As some of you know, we’ve just returned to New York after a quick trip back to the UK. Whilst we were there it was my birthday, for which Tom bought me a watch/tracker thingy to capture data about our runs…
As you can probably work out from the pictures, it consists of a wristband, a display unit with USB connector, and a sensor in a little pouch which attaches to a shoe. The lady in the shop told Tom that it was so easy to use “even girls could work it”, and whilst I disapprove entirely of such sentiments I’m pleased to report it is true.
Having a new toy to play with meant that we were both much more excited about running this morning than would otherwise have been the case, given that we’ve had a fortnight’s break from it. We had the added excuse that in order to calibrate the sensor I had to log a separately-measured walk as well as a run, so could justify a shorter outing.
In the end, we ran 2.2km in 10:39mins, which we were quite pleased with, particularly as previously we’ve only run for 9 minutes without stopping. Given that we’re moving apartments again at the beginning of next week, we might stick to our current 9 min run / 2 min walk repeats for a little longer. (The next stage of the training programme we’re following is to run for 11 mins three times in a session, with a 1 min walking break in between each run, which sounds a lot harder.)
Our new apartment (of which more details will follow soon!) is just a few blocks away from Central Park, and I’m very much looking forward to being able to run there. I’m also hoping that having somewhere nice to run will encourage us to keep going as the weather turns colder and wetter.
As further incentive to continue, I want to go public with some targets. I’m planning to be able to run 5km comfortably* by the end of this year, and 10km by Tom’s birthday at the end of June. Tom thinks this will be really easy, I have a feeling it might be harder – so if anyone reading this knows more about it than we do I’d love to hear your comments!
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* for me this means not wanting to die at the end of it, for Tom it means in 30 minutes.
Leaves from the big apple 
Well done, you. If this old codger can run a 10K five months after starting running, you’ll breeze through. I started in February on a similar programme to yours, just building up gradually, and ran that first 10K in July, and another last month – 66 minutes. I’m planning to do another next month, and half marathon next spring. I often do 5K at lunchtime, you’ll be surprised how quickly you build up. I would recommend joining a running group for motivation, at least I find it helps. And that speed – very impressive. I am NOT a fast runner, and struggle to maintain 6 mins/km, so again, well done. I console myself that I’m older and you two have a better build for running!
Unrelated: if you enjoyed Brooklyn winery, have a trip upstate round the Finger Lakes wineries in spring / summer. It’s beautiful, a very civilised way of getting a tiny bit tipsy.
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Thanks Colin – I hadn’t realised your 1st 10k was just 5 months in, wow! At the moment 10k seems waaaaaaay more than possible (especially with aching muscles post-move), but I’m sure we’ll get there, & joining a running group sounds like a great idea. The speed is mostly down to Tom & his long legs, I’d be much slower on my own. And thanks for the wineries tip too, I shall add that to my list of things to do 🙂
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