When Will I Learn?

I got the kids together — all 8 of them (kids, cousins, friends, nephew) — and set out for a run on Camp Dudley Road on Memorial Day. I just got this new app for my droid — cardio trainer. Will not only tell you how long, how far, but will map our your run for you as you’re running. All righty. All set. Got everything. Except the kids are not into the run. Hayden was going to try barefoot running but did not last with that. (And the other shoes he had in hand were his Mets slippers which work for lounging, not running.) Some of the girls kind of hung back, chatting. The boys gave it a good go of running to the 1819 School House.

The view there is just too delicious. The tree is right there for climbing, as is the creaky fence. Who wants to run when you can lay in the grass? or turn cartwheels by the School House?(See the picture above.)

I know I’ve said this before. I should stick to running alone. Or run only with adults. Liz and I ran on Friday. We did the 5 sets of 5 minutes of running then one minute of walking all the way to the Riverbank park from Riverside Church. Really fun.

Last week, I also went on Runner’s World website http://www.runnersworld.com/ and learned about fartlek running. I don’t know if it’s fun to do — short bursts of full out running — but it’s super fun to say. It’s a Swedish word. I think it means “Never run with children. Run alone.”

Interval Training

Wow! I think I know everything. I don’t. I.e., interval training.

Today at lunch time, I met up with a friend. She introduced me to running in intervals. We ran for 5 minutes and walked for 1 minute. Then we ran for 5 minutes and walked for one. And so on. We did about 7 of these bursts of running for 5 and walking for 1. You get the idea.

It was way fun. It was way better than just trying to push myself to cross my 13-minute barrier of running. That’s my usual routine — run for 13 minutes, then walk home, dejected that I couldn’t run longer or farther.

This interval training extends the work out. My friend figured I ran about three and a half miles for 45 minutes. We ran from 120th to Riverbank State Park at 144th Street. This park is genius — an awesome track and other facilities over a sewage treatment facility. It is, actually, lovely. Lilacs blooming around the track’s perimeter. (Flowering trees make me weak in the knees.)

Only problem with interval training is that after 1 minute of walking, it would just feel so good to keep walking. I think this kind of running for me will work best when running with a friend.

You totally get the endorphin rush of running. And that, of course, is why I run.