Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

I was incommunicado for five days while we were at Donner Lake for a short vacation, with no internet access.

Following WendyM’s advice I ran around Donner Lake a couple of times, a very nice run.  I managed not to get lost in the campgrounds, so I appreciated her advice.

The upshot of my five days, however, is that there’s no way I can claim to have been faithful to my challenge.  Too many snacks, drinks, the works.  I’m still under my starting weight — I’m 171.6 — and I still hope to reach my weight goal by Labor Day, but it’s the journey, not just the destination that counts, and I’ve wandered afield.

I’m out like an old light bulb, Jul.

I’ve got a 5k coming up this Friday, and I’m still working on the weight.  BF has come down a bit, and my waist is still at 35.25.  I’ve still got goals to reach and I’m excited about meeting them.  But technically — and  technically counts for purposes of this competition — I’m done.  Good luck to everyone who’s stuck with it!

I will continue with my own I’m All Out Of Love Handles challenge, but it will have to be on my own terms.

Ran last night in the dark for the first time in a while — about 5 miles in about 39 minutes, pace varying from moderate 8:30 to 9 m/m to around tempo pace — probably about 7 m/m.  I need to get in a short interval/rep workout over the next two days before the race on Friday.

P.M. update:  Just completed my weekly interval workout with my running group.  After a 1.5 mile warmup, we did 3×1 mile and then 4×400 meters, with about 1:30 or so slow jogging breaks between intervals followed by a cooldown of a little over a half mile.

My intervals went as follows:

1st mile:  6:22

2nd mile: 6:23

3d mile: 6:42

1st 400: 1:32

2nd 400: 1:33

3d 400: 1:31

4th 400: 1:24

Overall the pace was good ranging from 5:36 min/mile on my last 400 to 6:42 on my last mile, although that last mile was slower than I wanted and slower than my 5K goal pace.  As usual, keeping a steady pace is still a challenge, but the overall pace was good.  I ran with a few people who were a bit faster than I was, so they challenged me to keep up.  I’ve signed up for the 10 mile Buffalo Stampede on September 7; still undecided about the 5K this Friday evening.  I might wait for the 5K or 10K at UC Davis on Labor Day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 6:47 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.