Progress!

When I first started running a whopping 2 and half months ago I started by running 5 kilometers in the residential area behind my apartment.  I ran it maybe 4 times before heading home to New Jersey for winter break (one of the few perks of grad school). I haven't had a chance to run that same route since then.  But I have been running a lot more in general, running intervals and generally trying to improve my speed.

On Sunday, the last day of my "recovery" week was a 30 minute run.  So I decided to use that time to sort of test myself and see if I had improved my speed.

Route, Elevation & Splits

And I'm pretty happy with the results! I averaged a 9:09 mile and if it wasn't for that darn second mile it would have been even better.  And in general I felt really good.

But these numbers are less interesting if you don't know where I started:

12/3 First run in years...but not technologically advanced enough yet to have my running app downloaded on my phone

12/5: Second run in years! And where I started

12/10: Getting slower

12/17: Average

Since mid-December I've run quite a few more times and my times have bounced around quite a bit maxing out back at 10:00 and my best at 9:20 but probably averaging about a 9:30/9:40 minute mile.

but Sunday was:

I certainly don't expect to go out and run 9:09 every time now but it's nice to know I can. And I would still like to get that time down a bit.

Side note - the calories metric isn't accurate at all, although the general trend probably is.  Isn't sad how when you're pushing yourself more and become better at running/more efficient/healthier/etc...you burn fewer calories doing the same thing! Somehow it doesn't seem fair.

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Training plan - 53 minute bike

My plan - I really want to get back out on the road with my bike but it's going to have to be in the gym and while I'm doing my reading for later in the week because that's the only way I can fit everything in!

Actual - 53 minutes on the bike with a 2 minute cool down (because 55 is a prettier number than 58) plus I added in ab ripper x. Huge thanks to Mike for helping me be productive while I was biking and sending me articles to read! I'm all about the multitasking...