Thursday, March 11, 2010

day 32 - 51 days to go - I ran four freakin' miles!


Yay!  Four mile day -- I did it!!  "High fives" people... I fricken fracken ran four miles!

My hip is a little achey and I feel a little stiff but I'm still standing.  It wasn't the quickest time anyone has ever run four miles in -- towards the 3 mile & 3 1/2 mile points I definitely was running less quick but at the end of it all, it took me 1:02:40 to run those four miles.  it works out to about 3.8 mph - but I am quite OK with that because about a month ago if you told me I was going to even do Disco Abs for an hour, I would've told you you were nuts.

And another proud moment:  I ran for as long as I ever had.  Last week I ran for fifteen minutes straight - today, 22 minutes!  I ran for 22 minutes before walking for a few, to sip some water and wipe my brow!  Woo.  And then I ran for ten minutes, 11 minutes and a few series of five minutes and I think total running time was around 48-50 mins -- lost track of it -- those little Indians dancing around the fire, roasting marshmallows and singing "Let's Get It Started" by the Black Eyed Peas - around 50 mins began to distract me.  (This was a hallucination.   I think...)

I did learn this about the treadmills at my gym that I never thought I would have a reason to know or care about, that kind of sucks.  There's a 60 minute max.  So at 60 minutes the treadmill automatically goes into "cool down mode."  You could imagine my dismay when I was less than a quarter of a mile away to the big four goal at 1hr, with power song blasting,  Indians dancing, sweat dripping, grin a spreading across my face and the freakin' treadmill goes from 4.4 down to 3.1 and loses my incline.  GRRRR.  REALLY?  I mean REALLY!?  Now is the time, the friggen machine decides I've worked out long enough?  I was able to up the speed and reset the incline but every one minute after 60 mins - it would return back to cool down.  Thank God I was done at 2 mins and 40 into the cool down because at 65 mins the thing completely stops.

So, tomato faced and fresh off the treadmill, I addressed it with the gym guys who looked at me like I was nuts.  Finally they fiddled with the thing and discovered that it was indeed preset for a 60 min. max.  "Huh, no one ever told us about this before."  they offered no solution, but did think it was cool that I was training for a 1/2 marathon.  The twenty year old, buff trainer said that he too was a runner but had never braved anything more than a 5K up to now!

Well, HA.  Take that world.  20 year old trainer - too scared to take on a half marathon... not ME! :)

Guess I'll have to be pro-active once I reach an hour and immediately re-start -up.  I'll take the one hour mark as my "walk for a minute time" and get on with it.  Who would've thunk I'd ever have such problems...

XO

Jen

9 comments:

Azrhiaz said...

Congrats Lady! Some of the machines at my 24 Hr Fitness are set to only go to 20 minutes, so consider yourself lucky!

Good job!

Unknown said...

Thanks, Karen! I will definitely consider myself lucky in that case.

Angie said...

Good for you! {{High Five}}

Unknown said...

:) high fives people! lol

The Skårtist said...

woop woop congratulations on hitting the 4 mile marker!

Unknown said...

thank you! Yippee!!

Unknown said...

No one at the gym has ever run more than an hour!?!? Wow! You're a trailblazer Jen!!

Unknown said...

I thought that odd too...! LOL

Frickin' Fabulous at 40 said...

My gym treadmills go all the way to 90 minutes! LOL! I guess at 85 minutes I should then shut her down and start her up again? (That's when I get back inside...)