RPI-Fan's Running Dynasty

[RPI-Fan]

Combined with others doing real-life dynasties around here lately, figured I'd start my own.

I've decided I want to get into shape if no other reason to feel good, but possibly give myself the opportunity to play competitive soccer once again.

I don't really need to go on a diet; I'm 18 and eat fairly healthily - not great of course, but good enough, I think. I hate lifting weights, with a passion. There are several reasons for this:

1) The gym is kind of a pain in the butt to go to - I only have a half hour for lunch, so can't get anything meaningful done in that time, and I work late (until 7pm or so) most days, at which point I want to just go home and watch some TV.
2) I have terrible form, and I don't know what/how to do any kinds of types of specific excercises.
3) It's just not fun for me.

On the other hand, I do not mind/sometimes enjoy running. I always like pushing myself faster, and running is something where you can get very tangible results. That, I like.

So instead of just saying "I'm going to run 5 times a week" or something silly like that, I'm going to set specific goals. I'll have a couple long-term goals, and probably some biweekly goals for the short-term; or something.

Let's start with the long-term goals.

By October 4, 2004 (my 19th birthday), I hope to be able to:

1) Run a mile in under 5:30.
2) Run two miles in under 14:00.
3) Run three miles in under 22:00.
5) Run five miles in under 40:00.

Now, I have NO clue how close I'll be able to come to any of these. #1 and #2 are very reasonable; I can currently approach a 6:00 mile, so that's not cutting too much time off. I've also run a 14:59.59 2-mile, so again, that's not way out of reach.

The second two, however, I have no clue if I'll get there.

[RPI-Fan]

<b>Day 1</b>

Last night was Day 1. I had a lot for dinner after working until 7pm (I go in at 8:30am). I took a little less than half an hour after getting home before I put on some shorts and an old t-shirt and headed to the track (less than 10 minutes away). I like running on a track; most people don't, but since I'm very results-oriented I like knowing exactly how far I've gone/how far I've got to go. It also helps me with pacing, something which I struggle with (I use far too little energy early on).

I didn't stretch or anything - I've never needed to, and until I fuck something up probably won't. It's just not my thing. One mistake I definitely made was not drinking any water beforehand. I'll go into more detail later, but in the past two hours the only drink I had had was a glass of <A TITLE="Click for more information about diet" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://www.online-meds.ws/">Diet</A> Ginger Ale (I drank a good deal of water at work, but that was a long time before I ran).

So I decided to run 3-miles, and try to do it in 24:00 (8 minutes-per-mile). That's 12 laps around the track (I was in the 2nd lane, so I actually did a bit more than 3 miles) for those of you scoring at home. I started out a bit too slow, I think. I was doing just around 8-minute miles to start. I should have been doing 7:30's, if not faster. And I hit another snag; I left the lights on in my <A TITLE="Click for more information about car" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://search.targetwords.com/u.search?x=5977|1||||cars|AA1VDw">car</A>. So I stopped my watch after my 2nd lap, and kept my feet moving/running as I quickly went to my car (no more than 50 yards away) and turned the lights off. I jogged back, and started my watch again.

I finished my first mile in just over 8:00, I believe. At this point, though, I started to feel some sort of weird burping feeling in my throat, presumably from the diet ginger ale. It was a big hinderance to my running, I think. As I said, I'm going to make more of an effort to drink a lot of water before running. That should help a lot, I think.

So anyways, I really slowed too much in the 2nd mile. I think I ran about an 8:45 mile then. Blech. I knew the 24:00 mark was going to be hard to hit now, but decided I'd just make an effort to do a 7:30 final mile. I ran pretty well, and had a bit too much energy left, I think. I could have gone faster on the final mile; I was by myself though, and it was very hard to pace. I finished that last mile in 7:45, for a total time of 24:28. So, that's just over 8:09 per mile - not too bad, I don't think, for my first time out in a while.

Plus, I had that weird diet ginger ale feeling - I think that bothered me too much (probably more than it should have, even). In addition, I could have gone faster, I think. I paced myself very poorly in laps 5-8 (largely due to the ginger ale thing). I also didn't start fast enough; I really should be doing 7:30 for the first mile, if not better.

So, when all was said and done, I wasn't too disappointed. But I certainly left myself with a lot to build on.

I'm playing in a (small) poker tournament tonight, so won't have much of a chance to run. However, I'm hoping to sneak in a quick 2-mile road-run after work and before the tournament. I will report tomorrow if I do indeed do that.

<i>Edit: I stretched/walked for a good 15-20 minutes afterwards. I think that's a good habit I hope to continue.</i>

Comments/suggestions?