Intervals

I ran intervals this morning, for several reasons. I was tired, for one thing. I weighed myself, which turned out to be a mistake. Well, at the very least it was demoralizing. Perhaps it wasn’t a mistake as much as it was a hurtful dose of reality. I really would prefer to eat chocolate more or less all the time, hence the name of the blog. I also wouldn’t mind a liberal allowance of fried chicken dinners and beer. Such is life, however. I have excuses, sure. Many excuses. New father, busy period at work, and so on and so on. If I’m going to get even remotely serious here though, I have to exert some form of common sense when it comes to the diet.

I also had a more general interest in trying intervals. In the end, I might have been a little too conservative: I “ran” for thirty minutes though it included walking to warm up and walking to warm down. The intervals came in one minute bursts of walking and jogging alternating. Overall it was nice though I may have been better off keeping the intensity low but running for longer. I felt in great shape during the jogging intervals and there’s no question the recent running has strengthened my endurance.

Ultimately however, it was probably a good idea. I was thrilled to get back up to thirty minutes of uninterrupted running a week in the last month, but I’ve been a little nervous about overdoing it.

I’m at a slightly frustrating point in this whole exercise where I feel in between different stages. I’m not really in decent enough shape (or close to it) to take on a 5k aggressively, but going back to the start of a couch to 5k programme feels like a backward step. Part of the problem, or really most of the problem, is that I feel in between all kinds of things. I’m overweight but not to the point where running isn’t an option yet. I can run but not all that fast. I can push myself to go for reasonable amounts of time (thirty to forty minutes without walking) but my speed is… less than impressive.

Perhaps I’m guilty of not giving myself enough credit for getting started in the first place. Mostly I think I miss my Nike+ data, as rudimentary as it was. I’m already counting the days to getting up and running with the new watch. How primitive a being am I that a machine registering another mile on the clock makes me feel accomplished, while I write off genuine improvements in my stamina as minor steps on the road.