Long time, no see
Let me start by explaining the lapse in time from my last enty till now....I've got nothing to report!
Since my last update, I took 1 week off. I did NOTHING in terms of exercise for 5 days, broke the streak for a 3 mile run on Saturday May 28th, only to take off another 2 days in the name of graduation and just plain relaxing with family. The 3 mile run went better than planned, I came in just under 24 minutes, I was pleased. However if I continue with 3 mile runs 3 times a week, I'm falling WAY short of my 20 mile/week goal. I'm caught somewhere between racking up the miles and increasing my speed. I'm working out a plan to combine the 2.
We left Bettendorf after a nice long busy weekend and got back to ST. Louis on Tuesday afternoon. I broke the streak and FINALY hit the road for a test to see if I even could run anymore. Wanted to do more than 3 miles, which I successfuly did....barely. I stratagicly planned out my course so that I knew where my mile markers were. Mile 1 came in just under 8 mins. Painful but good. Mile 2....6 minutes??? Are you kidding me? Must be something wrong with my plan. Mile 3; 8 min 12 sec (OK if I really ran a 6 min mile before that, I'm OK with that) and then the last .8 or a mile was just under 6:30. So I re-worked my carefully thought out course to discover mile 2 was just shy of 1 mile. About .2 shy, so by my math, that would have put me still under 8 minutes if I continued my pace for the remaining .2 mile. Why do I obsess over these things? Why can't I just go out an run and not have to obsess about time? That should be my new goal.
Wednesday I bought a bike helmet and tried it out with my new pedometer, or is it an Odometer? The thing that tracks your miles and all that cool stuff. (thanks to a great anniversary gift from Conrad and Abbie) A nice bike ride. I met a woman who is part of Trailnet.org, a biking club in St. Louis. They do weekly rides on Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights. The Wednesday night ride is in my neighborhood so I gave her my name and said I'd be there next week. They all look like pretty intense riders so we'll see how I do. The path is anywhere from 8 to 27 miles. I think I'll start somewhere around 8, and work my way up through the summer. The loop is 8 miles and then you keep adding different loops to get to a certain point. The best part? They had oranges and capri sun in the parking lot after the ride. Just like Y soccer games! Plus it will be nice to be involved in something.
Thursday and Friday were both runs, didn't even look at my watch until the end! I did the same small loop around Heman park. Twice on Thursday but only once on Friday (wanted to finish in under 15 minutes for 2 miles, ended up at 17:30 for 2.4 miles),to allow myself time to get geared up for the weekend long First Anniversary Celebration.
Yesterday I took to the bike trails again in 95 degree heat. I couldn't figure out why I was so beat after only 13 miles, till I looked at the temp on my odometer. Welcome to summer in St. Louis. I'm sure I'll get used to it!
This morning I hit the pool for the first time in TWO WEEKS!! It felt like my first time ever. It hurt so bad! Aside from the difficulty I had learning the "rules" at this pool, I did not enjoy this experience. The pool is a standard swimming pool, used primarily for the enjoyment of children in the summer to cool off from the heat. So, it's large and odd shaped. There were lines to mark the lanes (or so I thought), but the walls were further apart at each line as you progressed towards the deep end. (the lines were all the same length fortunately) Weird. There were lots of people there which meant the water wasn't as smooth as I'm used to and it made it more challenging to swim. All in all, not a good swim. I still have not figured out how long the pool is. I imagined it was 50M but the 2 people I spoke to said different things, although the consensus was that "We just don't worry about those things here". Well then how do you know how far you've swum? Just guess? I liked swimming in the am and being outside but I don't know if I'll go back to that pool. I suppose I will learn the "rules" especially since they have no problem telling me when I'm doing things incorrectly (you take the first open lane, not just anyone you want, and actualy it's a line on the pool floor, not a lane. You only get 1 line. Even if there are 100 open, you have to swim on the line, not between them. Only when the pool fills up can people swim in between the lines.) I'm not sure who made up the "rules" but they all seem to know them and I stuck out like a sore thumb for not following them. Someone actualy told me "we don't bring our towels out here because they will get wet". You mean there is water in the pool? Go figure! I should be allowed to have my towel on the pool deck if I choose. I don't feel comfortable walking around in just a swim suit with all of the dirty old men there. Jeez!
So that is long painful recap of the last 2 weeks. Not sure what I'll do in terms of swimming this week. I should keep going back to the Heman park pool if for no other reason than to show them that they don't intemidate me (OK so they do a little) and it's way more convenient.
