Today I decided that it would be a good idea to run a mile. I haven't run a mile (and I use the term "run" loosely) in over 12 years. In high school we were required to run the mile and a half. As a current PE teacher, the only reasoning I can see behind running the 1.5 instead of running the mile is to waste more PE time. The best time I ever got in the 1.5 was around 15 minutes and that was in 1997. My goal for today was 1 mile in under 15 minutes without walking. Totally doable.
So I hauled my butt out of bed around 11:30 am and drove to the Henry Sibley High School track. I realized once I got there that I had forgotten water but decided to start anyway. Okay. I can do this.
I took off at what I thought was a good pace and finished my first lap in 2:48. Hmmm. So I optimistically thought I could do a mile in 12 min. The second and third laps mainly consisted of me repeating, I can do this I can do this I can do this. I quickly realized that I would probably run my first mile between 12 and 15 minutes.
As I glanced down at my heart rate monitor I saw that I was consistently in the 180s during my run. To the casual observer it looked like I was out for a gentle jog around the track, but my heart was at its max. I trotted around the track four times and ended up with a time of 13:24. Actually, it could have been a few seconds under that, but my HRM decided to take that exact moment to inform me that it was now 1:04 pm. Thanks a lot, HRM.
I think this is a great place to start. I figure that my best mile time was 10 min in the spring of my junior year in high school. I played varsity tennis, JV basketball, and ran varsity track that year. I was in the best shape of my life! I was also 120 lbs.
So my goal is to run 1 mile each day this week. I say this now, as nothing on me hurts. We'll see what tomorrow morning brings... After the "run" I grabbed Subway (Ru's favorite!) and then did 30 min on the recumbent bike at the gym. I'm nowhere near Katie's level of training, but ya gotta start somewhere.
hey, nice job! this is pretty speedy for a first mile for SURE!
ReplyDeleteGreat start! I'm surprised you didn't do even better, since you must have a lot of endurance from tennis. Maybe the MacQ bodies just aren't meant to run... I know mine isn't.
ReplyDeleteMine isn't either! And to make you feel better, if I wasn't out of shape enough already - I'm sucking a lot of wind whenever I do ANYTHING up here!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! I will attempt mile #2 tomorrow. I was advised against running multiple days in a row.
ReplyDeleteTennis is more quick bursts of energy, which I can do. I ran the 100 and 200 in track. Definitely not a distance runner!