Running
Those of you who have spend some time in the armed forces know that one of the requirements is to stay in shape. At least in good enough shape to pass a semi-annual physical fitness test. Back in the old days, this consisted of various and sundry medieval tortures but eventually evolved into a fairly simple regimen of 2 minutes of situps, 2 minutes of pushups and a two mile run.
I discovered fairly early that pushups were hard, situps were fairly easy and that running was my strongpoint. I'm big, 6' 6" tall and about 230 lbs but I have good strong legs and a really good lung capacity. In my younger days, I could smoke a 16 minute two miles without thinking about it and cut that down to 13 minutes if I trained even a little. After a few years, I started adding some distance with my longest being 10 miles. That was a lot of years ago...
Well, since retiring from the Army in 1994, I've tried to stay in shape and I've tried to get back to running some distance but there was always some excuse to not get serious. This year, I decided to get serious and really get myself in shape for an upcoming event. The state started a new thing last year called the Texas Roundup. It's a fitness program ending with a 10K race. Last year I ran it and did very poorly but was determined to change that this year.
I started running some distance a few months back. My normal a few times a week has been 2 miles but I kicked that up to 3 miles with a longer run on the weekend. My goal was to finish the 10K in under an hour.
It was a struggle. I had this chest pain (some muscle thing) going on for the whole week before the race so that was bugging me. It started raining and was cold as hell and the wind was blowing right in our faces on the back side of the course. It was miserable but I did it.
Here is a link to the results in my division (I'm # 26).
http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/43435_58915_2005.html
Only 1 guy in my weight class who is my age or older (gotta get my props somehow) finished ahead of me. I made it across the finish line at 59:54, with a whole 6 seconds to spare. As I passed the 5 miles mark, the time said 48:45 and I knew that most of the last part was downhill. I always have something left at the end so started kicking it with 1.2 miles to go.
I was frozen and soaked when I got to the finish line but I was also very happy. It's great to set a goal and achieve it, especially at my age.
This is just the start. I plan on running the Freescale Marathon next year. Wish me luck.
I discovered fairly early that pushups were hard, situps were fairly easy and that running was my strongpoint. I'm big, 6' 6" tall and about 230 lbs but I have good strong legs and a really good lung capacity. In my younger days, I could smoke a 16 minute two miles without thinking about it and cut that down to 13 minutes if I trained even a little. After a few years, I started adding some distance with my longest being 10 miles. That was a lot of years ago...
Well, since retiring from the Army in 1994, I've tried to stay in shape and I've tried to get back to running some distance but there was always some excuse to not get serious. This year, I decided to get serious and really get myself in shape for an upcoming event. The state started a new thing last year called the Texas Roundup. It's a fitness program ending with a 10K race. Last year I ran it and did very poorly but was determined to change that this year.
I started running some distance a few months back. My normal a few times a week has been 2 miles but I kicked that up to 3 miles with a longer run on the weekend. My goal was to finish the 10K in under an hour.
It was a struggle. I had this chest pain (some muscle thing) going on for the whole week before the race so that was bugging me. It started raining and was cold as hell and the wind was blowing right in our faces on the back side of the course. It was miserable but I did it.
Here is a link to the results in my division (I'm # 26).
http://www.doitsports.com/newresults3/client/43435_58915_2005.html
Only 1 guy in my weight class who is my age or older (gotta get my props somehow) finished ahead of me. I made it across the finish line at 59:54, with a whole 6 seconds to spare. As I passed the 5 miles mark, the time said 48:45 and I knew that most of the last part was downhill. I always have something left at the end so started kicking it with 1.2 miles to go.
I was frozen and soaked when I got to the finish line but I was also very happy. It's great to set a goal and achieve it, especially at my age.
This is just the start. I plan on running the Freescale Marathon next year. Wish me luck.
posted by Big Ed at 4:32 PM
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