Since my last update, I took 1 week off. I did NOTHING in terms of exercise for 5 days, broke the streak for a 3 mile run on Saturday May 28th, only to take off another 2 days in the name of graduation and just plain relaxing with family. The 3 mile run went better than planned, I came in just under 24 minutes, I was pleased. However if I continue with 3 mile runs 3 times a week, I'm falling WAY short of my 20 mile/week goal. I'm caught somewhere between racking up the miles and increasing my speed. I'm working out a plan to combine the 2.
We left Bettendorf after a nice long busy weekend and got back to ST. Louis on Tuesday afternoon. I broke the streak and FINALY hit the road for a test to see if I even could run anymore. Wanted to do more than 3 miles, which I successfuly did....barely. I stratagicly planned out my course so that I knew where my mile markers were. Mile 1 came in just under 8 mins. Painful but good. Mile 2....6 minutes??? Are you kidding me? Must be something wrong with my plan. Mile 3; 8 min 12 sec (OK if I really ran a 6 min mile before that, I'm OK with that) and then the last .8 or a mile was just under 6:30. So I re-worked my carefully thought out course to discover mile 2 was just shy of 1 mile. About .2 shy, so by my math, that would have put me still under 8 minutes if I continued my pace for the remaining .2 mile. Why do I obsess over these things? Why can't I just go out an run and not have to obsess about time? That should be my new goal.
Wednesday I bought a bike helmet and tried it out with my new pedometer, or is it an Odometer? The thing that tracks your miles and all that cool stuff. (thanks to a great anniversary gift from Conrad and Abbie) A nice bike ride. I met a woman who is part of Trailnet.org, a biking club in St. Louis. They do weekly rides on Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights. The Wednesday night ride is in my neighborhood so I gave her my name and said I'd be there next week. They all look like pretty intense riders so we'll see how I do. The path is anywhere from 8 to 27 miles. I think I'll start somewhere around 8, and work my way up through the summer. The loop is 8 miles and then you keep adding different loops to get to a certain point. The best part? They had oranges and capri sun in the parking lot after the ride. Just like Y soccer games! Plus it will be nice to be involved in something.
Thursday and Friday were both runs, didn't even look at my watch until the end! I did the same small loop around Heman park. Twice on Thursday but only once on Friday (wanted to finish in under 15 minutes for 2 miles, ended up at 17:30 for 2.4 miles),to allow myself time to get geared up for the weekend long First Anniversary Celebration.
Yesterday I took to the bike trails again in 95 degree heat. I couldn't figure out why I was so beat after only 13 miles, till I looked at the temp on my odometer. Welcome to summer in St. Louis. I'm sure I'll get used to it!
This morning I hit the pool for the first time in TWO WEEKS!! It felt like my first time ever. It hurt so bad! Aside from the difficulty I had learning the "rules" at this pool, I did not enjoy this experience. The pool is a standard swimming pool, used primarily for the enjoyment of children in the summer to cool off from the heat. So, it's large and odd shaped. There were lines to mark the lanes (or so I thought), but the walls were further apart at each line as you progressed towards the deep end. (the lines were all the same length fortunately) Weird. There were lots of people there which meant the water wasn't as smooth as I'm used to and it made it more challenging to swim. All in all, not a good swim. I still have not figured out how long the pool is. I imagined it was 50M but the 2 people I spoke to said different things, although the consensus was that "We just don't worry about those things here". Well then how do you know how far you've swum? Just guess? I liked swimming in the am and being outside but I don't know if I'll go back to that pool. I suppose I will learn the "rules" especially since they have no problem telling me when I'm doing things incorrectly (you take the first open lane, not just anyone you want, and actualy it's a line on the pool floor, not a lane. You only get 1 line. Even if there are 100 open, you have to swim on the line, not between them. Only when the pool fills up can people swim in between the lines.) I'm not sure who made up the "rules" but they all seem to know them and I stuck out like a sore thumb for not following them. Someone actualy told me "we don't bring our towels out here because they will get wet". You mean there is water in the pool? Go figure! I should be allowed to have my towel on the pool deck if I choose. I don't feel comfortable walking around in just a swim suit with all of the dirty old men there. Jeez!
So that is long painful recap of the last 2 weeks. Not sure what I'll do in terms of swimming this week. I should keep going back to the Heman park pool if for no other reason than to show them that they don't intemidate me (OK so they do a little) and it's way more convenient.
posted by Unknown at 10:47 AM
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