Running update

So I’m now in my 4th week of pretending to be a runner, and I think it might be getting easier. Maybe. Not that I can run a significant distance yet, but I do seem to be able to run for slightly longer periods. I’ve worked out a route from the house that covers about 2.25 miles, and I can do it in at or under a half hour. I’ve continued the “interval” training plan I started on, but have moved away from the original plan of 10 minutes of a walking warm-up, 15 minutes of a 30 second jog/30 second walk pattern, 5 minutes walking cool-down. I’m now jogging longer (I haven’t had a watch with me lately, so I’m going by strides) and walking roughly the same amount (again, strides I’m trying to keep a 4-1 ratio, jogging 200 steps, walking 50).

That all changes, naturally, when I’m at the gym. Then I tend to do the “Interval” setting on the tread mill for 30 minutes: 2 minute walk, 2 minute jog, repeat as necessary.

I’m also thinking of shifting my intermediate goal. Originally I was going to run the Beat the Bridge 8k race on May 21st...now I’m thinking a better option might be the Over the Dam 10k the weekend before. It’s in Coulee Dam, Washington, best known as the home of, well, the Grand Coulee Dam. The run starts in town, loops around one side of the river, then runs across the dam and up another loop.

The advantage of this run, other than the cool “running over the largest concrete structure in the world” part, is that it gets me up to the 6-mile “long run” mark that the marathon training plan hits at the end of the first week. And it gives me two weeks between the race and starting the marathon plan to recover and start increasing the mid-week mileage (the marathon plan starts out at 3 miles a day, T-W-Th, then 6 on Saturday the 10k plan ends off with 3 on Tuesday, 2 on Thursday and 5.5 on Sunday [not counting the 6.2 on race day]).

Of course, since I twisted my ankle yesterday in the back yard (an injury made all the worse because I did it stepping in a hole I dug) I won't be running for a few days...stupid ankles...

Next update will be Friday or so when my new toy shows up!