<p>I’m looking forward to my new chair (H probably thinks I’m nuts). I need to get more disciplined about doing more glute exercises, too.</p>
<p>If anyone is looking for a funky marathon to run, here is one in my neck of the woods:</p>
<p>[Tunnel</a> Marathon](<a href=“http://www.littlemarathon.com/Tunnel/default.asp#course]Tunnel”>http://www.littlemarathon.com/Tunnel/default.asp#course)</p>
<p>I wish they had a half. Running in a tunnel with a flashlight sounds awesome.</p>
<p>^^ That sounds pretty cool. I would want to hand off the flashlight to someone after the tunnel, though. Marathons are stupid.</p>
<p>BB Wow, the tunnel marathon sounds amazing. I think I would wear a headlamp. though. I hate carrying things when I run. I am surprised it’s a Boston qualifier with all that downhill (which sounds great to me!). The gravel, not so much. I would consider doing it as a half, I don’t think I need to do another full marathon in the near future.</p>
<p>If you can do 40 push ups- you CAN do the kettle ball workouts, believe me. I can do a whopping 5 guy push ups on my toes, then I have to drop to my knees. Of course the extra lbs. I am carrying around, don’t help.</p>
<p>I’ve walked a [5</a> mile railroad tunnel](<a href=“http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/ePortal1.jpg]5”>http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/ePortal1.jpg) as a foolish college kid. It is not [a</a> pleasant experience](<a href=“http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/t27LookWest.JPG]a”>http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/t27LookWest.JPG).</p>
<p>Wet. Muddy. Rats. Dark. Sooty. Smells like diesel fumes. I can’t imagine how miserable i would be running through a long rail tunnel.</p>
<p>Ya’ll put me to shame with your running. I went out for another 5K walk/jog in the park on a beautiful summer afternoon/evening. Wore some of my new duds. I may be dog slow, but at least I look good… for an ol’ (formerly) fat guy. </p>
<p>Actually, I even picked up the pace a little bit today. It’s funny though, my total elapsed time is actually slower with the jogging intervals than if I really push it the whole way walking. I can’t push hard up the hills because I’ve got to start jogging the second I hit the top.</p>
<p>Took back some reject shirts to Marshalls (my philosophy is to buy it if it looks right at these places, see what else you find, and then take back anything that doesn’t make the grade) Lo and behold… they had two pair of the Nike running shorts I like. So I’ve now found two each in black, dark gray, and dark navy. I’m set and the 9-inch “gangsta” Livestrong shorts I bought thinking they might be the best I could find are going back.</p>
<p>Even when I ran in my 20s I never did better than an 8 minute mile. The few times I’ve actually run a whole mile recently it’s embarrassing how slow I go. I think I got some exercise every day since last Sunday. I haven’t done pushups recently, but when I was doing them regularly I could do 12 guy push ups.</p>
<p>I think running a mile is hard. One of my former coaches had us do 10 one mile repeats with 1/4 mile recovery as our last hard pre-marathon workout. I think I only made it through it once. One year it was November and the wind was howling. H and I quit after 2 of the repeats. I was sure it meant I wouldn’t finish the marathon. We wanted to win belt buckles which went to top 100 men and top 50 women ( no regard to age). We got them! </p>
<p>My kid ran a 4:24 mile as a high school junior. He thinks I am very slow.</p>
<p>I was never good at sprints, but I could run a 5K in about 18-19 minutes back in the good old days. Not too fast, not too slow. Longer distances were a real challenege due to breathing issues. </p>
<p>Ran 4.2 miles while the lentil soup was simmering on the stove. It is time to swing my 15 lb dumbbells around.</p>
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<p>It’s pretty hard for me to imagine that kind of speed. We have people at the office that ran in the 5s when they when they were in their twenties and maybe thirties and we have people that run 5ks in the 6s and 7s (they’re in their forties and fifties). The fastest that I’ve run for a short period of time (like two minutes) is low 6s and that was along time ago.</p>
<p>I would have to do better than 7.5 to contribute to the company team score. I can imagine doing that if I lost another thirty pounds. The slowest guy (running 7.5 now) used to weigh 300 pounds. My guess is that he weighs 200 pounds right now (he’s about four or five inches taller than I am) so I have a weight advantage but he’s been training longer and more regularly. He also has knee problems as he runs with something on his knees. I hadn’t seen him for a few years and I actually didn’t recognize him for a few months.</p>
<p>I felt the slightest bit of soreness all over this morning. The only other thing that I did yesterday was a 100 pound farmers walk but it was relatively short. My left hand (fingers) had trouble with the 50 pound barbell after one time around the fitness center. I guess that the running did put some stress on my body. No joint issues though.</p>
