It has been a while since my last post; but honestly, there is not much to talk about. I think that my last post, back in March, was right before this pandemic thing really hit; and yep, we are still in the pandemic. Like most folks, I’m completely over it.
Running Plans
I had such high hopes for running this year.
Run Madrid’s marathon
Run NYC’s marathon - Technically, NYRR has not canceled the marathon, but I do not think that it’s gonna happen especially with predictions of a second wave of COVID-19 infections expected to occur during the fall months.
Run a half marathon every month for 2020.
What has happened
Central Park outer loop (6ish mile)
Once we went into official lockdown, meaning that I started working from home, I had a wonderful idea to run six miles a day, and running one outer loop in Central Park seemed simple enough.
I guess my raggedy old bones were not down with this plan. Shortly after beginning this routine , my lower back injury started to flare up, and I began experiencing a dull pain in the lower part of my left shin. I low key think that I may have ANOTHER stress fracture, but that’s another complaint for another day.
Perhaps, the “aggressive” elevation profile of Central Park has contributed to my leg pain.
Although I started off strong with this daily routine, I pretty much lost all motivation to continue with this plan. For the month of April, my physical “activity” was reduced to walking to and from the bedroom, living room/office, and refrigerator. It looks like my belly and waistline are showing the effects of my reduced motivation for any physical activity, and I think that I have gained about 6-7 pounds (at least) during this pandemic. Hey, I cannot/should not blame this pandemic for everything. I mean, the pandemic did not make me have ice cream for breakfast or down a bottle (errrrr 1.5 bottles) of wine.
Also, the pandemic did not make me order Insomnia Cookies.
I have a few plans in place to get back into my running groove.
Do at least 60 minutes of cardio a day; hopefully, this will be my Central Park loop.
Try to incorporate more fitness bursts during my workday. I would like to do 15 minutes of stretching and planks/situps/pushups/squats/etc. every 1.5 hours. I probably should put this activity on my work calendar right now. Eh, I do it later. ;)
Intermittent fasting (16hrs) during the week.
It seems like an easy enough plan. However, I already know that running with a buff over my nose and mouth is going to be a pain because it feels like a mild version of waterboarding. If I can stay consistent with low key suffocating during these runs, my VO2max should get better, which may improve my running. #winning I guess this pandemic is good for something.
Volume Oxygen max (VO2max) pretty much is the max rate of oxygen consumption during strenuous activity. Great long-distance runners tend to have higher VO2max capabilities.
Oh yeah. Out of boredom, I did dye my hair a few weeks ago.
Let’s see how the upcoming weeks will go.
