Day 172

A morning run so that I could get on with my day. Supposed to get banana splits with my daughter, so I wanted this out of the way.

Day 171

After snowboarding, I made myself get downstairs and run. It wasn't too bad since I only had about 10 runs on the slopes.

The iPod died near the end of my run. From the treadmill, I went 20 min, 1.94mi. Not sure if there's a way to edit Nike Plus runs, but this one is surely off.

Day 170

Without plans for more exercise, I ran a nice 20 minute stretch today. I had a sore calf from karate, bruised a bit, but after about 10 minutes that loosened up and felt much better. Kept a steady 6.2 for most of the run.

Day 169

Back on the treadmill. Between a very windy day outside, a limited time since I had to help out a friend, and missing Star Trek, I decided to run inside

My ankles are still slightly sore from the sprinting over the weekend. I need to build up to that, and I shouldn't have sprinted after baseball since that involves a decent amount of sprinting in and of itself.

Precor 945i

While we were in Steamboat Springs I ran one day in the fitness center that is in town. They had a few treadmills there, including a LifeFitness one, but I chose to try out a Precor 954i.

This is a smaller treadmill than the Life Fitness one, but still a decent sized device. I got on it for a 20 minute run and overall it seemed OK. The deck had a decent amount of springy-ness, but not too much, and the motor pulled the belt well. However the controls were a little flaky for me. I had trouble getting to the button I wanted and once when I was trying to change from the time to the pace, I ended up hitting the rest button which stopped the treadmill, not a lot of fun.

Getting Outside

I don't mind running on the treadmill, especially with a TV and a movie in front of me. Most of my 168 days to date have been on the treadmill, running over the winter, late at night, or just trying to get it done quickly.

However when the weather is good, it's great to run outside. Even my cold run in Steamboat Springs was OK since there wasn't any wind. And today I had my second run in a row outside, even with plenty of reasons to run inside.

Just before lunch, I ran upstairs, changed, and was going to go watch a little more Star Trek: The Next Generation while I did a run before heading back to work. When I came downstairs, however, I saw the wind meter barely spinning and the sun shining, and decided to head outside.

I put on my headphones, sunglasses, shorts, T-shirt, no hat, and started the Nike Plus system. With a playlist running with me, I headed up the driveway, which is always tough, but not too bad today. I had no goals, no aims for speed or distance, I just jogged along, varying my pace as I noticed it. When I felt stronger I ran faster, when I struggled, I slowed.

When I got the mailbox and turned down the road, leveling out, I felt great and picked up some speed. Before I knew it, lost in the music and great day, I was at the second bus stop. I turned around, headed home, and didn't look at the iPod until I was in the driveway and started walking. A great run for Day 168.

Day 168

Outside two days in a row. This time a nice run outside up to the 2nd bus stop and back. The sun is shining, it must be 65F+ outside, almost no wind and I had a nice time. I didn't look at the iPod while I was running, just setting the Nike+ up and letting songs play as I jogged along. I got lost in the run, not too winded, cruising along, went further than I expected, but felt good. Ankles are still slightly sore from the sprinting on Sunday, but better than last night.

Day 167

It was a busy day at work and I didn't get a chance to run, so I decided to go while Delaney was at karate. I set out, ran downhill to the west and then around a couple blocks, going a touch further than I wanted to. I was pretty tired during the karate warmup, but it got better as the night went along.

Day 166

After baseball practice, which wasn't too long, I stuck around and ran a few large laps around the field and then ran some sprints as well. I ran halfway up the soccer field, then jogged across it and ran back to the endzone.

I was winded after the sprints, and I wish I'd have run more, but I was beat and my legs were tired.

Day 165

I'm not sure what I tweaked in my back, but I did something and the lower right is sore. But I had a busy day, so I got this done early.

Day 164

I decided on a long one today since I had time, no other exercise planned, and it felt good when I started. Over 2 miles.

Day 163

Between work, cooking dinner, and going to karate, I managed to get this one in. Made my legs a bit sore for karate.

Day 162

Karate tonight, so I jammed this one in before a conference call. I had 30 minutes from the time I left my desk until the call to change clothes, run, and cool down a touch. I did a fairly steady run with 2 one minute segments at 7mph.

Day 161

I had a bit more time today, and I went longer than I thought I would given the workday. A pretty good run, easy and fun.

A New Routine

As I've gotten more used to running on the treadmill, and I don't depend on the running for all my exercise, I've modified my routine of running a bit. Also I find myself in a hurry often, trying to fit running in around baseball, karate, or snowboarding.

Warmup
- I try to always warm up. Even if it's just 1 minute, I walk that far, but typically I'm not doing a 1:30 walk, which gets me about .1mi at 4mph.

Picking Up Speed
- The second phase of my workout usually lasts a couple minutes, especially since I've knocked off 30 sec of my warmup. Here I usually go for anywhere from 1-5 minutes. I'll usually start at 5.2-5.4mph and work it up to 5.8mph, which is a good warming up pace for me. It feels a little slow, but on those days my legs are tired or I want an easier way to get started, I'll use this pace.

The Main Part
Since I don't run that far, this isn't a long part, but I try to run at 6mph+. Typically I have been working lately at 6.2mph-6.6mph, jumping up to maintain one of these paces for most of the 5-15 minutes I might run. Typically I'm moving from the 5 minute mark to the 12 minute mark at this pace.

