Tuesday, March 16, 2010

400's...they sounded so easy!

Hey Peeps!


So it’s day two of ½ marathon training and I was blessed to wake up to a gorgeous (although windy) day outside (see picture to the right)! Normally I work during the days so even when it’s nice out I don’t really get to enjoy it, but luckily for me I have to close tonight and so I actually had a chance to enjoy the weather for a bit (although honestly it’s been about six months since I’ve worked a closing shift and so I’m not too sure I’m going to be thankful about it when I’m leaving work at 10pm).

Anyway, all weekend I was pretty excited about the idea of “Springing forward” (hee hee… I know I’m probably about the only person in the world who felt that way) since it means when I get out of work on a normal day it will now be bright enough to run outside (which I prefer over the dreadmill any day). Yet on the very first work day of daylight savings it poured all day and so I found myself at the gym, on a dreadmill (and I didn’t even get to watch my show since the TV showing it was all the way to the right and I was on the left side of the gym…see picture to left to see what I mean).

So today when I woke up and saw the sun I knew it meant I could get outside and for that I was truly excited. Granted my excitement faded about ten minutes into running 400’s…which was about the time I realized how tough they actually are! Now I’ve always been under the impression that a 400 is about a quarter of a mile...and I was also under the impression that if I ran three fourths of the way around my parents block that it would equal about a quarter of a mile. So that’s what I set out to do today. I would run three fourths around and then walk the last fourth before starting again. And there was even a point when I totally stopped short on one of my 400’s and decided that it meant I had to do that whole one again (Cause hey if you’re going to do something you might as well do it right!).

Well It turns out that the distance I was running was actually .375 miles not .25…which isn’t a huge difference but is none the less still a bit longer….which only made me feel better about my times (which aren’t impressive probably to anyone but me…but I compete against myself so it’s all good to me). Loop one took me 3:34 minutes. Loop two 3:21 minutes (I shaved off 13 seconds!). Loop three 3:19 minutes (shaved off 2 more seconds there). Loop four 3:19 minutes again (definitely thought I would be slower so I was happy). And Loop five 3:22 minutes (granted this one was probably slower considering I had to do it twice).

I remember thinking last night when I was going over my training plan for the day today how five 400’s just doesn’t seem like that much of a workout. Today after running them I disagree. This is a seriously tough workout (I mean come on I burned 496 calories in 30minutes…it doesn’t get much better than that)!

Now off for some lunch and then to head to work!

Jess

3 comments:

  1. I am jealous of your nice sunny day! I am not looking forward to getting my work out at lunch in cool drizzle that is falling here.
    Great job on your training this morning and for being able to shave off your time each lap!!!!

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  2. Just use the rain for motivation to go faster! I actually don't mind the drizzle (it cools me down)! Either way, you are doing something(!) and for that I am proud of you!

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  3. Well I did my walk/jog even in the drizzle but when it became more than drizzle I cut it short. Its not even 50 here today so it was a very brisk cold drizzle.

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