der5er

Last weekend we were watching and old episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8 and I got inspiration to increase my exercise level.  Why would a show about a couple with 8 kids inspire me to run more?  Look at it this way, every morning Jon (mostly by himself) chases 8 kids for 15 minutes putting on 56 pieces of clothing, cooks 16 pancakes, cleans 80 sticky fingers, does 5 loads of laundry, and makes 8 trips to the potty, and that’s just breakfast.  What inspired me is that even with all that in front of him, Jon gets up at 5 in the morning to go to the gym.   Seriously.  And he says it’s given him more energy.  Now, don’t I feel like a wimp. 

I’ve always told myself that I couldn’t get up that early and exercise because it would make me too tired.  I’ve got too much to do and can’t be that tired all day.  Well, I guess those excuses are blown out of the water, aren’t they?

So, all this week I tried it.  I got up at 5:AM and ran.  Two miles on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and 3 miles on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Here’s the kicker: I ran those miles faster than I’ve run before.  I set and broke new records for average pace and for my fastest mile (which is now 8 minutes 30 seconds).  Twelve miles this week!  I haven’t done that since last year when I was training for the 8k.  I’m resting today and I’ll do a ‘big run’ tomorrow.  I’m hoping to talk myself into a 10km run to get ready for The Nike + Human Race on August 31.  I won’t be travelling to one of the cities where the race is held, I’ll be running a course here in Brandermill, which means hills, hills, hills.  If I can get through that race, maybe I’ll think about the half-marathon Jeff is trying to talk me into.

I’m also planning to start the 100 push ups plan.  Supposedly, this plan can help you get to a point where you’re able to do 100 push-ups at a time in just 6 weeks.  So, I’m starting that on Monday, thinking I won’t want to run at 5:AM Monday if I manage to run 6 miles on Sunday.
New on the WANT list after thinking about my last 6 mile run is a fuel belt.  Tomorrow I’ll carry a water bottle with me, but I really think I need something like one of these:

or    

These are the CamelBak Alterra and the CamelBak Stamina II (click them to see them at Amazon). Either way, I’m just carrying water with me there are probably more economical options, but these are the top of the WANT list for water. I’ll actually take whatever I can get.