November Project

Today I had to be at work early or rather earlier than usual. I intended to be there by 7:15 am but traffic was light and train arrived right away, so I got to work at 6:45 am!

Just around the corner from work I see this group of people working out in the sidewalk. It peaked my interest and since I was a whole half hour early to work I decided to take a quick detour.

I was able to talk to one of the organizers and he told me all about the November Project. I never heard of them before. Now that I know a bit more about them, I think it’s a pretty cool idea and I’ll see if it’s something I can join. To join simply follow their blog and show up at the designated location. I think I can do that!

November Project™ is a FREE fitness movement that was born in Boston as a way to stay in shape during cold New England months. Now present in multiple cities in across four time zones in North America, the movement is using a simple sense of accountability (verbal) to motivate and encourage people of all ages, shapes, sizes and fitness levels to get out of their beds and get moving.

Rest

The week  of May 9th I was active four days in a row, Monday through Thursday. On Thursdays we run our pseudo 5K, it’s actually 2.5 miles around a nice peninsula in Winthrop Massachusetts.

After Thursday’s run I was hurting more than usual. My body was telling I was overdoing it. One of my main concerns is that I’ll overdo it and get hurt or I’ll burn out. Then, I’ll have to start over again and I know how difficult this is… Aaaah!

I’m very proud of my progress and the changes I’ve made. I don’t want to stop or slow down my momentum.

On Thursday’s run I feel that I would have benefited from resting the day before. Next week’s goal will be to shave off at least a minute from my total time, currently over 36 minutes.

I rested for two days, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I went for a 2.5 mile run close to my house and I didn’t feel terrible; I rested on Monday. On Tuesday I went for a run with my brother and felt better than Sunday’s run. Tuesday’s run was at the beautiful Breakheart Reservation which is a 640-acre hardwood forest with jagged, rocky outcroppings, two fresh-water lakes, and a rambling section of the Saugus River.

What all this means to me: HILLS! There are hills at this location. I hated going up the hills but I felt pretty good at the end. I plan to go to this location at least once a week.

I’m currently reading a book on being more productive and one of the main principles is to work smarter not harder. I intend to do apply this idea to running. I’ll be doing more research on running; technique; length of run; number of times per week, etc.

Running smarter not harder:

• Set goals [check]
• Get started and correct as you go along [check]
• Correcting; do the minimal amount of work for the optimal results [todo]

My first finding …

… skip a day between workouts to give your body time to rest and build muscle – RedBrick Health

What’s your experience with resting between running/exercising days?

 

Walking/Joggin/Running

My goal is to run a 5K or 3.2miles under 30 minutes by the end of summer.

There’s a course of 2.5 miles that I started to jog/walk which is a controlled route to gauge progress.

When I started tracking my progress I completed the route in 39.13 minutes; yesterday I completed the same route in 35.30 mins which is about 10% improvement. For this particular route the goal is to complete it under 25 minutes.