That was pretty productive.

This morning after I dropped the kid off at school, I decided to go swimming. As I have probably mentioned before, the laps I do at the pool are between time spent playing with the kid at the pool. Typically I swim about 10 laps before taking a break to splash around. Some days, I may only manage six or eight before I am summoned to "play with me."

This morning, I decided I would swim at least 30 laps before calling it a morning. My last two times at the pool, I swam 20 and 25 laps respectively, so I figured I, being alone, should be able to surpass that.

I ended up swimming 45 laps, so yeah me! Most laps were at a medium speed, and some were even slow. I ended up doing only about a half dozen fast laps. As I have stated on this blog before, I could probably swim way more laps than what I normally do, so long as I go slowly; I have a lot of endurance.

When I finished lap #45, in about 55 minutes, I decided to run around the pool for 15 minutes. Before I started my swim, I considered going running this afternoon. But once I hit 40 laps, I figured it might be best to skip the run. Jogging back and forth the length of the pool is so much easier than pounding the pavement, and it still counts!

Since I was feeling pretty good, I spent the last under-10 minutes doing some walking lunges, split squats, regular squats, and push ups. All in all, it was a good workout.

But if I expect to run in the Race for Pace, which is two and a half weeks away, I better get myself motivated to run soon.

At least it was the OTHER side of my chest that hurt

I ran steps on Tuesday, as I just blogged about. That was due mostly to weather, but partly to just how darn hard running has become for me lately. Since my stepping on Tuesday was pretty challenging, I figured I might as well just go for broke and get out there and run today.

So I did.

And, much like my 20 trips up and down the steps, this run was no walk in the park. As I struggled up the first killer hill (which, to be fair, I probably do 98 percent of the time), my thoughts alternated between a disappointing, "Am I just too old for this" and a sad/angry, "But some people in their 50s and 60s run almost every day."

I will be 40 in two and a half months. I really wanted to leap into 40 and be able to say that I was in great shape. That age was irrelevant. That I could run circle around people half my age. But lately those thoughts are fading. Sigh.

Anyway, I got through the run with the typical shoe annoyance. (I really think I am going to have to give up on these stupid Asics.) I felt chest pains, fortunately on the side opposite my heart for no more than a couple minutes. My side stitches lasted probably for about five to seven minutes, so, hey, not even a mile. I did not drop over, despite my labored breathing. And, to be fair, the temps had to be near 80, and it was fairly humid.

Mile one: 10:29
Mile two: 8:50

Sure, I wonder if my first mile will ever get below 10 minutes. Or, for that matter, will it ever get close to 10 minutes! But I am still standing, so let's just go with calling it a successful run. :-)

This is getter harder and harder!

On Tuesday, because the sky looked a little cloudy, I decided to run up the 64ish steps near the kid's school. As usual, I decided ahead of time to complete 20 trips up and back. Not surprisingly, after I had made my third or fourth trip up, I considered stopping at 10.

It was just so hard, and I don't know why. Can the difference between almost 39 and almost 40 be that great? I again want to blame it on the shoes, which felt fair at best. I just cannot get over that the next iteration of the same brand and style of shoe would be that much different and worse to boot.

That notwithstanding, because I put a decent amount of pressure on myself when I exercise, I ended up completing all 20 trips. It was not easy and it was not pretty, but at least I did it.

The good news is that I finished my set in 17:19. I looked back at previous posts, and that seemed to be about my best (or at least my best since I started keeping track last year), so perhaps I am being a little hard on myself. But I think what has really been bothering me lately is how difficult it has become for me to get through a run (or steps). I just feel it so much more than I did last year. And I don't like it one bit!

Another tough run

After not running for two weeks, I was not expecting to improve my time from two week ago. But I was not necessarily planning on it being worse either.

Today's run seemed even more difficult than two weeks ago. I felt winded for most of it, which I assumed was because I was really pushing myself and going faster than previously. I figured I was going to hit the top of the hill at 10 minutes, so I was surprised to see about 10:25 on my phone stopwatch. Since I was so disappointed, I pushed myself even harder on the way back, wondering if my age or less-than-great eating habits were catching up to me.

Unfortunately, I am not sure how fast my second mile was. I cannot find the scrap of paper I wrote my time on, although I do recall finishing my run at just about a new minute; I am just not sure if my final time was about 19:00 or 20:00. Considering how fast I thought I was going, I am fairly certain I had to do that second mile in under nine minutes, so let's go with that and call the second mile a good job.

I still hate my shoes, and I am still disappointed that I have apparently lost a step. But what can you do.