Running Out of Time

Everyone had a good weekend? If you consider sleeping as being good, mine was really good as on Saturday I was napping almost every 2 hours, and even though I had my usual hours of sleep, I was still feeling tired. Sunday was busy, we went to the flea market, Sam’s club and later in the evening we drove to the airport to pick up our daughter.

This morning when I woke up I was still feeling tired; it took me a long time to finally go for my walk. I walked about 10 K. steps, that was enough at that point.

We are going to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium today, so more steps will be involved. Also tonight I’m going to do my run training. So it will still be a good exercise day.

Speaking of run training, I had started the C25K training but I realized it’s not for me. The C25K program doesn’t take in consideration the weight or the physical shape of the person. If you are obese and try to follow that program, you might hurt yourself rather than do good.

In my case, I learned when I was younger and fitter that my knees were weak and could easily be hurt. Countless times I started a running program to get in shape only to end up having to stop because I was getting pain instead of health.

So keeping my knees in mind I created my own training schedule. As I lose weight, I will increase the time I run until I reach 30 minutes of run. 30 minutes is about 5 k (3 M.) at a slow jogging pace and that is all I want for now.

Why would I want to run when walking is working so great for me? The main answer is time. I walk over 3 hours per day. When I eventually add more training (weight and flexibility), taking into account any sports, including pickleball I would be spending in excess of 4.5 hours a day exercising. That is just not manageable. Olympic is not in my goal.

By running 30 minutes a day, I will drop my walking to about 45 minutes. This will leave me more time to diversify my training.

I’m including my run training schedule. I will be running 3-4 times a week.

Before running I always walk briskly about 5 minutes as a warm up. I also walk briskly 5 minutes at the end to cool down. It’s very important to have a warm-up and cool down period to prevent from hurting yourself.

My training plan is designed for me, I can get too excited so it’s a way to slow me down. However for others, this might still be too fast too quickly. Everyone should always aim for a respective feasible goal.