The Athlete Within

I think I've mentioned before that I've spent most of my life not being an athlete.  I had an athletic spurt in 5th and 6th grades when I played softball.  But I played catcher, so the most running I would have to do would be potentially running the bases when batting (not necessarily a common occurrence).  I considered doing field hockey in high school when they were just starting a team, but decided against all of the running.  For my two required P.E. classes in college, I took fencing and gymnastics.  I enjoyed them both while still avoiding having to run around too much.  (What I really wanted to take was horseback riding, but that's another story for another day.)

Now my inner athlete has chosen this year to emerge.  And it's not been happy to limit itself to just one activity.  How far have I come in seven months?  (Glad you asked)

I run.  My longest run to date has been seven miles, set two weeks ago.  And I'm planning to run a half-marathon in February.  Up next is a Thanksgiving day 5K.  I'm actually seeking out things to do.

I bike.  I did over 60 miles over 2 days in September (on my almost 20 year old mountain bike).  I really enjoy being on my bike.  I'm now the proud owner of a proper road bike.  I'm already signed up to the MS Bike ride next year.  I may do the 60 mile ride first day.

I condition.  I'm taking a fit class so I can get some all-over strength training.  The biking and running don't really lend themselves to upper-body improvement.

I swim?  If you recall from my Tin Man Triathlon experience, the swim was my weakest leg.  While I can keep afloat and move about in a pool, I don't have a proper stroke.  And I can't coordinate my breathing and swimming.  Or, I should say, I couldn't.  I got a co-worker who does triathlons to give me a swimming lesson.  While I still don't have anything pretty, I at least feel like I could get from one side of the pool to the other with something resembling a stroke without gasping for breath or feeling completely worn out by the time I got to the other side.  Now what I need is practice.  And for that, I need to find a pool.  There's no community pool in the county I live in.  The pool used for the lesson is not particularly convenient.  I'll figure something out.

Where this inner athlete has been hiding all my life up to this point, I don't know.  But I like her.  And I hope she sticks around for a while.  I'm doing my best to keep her here.

Brrr...

The weather has been a bit schizophrenic the past couple of weeks.  Hot one day, cold the next, nice the next.  I've run in the rain and I've biked in the windy cold.  So I'm having to put together my cold-weather gear.  But it's actually pretty nice doing my workouts in the cooler weather.  I don't get as sweaty.  And I feel I can go faster.

To that end, I'm also working on increasing my running pace.  My during the week workouts are going to be intervals where I alternate running and walking.  For the running segments I will be trying to run harder and faster than my usual pace.  I've done it once so far and I was able to achieve the goal of running faster for short segments.

The weekends I'm going to try to start alternating long runs and long bikes.  I want to join in with the group rides from my local Trek shop.

Need for speed

I know that I titled my blog "Run when chased..." but my fits of athleticism has expanded into cycling.  I am also being encouraged by others to expand into triathlons.  Despite my participation in the Tin Man Triathlon, my lack of swimming skills will keep me from jumping into that arena for now.
Backing up a little, two weeks ago I had to travel for professional reasons.  Between the MS Bike ride and that trip, I didn't do any biking.  I gave myself a rest.  I still ran, though.  During my trip, I did get up on a stationary bike once, availed myself of the treadmill a couple of times, and ran outside once.  I felt really good about keeping up my fitness goals while travelling and running a meeting (which was completely stressful for me).

And now to this weekend's main event.  About mid-week I decided to sign up for a Brest Cancer Awareness ride which was being hosted by the local Trek Bicycle stores yesterday.  I did a 25 mile ride from the Peachtree City store.  It was fun and a good opportunity for a nice long ride (compared to the 5 miles I usually accomplish during the week).  And it reinforced my desire for a road bike.

So...meet my new gear:

It's my new road bike!  It's so light!  I've got new pedals and shoes to go with it!  I will be Speedy Gonzalez!  And I will not hurt so bad on the hills!  Now I just have to get better at getting into my pedals and shifting (it's a completely different system than my mountain bike).

I plan on occasionally joining the group rides out of my local Trek shop so I can continue getting in some long rides.  And I'm still running and preparing for my half-marathon in February.

Athlete?

First off, I'm not going to be doing weekly workout reviews.  Rest assured, I'm still keeping up with everything.  Just nothing new or exciting is going on with the workouts.  If there's something new to report on that front, I will.  The next big event I have on the schedule will be in February.

In the mean time, I will try to put up some thoughts on my efforts, in general.  To that end...

Last week, I got called an athlete.  Me and athlete have never been put together in the same breath before.  My previous athletic endeavors have been limited to playing softball in fifth and sixth grades.  And I played catcher, so it wasn't like I had to run around the field a lot.  For my two PE requirements in college, I took fencing and gymnastics.  So while I still consider myself a novice in my athletic endeavors, I can see how far I've come in five months.

I can run continuously for over an hour.  I've done a triathlon (it wasn't pretty, but I did it).  I've run faster than I ever have before (or since) in a 5K.  I rode my bike 66 miles over two days (at a decent pace, too).

There hasn't been any big trick to it.  I had a plan and I had a gradual build-up to my goal (which was originally just the running).  And I definitely see results.  I couldn't have done as well with the biking this weekend without the conditioning I got with the running.

So, yeah.  I guess I'm an athlete.