johnjlee

Finding an open treadmill (or open anything at the gym) is the hardest in January. Right before and right after, though, it’s easy.

I noticed this trend last year too. The gym is always crowded in January because that’s when people make resolutions for the new year. The first two weeks are the worst, and then it sharply drops off. This past week, the gym was empty every time I went. The gyms take advantage of this, too, by letting all of their deals and sales expire right before the new year.

I ran about 16 and a half miles last week at a comfortable pace. It might take a couple weeks to get back up to 21, but I’m back on a regular running schedule after LASIK recovery and other personal matters. It’s amazing how much progress you lose in a short amount of idle time. I feel like every week of missed running kills 3 weeks of progress. If you get discouraged easily, this makes for a slippery slope. I hope I can keep up the regular schedule and continue making slow and steady progress.

I’ve made good progress in my quest to run continuously without stopping, well on my way to 7 continuous miles. My last run (4mi @ 8:33) looks rather disappointing on the graph to the right, but I took it easy on purpose since I was scheduled for laser eye surgery the next day. My recovery is going well, but I probably should stay away from running for a week or two. I hope to get my running shoes back on as soon as I my doctor says I’m safe to do so. I’m at least glad to know that I can run a continuous 10K at a decent pace without getting tired.

Anyway, I’ve set a modest goal this year to increase that counter on the right-hand side to 1200 miles by the end of the year, which amounts to about 700 miles this year. I should easily beat it if I keep my current pace, but I think the challenge will come in running regularly throughout the year and not getting lazy. I’m also hoping to increase my distance to half-marathon level during the summer. We’ll see how it goes.

My right knee has been in a little pain, which led to about a week without running. It was more than just some soreness (I probably would just run through soreness), but some sharp pain. I kept off of it for a little while and it’s much better now.

The past several weeks, I’ve been running the “Freeway to 10K” series, which is an interval training program that culminated in that 7-mile run. Despite my average pace hitting my target, it still involved a single 60-second walking segment to catch my breath and take a swig of water. It makes a pretty big difference when it comes to timing. This past week I’ve decided to see how I can improve how long I can run without having to stop to catch my breath, so I’ve started with 5-mile runs, which seems pretty doable. I finished the week at 5.33mi @ 8:25 and felt in good shape to keep going (but decided not to as I want to avoid further injuries). Removing that 60-second break, of course, makes my average pace go up a lot.

I’m going to do this for another couple weeks until I know I can run a 10K easily at a good pace without stopping. After that, I’m probably going to vary the routine a bit, doing long runs every now and then and mixing it with shorter interval runs for speed, so expect those graphs on the right side to go a little crazy. I’m easily on track to hit 500 miles by the end of the year though!

I did it — 7 miles @ 8:34 three times in one week. I finished the week at 7.05mi @ 8:30.

I’m pretty proud of myself. I’m going to continue running, though. It makes me feel real good. I’m going to try to hit 500 miles by the end of the year.

7.0 miles @ 8:35. On my last couple of miles, I looked down at the timer and noticed I was 20 seconds behind my goal pace. By the end of it, I was 9 seconds behind. If I keep this up, it looks like next week will be the week I reach the goal!

I sweat a lot. I sweat bucketloads when I run, but I even find myself working up a sweat just walking to the train station on a mild summer day. A while ago, this was my secret motive — to be able to be a functional human being on mild 80-degree-weather days without having beads of sweat form on my forehead the moment I step outside. I suppose I thought that I could increase my endurance enough so that I could just shrug off a short walk in hot weather, but I’m finding more and more that it just doesn’t work that way. Maybe I’m just made for cold weather. It’s 40 degrees outside now, my heater is turned off, the cold air leaks noticeably into my room through the window, and I’m comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts. Maybe it’s genetic?

Anyway, next week I’m aiming to make up those 9 seconds, and do it 3 times in a row. I’m feeling good these days — I don’t have a doubt in my mind about being able to pull it off!

I ended the week at 6.93 miles @ 8:42. Looking back at where I was just 30 days ago, I think that’s a pretty phenomenal improvement. I’m within striking distance of my goal now!

Of course, this last 10% will take 90% of the effort. This week, I struggled a bit with some pain in my right knee. I’ve been icing it and I took an extra day of rest, so I think I should be back in shape to continue running as planned. The impact of running 30k+ a week is certainly starting to take its toll, but I”m not about to stop now. The next couple of weeks are going to be tougher than anything else so far, but it will be oh-so-gratifying. It’s helpful here to think more about the outcome than the trials you go through to get there — once you conquer your goal, you can look back and laugh at yourself for once having thought it was hard. I remember just over a year ago I had trouble running a single 10-minute mile.

