I feel like I can officially write about this since I’m in week 2 of my 9 week training program. Before now I have never been a runner. I’ve always said “I don’t run. I walk.”. I can walk/hike for miles, in fact I *love* hiking!
But I don’t run.
Until now.
When I say I’m not a runner, or that I *can’t* run, my sweet husband tells me that it’s all in my head (he says it sweetly!). That I have to push past the pain. I thought he was loony. I mean, you are supposed to *stop* when something hurts, right? Unfortunately, that’s what I’ve always done.
But then, this past December, we went to watch several friends run in a marathon. A marathon! That’s 26.2 miles, and they ran! It was inspiring. Even more inspiring were the people we saw running with prosthetic legs. We saw 2 or 3 adults running with TWO prosthetic legs. I mean, what better excuse do you have for NOT running? Yet, there they were. I have been blessed with 2 legs that work just fine, so why can’t I do this?
Because I haven’t tried.
Plus, I just watched my husband train for 6 months to get back in shape to join the Army. He is my hero! He got up early, worked out multiple times a week – hard! He lost weight, gained strength, and focused on his goal. He didn’t want to get up early, or go running, especially with a 50 pound rucksack on his back. But he did. Because he’s that kind of guy.
So, now I’m trying. I’m going to start….and finish this! I desperately want to accomplish this. I want to run a 5K (that’s about 3 miles) without stopping. Just because I can. I’d love to do a marathon someday, but right now that’s too lofty a goal for me to focus on. We’re going to start with a 5K. Then, we’ll shoot for a 10K. Baby steps.
I completed week 1, which consisted of 3 days of training. Each time, I ran 1 minute, then walked 1.5 minutes. I continued that cycle for 20 minutes (plus a 5 minute warm up, and another 5 minute cool down).
Then I had a setback of a couple weeks with an awful chest congestion, so I started over, and did week 1 again.
Now, I’m in week 2. Yesterday I completed Week 2 – Day 1. Run 1.5 minutes, and walk 2 minutes. Although, I forgot to look at my training program before I left the house, so I only walked for 1.5 minutes. Guess I did better than I was “supposed” to :)
The first week was miserable. For one thing, I didn’t stretch enough before/after and I ended up with awful shin splints that made me wonder if I had already broken something.
Then, one day I ran/walked, it was the day after our area had record breaking snow! It had started to melt, and I found myself running in crazy zig-zags to avoid the puddles. My shoes have mesh on them, and every time I would step in a puddle, cold, wet water would seep in. Burr!
This week, I spent more time stretching, and it made all the difference in the world! Yesterday when I ran, it was so cold out, that I kept changing my route so that I could stay in the sun. It doesn’t really matter where I run, because right now I’m running for time, not distance, so I don’t measure out a certain path. I just go.
It felt GREAT! This week was easier than last week. It was still hard, but it was easier than last week. I hope that cycle continues because I really WANT to enjoy this. Not just do it, but enjoy it.
