I ran my first 5k race on March 16th, 2008. The course was scenic, but also hilly so I had to slow down and walk several times. Even though I had to walk several times, thanks to my training I never walked more than a couple of minutes at a time, and each time I had it in me to start up and run some more after walking. Overall I think I ran more than half of the race even if not consecutively.
I was hoping to finish the race in under 40 minutes. But I ended up finishing in 40:56, with an average pace of 13:12. It was a little cold outside (mid-30's Fahrenheit) so I had more trouble catching my breath than usual, and as I mentioned it was also hilly - so despite all that I think it's good that I came as close as I did to my goal.
I came in 175/211 overall
I came in 81/108 in the female group
I came in 14/16 in my age group
And now I have a more specific time to beat next time I run a race!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Credit Card activation
One of my credit cards expired last January. When I received the new one in the mail, as usual it has the sticker on there to call the toll-free number to activate the card. And usually when you call the 800 number, they make you talk to someone who is going to try to sell you extra things for your credit card account before it is activated. I have encountered some pushy people in that situation before, so was dreading the call.
I called, jumped through the hoops on the phone keypad that I needed to do, and then I heard the dreaded "please hold for the next available service representative before your card can be activated." So I hung up. I don't have time to talk to them.
It's been almost 2 months now, and I had not called back to activate my card. I even contemplated signing up for a brand new Visa card just to not have to call, since I get a ton of offers in the mail like everyone else, just not to have to call the number again. But I decided to call the 800 number again today to see what happened.
To my surprise, I entered what I needed to on the phone keypad for validation, the electronic voice said my card was activated, gave me a few more phone options if I wanted to change my PIN or what not, but that was it. It never even asked me to talk to anyone. And I wonder why? In other words, how can I make it so that I am not prompted to talk to a person when I just want to activate my card in the future? What was it that got me around this?
A) was it that I called on a Sunday instead of a weekday like I did before?
B) was it that I had called before and hung up? Maybe the card really had been activated the first time even though I hung up before talking to anyone.
C) was it that Ohio had really bad snow storms this weekend and the call center happens to be in Ohio and they told people not to come in to work this weekend?
D) a bug (I mean "feature") in the computer system?
E) other?
I called, jumped through the hoops on the phone keypad that I needed to do, and then I heard the dreaded "please hold for the next available service representative before your card can be activated." So I hung up. I don't have time to talk to them.
It's been almost 2 months now, and I had not called back to activate my card. I even contemplated signing up for a brand new Visa card just to not have to call, since I get a ton of offers in the mail like everyone else, just not to have to call the number again. But I decided to call the 800 number again today to see what happened.
To my surprise, I entered what I needed to on the phone keypad for validation, the electronic voice said my card was activated, gave me a few more phone options if I wanted to change my PIN or what not, but that was it. It never even asked me to talk to anyone. And I wonder why? In other words, how can I make it so that I am not prompted to talk to a person when I just want to activate my card in the future? What was it that got me around this?
A) was it that I called on a Sunday instead of a weekday like I did before?
B) was it that I had called before and hung up? Maybe the card really had been activated the first time even though I hung up before talking to anyone.
C) was it that Ohio had really bad snow storms this weekend and the call center happens to be in Ohio and they told people not to come in to work this weekend?
D) a bug (I mean "feature") in the computer system?
E) other?
Monday, March 03, 2008
Running Update
It's a couple of months into 2008 and I figured I'd give a quick update on my new year's resolution to run a 5k this year.
January
Starting out 2008 barely able to run a full mile, by the end of January I had worked my way up to nearly 1.25 miles. And then I got Bronchitis at the end of January and didn't run again for over a week.
February
The good news is, I bounced back pretty quickly from Bronchitis. When I started running again a week into February, I was still able to run 1.25 miles. So I didn't lose any distance at least, only time. And I was able to work up to 1.5 miles.
And then a couple of weeks later, I got sick again. Flu this time. And that knocked me OUT. This time it was almost 2 weeks before I ran again. I was able to go 1.5 miles when I returned, but I had to do so in intervals. I wasn't able to go more than the first 0.5 miles without having to stop to walk a bit. So the remaining mile I split up into quarter miles where I would sprint for 0.2 miles, walking 0.05 mile, etc until I reached 1.5 miles total. I did at least push myself sprinting at an 11 min/mile pace instead of my normal 12:15 min/mile pace.
