Wow – time flies…it has been six weeks since I returned to running.  The progress that I’ve made has been incredible.  I started 3 x (walking for 5 min / running for 1 min) and felt like I had just completed a long run during marathon training.  I gradually progressed to completing 5 repeats of the 6-minute set for a total of 30 minutes.  Periodically I decrease the walk or add to the run.  Today I’m at 5 sets of walk 3 min / run 3 min.  Pretty soon I’ll make it all the way to 6 sets of walk 1 min / run 4 min.  Once I have that mastered, I will have returned to “beginner” status!  

Today’s PST is a little late, I want to do this every 4 to 6 weeks, so I’m bumping right up against the 6-week limit.  As I hoped, the numbers show some steady improvement.  There is no intention to compete against my past self, just doing this to “quantify” how recovery is progressing compared to a benchmark, and think about new standards for my 5thdecade.  Here are today’s results and commemorative picture.  (Sorry this is a bit stream of conscious tonight.  I just wanted to knock it out and put my thoughts down as the moved through my head).

  • 1-mile run: 10:12 (walk 3:00/run 3:00)
  • Push-ups: 64 in 2:00
  • Sit-ups: 41 in 2:00 (my hip still does not like doing sit-ups)
  • Air-squat: 72 in 2:00 (still with a base to manage/limit depth)
  • Pull-ups: 14 (dead hang)