July 4th, 2010: The swan song of my personal training program was an 8.5 mile jog last Sunday, which again was completed slowly but without too much fuss. However, I picked up a book on training for marathons and will abdicate my personal program for the wisdom of those with experience.
So I continue plodding away, roughly adhering to the tenets of my training guide. Not only am I being sure to get three runs in each week, I pay attention to pace. A bit disappointing today as I held back to maintain a pulse around 142 (oh yeah, I actually went out and purchased a heart rate monitor) in the belief this would equal a ten minute per mile pace, but it worked out to a miserably slow eleven minutes. After reveling in my previous rapid pace, this was a disappointment…but a useful learning curve as I gain appreciation for translating my heart rate in minutes per mile.
July 11th, 2010: Distances have been seriously ratcheted back since I am following my book’s program, but today’s trot was for thirty minutes and I aimed for a 150 pulse. Phew, this had me breathing hard but I covered 3.8 miles at a 7:54 per mile pace.
Improving my pace strikes me as a single aspect of this challenge, which is spiraling into unforeseen opportunities (reinforcing why you should challenge yourself). There is the physical aspect: I am seriously training for the first time in my life and learning quite a lot about preparing your body for long distance running. There is the equally compelling travel aspect: in addition to logging a ridiculous amount of miles on foot, there will be a foreign language to learn (I will study French, the closest thing to the Creole spoken on Reunion).
Perhaps the most relevant aspect, however, will be the attempt to raise funds: beyond learning about training for long runs, learning French and learning about Reunion, I need to decipher how to establish a non-profit venture. This last piece will also teach many lessons and I will strive to be the best “fund raider” ever!
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