Doin' th' Runnin' Man

Well - gotta get into shape. I've come to realize that my cardiovascular health has deteriorated a bit since I stopped working out regularly last Fall (that was when we gave up our memberships at 24 Hour Fitness and embarked on our ill-fated Wii Fitness experiment), so - despite the fact that I absolutely despise doing it, and the fact that it makes both my shins and knees feel like holy hell after I'm done with it - I've decided to take up running in the mornings, at least until I can get a used bike and start riding it part of the way to work.

Let me back up...

Carrie and I bought a Wii Fit back last November, thinking that we were going to save on Gym memberships. Thing is - due to the size of our apartment, only one of us could work out at a time, and that also meant that the other person either couldn't watch the TV, or, if they didn't want to watch TV in the first place, they were subjected to the noise of the console. In either case, neither one of us saw the benefit in using it after about a month, so we ended up joining an expensive gym in Madison Park, and then we enrolled in the Samraya Center when we started our house hunt; we knew that we were moving pretty far away from Madison Park, so we quit the gym, but we were - and still are - committed to the yoga.

Okay, back to the present -

Since Beacon Avenue South has a very nice median with a walkway, I've decided to use that instead of doing either the Greenlake or Seward Park thing.

Here is my first trek - .7 miles one way, ~1.5 round trip. It's pretty good, since I can pace myself and build up to running the entire route slowly. I'm shooting for running to Dawson, walking to Ferdinand, running to and from Columbian to Dawson, walking to Brandon, and then sprinting the rest of the way to Orcas. Each week, I'd like to eliminate a walking route from the route until, at the end of the month, I'm running the entire 1.r5 mile route.


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So, if I can do this by September, here is what I'd like to do for that month - a slightly longer route:

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Now, assuming that I can run the entire first course, I should be able to run all the way from Orcas to Myrtle, do a walking turn around, walk to Holly, run to Graham, walk to Spencer, then kick it to Orcas. I eliminate one walk per week until I can do the entire run without a break.

Hopefully, by this time, I'll have a bike that I can ride to and from Orcas to the new Light Rail station along Beacon:

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If I don't have a bike - it probably won't be too big a deal anyway, since it's only 2 miles, and I should be able to jog that distance, and not get too sweaty - it will be October, and I can do the jog on the way back home, so that I can take a shower if need be.