Wicked Cool Lunch Workout

Yap, I'm originally from Upstate NY, and 'wicked' is part of my vocabulary. Hope you can still love me for me.

So I was supposed to go see Liz today, but I got a call this morning with the news that she has been sick all week and needed to cancel. Although I knew that I was due to see her since I haven't been in almost 2 months, I was secretly pleased that I could go to the gym and run instead of being tortured being rehabilitated. Don't tell Liz I said that. I'm sad that she's sick. Yet not.

I went to the gym and ran about 2.5 miles in less than 25 minutes, which is stellar for me. Stop laughing, ms./mr. fasty pants!

I did, however, forget my new iPod, so I had to resort to my backup (old) iPod, which further supports my ongoing gripe with the Nike+ gadget in general. Fortunately I had my old iPod so that I had something to drown out the sound of myself panting and hacking up a lung. Unfortunately, I didn't have the thingy that plugs into my iPod, so there is no official Nike+ update. I did my time, MAN. I promise.

Mile 0-1: 10 minute easy run
Mile 1-2: 6.0 for 0.20/mile, then 7.5 for 0.10/mile)
Mile 2-2.5: 5 minute easy run

One thing to note is that 7.5 is the fastest that I have ever run. Like ever. Ever ever. And did I mention...ever?

Many moons ago (circa 2005-2006), prior to my stint with IT Band Syndrome, I was training with one of my close friends, Robert McConnell. Rob is a master trainer and owns Peak Performance Fitness. He's awesome, by the way. He had me on a nice running regimen, and I was doing better than ever as far as my endurance. I never ran fast though. He yelled at me incessantly about how slow I was and about how I was 'scared' of going fast. He told me over and over that I needed to 'open it up' and just see what it feels like. He's right. I was scared.

I do have asthma, after all, so I'm a little gun shy.

I've been trying to run a little faster lately because I know that speed work really can't be avoided if you're trying to become a better runner. Today, however, I just let loose and ran my arse off. It was definitely an interesting feeling to open my stride up that much, and although my cardio isn't where it needs to be in order to maintain that sort of pace, I can honestly say that my body felt great while running that fast. I might try it more often.

If I don't get scared.

Unfortunately, 25 minutes is the max that I have during lunch because I have a job to get back to. I would have done at least another mile. Damn job. I'm not going to say that too loud though. I need my job. Otherwise I wouldn't have any money to buy running shoes and go on vacation.