Team McAlister » run

Whew.

Colin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:49:12 +0000

I just ran/walked five miles in exactly an hour. 7 minutes fast, 3 minutes slow, five times with a ten-minute walk at the end. New record! Two weeks ago 7 minutes at 6 mph would have knocked me flat on my back, and today I averaged 6.5 mph for the running intervals.

Spending an hour on a treadmill is BORING. Until I get the hang of running though, it’s the only way I can accurately pace myself and keep track of distances and intervals. It’s also nice to be able to track my heart rate. I can tell a huge difference in how quickly I recover compared to two weeks ago. I can go from 187 bpm to 120 bpm in just over two minutes now.

School has started, which means an adjustment in my schedule. I walk about 3 miles on Tuesdays getting to class and back, so that’s my new day off. This way, I get some kind of exercise every single day.

My butt hurts.

Colin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:24:14 +0000

I did spin class for an hour today (at 6 AM, suckers!) and warmed down with a mile on the treadmill. I’m told it’s important to practice that transition if one wants to do a triathlon. It actually wasn’t too trying, but MAN I am not used to the saddle on a spin bike. Next time I may wear bike shorts, but I’m not sure about running with a chamois.

I can already tell a major improvement in my general fitness. A mile on the treadmill used to be a challenge, and now I do it to loosen up after spinning for an hour? At this rate I’ll be a pro triathlete, like, next year.

Tomorrow’s a “long” run. I’m shooting for 4 miles at a continuous jog, hopefully about 5.5 mph. After that, interval training! We’ll see how that goes.

Armstrong to do Ironman

Colin — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:32:42 +0000

So, Lance Armstrong has announced that once he’s made his comeback in the cycling world, he’ll be doing an Ironman. How cool would it be if we were in the same one?

Also, according to that article the winner usually finishes in around 8 hours. I did the math, and that’s an average speed of about 16.7 mph. Right now I can sustain speeds of about 6 mph running, 18 mph biking, and I don’t even know about swimming. I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Oh, one more thing. I sucked it up and ran on the treadmill yesterday. One whole mile, and it only took me 10 minutes. One day we’ll all look back at this and laugh, unless of course it’s at my funeral after some fatal treadmill-related accident.