My exercise routine has “suffered” a little
over the past few weeks because I’ve been picking up extra shifts at work
somewhat frequently. I have, however,
been able to mostly keep up my run schedule and haven’t completely missed a
run…yet. And that makes me happy. I mean, I know that strength training is very
important as a runner as it can help me prevent injuries. Also, I really do enjoy strength training. It’s just that I enjoy running a whole lot
more and, if given the choice, I’d choose running.
Anyway, while I’m very grateful for the extra
money that picking up the extra shifts is giving me, I don’t like missing
workouts. But, probably even more
important than missing workouts is how my eating has been compromised. When working 16 hour work days you are very
tempted to overeat and to eat fast food and convenience store food. I just have to keep in mind that this is
temporary. The amount of overtime
available for me to work will eventually taper off and maybe even completely go
away. I’m enjoying raking in the extra
dough while I can.
All this overtime money is affording me to buy
a new bicycle, which is great for my cross training exercise. Even though I haven’t been able to for the
past couple weeks, I like to do a bicycle ride of at least 16.8 miles. I’m working my way up to doing a 23.5 mile
ride. I need to know that I’m able to do
that before I pay the $89 registration fee for the duathlon in July. I’m just hoping that the run comes before the
bicycle portion. I’m pretty sure it does
as it’s the duathlon option of a triathlon and triathlons usually go
swim-run-bike. I’m not doing the swim
portion for a couple reasons: 1) I don’t want to deal with swimming this year
in a race and 2) I’ve recently found out that I can swim only 2 laps before I’m
completely winded and spent. And it’s
not good to be completely spent at the very start of a race…unable to
finish. I have a goal to do and complete
a tri next year.
This morning, I ran 7 miles. It felt really good too. It almost felt “easy,” if I dare use that
word for a 7 miler. My times were
fantastic and I averaged 10:14 a mile, a whole 30 or more seconds a mile faster
than my usual pace…and I wasn’t even trying to run faster; it just happened! And to think, at 3 minutes in, I almost turned
around and went back home. Why? Because my Garmin beeped at me to tell me it
had a low battery. After a second of
contemplation, I just said “screw it, I’ll estimate my distance” and started
running again. Between that moment and
the first mile, I decided that at the 1st mile mark I would turn on
my Nike+ Running app on my phone so that I *knew* how far I had run so I
didn’t short change myself on my mileage.
At mile 5, my Garmin died. Thankfully,
the Nike+ app also estimates my calories burned, so I just took the total for 6
miles, divided it by 6 and then multiplied that number by 7 to get my total
calories burned at about 825. Very nice.
Now, I have to decide if I want to do my final
4 miles for the week tomorrow after my annual physical appointment bright and
early or if I want to do it on Saturday.
Really, I will most likely do it tomorrow just because I’ll already be
awake and will have a few hours to burn with nothing else to do before getting
ready for work. Saturday, maybe I’ll go
for a bike ride, even though I really don’t want to ride my current crappy bike
ever again. But, I won’t be able to buy the
new bike until NEXT week, so if I want to ride, I have no other option (aside
from the stationary bike at the gym…and I’d rather not do that).
I’m looking forward to getting back to my
strength training sessions next week. It’s
been almost 2 weeks since I strength trained…OMG! It will feel so good to lift those weights
again. So far, I only have 3 days of
overtime scheduled for next month and they’re all on the overnight shift on Saturdays,
so that doesn’t mess with my workout schedule at all. In fact, it will be fantastic for my Sunday runs
because I can go running right after getting home from work, well before it
gets hot.
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