It may not be fast to anyone else, but I’m pretty sure I set a personal record for fastest 5 miles. I started the day with a bowl of oatmeal. 20 minutes later I started warming up with my jumping jacks and push-ups. They were all easy. I was feeling good. I got on the treadmill and ran the first mile in 9:16 then settled into a rhythm with less rest than usual. I went 2 minutes @ 6.5 mph followed by only 1 minute @ 4.0 mph. I crossed the 3.0 mile mark at 30:47, which is pretty good for me. I couldn’t hold the rhythm with less rest, so I started giving myself 2 minutes at 4.0 mph between intervals. By the middle of mile 5 I was toast and just walked it out. I crossed the 5.0 mile mark at 53:29, which is pretty awesome for me. I haven’t ever kept records of my 5 miles runs (there haven’t been that many of them), but I’m pretty sure this was a personal best. I cut 7 minutes from my time just 2 days ago. I’m feeling pretty good about that. I guess taking a walking day wasn’t such a bad idea after all. I may take another one tomorrow. We’ll see.

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 100

Time to mile 1.0: 9:16 (6.5 mph ave)
Time to mile 3.0: 30:47 (5.8 mph ave)
Time to mile 5.0: 53:29 (5.6 mph ave)
Time to mile 6.0: 1:08:33 (5.2 mph ave)

It’s been a long time since I’ve really tried to run on the treadmill. I was in Roatán, Honduras last week for my first real scuba diving trip. We did 17 dives, including 2 wreck dives, 1 night dive, and 1 dive with sharks. It was a lot of fun, but the schedule didn’t allow us to do much else, although we did sneak in a horseback ride along the beach and a fish identification class.

So I haven’t really been on my feet for a few weeks. That turned out to be both good and bad. The soreness I had been feeling along the front of the bones in my lower legs is gone, but so is my mental toughness to push through 3 miles. In fact, I only ran the first mile, then walked 2 miles. After that I got into a nice rhythm of 2 minutes at 7.2 and 2 minutes at 4.0. That pulled me through miles 4 and 5. I crossed mile 5 at 1:00:39, which is pretty good for me. Then I walked another mile to cool off. Hopefully I didn’t push too hard to do it all again tomorrow.

Time at mile 1: 0:09:48
Time at mile 5: 1:00:39
Time at mile 6: 1:15:44

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 100

The day started slowly. Charmaine and I took back a telephoto lens she rented for the weekend, then went shopping for scuba equipment (our trip will be here very soon), and then to Ikea. Suddenly it was 3:00 and I was close to convincing myself that running this late in the day would be too close to our big ski trip on Wednesday. But eventually I realized that was a sad excuse, so I got on the treadmill and ran 4 miles, then walked another one. I started walking 2 minutes at 4 mph, then 2 minutes at 6.5, then another 2 minutes at 4, then 4 minutes at 6.5, then another 2 at 4, then 6 minutes at 6.5. Then I dropped into my familiar 2 minutes running and 2 minutes walking until I hit 4 miles. Then I walked the last mile, but for some reason I kept feeling like I wanted to run a little during that last mile.

Time at mile 4.0: 43:54
Push-ups: 100
Jumping jacks: 50

Actually, the jumping jacks have been bothering my right shoulder, so I adjusted them to “half-jacks”.

Despite saying I wouldn’t, and despite repeatedly telling myself not to, I pushed hard through my first mile to see how fast I could go. I was still going fast when I crossed the mile marker, but I paused the treadmill to see my time. After that I couldn’t get back into that fast pace again. In fact, after just two miles, I switched to walking and never ran again. That’s pretty sad. I did cross mile 1 at 8:40 and mile 2 just under 20 minutes, but everything after that was slow and painful. I was surprised how much I was hurting, but I had to get my five miles done, no matter how slow. I did manage to cross the 4 mile mark at 48:25, which is only slightly slower than a 5.0 mph average, but it’s still pretty pathetic compared to what I should be doing.

The push-ups were not as bad today. I thought I might switch it up at do one set of 30 then a set of 40 and finish with another set of 30, but when I hit the first 30 I was feeling good and didn’t have much trouble getting to 40. That’s progress.

When I went outside today, it was beautiful and warm. I realized I should have done my running (or at least most of it) outside. Maybe I’ll try that tomorrow, if it doesn’t turn cold again. I’ll at least check outside before hopping on the treadmill.

The jumping jacks are still a great warm-up, but that first set of 40 push-ups continue to be really difficult. I wonder why they’re so much harder this week than they were last week. Hopefully if I soldier on they’ll ease up after a few weeks. The run started off great. I pushed through the first 2 miles, crossing mile 2 just under 20 minutes. I walked most of miles 3 and 4, but ran a little at the end to make sure I came in faster than 5.0 mph. I crossed the line at 46:02, which put me at a 5.2 mph average. I walked another mile to make it another 5 mile day.

Totals so far this week:
150 Jumping Jacks (50, 50, 50)
300 Push-ups (100, 100, 100)
14.0 miles (4.0, 5.0, 5.0)

I’ve decided it’s not worth much to keep track of time to mile 1. Instead I’m going to keep track of either distance by 40 minutes, or time to mile 4. Today I crossed mile 4 at 45:51. That’s not super fast, but it may be the fastest I’ve ever done it. I was happy with it. I walked another mile at 4 mph to get my heart rate back down to a normal level. That put me just under 5 mph for my 5 miles (1:00:38 at mile 5.0). I’ll take it.

Push-ups were hard again today. The first 30 are easy every time, but those ten from 30 to 40 get interesting. Maybe I’ll be stronger next week. I still got my 100 push-ups done: 40, 30, 30.

I forgot to add yesterday, I’ve started doing 50 jumping jacks as a warm-up before I run. So far I like it.

I’m not sure why I didn’t just run my 3 miles and be done with it. For some reason I decided to mess around with different ladders of intensity. I started off at 4 mph for 2 minutes, then 5 mph for 2 minutes, then 6 mph for 2 minutes, then 7 mph for 2 minutes, then back down to 6 for 2, 5 for 2, and 4 for 2. That took me to 1.2 miles, but not extremely quickly, and it was fairly taxing on me. For my second mile I started at 8 mph for 2 minutes, then 7 mph for 2, 6 for 2, 5 for 2, and then 4 mph for the final 2 minutes, giving me an average speed of 6 mph for 10 minutes or exactly 1 mile. Again, it was harder than it should have been. After that I just set it to 4.0 mph and walked for 30 minutes (another 2 miles).

The push-ups were difficult today. That actually surprised me. I had planned on increasing my output from last week, but after feeling the pain today, I decided to keep it to 100 per day.