I found a couple of interesting exercise sites while surfing Blog Explosion today.
First was My Running Journey. This is a blog of a person training to run a 5K race this fall. He is using a program from Cool Running called the Couch-to-5K running plan. It outlines a 30 minute running program three times a week that builds you up to running 3 miles in 9 weeks. The other thing I learned from this site is that my stride is all wrong. I hit on my toes first like a sprinter which probably contributes to my shin splints. Wow, I’ve been to sports medicine clinics and everything for my shins and no one ever asked about my stride.
I figure it would be a good thing to be able to run 3 miles in case I was being chased by a monster or something. So, I tried day one today. I walked for 5 minutes then alternated 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for the next 20 minutes. Then I walked the rest of the way back to my house as a cool down. I was pretty pathetic. I did try to change my stride though. It was awkward to try to hit on my heel first but I think it helped. I didn’t have any pain when I ran and I’m only having a warm sensation in my one shin now instead of the normal sharp pains.
My dad is a former marathoner and current 10K runner. He’s always been horrified by having a kid who claims that she can’t run. He considers it highly abnormal and most likely highly suspect behavior. I will not tell him about this little adventure because he will take it as a sign that I have finally come around to his way of thinking.
After the walk/jog I found My Weight Loss Journey. This site introduced me to The President’s Challenge. This is a government program that gives awards for fitness. For those of you like me you flashback to the awful Presidental Fitness Tests in high school gym class rest assured that this is not the same thing. This has two programs – in one you set a goal of being active for 30 minutes a day 5 days a week for 6 weeks. In the other you earn points for your activities based on intensity and duration. You get your first award at 20,000 points. I put in my 30 minutes of riding, 15 minutes of walking, and 10 minutes of running and got 244 points.
I was hoping the awards would be something more exciting than little medals – tax deductions maybe? – but that’s ok. It doesn’t seem to be for U.S. citizens only either.
I’m great at setting goals and not so good at keeping them so we’ll see how this goes. I’m using the goal of being down two dress sizes by my high school reunion this summer. I’m not going to my reunion but I’ve heard lots of people using that as a goal so I decided I would too.
