Registered for a race!

I'm now registered for the 10k "Little Big Run" due to be held on May 30, 2010. I've never run a race before, but I'm confident I'll meet my objectives:

1. Finish the race in under an hour.
   
2. Do so upright, and with a smile.

Simple goals, but those are the best ones to work toward. Wish me luck!

Pedestrian transportation

I went for a run this evening. Including warm-up and cool-down, I covered 7 kilometres. That's a bit longer than my usual running loop (6.2k) but nothing too extreme. What made this run different, though, was that it was done for transport instead of pure exercise.

Instead of just running for running's sake, which is fun enough, I had a few errands to run. I needed to pick up a cheque, then to go to the bank to deposit it, and then I had to return home. In a past life I would have driven to run that errand. It would have taken about 25 minutes, and I wouldn't have got any physical benefit in the process. By running to get everything done, I managed to move my body to where it needed to be (transport) and get some solid exercise at the same time.

A few months back I was working in Regina for a few days. At the end of my trip I needed to get to the airport for a flight home. Realizing that I had a few hours to kill before the flight left, I walked from downtown to the airport. Total walking distance: about 4.25k. Total time: about an hour at a leisurely pace. When I got home I mentioned this to my coworkers, who promptly decided I was insane. What kind of a world do we live in where going for a walk for an hour is insanity?

Much of North America is wrapped up in a very rigid mindset regarding transportation. Rather than blindly following the herd, why not walk, run, or bike to your destinations instead of taking a car? You'll feel better about it, and as long as the distance isn't huge, it probably won't take a lot longer. It'll save you the time in the gym, and having a few people think you're insane probably isn't a bad thing.

A goal for 2010

I'm not sure if it was a wise or foolish move or not, but I just committed to a couple of colleagues that I'd log 1000km running in 2010. That's about a 5-6k run every two days. My runs will get logged to Runkeeper and will be accessible at my public user page and in my Twitter stream.

Wish me luck!

Still around, still working out...

Santa was very kind to our family this year, giving us a Nintendo Wii! As part of the package, I bought a 'game' called My Fitness Coach, which is basically an interactive workout DVD. Until it gets warm enough to run outdoors, that'll be my workout routine. I considered getting Wii Fit, but it was $100 (versus $20 for My Fitness Coach) and it struck me as more of a toy than a real workout.

On a side note, I've ditched Nike+ for tracking my runs. Runkeeper does everything Nike+ did, only better - especially now that it allows easy tracking of indoor runs on a treadmill!

Need to find a treadmill...

The city I live in has recently spiraled into a winter deep freeze, making it pretty much impossible to go for a winter run without slipping on the ice or losing a limb to frostbite. Running in the evenings came naturally to me over the summer, but I've got to find a way to fit running into my schedule for the winter months. Any suggestions?

I have been keeping up on the lifetime fitness ladder daily and am now up to rung 37, so it's not like I've been a total sloth through the winter months.

Cooler weather running

It's getting colder around here, but I'm committed to keep running outside as long as I can. I've switched from shorts to sweatpants, and my super-technical (read: $10 cotton) running T-shirt has been supplemented by a fleece jacket. Light gloves have been added to my repertoire as well.

I'm really not sure what I'll do once the snow hits the ground - running on slippery sidewalks doesn't strike me as a really good idea. That said, the city does a pretty good job of keeping the sidewalks and pathways clear, so it might actually be a doable proposition. As an added plus, running in cold weather burns extra calories - on top of the running itself, my body will have to burn off some fat just to keep warm!

Another day, another run...

Back home and I headed out for an afternoon on this chilly Sunday afternoon. It felt great to enjoy the crisp fall air fill my lungs while I listened to the repetitive thump-thump-thump of my runners on the concrete.

It constantly amazes me that I can go out and run for over 45 minutes and over 7k (with about 1k devoted to warm-up and cool-down), when it seemed challenging to just go for 20 minutes straight a few months ago.

You can check out the run on Runkeeper here.