Ride Around Shining

Well I just finished really thoroughly playing around with bloggers features, adding gadgets/minor layout tweaks/etc. Not fully complete, but I like the direction its heading better than how it was.

Today I achieved my goal of running for over 30 minutes. I ran for 33 minutes and something-in-change-seconds. I decided not to map a route out for myself, but rather just go out with the notion of pushing my lung capacity that far. I’ve been doing some reading today (links to follow) and was interested to find out that largely the capacity to push your muscles one distance or another already exists, but your lungs will sell you short. And I treat my lungs like shit.

I’m not sure exactly how far I ran. Okay, holy shit, I just took a minute to do a very rough estimate (again, lots of going through the park and random windy roads that don’t translate well to google maps marking) and it looks like I did about 5 kilometers today! I actually felt like today was an easier run than what I did yesterday, as that was some of the advice I read and tried to follow. I guess I’m just learning pacing. What’s strange is that I felt the time-based objective to be harder to work with, as I couldn’t pinpoint a distance I needed to get to as a goal. That lets me know when I can start putting it on. Or maybe its because it’s a more immediate seeming goal?

But apparently not knowing was good for me. Or at least good for my progress. I think being able to run 5 kilometers maybe puts me slightly above absolute beginner status. I mean, that’s the type of race you’re supposed to sign up for to start, as a goal to work towards. I think I want to work on sustaining my running for longer distances/times first though, before I work on speed.

Anyways, some helpful resources I came across from reading other people’s running blogs today:

100 Beginner Running Tips

Top 10 Questions Asked By Beginning Runners

A Letter to Mrs. McCarthy (3 Parts)

Links to the running blogs of others for inspiration.

Shout out to Zen Habits' Beginner’s Guide to Running that made me feel alright about not to knowing everything just yet and for providing the majority of those links I just posted.

Albums bumped while running: Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter III, Clipse’s Hell Hat No Fury

Stay true.

Dancing in the Rain

Success! I just got back from my first run of the new week, and set a new precedent for myself. I ran approximately 4.152 kilometers, in approximately 23 minutes. The distance is approximate because the pedometer isn’t the most accurate for figuring out running through the park for one section. The time because I forgot to look at my iPod’s clock right as I started.

The lack of posts the last two days is indicative of the lack of running. Saturday I spent smashing my forehead repeatedly into my girlfriend’s computer. A box that restarts every few minutes that Word is open (and then occasionally gets stuck in restarting-loops) proved not very conducive to writing an assignment. Of course it had no problem with like three hours of Top Chef being watched on it the night before. By the time my nighttime commitments rolled around I hadn’t found the time to get out. But to be fair, my plans were going to the Halloween Haunt at Canada’s Wonderland – rollercoasters and haunted mazes are just too tempting.

Sunday ended up being a bit of a shitfest of getting home, getting the assignment done so I could get my portion to my group, and then running off to my friend’s former house (and local show venue) for a birthday concert lineup of hardcore/folk punk/stoner metal/etc.

But I’m feeling good this today, as I still got more runs in last week than I have in the last five years probably. Moreover, I woke up to find out I’ve taken off five Thanksgiving pounds and am now down to a more manageable 173 pounds. Some of this is probably just the usual variance, but it feels like progress anyways. I’m also noting a general sense of endurance and more strength in my legs already, even when I’m not running.

I’ve generally been good about eating lately too, aside from some 1 am nachos the other night and a combo of Indian buffet lunch and pizza slice dinner today.

Tonight I was running to Skream’s BBC Essential Mix, and I was noting how good dubstep mixes are to run to. They very often feel like the have the same kind of structure you can hear in those Nike-running-albums I’ve spoken about before. They’re sort of ebbing, with warm ups, plateaus, cool downs, even within a certain larger movement of the mix. I realized this is because they are designed for dancing, and then realized maybe that’s why I’m enjoying running thus far. I love any excuse to just listen to music solidly for an extended time, and love to respond to it physically. There’ve been shows where I danced far past the point of endurance I’ve taken myself to with running so far. My roommate told me I looked like I’d just been at a rave, coming in with blaring headphones, sweaty hair and an adidas jacket.

He also told me that some scientific studies said you need to run for over a half hour to increase lung capacity and endurance. So I guess that’s a new goal.

Albums bumped while running: Skream's BBC Essential Mix.

Stay true.