Next week is the final week of the “freeway to 10k” podcast series, which means I’ll be on my own in the home stretch. Next week we go from three 19-minute intervals to two 29-minute intervals. This ought to bring me dangerously close to my goals, and if all goes well, I’ll be running 60 straight minutes @ 8:34 the week after that.

Finished off the week at 6.9 miles @ 8:47. Looking good so far to reach my 7.0 @ 8:34 goal soon.

I have an unusually fast metabolism. I can eat tons and not gain any weight, which is actually pretty dangerous combined with my genetic predisposition to heart disease. My stomach could tell me I’m starving, while my arteries say they can take no more. I had a minor revelation last week– one day, while eating, I just looked down at my plate. Anyone would probably tell me that I’d kill myself in a few years eating like that. So last week I decided I’d try to stop eating red meat, fried things, and generally food with a lot of fat and cholesterol.

It’s hard. And I didn’t succeed.

Despite that, I managed to go most days successfully. Was it worth it? I guess I’ll only know if I keep this up for a couple of years. I think the occasional side of fries isn’t so bad, but if I want to be able to keep this up in the long term, I need to make a habit out of it because at some point I will stop reminding myself every time I eat. It’s hard to resist lots of delicious food, especially when you’re hungry. And I’m hungry all the time.

Next week, we’ll be going from four 14-minute intervals to three 19-minute intervals (60 seconds of walking between intervals). Hopefully this will mean that I continue to chip away at the speed goal.

6.82 miles @ 8:55 and feeling great this week. I’m rapidly approaching the 7-mile target and slowly chipping away the speed goal.

My body and lifestyle are not made for running — I sit behind a computer half the day, watch TV some more, and let’s just say my diet is a vegetarian’s nightmare (working on it, though!). Despite this, I don’t gain weight when I pig out, meaning that with all this running I’m finding that I have to gorge myself on carbs more and more just to not turn into a stick (weight loss isn’t really a goal for me). Despite that, as I wrote last week, anyone can get better at anything just by focusing on 2 things: technique and outcome. So if I can do this, so can anyone — and if you think you can’t, well, you’re lazy.

Here’s some historical data:

After I reached an initial goal last year, my performance got worse. Later in the year when I tried to get back to the 10k again, I couldn’t even make it, and didn’t have any consistency. Now, though, I’m easily pushing 20 miles per week.

Now, I don’t expect these graphs to be going up-and-to-the-right forever, but at my current low-distance, low-speed running I could stand to use a bit of work and get to a decent baseline. And it’s always encouraging and motivating to see an upward trend. Once you start getting lazy, though, it’s a slippery slope.

Next week, my distance will drop significantly (for the first time in a while) as I do some speed work. The goal here is to try to get as close to 8:34 as I can, and gradually increase the amount of time I spend running at that speed.

Rounded out the week at 6.11 miles @ 8:58, finally managing to break both the distance and speed barriers. Awesome.

I read something in a book recently that really resonated with me. It cites a study done by psycohlogist K. Anders Ericsson in 1993 titled “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”. The idea is that, for any task you’re doing, practice does indeed make perfect, but you’re wasting your time if you’re just spamming the task and hoping for outcomes. I could practice C major scales on the piano all I want, but it will only end in frustration when I find that it hasn’t helped me at all. “Deliberate practice”, he says, involves focusing as much on technique as on outcome. I’m sure his claim is more scientific than that. But I think a lot of you guys out there know me pretty well, namely that I’ll always be putting attention into technical skill rather than blindly doing something over and over in the hope that I’ll get better. I think the same applies to running - don’t injure myself, and keep my progress consistent, no matter how slow.

Next week is the same 6-minute increase, and I’m expecting the same speed pattern where I drop speed to handle the new distance and get faster by the end of the week.

Sunday: 5 miles @ 9:27
Tuesday: 5.25 miles @ 9:06
Thursday: 5.46 miles @ 9:01

Week 5 is done!

I didn’t quite make sub-9, but I’m well ahead of where I predicted in terms of distance. When I hit the 7 mile mark, I can work more on speed. I can’t keep an upward trend going forever, as I saw this week, but that shouldn’t stop anyone. The weekly trend is still upward, and a 1 second gain is still a gain!

I struggled quite a bit on Sunday, then brought myself back under control for the rest of the week. I tried on some new running shoes on Sunday that I wasn’t really comfortable with. I guess I need to break them in. I’m an overpronator, and it was my first time wearing motion-control shoes. My knees feel much better, but my feet and ankles feel like they’re dragging. What a difference some shoes can make.

Today I worked from home. I woke up with a pretty bad headache, mostly from sleep deprivation and a lot of stress, both in and out of work. I’m glad I’m doing this, because it makes all of the stress melt away, if even for just an hour.

Next week extends the running time by another 6 minutes. I’ll see if I can finally break the 9-minute barrier and the 6-mile mark. Check back next week!