'm running on different days than my two days of strength training, so my overall activity is going up to five days a week.

The other thing I did last time was finish out the whole 5k distance on my Sunday runs, after finishing the 30 minutes of the workout. I think that's a really good idea and I hope to do that this Sunday on the treadmill.

The weather will finally be at least nice enough to go outside this weekend. I've got a mess of tree limbs down in the front yard that has to be my first order of business tomorrow. The dog is still confined to quarters for medical reasons so he can be with me in the yard but no walks for him. That's why I think I'll stick to the treadmill rather than another outside run. Though it was lovely tonight, to feel the fresh air.  I'll get plenty of chances to do that as spring comes on in.