Wednesday, November 14, 2007

My first challenge

Well, I'm still running. In fact, I just entered my first 2 'challenges'. Challenges are these things you can sign up for on the Nike Plus website. If you win them, you get a little award on your screen. The first one that I signed up for was to run 50 miles by Christmas, which meant that I had roughly a month and a half to go 50 miles. Not too bad. The other one that I signed up for was to see who could run the most miles in 1 week. It said 'Beginners only', so I figured that this wouldn't be too bad either.

I was wrong. It has not been easy. First of all, there are some non-beginners in the challenge. At least I would consider them non-beginners because they're running 7 miles at a time. Second, there are people who include their walking distances. So they can run 3 miles, walk 3 miles and it counts as 6 miles. I'm only counting my running distance, so it's pretty tough for me to keep up. But the main problem is that my super-competitive instincts are starting to kick in, and it's wearing me out. The challenge started on Sunday night at 10pm. I seriously considered going out for a run right at 10. But my mom was over for dinner, and we played some boardgames afterwards. By the time she left, it was past 11. But I still wanted to go run.

Well, I didn't run that night. Instead, I ran the next morning...in the FREEZING COLD WIND and RAIN! I did a shorter run, just over 5km. But then I also ran again that evening, another 5km to make up for not running the night before. The next morning, it was cold, but not raining. I did another 5km. But I didn't run again that day and felt really guilty about it. Which brings us to today. Last night, I was in first place. But today, the run/walker did a 4+ mile run/walk to go ahead of me. So I decided that I was going to go ahead of them. I did 4.25 miles, my longest run by almost half a mile. And now I'm in...2nd place still. The 7 mile workout guy did 2 workouts and is now way out in first place by himself. I'd have to do another 4+ mile run to catch him. Which I would actually consider doing, if I didn't have basketball tonight.

But I am considering trying to do another 4+ mile run tomorrow morning. And I know I would be miserable the whole time. The morning after basketball, my body is usually pretty sore. Plus, I think it's supposed to be another cold, rainy morning.

When I did track and field for the community college several years ago, the coach said that I had a problem with overtraining. I'm starting to think he's right. I also think that I will be much happier once this week is over.

No comments: