Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A New ID & Changing My Normal

I did my workout at the YMCA yesterday and the worst thing ever happened.  They made me get a new member ship ID card.  This was traumatic because I've had the same membership card since 1997.  That's how long I've been a member of the Y.  And my whole self-confidence and source of pride is that I still have that ID card - I never lost it or damaged it.  Same with my UD student ID card, by the way...and that's even more of a feat since I took it out with me every where I went...including to parties, bars, etc.  Anyways, OK so that was exaggerating, but I really do laugh every time I see my old card that says member since 3/20/1997 and has a picture of me at 8 years old.

When I gave it to the lady to swipe this time, apparently it didn't work and she said I would need a new card.  So she took my picture and gave me a card.  I was dismayed to learn that the new card didn't have show the picture.  I'm sure in 17 years I'd want to have it to laugh at.  Oh well.

(old card on top, new card on bottom)

After the card fiasco, it was time to work out.  I knew I wanted to go to body pump at 5:15 and if I didn't have to get a new card, I could have ran for 30 minutes.  Instead, I was only able to run 3 miles, which I did in 24 minutes.  It was fairly easy, but I was feeling at the end.  It's always harder those last couple minutes when you know you're almost done, right?  I started at a speed of 7.0 and increased by .2 each time the song changed, so I ultimately ended at 8.0.

Right after my run, I had just a few minutes to get upstairs to Body Pump.  When I showed up, the room was almost full, but the instructor greeted me right away and showed me to a spot I could use.  I told her it was only my 2nd Body Pump class, so she helped me set up what I would need.  I could tell that a lot of others in the class probably come to this same class every week because they were joking around with each other and the instructor and asking when they could do different workouts/music.

The class was the same tracks and music as the class I went to on Sunday.  But it felt so much harder.  I am pretty sure I was using the same level of weights, but my muscles were getting fatigued quicker.  I had to pause for a few reps of some of the exercises, but the instructor was very encouraging and kept me going.  I am probably a little sore from Sunday perhaps.

I'm going to try to keep going to Body Pump a few times a week because it's definitely better than any weight lifting I do on my own!  Once I get a little better/more familiar with it, I'll try to give a whole run-down of what we do, how I think it's helping my strength, etc.

You also may have noticed that I have been completely failing on the 30-Day Challenge I made for myself.  Basically the challenge was to run 60 minutes a day for 30 days straight.  I did a decent job, but some of my runs turned out to only be 30-50 minutes instead, for various reasons.  And some days I just didn't run.  There was only one day - 4 days into the challenge, that I felt like I could physically not run for an hour.  I can't say how the rest would have gone if I was actually doing it.  But I think a lot of the problem has been the weather.  This isn't just trying to run 60 minutes - this is trying to run 60 minutes on the treadmill.  And while I have been generally OK with the treadmill for now, some days I just couldn't bring myself to go to the gym knowing that I had to be on the treadmill for an hour.

One of the other big reasons I have not been running for a full hour has been that I'm trying to cross train/weight lift more than I have in the past.  I think I want to do another triathlon.  And I know I need to strength train.  Therefore, I've cut runs short so that I can swim or go to spinning or Body Pump.  I'm also going to try out a few new classes!

Although I am disappointed because I really want to run higher mileage, I definitely feel like I've been doing a lot more lately than I have before.  Last week I was only at 26 miles though, and I know I want to be consistently above 30 so that by the time the nice weather comes around and it's time to really train hard, I can more easily transition to 50-mile weeks.

Even though I'm going to stop this challenge, because really I was the only one doing it anyways and already "failed," I am still going to aim for an hour on a lot of my runs.  In the past, a "normal" distance run for me meant 40 minutes, 5 miles.  To get better at the marathon distance, I know that for me, more mileage is key.

Do you have a membership card or something of the like that you're surprised you haven't lost yet?

What is your go-to run distance or time that you consider on a "normal" run day?

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