Week 14 - The 10-minute mile (twice!)

Monday, August 11, 2008

Nothing today. I'm feeling pretty good...


Tuesday, August 12 through Thursday, August 14, 2008

While watching The Wild, Wild West, I completed the 10-mile stationary bike ride in 27:54, 27:14, and 26:26 (a new PR), respectively.


Friday, August 15, 2008

The day off - I'm optimistic that I'll be able to run a mile on both Saturday and Sunday.


Saturday, August 16, 2008

I walked a lap around the neighborhood (1/2 mile) and then ran 2 laps (1 mile) in 10 minutes - my best time in 25+ years. I listened to The Dreaming by Kate Bush. Many of the songs on the CD had a rhythm that seemed to fit my pace well. I'm looking for more of these as the songs seem to help with consistency.


Sunday, August 17, 2008

I used the same routine today as yesterday (walk one lap, run 2). This worked well and, again while listening to The Dreaming, I "clicked" into a comfortable rhythm, at least for the first lap. Interestingly (tongue-in-cheek), at the end of the first lap, I noticed that a neighbor's terrier was running loose. It's a friendly dog but historically it wants attention from anyone around. It started following me and then ran in front of me. Then, and I swear this is true, it did kind of a dip and, for lack of a better word, it "buzzed" me, leading me me to alter my stride (I also cussed a bit). Not helping the situation, the owner was sitting on her porch and made a feeble attempt to get the dog's attention by whispering (no lie) the dog's name. Ironically, that was apparently enough as it left me alone.

While I'm not proud that I cussed, what I was pleased with was that I was able to regroup by taking a deep breath and refocusing on Kate Bush on the iPod. And... I was able to finish the mile again in 10 minutes!

Both ankles are sore again so I'm going to have to watch this as the week progresses...


Mental Skills Used for the Week: All the old favorites (goal setting, dissociative and associative thinking, persistence, sticking to a plan, etc.).

I added two mental strategies over the week. The first is a new role for music in helping me set a rhythm for my pace. I've been casually doing this over the entire 14 weeks but I'm making a more concerted effort on this now.

The second is regrouping during the run. The terrier probably did me a favor (and I'm sure that's what he or she was trying to do) by putting me in the position of getting back to business after an external (and unintended) distraction. The deep breath and refocusing on music helped me get back to the immediate task at hand.

Overall things are progressing.

Until next week...