Another week, another little chunk of training under my belt! I really like doing these weekly check-ins to stay accountable and self-assess my progress, so I think I’m going to keep doing them! I enjoy reading these kinds of posts on other blogs so I’m hoping at least a couple of you do too! I think for every check-in I’ll focus on a different topic that was relevant to my training that week. Here’s what’s happened since I last posted:
Wednesday: 2 mile interval run/rest day (guess which one I chose…)
Thursday: Cycling
Friday: 3 mile run + strength training
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 4 mile run
Monday: strength training + stretching
Today: 3.5 mile run
Yet again, I skipped the interval run in favor of sitting on my butt. But that was the last time I slacked off all week! Thursday I went on the stationary bike for a quick 2.5 miles and then did some upper body machines at the gym. Friday’s run on the treadmill was actually AWESOME. I started out strong and ran the first 20 minutes without stopping to walk. That’s a huge deal for me, quite an improvement from a month ago. And I finished the 5K distance in 37 minutes, which is a couple minutes faster than than I did on the first day of training. I know that is still really slow for most people, but all I care about is seeing improvement! Sunday was the only day I ran outside, and I went back to the preserve that I’m growing to really love more and more.
I took a slightly different path this time which involved almost entirely trail running, which is so fun! Jumping over logs and dodging the occasional tree branch is way more interesting than running on a sidewalk! It was a beautiful sunny day too, which certainly didn’t hurt. I stopped along the way to take some pics and show you guys the scenery!
My pace was very tortoise-like, and I’ll go ahead and show you my splits to prove that to you. In my defense, Atlanta is a hilly place to run. Also in my defense, no matter how slow I go it’s still faster than sitting on the couch. 🙂
But I did have an 11(ish?) minute mile in there, woah! My fastest mile so far! Hopefully by this time next month that can be my average! Most of my time problem is that I’m taking some really long walk breaks, and I’m okay with that for now. It’s rough for me to see how slow I’ve gotten but I’m staying POSITIVE. I believe in myself and I KNOW I can get back to the pace I used to run a few years ago.
So the OTHER thing that made my runs this week better was that I tried something new called “story running”. Have any of you tried this? I get the stories off Runtastic (which is the app I use to track all my workouts), and it’s basically an interactive way to run. You’re told a plot through your headphones which involves you running to do certain tasks or complete certain missions. My favorite one so far is called “The Journey of Iomluath” which is a fantasy story where you are running to find the cure for an illness that is plaguing your ancient tribe. I’m a total fantasy nerd so this was right up my alley. Here’s a quick trailer of that story to give you a little taste:
It sounds silly but it REALLY made my run go by faster! I love the idea of interactive running. We’re naturally built to run towards and away from things…real things like animals and other people, but that element of it is completely lost in 2015. For that reason to me it feels very unnatural. Sometimes I have this mental block of “Why am I putting on these clothes and forcing my body to run around in circles (or literally in place on a machine) for no reason?”. To overcome that I like pretending that I’m actually running away from real danger–it’s fun! There’s an app with a zombie plot (so you’re running away from zombies basically) which sounds really fun and I think I’ll check that out next. For now it’s just me and my iPhone, running away from monsters and chasing fairies in the forest. Totally normal. 😉
-Lauren
So I’m wondering…
Have you been making any progress in your fitness that you’re excited about? Have you heard of story running or tried it before? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!
Recent fitness posts:
The Wonderful World of Story Running | phatflavor.com
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