Run-Walk up to 7 Miles
My Sunday run was very enjoyable this past weekend. I put in a little over 7 miles and I think I could easily have kept going. The conditions were close to perfect…overcast skies kept the sun off my back and the temperature was in the mid 60s. There was a bit of humidity but not enough to make things sweaty and uncomfortable. I certainly would love this weather for any race day.
I kept to my 45 seconds run to 30 seconds walk pattern throughout the entire run and I think it definitely helped. These walk breaks really seem to be making extending the distance easier than I remember last time I was building up to 7 miles. Walking seems to give me a quicker recovery and I didn’t feel too tired after the run – hence my feeling that I could have kept going.
I also kept things relatively slow. A 13:30 pace was a bit faster than I wanted but it was still slower than when I previously ran 7 miles on a regular basis. Actually, I probably only ran 7 miles on the way to increasing my distance previously as well. My plan is to jump up to 8 miles next weekend.
I kept my Heart Rate lower than its been so far. I think previously I started out too fast and when I warmed up, I didn’t slow down. This time, it was cooler and I started out slow. I actually ended up running faster at the end than when my run started – my pace was 3:38 for the first quarter mile of the day and 3:12 for the last quarter.
I also wanted to increase my knowledge of running and fitness so I started reading The Run-Walk-Run Method by Jeff Galloway. While I skimmed through it previously which is how I came to my 45–30 run-walk pace (actually I had heard about the method from his website), but I did not do an actual reading of the book to see what else I could glean. I’m going through it now and trying to learn whatever I can. One thing that stood out from early on in the Prologue was the following statement:
This, I think, epitomizes why I want to get back into running. I can relate to this statement from when I used to run races every few months and I would like to get back to it. Dietary improvements, productivity improvements, and general quality of life improvements are all part of a running life style. And definitely something I would like to incorporate into my life in general. Hopefully anyone who starts a running program enjoys these additional benefits as I do.