Week D day 1

[liv]

I did manage to keep up my running habit over Xmas, but what I haven't done for several weeks is drag myself out of my warm cosy house, away from the shiny internet, and into the cold dark night to walk to the gym. Today I did that, in spite of the nasty cold foggy weather.

What I didn't manage to do was actually complete my 30 minute run :-( I gave up after 22.5 minutes, and I don't even know why, I just couldn't make myself keep going. 3.2 km in 27.5 minutes, including the warmup, so 8' 36'' /km, which isn't a bad pace. And not long ago I would have been immensely proud of a two-mile run at all.

I think the most relevant factor was that I haven't been on a treadmill since 21^st December, and I've lost the habit even though I have of course kept my fitness up. I think the disadvantage of the treadmill compared to real running is that if I'm getting tired or bored I can't easily slow down a bit for half a minute or so until I overcome the barrier.

This is the first time I've bailed out on a run since my first attempt at the 20 minute run from the end of Week 5. I think my best bet is to repeat day 1 again on Saturday, so that I can remind myself what successfully running for 30 mins feels like. It's a little thing, but I think I need to delete I'm gonna be an engineer from my running playlist; even though she's being sarcastic, being bombarded with lyrics about how "you" will never accomplish anything because you're a girl is probably not good psychologically.

Oh well, still made 15K steps today, and I can feel proud of restarting my gym habit after a break. Onwards!

Comments

[ewt]

I can see how the lack of ability to just slow down for a bit would make the treadmill a bit of a drag, and it sounds like going to the gym simply isn't as appealing as running outside. Well done for getting there at all, and for the sort of progress that makes 22.5min seem like giving up -- I certainly am nowhere near that!

[liv]

Running outside is somewhere between neutral and pleasant. I don't like it enough to actively want to drag myself away from the internet to go out, but once I'm out I enjoy it. I'm trying not to be too much of a wimp about weather, but running if it's colder than about 8 °C is an asthma trigger, (and really at this time of year it's not supposed to be warmer than that most of the time), and I'm not really prepared to run in the pouring rain, or freezing fog as we had Thursday night. I got a head-torch for Christmas and I'm considering venturing out after dark, but only if it's also warm-ish and dry. So the only way I can run outside is if I can do it during lunchtime (which isn't always possible depending what I'm doing at work), and if it's also reasonable weather.

So I'm making myself run in the gym when I don't get that confluence of circumstances, but I find it horrid. Going there is horrid because the only possible route is walking along a couple of main roads. And getting changed in a little cramped not terribly clean badly designed dressing room is horrid. And exercising in the gym is horrid, especially during January when it's very crowded. And running on treadmills is especially horrid, I almost never do the same thing for 30 minutes without any variety or stimulation at all.

In a slightly twisted way, I definitely do feel good about being disappointed with 22.5 minutes! In some ways, I am annoyed for "only" managing what I could 2 months ago, but in other ways, in two months I've gone from thinking 20 minutes was a major accomplishment, to thinking 20 minutes is giving up - after all I did 40 minutes only last week.