On the Run

I wrote decently early in this blog about the installation of my home gym and getting back in shape.

Well, after a few false starts, things are going ok. I've lost about 6 lbs, but more importantly, I've lost 4% body fat. It's still not where I want to be, but it's getting better. I bench pressed 210 lbs for the first time tonight (at 180 body weight). It's on the Bowflex, so it's not really like lifting barbells, but I'll take it. I'll be happier once I actually get to tighten a belt loop, and I'm almost there.

Getting into better shape, I've been able to start doing what I like doing again - running. When I got out of shape, I was too heavy to run on my bad knees, and my knees had worsened. I have two torn tendons in my right knee and some cartilage damage in my left, so running was basically an instant recipe for tendinitis for a while. Thanks to my elliptical trainer and some intense stepping routines, I'm happy to say this is no longer the case.

I've traced out a 5 km course through my neighbourhood and the next subdivision over. I currently run it in about 28 minutes, which I am pretty disappointed with. I was never a competitive runner, but I probably should have been. When I was younger, I used to run a 3 km course I had traced out for myself in 8 minutes and 20 seconds. The Canadian 3000 m record is about 7 minutes and 53 or so, and I was running up and down hills as opposed to a flat track. So if I could have saved a few seconds on the flat track, I would have been spitting distance to record time. The record for 5000 m is 13 minutes and change, so yeah, I'm pretty pissed about my 28 min.

Since I always need to set goals for myself to keep myself motivated, my goal for this 5K run is 18 minutes. That allows me one minute longer per km than the Canadian record. Since I will likely be about 32 by the time I reach that level (I'm giving myself 18 months to do it), I don't know that I'll really be able to go faster. But I hope I get the opportunity to find out.