Last week I told you that I was hitting the training hard for the Franklin Classic 5K on Labor Day.  Keeping to my word, I managed to run a total of 10 miles this week.

Monday I decided to try a new route I had never run around work.  It was a 3.2 mile route that took me around the mall.  I started with 5 minutes of walking and set off to jog the entire thing.  I didn’t quite manage to jog the rest of the way that day.  It was 92 degrees out with 73% humidity and once I got on the pavement I just got too hot.  I ran about 2 miles before I had to walk.  I ended up finishing in around 40 minutes.

Wednesday was my normal 3 mile route from home.  Since I sucked it up so bad in the heat on Monday, I was determined to jog the entire run following my 5-minute warm up walk.  The sun was setting, but ut was still damn hot: 90 degrees with 60% humidity.  I managed to complete the entire route jogging and finished 3.1 miles in 35:45.

Today I wanted to extend what I did on Wednesday just to prove to myself that a) it wasn’t a fluke and b) I could actually jog 3.1 miles non-stop after my warm-up walk.  I woke up early to get out before things heated up and it was a comfortable 76 degrees with 63% humidity. Starting with my 5-minute walk again, I finished the route jogging for a total of 3.8 miles.  It took me 44:34 to finish up this morning.

I’m feeling very satisfied with my progress this week.  I was able to overcome the mental barrier of jogging the entire 5K.  My body is feeling good now that I’m down about 20 lbs compared to when I tried to get into running a few years ago.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much easier it is to run at this lower weight.  Hopefully that will keep me injury free.

Have you packed on a few pounds since you started playing World of Warcraft?  Are you constantly breaking polymorphs because you were hungry, and you thought the sheep was for you to eat?  If so, then listen up!

Start using quest turn ins as a trigger for doing ab workouts.  For every quest you complete, make it a priority to to 10 sit-ups as soon as the yellow question mark disappears.  Don’t accept another quest until you are finished.  I average around 7-10 quest turn-ins on a good night of playing.  This means that I have done 70-100 sit-ups in one night!  This only takes a few minutes away from your game play, and will put you on the path to having killer abs.  Note: If you can’t finish the sit-ups, switch to another abdominal workout such as planks or bicycle kicks.  When you do these, try to hold out for at least a minute, but don’t stop if you can keep going.

As always, consult your personal doctor before attempting any exercise presented here.  This has been your World of Warcraft Workout tip of the week.  Have fun and stay active!

I just recently decided that I want to run a 5K on Labor Day.  I haven’t been running at all since I jacked myself last year.  Now that my weight is down, I decided it was time to get moving again.

I only have 3 weeks to prep for the 5K, so I’m going to have to kick this into overdrive.  There is no easing into this.  Keeping that theme, I jogged/walked 5K yesterday.  Here are the stats:

74 degrees, 62% humidity I ran 3.2mi in 37:53.

I know I’m not breaking any records.  The run did feel pretty good.  I’ve decided that a lot of my problems were the shoes I was wearing.  I’ve done a few small runs lately in some cross-trainers and it felt good.  Yesterday I decided to go back to my running shoes and I had some foot pain again.  I’m throwing those damn things out.  They just don’t work with my body.  I’ll go back to Brooks;  they were more comfortable, but they wore out quicker than I would have liked.

I ran the first 1.75 miles at a good pace without stopping.  After that I lost some of my steam and had to walk a minute.  At that point I alternated jogging and walking making sure to keep my walks no longer than 1 minute.  Jogging is so much easier with a few pounds gone.  I can only hope that it will get even easier still.