Well, I’m back up to running a 10-minute mile.
I was able to run a 10-minute mile consistently back before I left for Ecuador in December. But once I got into the high altitudes of Ecuador’s mountains, I didn’t have the energy I did in Ohio. Here in Ohio, I’m about 850 feet/260 meters above sea level. Cuenca, Ecuador, is about 8,000 feet/2,500 meters above sea level.
While in Ecuador, I returned to square one of the None to Run program, in which I would run for 30 seconds, walk for two minutes, and repeat for 20 minutes total. Eventually I got up to running for two minutes and walking for one minute, then repeating for 20 minutes total. I was doing this in parks rather than on a treadmill like I’d been doing in Ohio.
While I was gone, I dropped my membership in the YMCA, in part because I was concerned about their COVID-19 precautions (or rather, the lack thereof). At least back in December, all they had were signs up encouraging people who aren’t vaccinated to wear masks. And hardly anyone was wearing them. I suspect the people who were masked were vaccinated.
So when I returned, I tried running outside. And I found that I couldn’t keep running after two minutes. So I stopped to walk for one minute, ran two minutes again, walked one minute, etc., until 20 minutes total. I was really disappointed that I’d fallen back so much.
Then, on Saturday, March 12, I got on a treadmill again. The Wellness Center at Antioch College reopened while I was gone. They require everyone to show COVID-19 vaccination cards and to wear masks except when using cardio equipment or the pool.
I set the treadmill to 5 mph and decided I’d see how long I could run at that speed. And it seemed incredibly slow. I wasn’t sure if the “5.0” speed measurement was even in miles per hour, but I watched the elapsed time and the miles progressed and it was clear that it was in miles per hour.
So it seems that a big part of the problem is that without a treadmill to regulate my pace, I will run too fast and wear myself out quickly. With the treadmill set at 5.0 mph, I kept running for 12 minutes straight, which is one mile.
On Monday, March 14, I set it to 5.5 mph and ran for 11 minutes straight, also one mile. And today, I ran at 6.0 mph for 10 minutes straight — a 10-minute mile.
So I’m back up to athletic mediocrity. Woo-hoo!
As far as I’m concerned, though, the lesson is that I need to use a treadmill. Maybe if I’d done that in Ecuador, I could have kept going for 5 minutes at 6.0 mph, even at that high altitude, and worked my way up to a 10-minute mile.