New exercise plan

Well, I decided I should come up with an actual plan, now that my previous one is over.--And putting it here might inspire me to perform better. :) At least, I can track the efficacy of my efforts by comparing now to 2 months from now... The week won't end up perfectly each time, but if I miss something, I can at least get back on track or switch things around, as the need arises. Better some plan -- flexible as it may end up having to be -- than no plan. Amen.


EXERCISE PLAN, DECEMBER 2009-JANUARY 2010

GOALS
-Get my 5k down to 20 minutes-Exercise vigorously enough that my sleep is improved

WEEKLY BREAKDOWN
-Monday: Bike path from Danshui to Zhuwei, high intensity, 5k improvement
-Tuesday: Soccer
-Wednesday: Pilates
-Thursday: Pilates
-Friday: Run to office, moderate intensity, form and endurance
-Saturday: Intervals, 10 x 100-meter, speed and strength
-Sunday: Run to Danshui or long distance on bike path, low intensity, distance and endurance

Run: Day 48

Well, if I was really training for that race on Sunday, this would probably have been my last day of "training", in order to rest up before the big day, to aid performance -- maybe just a mild workout or something, between.

Considering Thursday-Saturday will be pretty intense work-wise, might work out that way (read: no exercise) anyway.

So... I read this thing that said, in order to better your marathoning strength/speed, you should train like so:

-Divide the distance into 3 parts
-Run the 1st third slowly
-Speed up in the 2nd third
-Run fastest in the 3rd third

That goes totally contrary to my natural behavior, which, if left to its own devices, goes something like: Wow, I'm so energetic starting out and can speed around on the 1st third!!; What's that sight and sound distracting me and, hence, totally ruining my form/speed, all throughout the 2nd and most of the 3rd third -- and ugh, have you noticed how difficult and tedious this is?; Oh! look! nearly there! let's see if I can sprint that final distance -- ew, death: I can't do that very well.

Well, I decided to try that bit of "wisdom", read. Today.

Performance:
-Ran the Danshui-to-Zhuwei distance in 4 minutes less than the last (and only) time I'd run it (read: About 5k in 25 minutes), woohoo!
-I did feel surprisingly okay, speeding up gradually in that way, which I wasn't expecting; maybe it was a fluke; maybe I was more limber because I played soccer last night, but, at least for today's run, it worked
-I suspect the speed difference between the 2nd and 3rd thirds wasn't hugely noticeable, except for when I knew I was nearly at the end
-I had to put a lot of effort into making and keep reminding myself to make the 1st third the slowest third -- difficult to control the energy like that, but apparently, that's my problem with my adrenaline usage in general: 0 control, hence insomnia and Type A-ness; er... according to Mister Aaron, that is :D
-I also made a great effort to tune into my breathing and overall speed, so much so that I was barely aware of the people I was passing; something about not knowing where I was at, at any given point (and my happy brain being unable to calculate, by location/sight, how much torture I still had to undergo), except for marking the 10 minutes for the thirds), psychologically/mentally helped the run, too, I suspect

If I was running on Sunday, I'd be pretty confident, given today's performance and my current fitness level -- barring sickness, since colds are going around (pray for me to stay healthy, pleeease), and counting on sufficient sleep between now and then -- that I could run my 5k part in 25 minutes.

That might not be astounding to you, but the thought of it makes ME pretty happy.

Oh well, done with that -- now one must create new and future goals and endeavors.

Yuck.

:D

Run: Day 47

Socceeerrr!!!

Ooohhh, it was a good game. I had lots of fun; I felt pretty "there", even though I didn't feel, going into it, that I had much energy. Ran enough, sortta. Did some okay saves and even managed to get some passes on target, ehe.

Only one of the Russians showed up, but we did get a new Spaniard bonus, which improved the game. DA managed to nearly lift me and toss me to the side, when I was getting in his way (yay me!) -- which he actually managed to notice and remark on (in a, presumably, "oops" sort of way), which is actually the more astounding part of that experience. :D Rich played quite well, bless his young heart. Dawei complained about our level of play, but he'll be fine. Spike was speedy and hearty as ever. Vince did an impressive bit of playing, throughout. Our 3 Taiwanese friends did their varied and varying thing. Chris was pretty solid, shiner.

--And that was about it. You would've enjoyed it, Hik.

Plus, of course, I got plenty of exercise: all that starting and stopping and the usual trying to, in order to defend, keep up with the guys' sprinting-towards-the-goal.

Pray for Roger as, apparently, he has some sort of degenerative thing, in his eyes, I think, which means he can't play again. :( He showed up at the end and watched a bit...

Run: Day 46

Walk. Plenty.

Well, the levels of activity have improved, from the last few days. If I was really training for the race on the 29th, I'm not entirely sure what level I'm at, at the moment. I know, maintaining this level of fitness, I can do 5k in 30min, no sweat (or, much sweat, haha). But can I do any better than that, just by focusing on it once/twice this week and then seeing how I (would) perform on "the day"? I read something about... Well, I'll save that for later -- it might motivate me to get out there and try it, then post about how/if it works.

Run: Day 45

Rest. (This was one lazy day!)

Run: Day 44

Well, I talked a lot about running -- does that count?

Way too much work to catch up on, then a birthday party (for Krikki) to plan/prep.

Run: Day 43

Rest.

Rest to survive.

Actually, walling isn't all that strenuous, for me.

Run: Day 42

Walk in the airport. Walk to catch the bus. Walk to find the other bus. Walk to find the culture center. Walk to find the walking street. Walk to discover the walking street. Walk to find a taxi. Walk to not-find a taxi. Walk to get all the way back to the culture center. Walk...

I think I'm losing the "run" plot.

Run: Day 41

Rest. (This was because I knew I'd be on my feet all day Thursday, because I'm just that plan-ahead-ish. :D)

Run: Day 40

Rest.

Run: Day 38

Rest.

This is another copout.

I should be ashamed.

Haha.

Run: Day 37

Rest.

This is actually just a copout.

Run: Day 36

Rest.

Run: Day 35

Aaah... this was the best day ever! Yet! I ran the full 8k "no sweat", to use an overly-cliche term. No, really, it felt perfect... the weather was right: not too hot; the speed was good: consistent and moderately speedy; the time was good: 41 minutes from house to office. It's good. Still at that 6-minutes-per-k. It's good. Yay. :)

If I was actually training for that marathon relay, at this point, I could actually pretty confidently say I could meet with moderate success, as far as what I'd expect of myself and what I could promise to my team mates. So that's encouraging... to see progress and to feel moderately competent.

Run: Day 34

Rest. Well-earned. If I may say so, myself.

Run: Day 33

Rainy day, so we do what we can: 7 100-meter bursts at highest speed. Then 522 steps up and 522 steps down, at intervals of 58 up, 58 down, and so on. Good strength-ness. All things considered.--And rain.

Run: Day 32

Definitely a rest day -- rest from these running labors.

Run: Day 31

Distance: 1.5 hours to God-knows-where. Got off the bike path, as it was way too hot and way too far and no MRT was in sight. Backtracked to Beitou. Probably ran about 10k. Measured myself at one point where there were markers and figured I'm currently at 6 minutes per kilometer. Guess that's passable. :)

Then we went for a stroll along Fisherman's Warf (see that other post, ehe), which just added to the exhaustion for the day. Wow, I never knew I was so resilient.

Memo to self: You will nearly die of thirst when you push yourself.

Second memo to self: Try not to hit noon on the surrounded-by-cement path. Aherm.

Run: Day 30

Health: 2-hour walk with Krikki, to Danshui. Woohoo!

Run: Day 29

Erm, yeah...