Archive for category Running
Couch to 10K… eventually….
Over the last year or two, I’ve been starting and stopping a Couch-to-10K training schedule. The reasons I end up stopping are varied and not the point of this post. How to start-up again is the question.
I’ve tried several methods, including ignoring a short hiatus and starting from scratch. Neither of those has been satisfying and I’m trying to find a better alternative.
This particular instance saw me get through Week 5, Day 1 of the 3-day-a-week, 13 week program, followed by a non-training 5K run and then what looks likely to be a two week break. Continuing to Week 5, Day 2 doesn’t seem like a good idea and I certainly don’t look forward to restarting the whole program.
Perhaps a good rule of thumb would be to backtrack the same number of days that I’ve skipped. Hmm… that actually sounds like a reasonable plan, so that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. Next week.
Headphones
I was commenting over at kapgar‘s site on his post about his headphones futzing out, but very quickly I realized that I was going to write a lot and decided to make my own post instead. So here it is.
I go through headphones like crazy. I mostly by cheap headphones, so I presume that’s a big part of the problem. But not always. I’m partial to over-the-ear headphones as the plain ear buds simply don’t stay in my ears.
Sony MDR-J11G Headphones
Philips SH J030 Headphones
I’ve had these Sony’s for a while, but even they tend to fall out of my ears when I run. They have a clip on them which helps a lot as it transfers most of the weight, but the clip broke months (a year?) ago. I’ve gone through a couple of similar sets that have failed, but this particular pair has lasted quite some time, other than the clip. More recently, I’ve started using something like these, though I’m not sure those are the specific ones. They have hinges on the behind-the-ear hooks, which help quite a bit. However, there isn’t enough tension and they still come loose when I run — particularly in my right ear.
Altec-Lansing UHP 307 Headphones
After I got my iPhone last year, I started looking for some over-the-ear headphones that also included a microphone. I found these Altec-Lansings at the Apple store and was actually very happen with them. They were comfortable for everyday use, allowed for phone conversations, and stayed in my ears when I ran. Also, the cord is nylon wrapped so I anticipated that they would be much sturdier than typical headphones. Apparently not, as they really didn’t last very long before one of the ears started failing due to a broken wire.
Altec-Lansing BackBeat 903 Bluetooth Headphones
For a while, I considered buying another set of the same headphones, but I was hesitant given how short-lived the previous pair had been for their cost. Finally, the iPhone 3.0 OS upgrade enabled bluetooth music and my quest changed to finding a set of over-the-ear bluetooth headphones with built-in mic. I found another set of Altec-Lansings that looked very promising. I’ve been quite happy with them, but I’m saving the deatails for a video blog that I’ve been meaning to do for weeks now. I will note that I haven’t tried running with them because I don’t run with my phone, so no bluetooth.
Garmin 405: Running Again
I bought a Garmin Forerunner 405 today, pretty much on a whim. Well, not completely on a whim as I had commented about it over at ilaxSTUDIO.com a whole four days ago. I had originally intended to get the 405CX, but the 405, with heart rate monitor, was on sale such that instead of the CX only costing an extra $20, it was an extra $100. I couldn’t pass up the sale price, particularly since there’s so little difference between the two models.
One of the main features that led me to purchasing this despite the fact that the Forerunner 201 I already have still works fine is the integration with Garmin Connect (plus the fact that my 201 doesn’t work with my Mac). I’ve added a widget to my blog that shows my last five activities and provides a link to the Garmin Connect page for the activity. On this page you can see graphs and other data from the activity.
Naturally, I had to take the new device out for a spin, so I want for a rare evening run. You can see the details of it here.
Now that I have a new toy, I’m sure I’ll be running a lot more. In addition, we’ve planned this year’s Fredericksburg bike ride for early next month, so we’re going to ramp up our bike riding over the next several weeks. These things should help me with the second half of my weight loss goal (a ticker of my progress is another recently added widget on my blog).
The Power of Guilt
I’ve been doing pretty well on my diet lately (down another three pounds since my previous update) , but I still haven’t gotten back into the grove of exercising. However, I splurged at lunch today at my favorite burger place, which led to me finally going for a run during my daughter’s soccer practice.
Sure, it was only 25 minutes (and only 2 miles), but it’s a start. I’m hopeful that it will be the start of a trend. Plus, I’m really planning to start back up on the Wii Fit tomorrow morning.
I’ll be going off diet for the trip to TequilaCon next weekend, so the more I accomplish before then, the better. Which is a much improved attitude over how I would normally feel, “might as well just wait ’til after the trip!” of course, there’s always another excuse available around the corner.
