NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Get Those Run Legs Moving!

Bouyed by my recent success in completing 5km using my jog/walk strategy and, with one eye on my first target of the season (Inter Services duathlon in April), I thought it would be useful to see just how fast I could run 5km. The idea was to get my legs turning over faster than they have done for a very long time, and to see what the effect was.

I have a very low boredom threshold so setting the treadmill at a constant pace and just running until I reached 5km was not an option. I warmed up by doing 30 mins on the gym bike at a respectable 32kmh (HR settled mid to high 140s), and then leapt off and hit the treadmill. I broke it down in to 5 minute chunks of 2 mins at 13.5kmh, 2 mins at 14kmh and 1 min recovery at 10kmh. 5km time was 23 mins 10 seconds. Very happy with the time but even happier that my cardio system coped really well; I was certainly breathing hard but always felt in control. My legs weren't so happy! They haven't been made to go that fast for an awfully long time but I think, mentally at least, I have made a break through. I will never be a 'runner', but I have taken a small step to 'running'.

3 comments:

Cavegirl said...

One small step for man ... one giant leap for Turboman!

Bet your legs will let you know about it tomorrow and Thursday.

But always good to make a psychological breakthrough :-)

Turbo Man said...

You think they will wait until tomorrow? I'm not so sure!

Turbo Man said...

Legs aren't too bad today; I have an hour easy on the gym bike at lunchtime that I'm sure will help.

Was very tired last night, though; 90 minute cat nap on the sofa after dinner. Still managed 2 glasses of red before bed though!