StartWalking v4

I got a new battery in my pedometer as the new walking program starts tomorrow and I, for one, am glad. The programs provide a good incentive to get in some additional exercise and for me, it has really helped. When the first StartWalking program began, I was able to do about 2000 steps on a good day. And I set a goal of achieving the 10k step recommended minimum It took several months to reach that goal. Over the course of the three programs, I've lost almost 50 pounds and can now run (or at least doing something I call running). When this started, it would have been a challenge to run 100 yards and on Friday, I ran over 5 miles. A couple of times last summer, I walked the equivalent of a marathon so I'm looking forward to see what this this summer brings besides motorcycle riding!

I think I figured out what was wrong with me yesterday. I think I was severly dehydrated. After drinking a ton of water, I felt a hundred times better. Maybe it was some sort of 24 hour bug but on Sunday morning, no trace of anything. I remember this happening before when I used to ride my bike a lot in California. And it is much easier to carry water while cycling than when running. What do most people do? Use a fanny pack or something? Not wanting to be discouraged by a little setback, I went for several short walks outside the longest only being about 3 miles. This time I took plenty of water.

My comment about cycling made me think of several rides way back including a couple of century (100 mile) rides from the L.A. area into the upper desert. We rode at night because it was cooler but I still remember going through about three gallons of water on each trip. Another was San Diego to Cabo and I carried over a gallon with me on the bike and must gone through over four gallons on some of the 100 mile 100 degree days. I guess I have always needed lots of fluids. The moral of this post is drink plenty of water.

Finally

Well, I finally went running outside this evening. I ran down the Farmers Loop bike path and stopped when I reached the Steese Highway. I guess I should probably be able to finish a 5k run since I went over 5 miles today. The interesting thing is that I only stopped because my ride was coming to pick me up along the road but probably could have easily gone several more miles. Guess I need to start pushing myself a bit harder. That must be one of the reason folks "train". To learn how hard they need to push themselves to go a certain distance. The uphill sections were much more challenging than simply changing the grade on the treadmill. Actually having to do work i.e. force times distance, takes much more energy. Not surprisingly, the scenery is better outside. It still seemed pretty cold but still lost a lot of water and I should have brought some sort of fluid with me. I guess I was planning to just walk but had to try running. There were still some very icy sections requiring me to walk, but what surprised me is that after walking through these sections, I really felt a need to start running again. What's that all about ...

Right now, I'm sore in strange places. Not my legs like I expected but back and neck. I wonder why? I can't wait to try again but thought I should wait a couple of days. Tomorrow is the Home Show at the Carlson Center. Maybe I should walk there? It can't be that far.

Saturday afternoon - It looks like I came down with something. A lot of aches and an intermittent fever. Could this be caused by running outside? I did get pretty chilled and tired. Maybe my resistance just dropped to nothing from the stress associated with being really tired. Interesting. Anyway, today was spent running kids around interspersed with sleeping. No Home Show today. I'm scheduled to go up to Barrow on Monday evening. I hope whatever this is passes.

Trends

I was looking at my exercise pattern trying to see if I can guess how I was going to do on any particular day. I discovered this view on the Nike+ site that shows my walk/jog history (short term) and several things stand out to me. First, roughly every third day seems to be a good day for distance and second, there has been a gradual increase in my distances. There has been a corresponding increase in time spent on the treadmill which means that my speed hasn't increased significantly. I guess I knew that since speed is set on the treadmill. I've been reluctant to go much faster since everything that I've read recently has indicated that we should exercise at about a 60% to 80% of our mazimum hear rate. When I'm running, I tend to be at 80% to 90% already. So is this recommendation based on real science or is it just what everybody has been saying for forever? For myself, I've stayed at the 90% value for literally hours and it doesn't seem to have hurt me or am I just fooling myself? Anyway, that is why I have been reluctant to go any faster. What I really need to do is get off of the treadmill and go outside.

New shoes

Finally broke down and picked up a new pair of shoes. I tried them out this afternoon with a short run (3.8 miles) and they seem to work great. They have a spot in the sole for the Nike+ transmitter and the distance now matches the treadmill almost exactly. Before, they differed by about 2% (which was close enough for me) but now the difference after almost 4 miles was only 0.01 miles! I guess the designers of the gadget knew what they were doing. Like any new pair, I think my legs need to adjust a little as some muscles ache a bit after running. Then again, I had to take off immediately after exercising and didn't have time to stretch. I hope these last at least as long as the last two pairs of New Balance shoes I've had.

The bike paths are looking pretty clear. If I didn't have to run the boys around, I was thinking of taking advantage of them. Only another week of so until the new Start Walking program begins. Start wearing your pedometers now to get used to carrying it around.