Take care of yourself

I am. 60 or so miles west of Denver. It's been unusually warm the last month or so which has pushed back my end of year recharge. Place is a cyclist's dream in terms of terrain, wide shoulders, bike lanes, and coffee!

 

Cracked 385 on the deadlift last week. 400 is within reach.

 

Ran my six-mile run this week, which I consider my fitness test, at a personal best pace of 6:46. That won't break any land speed records, but I also realize it's something 99 percent of 40-year-olds couldn't do.

This week I started training for a stair climbing race in March. Those workouts make running feel like a walk in the park.

 

Weighed in yesterday and am down 2 lbs. from last Wednesday (and that was before I got in the sauna!) Not sure if that's statistically significant, but I'll take the victories where I can get them. I had an 'orientation' on several Nautilus-type machines on Monday, which went well save for the 'fitness coach' failing a ring check. Obviously, my starting settings are probably pretty lame, but have to start somewhere -- hoping more strength-based training will be more enjoyable than running (though I've been able to cover 2.25 miles in a half-hour on a pretty consistent basis).

Planning on going back to the Y today, tomorrow or both.

 

I did the second 10k of my life a couple weeks ago. Did seven minutes better than the first time, which was in December. I don't think I ran any faster, but I ran more this time than I did last year, though I still walked some. Placed 470th.

And I crossed from Asia to Europe.

 

What was your prior time and what was your time this time? I've never raced a 10K, but I love that distance for training, as I think I mentioned above. It's such a great test of both speed, endurance, focus, and strategy/pacing.

Today I signed up for an account at Athlinks.com, which can dig up all of your race results and post them on your public profile. I found mine all the way back to 2001, my first race.

My marathon times:

2001: 5:05
2002: 4:54
2003: 4:33
2004: 4:22
2016: 3:40

 

That's a fantastic improvement. Did you just not do any for 10 years?

I was 1:16:00 the first time and 1:06:59. Which, now that I do the math correctly, is nine minutes better. Cool.

On an euphoric high from that, I signed up for a third in Antalya in March and am thinking about visiting a friend in Dublin for one there is August.

There's no way I'd do a marathon. I really am more endurance over speed -- I get comfortable around 6-7k -- but I just find it utterly boring.

I'd really like to do the Bosporus one again next year but move up to the 15k. I thought about it this year but am scheduled to be here two years so I thought I'd aim for that. I would like to do a half, but I've no interest in a whole. My body might could handle it, but my brain could not.

I'm running outside maybe once every two weeks, but for the most part it's treadmill. I do 60 minutes (the max time), then cool, then another 30 plus cool down, pretty much every day. Only twice have I done 10k in less than 60 minutes. Usually I finish somewhere between 11k and 14k and that max I've jogged without walking (very fast, but still walking) is 2k. I think my goal would be able to jog/run 5k at one shot, but a lot of it is just me being bored with the pace and just needing to change it up a little.

How do you not get bored in four hours of doing the same thing?

 

I did a couple halfs in there, and some stair climb competitions each year. First I covered college football, and I typically run Chicago in the fall, so that was out. Then I had law school and little kids and didn't really have the long blocs of time on weekends to run then, either.

I'll answer some of the other stuff in your post later. I'm in the middle of a busy day.

 

Looking at my first six-mile run this summer, I completed it in a little over 56 minutes, a 9:19 pace. About 10 minutes faster than you, but I've been consistently running/jogging for years. I just tried to start going a little faster each time. Within a few months, I'm down to a 6:46 pace my last time out, as I noted. My immediate dream is to drive that down to under 6:20. It's going to take some work, obviously.

I don't really get too bored running long distances, at least in the daylight, due to the running apps now that let you pace your miles, etc. It's great for the OCD-inclined like me. I also listen to podcasts and music along the way, which is helpful. I think back to 2001, when my friend and I marathon trained without iPods or stopwatches, and I can't believe we did it.

 

Anyone dealt with sore, stiff hips? Mine ache daily. I feel like an old German Sheperd. Any tips on how to remedy that?

 

Ran into that issue when I started playing racquetball. Hurt right in the joint. Would hurt (low, mild pain) to walk. Stretches really helped me out. Putting my foot up on a chair and dropping my ass down was the stretch I generally used. Google indicates 80 million hip stretching options. So...maybe those will help?

 

Yeah, I need to be more consistent in stretching. Also thinking of yoga or Pilates. Some class needs a scary-looking middle-aged dude to shake things up.