C25K: W5D3 repeat (#3)

I’m going to stop writing w5d3 repeat (fail) as my subject line for these 20 minute run attempts because it’s too discouraging otherwise. Instead I’ll just increment the try count- today was my 3rd try toward a 20 minute run.

On this day, my first run was just a shy of 13 minutes. Then I eased into a 4 minute walk followed by a 4 minute run.

Objectively I am making progress on several fronts, even though I’m nowhere near making the goal of of 20 minutes yet. I progressed in both my run length (up to 12:50 from 11 last attempt) and my recovery requirement between run intervals (only a 4 minute walk instead of 5 minute walk). I also made progress in my total run time – up from 16 minutes in w5d2 to 16.60 minutes today. Finally, I am gaining in my average speed over the entire session (incl walk and run segments) when I view the trends over the past few weeks (excluding the treadmill sessions I’ve done b/c as expected you can run faster on a treadmill and excluding the few sessions I’ve done where I only ran 1 short segment b/c of course you can run faster if you don’t have to endure as long). Today I ran the first interval at an average of 4.7 mph; I ran the second at an average of 5.

So I will continue to put my running shoes on every other day and keep hacking away at this goal of 20 minutes until I make it. I’ve never been one who was good at being patient so this is a real test of character for me. I really liked the early weeks of the program where progress was fast and dramatic. This week and last has been hard on my spirit.

My stats (the dramatic drop during the first interval is when the dog stopped to go to the bathroom): Garmin Stats

Comments

Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream). On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Brass Birmingham

Here’s a story of a lovely lady (spoiler: it’s me) and her pride and how it has led to the discovery of the single greatest board game I have ever played. It’s probably also a good primer for other reviewers on increasing your reach. At GenCon this year, I was perusing the wares of the various booths and my eyes caught a glimpse of two beautiful game boxes. Each had crisp metallic lettering with an old world feel and artwork that radiated European class. I made my way to the booth and waited patiently to speak to to the team manning it as there were many buyers lined up to purchase the games. I didn’t know anything about the games (Brass Birmingham and Brass Lancashire), or the publisher – Roxley Game Laboratory – but I knew I wanted to review one or both of the games. Almost every board game love story I star in in can be summed up this way: I am seduced by the artwork or theme and then I stay for the right mechanics. When the lead rep spoke with me, he gently rejected my request. He

That's What Jenni Said

Search This Blog