run baby run

It's hot as hell already, so I waited until 9:30 to go out and run. It cooled down to the mid 80s which is a lot more tolerable than the 99 degrees it was when I came home.

I walked around my neighborhood for a few minutes to warm up (with some various leg raises and stuff thrown in to get my heart rate up), then went on my journey. Started off a bit rocky but not terrible, and after about a half-mile my endorphins kicked in and it was more pleasant. After my run, I cooled down with a walk for a quarter mile or so. I missed a street turn somewhere, so my already random route got more random, but I ended up running about 1.5-1.6 miles, and walking the remainder at the beginning and end to total approximately 2.28 miles.

With the miracle of technology, I was able to use an iPhone app to generate the following:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/47642144/
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/35439900

It uses GPS and Google Maps to calculate distance, pace, etc. Since I didn't know how the app works, I included my walks in there but it skewed my running pace. Next time I'll only have it track my run and not my walks, so I can see what kind of a running pace I have. I'm aiming for around 8-9 minute mile, if possible.

Since I obviously won't be posting anytime I run, if you're curious about my progress aside from my occasional updates, you can see my profile here:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/profile/6519738/

running? pffft

I haven't done much in terms of working out since P90X, except flag football. While I'm in no rush to get back to the weight room, I find myself more interested in running. Why? Man, that is such a good question. Running sucks.

Back when we had my 5K at work, I was in the middle (or toward the end) of P90X and I figured I was golden. "Hell, I've been doing plyometrics for a couple months I should be golden." How wrong I was. After about a mile, I felt like complete shit and couldn't push myself any further. Turns out that running is nothing like team sports or even P90X.

That was a huge hit on my massive ego (joking). Here I thought I was mostly in shape, but after a mile I couldn't go any further. I don't like the thought of not being in at least above-average shape, so I figured I wanted to start running. The hard part is actually going running. Maybe those people who have run all their lives enjoy it, but I get so bored and all I can think about is how shitty of a time I'm having.

Nevertheless, I went running last Saturday at around 3PM on a slightly hot and very muggy day. Foolishly, I tracked out a 2.4 mile route on gmap-pedometer.com because I somehow forgot that just a couple months ago I failed miserably at a 5K. So off I went, and I immediately regretted not having my headphones on me. I got bored and wanted to stop roughly 5 seconds after I started running. Without music to distract me, all I could think about was that I was running and I didn't want to be running. I tried to sight-see but that didn't get me far, either. I managed to get about one mile before I had to call it quits. After walking a couple blocks to get my heart rate back down, I decided to start running again. I looked down at my heart rate monitor and within 10 seconds of starting back up again, my heart rate was peaking at 190. That seemed insanely high to me, so I walked the rest of the mile back. On my walk back, my heart rate rarely dropped below 150. Interesting...

Afterwards, I found a new app on the iPhone that tracks your runs using the GPS, so that should be interesting to use in the future.

I want to get in better shape. Bicycling and team sports don't seem to get my heart rate up nearly enough, and swimming sounds foolish, so I guess I'm left with running. I'll give it a shot again in a couple days and go even slower than I was before, even though I thought I was going at a slow place. That should allow me to run farther next time. Mark also provided me with some useful info to help me out.