A couple days later, now almost the end of February, I was hopeful to be able to get back to running 1.5 miles straight through again. But I was discouraged that I still could not run more than 0.75 miles without having to stop and walk a bit. I was able to finish out the rest of the 1.5 miles after walking only 0.1 or 0.2 miles, but I was still disappointed that I could not run it straight through.
I think the flu really knocked out any endurance I had built up.
March
So, after battling some discouragement over lost endurance, I went online to gather some other training ideas. The "increase your distance little by little" strategy, with some interval training thrown in on more than one occasion, just wasn't doing it after all. That is when I came across an article that I wish I would have come across sooner. The section of greatest interest to me said this:
Since I had already been running for a couple of months, I decided to skip past the "2 min run/4 min walk" stage, and skip the "3 min run/3 min walk" stage, and start with the "4 min run/2 min walk."
I am happy to say that I was able to complete that cycle through to the end of the 30 minutes, and that got me to a distance 2.3 miles. After that, I decided I wanted to see what 3.1 miles feels like in some capacity, so I finished another 0.8 miles by running 2 minutes, walking 1 minute, etc. until I reached 3.1 miles. I am sure I will need to rest tomorrow after that, maybe some Yoga. My goal next time I run is to try a 4.5 min run/1.5 min walk cycle.
I'm pretty encouraged by this plan because I think it will train me in a couple of things not accomplished with what I was doing before:
January
Starting out 2008 barely able to run a full mile, by the end of January I had worked my way up to nearly 1.25 miles. And then I got Bronchitis at the end of January and didn't run again for over a week.
February
The good news is, I bounced back pretty quickly from Bronchitis. When I started running again a week into February, I was still able to run 1.25 miles. So I didn't lose any distance at least, only time. And I was able to work up to 1.5 miles.
And then a couple of weeks later, I got sick again. Flu this time. And that knocked me OUT. This time it was almost 2 weeks before I ran again. I was able to go 1.5 miles when I returned, but I had to do so in intervals. I wasn't able to go more than the first 0.5 miles without having to stop to walk a bit. So the remaining mile I split up into quarter miles where I would sprint for 0.2 miles, walking 0.05 mile, etc until I reached 1.5 miles total. I did at least push myself sprinting at an 11 min/mile pace instead of my normal 12:15 min/mile pace.
A couple days later, now almost the end of February, I was hopeful to be able to get back to running 1.5 miles straight through again. But I was discouraged that I still could not run more than 0.75 miles without having to stop and walk a bit. I was able to finish out the rest of the 1.5 miles after walking only 0.1 or 0.2 miles, but I was still disappointed that I could not run it straight through.
I think the flu really knocked out any endurance I had built up.
March
So, after battling some discouragement over lost endurance, I went online to gather some other training ideas. The "increase your distance little by little" strategy, with some interval training thrown in on more than one occasion, just wasn't doing it after all. That is when I came across an article that I wish I would have come across sooner. The section of greatest interest to me said this:
"...try running for two minutes and walking for four minutes five times consecutively for a total of 30 minutes.Something like that I can probably do, particularly in my state of low endurance where I keep wanting to stop and walk. This includes stopping to walk as part of the plan!Do this routine three times per week until you feel comfortable. Each week as you are ready add one minute to the running time and subtract one minute from the walking time. Increase each week until you are running comfortably for the full 30 minutes...."
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=147
Since I had already been running for a couple of months, I decided to skip past the "2 min run/4 min walk" stage, and skip the "3 min run/3 min walk" stage, and start with the "4 min run/2 min walk."
I am happy to say that I was able to complete that cycle through to the end of the 30 minutes, and that got me to a distance 2.3 miles. After that, I decided I wanted to see what 3.1 miles feels like in some capacity, so I finished another 0.8 miles by running 2 minutes, walking 1 minute, etc. until I reached 3.1 miles. I am sure I will need to rest tomorrow after that, maybe some Yoga. My goal next time I run is to try a 4.5 min run/1.5 min walk cycle.
I'm pretty encouraged by this plan because I think it will train me in a couple of things not accomplished with what I was doing before:
- It trains my body to feel what it's like to be moving (whether walking or running) for more than 30 minutes in a row, rather than the runs I was doing before in order to try to slowly increase distance that ended up only lasting 15 minutes or so.
- It trains my body to recover quickly if (and when) I have to stop to walk, as I will probably have to do more than once when I run my first 5k.
- It seems like a more effective way to increase endurance.
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