I said I would do 6 miles at South Mountain today. I lied. I did 4.8. It was a great 4.8 though. There were lots of hills, the reason we were there, and I did a mostly consistent run 3/walk 2 for the entire first 2.4. I arrived at the marker 36:30 into my run (walk) and turned around. I continued the pattern of running 3/walking 2 for five minutes. At 42:00, I began running and continued until arriving back at my car at 1:09. That makes 27 minutes of straight running. By far the most I've done since starting my training. And it felt great!
In totally unrelated news, I was witness to a beautiful wedding this afternoon. My friends Shawn and Mindy got married in a small wedding that was just perfect for them. Mindy's dad performed the ceremony in a quick 10 minutes. It was wonderful! I am so incredibly happy for the both of them. It was a long time coming, but they have founded this marriage with much work and prayer, and I know that they will be a beautiful example of a loving husband and wife!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
the run that nearly killed me
I discovered there was this neat little 3.4 mile loop around my condo a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to try it for some time. It goes east on Van Buren a couple of blocks until Galvin Parkway and then heads north towards the zoo/botanical gardens. Once coming to the intersection with the zoo on the right, you turn left to continue into area of Papago Park where there is a nice paved path perfect for walkers, runners and bikers alike. This paved trail continues around a golf course and eventually dumps you out onto 52nd street where you head south to return to Van Buren.
I thought it would be a lovely run - a perfect chance to see some desert landscaping. I saw some desert landscaping, alright, but I forgot that with the Papago Park comes papago hills. The papagos are, after all, mini mountains themselves. People actually scale these things. So, even though I wasn't going up them, my path was nowhere near flat. Also, in case you hadn't heard, we have been flirting with record highs the last couple of days. It was 85+ degrees out there!
I started the run/walk doing the perfect 3/2 split - 3 minutes jogging/2 minutes walking - keeping focused on my HRM to see how I was doing. Through the first couple of cycles, I was still able to get my heart rate back down while walking. But, once I hit about 25 minutes, I was done. I could no longer get my heart rate down and had to walk extensively to recover. I think I did about 8 minutes of walking at that point, until I came towards the golf course. Then, I stopped all attention to the time. I was still monitoring my overall time (goal was 51 minutes for a 15 minute mile), but no longer paying attention to the splits. Once I arrived back at 52nd St I think I had about 7 or 8 minutes to make it to the condo. This required some running. I jogged until my heart rate got too high again and then walked until I hit the 48 minute mark. I still was not at Van Buren, so I started to get nervous. I began to jog to the corner. Once there, I began an all out sprint. I had about a minute (maybe a bit more) to get from 52nd St to my entrance at 5345. I made it in the exact time. I pushed my heartrate up a bit higher than I probably should have (I think it hit 184) and was almost certain I would throw up as I arrived and slowed down.
I walked (quite slowly) back to the condo and realized that chafing really does happen. I had worn shorts for the first time ever while running, and as I made my way back I wasn't sure which was worse, the desire to puke or my thighs yelling at me. I eventually made it into the house and collapsed on the living room floor, making sure to dry all the sweat off of my legs and not move for quite some time. I needed to convince my poor thighs that I did not have it in for them.
I thought it would be a lovely run - a perfect chance to see some desert landscaping. I saw some desert landscaping, alright, but I forgot that with the Papago Park comes papago hills. The papagos are, after all, mini mountains themselves. People actually scale these things. So, even though I wasn't going up them, my path was nowhere near flat. Also, in case you hadn't heard, we have been flirting with record highs the last couple of days. It was 85+ degrees out there!
I started the run/walk doing the perfect 3/2 split - 3 minutes jogging/2 minutes walking - keeping focused on my HRM to see how I was doing. Through the first couple of cycles, I was still able to get my heart rate back down while walking. But, once I hit about 25 minutes, I was done. I could no longer get my heart rate down and had to walk extensively to recover. I think I did about 8 minutes of walking at that point, until I came towards the golf course. Then, I stopped all attention to the time. I was still monitoring my overall time (goal was 51 minutes for a 15 minute mile), but no longer paying attention to the splits. Once I arrived back at 52nd St I think I had about 7 or 8 minutes to make it to the condo. This required some running. I jogged until my heart rate got too high again and then walked until I hit the 48 minute mark. I still was not at Van Buren, so I started to get nervous. I began to jog to the corner. Once there, I began an all out sprint. I had about a minute (maybe a bit more) to get from 52nd St to my entrance at 5345. I made it in the exact time. I pushed my heartrate up a bit higher than I probably should have (I think it hit 184) and was almost certain I would throw up as I arrived and slowed down.
I walked (quite slowly) back to the condo and realized that chafing really does happen. I had worn shorts for the first time ever while running, and as I made my way back I wasn't sure which was worse, the desire to puke or my thighs yelling at me. I eventually made it into the house and collapsed on the living room floor, making sure to dry all the sweat off of my legs and not move for quite some time. I needed to convince my poor thighs that I did not have it in for them.
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