Running strong

Yesterday at the gym, I did my usual walk-run. Generally, my walk-runs feature a great deal of walking and a minute or two of running, making the ratio difference between the two somewhere around 5:1. In fact, my endurance for running has always been close to zero; at full effort, it might inch up to 0.25. But as I was saying, yesterday. Yesterday, I got on the treadmill as usual but decided to do something a little different.

I was exhausted and late (there was a ton of traffic; didn't get to the gym until like 8PM). I didn't want to spend my usual hour at the gym, so I decided to warm up for a couple of minutes with brisk walking and then run for a minute to kick-start my workout. Then I would walk (around 3.8-4.0 mph) for thirty minutes, hit the elliptical for 5, and be done for the evening. Here's what really happened.

I got on the treadmill. Did the couple of minutes of walking and one minute run. Realized I wasn't dying. So after four minutes rest (walking at 3.8mph), I ran again. I told myself I was only going to run for one minute and begin walking again. But I ran for three. Sans dying. Another four minutes of rest, and I ran again. This occurred several times, until I racked up a running time of ten minutes' worth of my 30 minute walk-run. I think we should switch that: not a walk-run. I've upgraded to a run-walk. Woot!

In ten minutes, I ran a distance of about 0.83 miles. I don't know if you noticed, but that's over my bucket list goal, posted yesterday. Granted, the distance wasn't run all at once, which is indeed my goal, but I'd say it's a step in the right direction, wouldn't you?

As I sit here all lazily in the early morning sunrise, running seems like a breeze. Truth is obviously that that just isn't true, and I need to make sure I can run that half mile straight without a walking rest, but I might be changing the bucket list in light of this fitness that I had no idea I had.