<p>I found a matched pair of racquets that I’m interested in for $650. I bought one a few weeks ago but it was only one (I prefer two or three matched) and it’s an XL. I have five of my current frame, soon to be my previous frame and they will go on the block when I get the new pair.</p>
<p>Aaaaaargghhhh! I shouldn’t even be reading this thread right now. Had some scar revision surgery on Tuesday. It was quick and everything went well and I feel fine but I can’t workout at all which is making me crazy! Kudos to all of you, though.</p>
<p>Well, I didn’t make 150 miles for June. Turns out today was JULY! Who knew???</p>
<p>BB- 19 (much less 18) is extremely fast for 5K. In the snob running group, a lot of GUYS celebrate breaking 20 (not the real cool kids, but lots of the normal people). Sub 20 for a female is coveted. You were REALLY fast!! I ran 19:26 at Corporate Nationals in the early 80s on the Stanford campus (finishing on the track) and never touched it again.</p>
<p>chintzy, I hope you heal very quickly.</p>
<p>chintzy- Glad you feel OK. You’ll be back at it in no time!</p>
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<p>I’m sure that you’ll be back soon. My feeling is that getting in shape makes it easier to bounce back quickly.</p>
<p>I had oral surgery in my teens and was itching to get back out on the tennis court and went to hit a day or two later. I noticed drops of blood on the court after a while and realized that the stiches weren’t holding so I went home to rest. Things were back to normal after about a week.</p>
<p>chintzy:</p>
<p>Amazing, isn’t it. Here we were not even exercising a couple years ago and now it drives you nuts to skip a few days. I took last week off from weight lifting and, even though I was doing cardio intervals, my body started feeling stiff and creaky.</p>
<p>Well, I for one am looking forward to the weekend. H and I have been making good use of the Loops feature and last night had an over 4 mile walk which is a huge improvement for him. The weather has been great for walking. </p>
<p>Chintzy, hope you recover very soon. There have been a few nights this week I didn’t feel like exercising but I suspect if someone told me I couldn’t I would really want to. As for the running times - sheesh. I’m old and even when I was young I wasn’t that fast. I’m trying to decide if it is better to focus on improving my time or increasing my distance. I’m thinking the latter.</p>
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<p>Consider both. Alternate or establish some sort of routine. Maybe one day a week you run harder but go for a shorter distance. Or maybe the other way around… once a week try to run for a longer distance than normal…</p>
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<p>I’ll say it’s a huge improvment! It took me 3.5 months to build up from my first 1 mile walk to a 4 mile walk. That’s fantastic…</p>
<p>Chintzy - better to be reading these posts than gooey recipe ideas for the holiday weekend. </p>
<p>BB - ooh, I am impressed! No wonder you were so bummed when you first returned to serious running. You had some mighty high standards for yourself. </p>
<p>Since I have made my pseudo-public announcement that I am going to TN in October, I am starting my 3 month training program. There is a big difference between the walking I do when I am not “in training” and what I do when I have an event. The main difference is the need for speed work. I hate speed work. I did some intervals last night and I was happy to see that I could at least walk at my top pace for 500 meters with 300 meter intervals at a comfortable pace. I will probably add two nights of speedwork into my routine and one day I will go a longer, slower distance. We shall see. </p>
<p>I think I will take ownership of DH’s Garmin. He doesn’t use it as much as he hoped, there is something about the defib that sets off crazy readings, and when you are worried that your heart my go into VT, those crazy readings are very, very stressful.</p>
<p>That’s a great suggestion, hops. I need to stop thinking either/or. I think part of why I fell out of running was not being well organized and mapping out the runs or even having a training plan. One of my projects for this weekend involves digging out some running books I used back in the day. If anyone has any suggestions for material that’s newer than the early '90s I’m appreciate it. While there are running groups in my area, they are serious runners and I am not a serious runner by any stretch of the imagination. </p>
<p>I think it is easier for H to exercise if he has me pushing him along. He wants to do this and that’s half the battle, as we all know.</p>
![http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/ePortal1.jpg]5](http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/ePortal1.jpg%5D5){kind=link}
![http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/t27LookWest.JPG]a](http://www.hoosactunnel.net/images/t27LookWest.JPG%5Da){kind=link}
