Halfway there

I like to track my exercise progress from Fall to Summer, following the academic year, rather than by calendar year, so it is more in tandem with my work.

In terms of exercise, 2003-4 was more or less a washout. Blame it on various factors but excuses aside, I was unmotivated. And having come from a relatively athletic background, not doing any exercise was difficult and made me feel uneasy, but I didn't really care at that time.

In 2004-5 I did more running, but not during the darker and colder months. When I was younger I got rained on once and ended up in hospital with pneumonia for two weeks and home rest was prescribed for another two weeks. I was wary of cold weather, especially having grown up in a climate that averaged 90F daily. I know the cold weather fear sounds lame, but my body is designed more for dissipating heat than retaining it. At that time the only thought for me was that I didn't want to end up in hospital in England, where you can sometimes leave with more than you came with.

In 2005-6 I discovered thermals and set myself the measly (but very manageable) target of achieving 50 runs from September just to keep me going during the months I dislike. I think I reached that somewhere in January.

This year I'm aiming to do 50 runs before the end of 2006. I'll worry about what I'll do after that when I get there. I hit #25 yesterday, already over my prescribed weekly mileage before I began, so I thought I'd do a bit of hill work rather than trudge on for miles. Midway up a hill, I ended up flat - the feeling of gravity slowly sucking my speed down to a walk was quite hilarious, actually - and I could see how, eventually, when I conquer them, running hills will make me faster on the flats, so long as I at least try to maintain my usual pace on them, and not resign myself to going slow. "Hills are speedwork in disguise," as the wise sage of the hills once said. (Find him at the top of Mt Rainier.)

It's taken me three straight days of running to get to #25. I can't remember the last time I ran three days in a row - probably never, which is why my bottom aches, having had the honor of propelling me up slopes on the day my legs were weakest.

I'm still sticking with doing shorter distances fast. Mentally, I'm not content yet to run the longer distances and merely be at the same position I was a year ago. I don't want to run a half-marathon distance unless it gets me under 1:45, nor a 10K unless I'm within 45, 46, maybe 47 minutes. But that's a post for another day.

Our clocks on this side of the pond went back this morning. So for now at least it is light at six thirty in the morning, and I might be able to sneak in a few runs before work. The downside is that when it gets dark in the evening it is only really five o'clock. I tend to shut down when it's dark, as I get a bit affected by the lack of light. I want to go to sleep when it's six in the evening and get up at seven - in the morning. This is definitely the time for me to rely on "to-do" lists and structure my time more effectively; if I left everything to "how I feel", I would just want to wake up, work and sleep - not much else.

This week's to-do list:

Tuesday: 5 miles, around 38 minutes
Run on Thursday and Saturday/Sunday
Weights (maybe with the music instruments at work?!?)
Work on the neglected stretching

Have a good week, folks!