For some time I have been trying to become a runner. I think is badass and pretty, and I want that for myself. It doesn’t grow on me the idea of being super fit and run marathons, my goal is to run a 5k without feeling completely drained. I do my runs on a treadmill since I don’t live near a park and the city is dangerous. I also have no coach, besides the built-in programs on my treadmill and conversations with my brother which has a general interest in fitness.
Before diving into the topic of the post, let unfold some history. It’s been a few months since I started tracking my runs, even though runs are not the correct name for what I do most days. I use the “Habits” app to track which days I run and the Samsung Health app to track the specific details of the run. The data shows some interesting patterns.
2019.2
In November of 2019, I started the tracking. I was not very serious about the commitment, all I wanted was to improve my physical condition to be better at football matches. You can see that I was even doing ok, training every week despite all odds.
2020.1
Something appears to have happened in March of 2020 (maybe a global event?) and I was or too tired or unmotivated.
2020.2
After an initial quarantine slop and mood variations I managed to be a little better in the following quarter, but as you can see this still means very little.
2021.1
In 2020 I ran 119 days. It came to me as a surprise because even with my clear lack of commitment and laziness I was able to hit the three digits mark. This got me thinking that, first, the quality of my workouts was not that great, and second, the sparse frequency decreased almost any change I had in actually improving. This leads to the title of the post. For 2021 I decided to make a commitment to, first, run a 5k at the end of the year and second, to run at least 300 days a year. The first goal pushes me to train harder (not too much because I’m no athlete or fitness guru) and the second to give me consistency. I hope that these two together will allow me to run the 5k easily. Once again, I don’t care about defined legs, or six-pack abs, or whatever beauty pattern people are striving for, I wanna run without having the feeling that my death is close. My goal is to dominate myself and push my limits (just by a little).
Status Update
Today I write to you (metaphorically because no one reads this blog) to give you an update on how this little challenge is going. It is March 09, and since the beginning of the year, I have run 62 days. I have lost 6 days so far and I intend to keep it way below the 65 I’m allowed.
Since I started this new routine, I have been tracking different aspects of my exercises: heart-rate, intensity, distance, and time. The goal is to increase the distance, decreasing time and heart-rate. When evaluating the data I noticed a regular workout pattern through the weeks, I usually do three different types of workouts depending on my mood, they are:
- Light workout, mainly walking
- Reasonable workout, increase the speed with walking intervals. This is what the treadmill recommends me to do.
- 5k preparation, the ideal workout would be to run for 15 minutes, walk for a few minutes, and run for more 15 minutes. However, I’m not there yet. After the 12 minute mark I just want to do anything else, is not a physical thing since I’m not exhausted or breathing heavily. I feel bored and just want do something else. Will try to improve this for the next weeks.
That’s it, update done. I will be back with the next update in July.