Week 6 day 1

[liv]

Wow, completing the 20 minute run at the end of week 5 has been such a psychological boost! I turned up at the gym today thinking, I've done 20 minutes continuously, 5/8/5 should be easy-peasy. And whaddya know, it was. It was exertion, I was definitely breathing hard and sweating, but I got to the end thinking, hey, if this weren't so boring I could do the whole thing again.

Remembering my previous bad experience with going back to the gym after several outdoor runs, I only set the speed to 7 kph, which is not the fastest I can do. But still, that gave me a two-mile total distance for the first time, 3.2 km in 29 minutes or an average pace of 9'4'' /km. That's a little teeny bit faster than my 20 minute run overall, even though I was only running for 3/5 of the time instead of 4/5. So I think it's an all round improvement over Week 5 day 3.

And I think I've finally found that endorphin high I've been chasing for the past 2 years. Having done the workout at a pace that was hard work but not painful on my lungs, I actually feel really good, relaxed and bouncy and energized. Woo!

Comments

[hickumu]

Aw, man, I thought it was just me who had trouble with going to the gym being so boring. All the times I went to the gym, I couldn't find any way to make it better. It's why I eventually switched to running outside but, still. I miss the thrill of seeing my exact distance.

But, go you!!!! Even if it's boring, you kept at it! Twenty minutes all together? How many people can say that?

[liv]

Boredom is seriously my biggest problem with keeping up with exercise. I really hate being in any situation where I can't get some kind of mental stimulation. But it's hard to combine doing intense exercise with reading; I can sit on an exercise bike and read, or go online on my smartphone or whatever, but then I just get lazy and don't really pedal all that hard, so it's not doing a lot of good. With running, it's hard to even listen to music or the audio channel to the TV, because the headphones keep slipping when I'm running.

Running outside is a bit less boring than in the gym, but still doesn't really hold my interest for half an hour of just running along through the park. Because I'm trying to keep up with three runs per week, I'm using the gym when the weather's too wet or cold for running, or when I don't have time to run at lunchtime and don't really want to run in the dark when I get home from work. I prefer outside, definitely, but I prefer the gym over just giving up when conditions are bad. As for measuring the exact distance, I've been using the Runkeeper app on my phone which uses GPS and generally seems to be pretty good at telling me how far I've managed!

[rmc28]

I don't know if it helps, but I use these earphones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000W35SZW/ I originally started using them for power-walking but they generally stay in the ears ok when running too. The only thing with running I've noticed is that I have to tuck enough slack into my bumbag (where the phone is) to stop myself accidentally catching the slack cable with my arms and pulling everything out in a mess. I don't think I move my arms as wildly enthusiastically when walking.

Also it's really cool that you're finding the endorphin buzz :-)

[liv]

I think I may have weird shaped ears, and therefore need to find some over-ear headphones. I bought some cheap ones of a similar ear-hook design and they really did not stay in my ears as well I'd hoped. Also one of the buds snapped off after a couple of weeks, but that's likely to be a function of buying crappy off-brand earphones; the Creative ones I wouldn't expect to have that problem. Good point about keeping the cables out of the way, though!