Return to running

Having abandoned my Learn to Run class due to injuries, I've been back at the gym doing the Learn to Run intervals on the treadmill. (Although I did a weird half-run on Saturday outside with my wife - I walked a good chunk of the way, and then sprinted to catch up to her as she ran, and then after doing that for a while, just ran along side her for the last couple of intervals, all while not hurting myself.)

The treadmill running has been going quite well. I can pretty consistently do at least one more set than what the Learn to Run manual asks for, and keep up a pretty good average pace of 4.4 or 4.5 mph over the course of the walking/running intervals.

Last night I did the four sets of four minutes running and one minute walking, plus an extra four minute run just for fun. In total, it was about 2.25 miles in 30 minutes and a few seconds.

I'll be back at it tonight. Next week's intervals move up to three sets of five minutes, plus a two-minute run (for a total of 17 minutes of running, which is one minute more than the four sets of four). I'll tackle that on Thursday night.

In the meantime, a couple of weekends of dining out (a date with my wife, and then a wedding) have played havoc with my weight loss. But I'm still consistently in the 178 lbs. range, which is better than the 180 to 183 lbs. range I'd been stuck in for most of the summer. My short-term goal is 175 lbs., and then on to 170 lbs., a weight I have not broken the south side of since I've been married.