Running

Weight: 211 lb.

I last ran (slash walked) on 8/21/09, and that was for about 38 minutes. I was testing out Nike+ with my iPhone and LunarGlide+ orange-soled shoes. The uncalibrated app estimated that I ran 3 miles. That was the first and only time I used the Nike+ until tonight (11/19/09-11/20/09).

Heather recommended the book "What I Think About When I Think About Running" some time ago, but I did not read it until Amazon recently made available a Kindle app. I have been reading the book on my iPhone when I take the train to work. The author reminds me of me, if only because Cambridge and the NYC Marathon play such prominent roles in the book (so far).

I was inspired and thought up elaborate plans to get back to running, such as this one:

Tonight: Walk laps around the condo complex for 30 minutes to measure a starting distance.

Tomorrow morning: Run that many laps without stopping. (The author was proud of never walking.)

Each morning after that: Run one more lap than the previous day until 30 minutes is reached.

Then whenever I improve enough to cut the time below 30 minutes, add another lap to go over 30 minutes.

Then as my weight decreases, run longer.

200+ lb => 30 minutes
190-199 lb => 40 minutes
180-189 lb => 50 minutes
170-179 lb => 60 minutes

As the night got later and later, I got more and more eager to get out there. I scrapped the plan and decided to run without stopping until I finished my running music playlist, which I thought was about 30 minutes long. The temperature was in the high 40s, so I went out in my trusty Reebok shirt and running shorts.

My hands were cold (I forgot my gloves), and I was anxious the first 15 minutes, but I settled down into a nice (slow) rhythm after that. The playlist went on and on, and by the time I was done, I had run over 60 minutes! (How perfectly typical of me to be so far off target!)

At the end, I kept going and going. I was relieved when the playlist finally ended, but I still felt okay except for slight twinges in my knees when turning (always right, since I was running clockwise when viewed from above). My hands stopped being cold about 15 minutes into the run.

The uncalibrated Nike+ estimated that I ran 5.5 miles. That sounds generous, but I am proud of running 60 minutes non-stop anyway. That is way more than double what I had hoped for!

Now it is 4:47am, and I still have not finished all the things I wanted to do tonight. Maybe my next run will be tomorrow morning.

The new plan is to just run 60 minutes non-stop each time I run, preferably at least once every 48 hours.