Diet Progress
It’s been about four weeks since I blogged about my Fast Food Diet, and while I’ve done a pretty good job following it most of the time, I certainly didn’t during the cruise.
In the week from the day of that post (which was not actually the beginning of the diet, but that’s OK) to my last weigh-in before the cruise I lost a couple of pounds. But, of course, I was up about five pounds over the week of the cruise. Since then, I’ve managed to lose about six-and-a-half pounds. So I’m only down four pounds in four weeks.
Given that I haven’t used the Wii Fit since before the cruise, haven’t run at all in months, and have hardly biked this year, I feel like I’m doing pretty well. Plus, I’m actually down about ten pounds since Mardi Gras, which was pretty much my high point.
I really need to get back into the groove of exercising. Maybe tomorrow. Or Monday. Or….
Burnet Tri-Hard
On Sunday, Marci and I participated in the 10th Annual Burnet TRI-Hard Challenge. This was another sprint distance triathlon, though with a longer bike portion (17-18mi). I hadn’t practiced or trained enough for this one, so it was really just a “finish-it” goal for me — and pretty much for Marci as well.
| overall rank | total time | swim rank | swim time | bike rank | bike time | transition_2 time | run rank | run time |
| 193 | 2:09:12.2 | 185 | 30:31.1 | 154 | 1:02:38.6 | 02:02 | 189 | 33:56.6 |
I’m not sure why they didn’t log transition_1, but based on my GPS data, I think it must be included in with the swim. I’m actually quite satisfied with my bike and run times, and even my swim time given that I hadn’t swum at all since the last triathlon.
Hill Country Family Triathlon
On Saturday we participated in the Hill Country Triathlon. This was primarily a kids’ event with an optional parents’ mini-tri at the end. Along with our family, our friends Chance and Dax also participated (their first tri!). For Marci and me, this was a nice follow-up to last week’s triathlon, as it was appreciably shorter — 200m swim, 5mi bike, 2km run.
The girls both made significant improvements to the times they had in the Firecracker Triathlon earlier this month. Brittney improved by 3:45 and McKenzie by 4:38. I was happy with my times, though I don’t really have anything to which I can compare them. Certainly I maintained a faster pace for these shorter distances. Results are available for individuals as well as for the parent/child teams.
First row: Marci and Ren
Second row: McKenzie, Dax, Chance and Brittney
More pictures from the event…
My First Triathlon
I participated in my first triathlon this past Sunday. It was a Couples Triathlon with a sprint distance (800m swim, 11.2mi bike, 5km run) which is all I’m really up for anytime soon. Marci and I teamed up for this as did Travis and Susie.
Here are my results:
| overall rank | total time | swim rank | swim time | transition_1 time | bike rank | bike time | transition_2 time | run rank | run time |
| 557 | 1:47:42 | 608 | 24:28 | 03:52 | 478 | 41:40 | 02:02 | 564 | 35:37 |
We have a family triathlon this Saturday. It’s really for the kids, but they allow for teams of one kid and one parent. The parents compete after the kids are finished and then the times are added together (also true in the couples triathlon). This one is appreciably shorter:
Distances
Juniors (5-6) Swim 25 meters/Bike 2.5 mile /Run 0.6 mile
Seniors (7-10) Swim 100 meters/Bike 2.5 mile /Run 0.6 mile
Seniors (11-15) Swim 200 meters/Bike 5.1 mile /Run 1.2 mile
Parents Swim 200 meters/Bike 5.1 mile /Run 1.2 mile
Edit: Fixed spelling error called out by Wayne.
Kids Firecracker Triathlon
Brittney and McKenzie participated in the Firecracker Triathlon on Independence Day. This was their first Triathlon and they endured it pretty well — better than the practice run we did on Saturday. They competed in different age groups, but for the same distance, so there are both separate (by age and gender) rankings and combined rankings.
Finally ran again
It wasn’t my first run of the year but it was my first morning run. I ran with Travis a couple of weeks ago in lieu of racquetball. That run was tough, since I hadn’t run in about two months and we did (I think, no GPS) about four miles. This morning I only ran just under three miles, but I’m not sure that it wasn’t even more difficult for me. I’m mostly just glad that I managed to get up and run.
I hope that I can get back into a more regular routine of running. Time will tell….
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My GPS Logs- Couch to 10K, Week 2, Day 1 October 11, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 1, Day 2 October 6, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 1, Day 1 October 4, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 3, Day 2 September 29, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 3, Day 1 September 27, 2011
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