To get started, a bit of back story...I ran track in middle school and high school. And by "running track" I mean I did long jump and ran the 200 meter. I was a fast little white girl, so I had no real comprehension of distance running. When the long distance group had their workouts, I would cringe. Mile repeats, ladders (sprint group did ladders, but the longest distance we ran was 400 meters, or one lap around the track), 1000's, etc. These crazies had goals like running 100 miles a week...ew. Anyways, after track when I'd go for a run, I was happy with running a mile. Then in college, 2 miles or so. And honestly until January, running anything over 2.2 miles was scary to me and I hadn't run regularly since college. I am very thankful Jordan got me off my booty one warm January day, because it helped put my health in perspective. I could barely run! My knees and ankles were killing me the whole time, I couldn't breath and the next day I could barely move! I decided I couldn't just sit at home using my long days at work as an excuse or alternative to exercise. After a few months of running and progressively increasing my distance made it to 4.5 miles (remember I don't get to run on days I work) with my sights set on longer distances, possibly running a half marathon at some point. There are days I don't want to go, but you just put your shoes on and do it anyway. Even if it isn't the best run or you don't achieve your goal distance, at least you got out and were active. My appetite seemed to increase with my mileage and I indulged, until I realized I was gaining weight. I'd like to think it was muscle, but just because I was running didn't mean I could eat whatever I wanted, but it was still discouraging.
Another thing about running, it's definitely a love/hate relationship for me. Even though I was doing pretty well with my mileage, I was getting burned out. I don't run on the days I work, which is only three days a week, so I decided I wouldn't run the Sundays I didn't work. Eventually I just needed a week, just a week to rest. So, I took about a week off...and then got food poisoning. Needless to say I've been set back a bit by taking an unintentional almost two weeks off, but today I finally did 3.1 miles in 31:16...by no means impressive, but better than my times before. What makes it a little more cool about this particular run today is that it was dedicated to Boston. If you're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., you may have seen some of the pictures/posts going around with people dedicating runs, walks, strolls to the city of Boston. I wore blue and yellow and ran harder than I usually do for a casual run. It was really satisfying to see that I had really pushed myself since I hit a personal record. Friday I'll run to remember the Oklahoma City Bombing...which will be remembered again when I run the 5K leg of a marathon relay for the Memorial Marathon in OKC. No promises for any further posts about running, but maybe some pictures from the race next weekend. :)
My Run for Boston pic from today.
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