Day 45: Saturday, May 9, 2009

Another day, another workout. After lifting weights on Friday, I decided to give my muscles a breather and focus on the cardiovascular training for Saturday.

My wife and I tried something different for this workout, we decided to attempt to run together. That is to say, at the same speeds for the same amount of time. This is partly because we have found a 5k to run - on October 24th - so we could build up to that together, and partly just to do some activity together, instead of doing our own thing.

With that said, this workout won't seem much like a "traditional" workout in which I have performed before, but it's still movement, and it was actually a lot, lot harder than what I have grown accustom to "traditionally".

We began with a 5-minute warm up at 3.0 miles per hour, before upping the speed to begin our intervals to 4.0 MPH for the next two minutes - 7 minutes of walking, it wasn't too hard yet, but then, came time to run our first two minute interval at 7.0 MPH. We both upped our speeds and started running. I would say that two minutes never felt so long, but honestly, it wasn't that bad, and I say that because if I remember back to when I was just starting out, running at 5 MPH for only one minute, well, those single minutes never seemed like it would end - but at 7 MPH it was tiring, it was even hard, but wasn't impossible.

We slowed back to 4 MPH after that 2 minute "sprint" and my wife asks me "how are you doing" ... in which I answered breathlessly, "tired." So as time approaches to run again, she asks me "how fast do you want?" ... not one to back down, I said "seven." Since seven is what we set out to do, that's exactly what I'd do. We ran again, again, it was tiring. Then we slowed before running again. We slowed one final time to 4 MPH, and my wife mentioned that she wasn't feeling well - her breakfast wasn't sitting right - so she recommends walking for 3 minutes this time, so we do, before upping our speed, but only to 6 MPH this time. After that two minutes is up, I am tired, and ask to walk for 4 minutes. During that time, my wife decides that the bounce of the treadmill is upsetting her stomach, so she leaves me alone, as she goes to perform her activity on the elliptical.

At this point, I know I'm too worn out to continue with the intervals, so I set the treadmill at 5 MPH and begin jogging - and last for the 10 full minutes before slowing my pace for my cool down. A good workout - I pushed myself at times and other times, returned to what I knew I could do. I felt good for it, and we still had our full Saturday in front of us, since we had gotten up early and went to the gym directly after breakfast (see my wife having stomach issues).

In total, I walked at 3.0 MPH for the 5 minute warm up for 0.25 miles, I walked during the intervals at 4.0 MPH for 12 minutes total for 0.80 miles, I ran at 7 MPH for 6 total minutes for 0.70 miles, I ran at 6 MPH for 2 minutes during one interval for 0.20 miles, and I ran for 10 minutes at 5 MPH for a distance of 0.83 miles. With cool down, I completed a total of 36 minutes and 2.81 miles.

In January, 7 MPH for any length of time would have been unimaginable. Today is a good day, and hopefully workout number 1 to run that 5k come October 24th - more to come on that as the day approaches.