Intervals
If I don't have a hard night coming (karate or snowboarding), I might add in a minute or two at 7-7.5mph. I'll only do a minute at the high speed, but I might do a couple repetitions of this.

Optional Slowing
Sometimes I'll reverse the "picking up speed" section, spending a minute or two at 5.8, then a minute at 5.4 to slow down before the cool down.

Cool down
It's always 1:30 of walking at 4mph here. If I'm outside, I'll walk for 2 minutes since I might go slower.

I work this routine most days on the treadmill. Outside I tend to run at a more steady pace, though I still have the warmup and cool down. Depending on how I feel or how much I have going on, I vary things, so it's not very scientific, but it does allow me to keep going. So far it's worked pretty well for me.

Day 160

I did not want to run tonight. After a long weekend, and running errands with the kids, I was ready to go to sleep when I got home. But I did it anyway, jogging through a mile.

Day 159

After a half day skiing, actually just 2 runs, and then a couple hours soaking in the hot springs, I made my way to the treadmill and ran in Steamboat. It was hard to get going, and I had to drop from a 2.0 incline to 1.5 after 4 or 5 minutes, but I made it through. Felt good near the end, but it was getting late, so I stopped.

Day 158

I got back from skiing, it was snowing lightly, flurrying, Tia was gone with my Nike Plus, 14F outside, no treadmill in the hotel. What to do?

Put on sweats, two long sleeve shirts, gloves, Delaney's army hat, and run outside. I'm sure I did a mile, 21 minutes of jogging up and down hills, trying to keep a decent pace in Steamboat Springs. My guess:

1.5 miles was my guess. Using MapMyRun.com, I see it was 2 miles.

Day 157

No karate, felt pretty good after a massage yesterday, had a bit of time, so ran for 20:30 and then did a cool down. Stopped the Nike+ so as not to mess up my speeds.

True Treadmill

I'm not sure what True treadmill was up in the condo at Keystone, but it was a low-end, older, residential treadmill. It had heart grips, but two 1" pipes vertically holding up the front and only a 4 or 6" extension from the display for handrails, essentially on hand rails at all.

This one wasn't great, it felt slow, and the interface was very cumbersome. I had to pull the safety pin out to reset the mileage and get it to start from scratch. It also registered much slower than my Nike+ sensor, which I'd calibrated at home, so I used that for measuring distance.

Overall this felt like a weak treadmill and I wished the weather would have been better for running outside.

Day 156

The body was beat up today and I only had a short time until a massage, so I slipped in a 15 minute run this morning.

It felt good, and I cruised along easily. I did do two one minutes stretches of 7mph to get the heart rate up.

Day 155

Another, quick-fit-this-in-before-the-kids-come-home as I knocked off work at 2:55, grabbed shoes, ran, and then made it to the bus stop by 3:20.

I felt good, and pushed a little harder, doing most of the run at 6.6mph even though it was shorter.

Day 154

I'm tired, sore, and have a lot of work, so this was a quick one to me. I noticed I'm still doing the 2.0 incline on the treadmill at home and it's easy.

Day 153

Back to my lunchtime routine. A sore body after lifting Friday, and karate tonight, but got through a good run.

Day 152

Boy scouts, errands, I almost forgot to run, and I was glad we didn't go out late for dinner. I finished this run with a bar for dinner and went to bed hungry.

Day 151

Since Delaney was sleeping in, I decided to run before skiing. Made for a long day, but I was glad I got it done.

Day 150

A big milestone for me. I went to the gym and lifted and then went through a run on the treadmill there. Tough running after a decent workout, but I made it through. I'll upload the Nike+ later, but I did about 1.3mi in 16min.

Update: After skiing this weekend, code uploaded:

Day 149

It was beautiful, so I went for a run outside. Went a but further than I meant to with karate tonight, but it felt great. The hills were definitely tough.

Day 148

A late one I struggled through after getting back from skiing.

Day 147

After a morning and early afternoon of reading and drinking water, I felt better and decided to try a run. It was a struggle at first, but I perked up and felt better.

Day 146

After a good day of skiing, I forced myself to hit the treadmill right away while Kendall was swimming. It was a struggle to get through this run.

Calibration Check

I am glad more and more that I got the Nike + system. Especially after running on some dodgy treadmills while traveling in January. A few were way off, including one older Precor in the UK. I had it up at 12mph while the Nike+ was reading about 7mph. After so many days of that, I started to doubt the Nike+ a bit, especially when I ran on a Life Fitness model in the same club.

However when I got to Heathrow and ran on a very new Life Fitness model with a TV, it matched up almost exactly with the Nike +, which is what the treadmill at home does. I calibrated it one day before my trip, and then checked it again when I got home and sure enough it was very close to reading the same distances and pace.

At this point in my life, I know I can run a 10-11 minute mile easily, under most conditions, and so if I just make sure I run for at least that long I can maintain my streak. However I'll slow up at some point and I do try to gauge how hard I'm pushing myself across days by watching distances. There are days that I know I need to just do a mile to ease up on the body, and there are days I want to push farther, but not too far since I'm not taking days off.

It's a balance that the Nike+ system helps with.

Plus I don't have to remember times and distances now. They're stored on the Nano and at nikeplus.com.

Day 145

Since everyone was moving slow, I decided on a morning run before skiing. The iPod wasn't charged, so this was just using the True treadmill counters.

1.28mi
14:00min
1.5 incline

I had things a touch lower since I'm up here at 9200 feet or so of altitude.