Wednesday, February 07, 2007

"Begin Again Gang . . .

gonna get gung-ho about fitness."

So tonight was the third night this week that I ran at Larson Lifestyles Center. Last year, if you remember, I ran in the Lincoln Half-Marathon and completed the 13.1 miles in 1:56. It was my goal to finish in under two hours, and I did. This year my goal is to complete a half-marathon around 90 minutes. This means going from averaging 8:46 minutes a mile to 7 minutes a mile. I don't know if this much improvement is possible, but it helps that I have two opportunities this year. Lincoln's marathon at the beginning of May, and the Black Hills marathon at the beginning of June for my mother's birthday celebration.

This week is the first running I've done since last year's marathon in May. I started "training" for last year's marathon about this same time, so my plan to improve that 1:46 per mile is to run faster paces for the thirty minutes I get the treadmill at Larson and run more longer distances than last year once the weather gets nice. Last year the most I ran before the marathon Sunday was 10 miles on Friday. Hopefully this year I'll get a 15 miler in there before the half. Any advice in this new venture is welcome. I'll keep you updated.

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5 Comments:

At February 08, 2007 5:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to work on Sunday, sorry. It's cuz I have the first weekend in March off, they are making me work 6 days.

 
At February 10, 2007 12:02 AM, Blogger Buffy Turner said...

Oh, Daniel,

Your passing reference to the thirty minutes you get on the treadmill in the Larson Lifestyle Center killed me. Do you know I actually got in trouble over that? They finally called me in the dorm, got me on the phone, and had a serious discussion with me over it.

I'd been going right when they opened, every morning, and would have signed my name on the sheet, followed by a medley of other names including, but not limited to, Becka Lund, Allison Rosette, and Kari Lund, for the next three slots, or so.

The real problem came when another girl was always there, vying with me for the treadmill.

But, exactly: how would one train for a marathon with a measly thirty minutes?

At least I got in my record, 17 miles, at the Larson Lifestyle Center. Two hours, thirty-seven minutes, and forty-seven seconds. That was an exciting day.

 
At February 10, 2007 12:26 AM, Blogger Daniel said...

I don't know what is more impressive, that you were able to run at a 9:28 pace for 17 miles or that you were able to stay for two and a half hours on a treadmill at Larson.

They do have two treadmills now, but I only really care to run on one of them and have been fortunate to always have one open when I need it.

As for training for a marathon, I hope to get to a 6 minute or below pace in my thirty minute sessions, which should allow for a pretty quick pace once I get to the longer distances. That would be 5 miles in the thirty minutes which is 38 percent of the half marathong.

 
At February 11, 2007 2:23 AM, Blogger Buffy Turner said...

Yeah, I'm unequivocally slow and steady when it comes to running. I had to trade time goals for distance goals, lest I lose all sense of dignity. For probably the same reason I detested running with others. I'm too competitive, and hate the distraction of another person's pace beside my own; my only exception was letting Casey run with me Sabbath mornings, and I made sure he understood the salience of his standing. (And what does he do with that salience but run backwards, in front of me?)

Oh, and there were two treadmills at the Lifestyle Center when I was there, too. But all those older men would come at 6:00am, too.

 
At February 13, 2007 5:34 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

I'll put the gates in the kitchen, you or Marcy can pick them up when you wish.

 

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