PR's are nice...

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Kim texted me from State College, Pa., where she’d just run a 3,000 meter race, that she’d run a 4-second pr and finished in 9:43 – about 5:10 mile pace for almost two miles. It doesn’t seem like much of an improvement – 4 seconds – but at her level, it’s huge. I know the excitement she must have felt…even though she didn’t win the race.

Achievement in fitness seems to seldom be about beating someone else. I compete against myself…and mostly in the here and now. Let’s face it...I’m 55 and I’m definitely not going to get faster than I was in my 30’s. Yet…I measure and compare all the time on the courses I run, ride, hike and kayak. I can’t help it. I just want to know if I’m do a little better than I was a month ago…and when I find that I am, it makes me want to try even harder.

Mostly, I peg my improvement by seeing how I’m doing on a favorite running course and I make sure not to challenge myself every day. Sometimes though, it’s on the bike or maybe hiking with the pack on my back. I time myself and if I get back a little quicker or maybe if I’ve done 20 more step-ups than ever before, I congratulate myself…pat myself on the back…shake my hand…and tell myself what a good job I’ve done. Well…there’s no one else around and who am I doing it for anyway? Self-motivation and congratulation is what it’s all about…and it keeps me going.

I ran 32 minutes on snow packed trails, slipping and sliding, but breaking a great sweat and getting a tough workout. I headed home and jumped on the bike for a 48 minute ride – it’s just when the episode I was watching ended. I needed the extra calorie burn because Holly was making hot dogs wrapped in Anne Ann’s pretzel dough and I always overeat when she makes them.

Holly and I went for a walk around the block later that night and the conditions…slippery with a few inches of snow on the sidewalks…made our normal 25-minute walk another 40-minute endeavor. A little snow certainly does a great job making simple workouts so much more.

Bike duration: 48 minutes. Hike duration: 45 minutes. Run duration: 32 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 biking. 75 hiking. 140 running.
Calories burned during workout: 720 biking. 225 hiking. 540 running.