Day One of Week 2 of the Couch to 5k (D1W2 of C25k)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

It's not very often that I do two blogs in one day, and if you weren't up early, you likely missed my previous blog. Go ahead and read it. It's short. I can wait!

Hahaha



Like I can wait!

I couldn't wait to get out the door this morning. I didn't even mind that I couldn't sleep past 3:00 AM. I just laid there in anticipation of the run I was going to get to do today.

I was able to check my resting heart rate while laying there. In the one week that I've been back to running, it's dropped by five beats per minute. I know that the first time I took up running, I saw it drop rapidly, but it amazes me again.

I take my RHR (resting heart rate) almost every morning, as I hardly ever awake to the alarm. I lie there and gently come awake, and roll over til I see the clock. I take my pulse, and leave my finger on my neck while counting with my eyes closed. When I get to 50, I open them and keep counting til the clock turns over to a new minute. I do this for five or six minutes, til I've had enough coming awake time - so I'm pretty familiar with my heart rate.

Back to the run.

Ninety seconds this morning, interspersed with two minutes of walking. Delicious!

My day has gotten off to a glorious start. Hopefully the lack of sleep doesn't catch up to me....

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Not a Race Day

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Wow!

I've been awake since 3:00 AM, and not able to get back to sleep.

It's the second week of C25k for me, and this is the day I get to run again.

I feel like the morning of my first half marathon.

So excited. Can't sleep. Waiting for daylight so I can hit the streets.

Aw heck! I think I'll just head out there now.

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Confidence in the body's abilities!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

I'm running again!

This morning I did the third workout in the first week of C25k. For those who were asking, it's a learn-to-run program, found on
www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181
.shtml

In 2006 I also used it to learn to run, and now after taking six months off to deal with my foot issues, I'm using again. The difference this time is all in my mind!

Confidence!

As each run begins, I am thinking "yes, I get to run". After the one minute run, the timer on my Garmin watch beeps, and I slow to a brisk walk once more, celebrating the fact that I am running again -- even if only for one minute at a time.

For now that is enough (the one minute intervals). I am hyper-aware of every feeling going on in my left foot and ankle area. With each footstroke, I am reminding myself not to land too hard on the heel. In the process, I know I am shortening my stride as a by-product of a softer landing.

I know that we aren't supposed to try and change our natural strides, but this doesn't feel ackward to me. I think I'll have to let a couple more weeks go by before I maybe am not concentrating so much on what my feet are doing, and just allow myself to run carefree!

Bring on week 2, and the ninety seconds of running between two minutes of walking, for six sets. I have great confidence that I can do this!

Mentally, I'm ready!

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The day after the comeback!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I want to thank every one for commenting. All your thoughts and words are taken in and treasured - from sharing in my joy, to sending caution and concern.

Believe me, I was cautioned and concerned myself. Likely just should have stayed at home. I threw caution to the wind for an hour, and I think I escaped without harm. It is still feeling pretty good today, but I'm not going to go for a walk again til tomorrow. Just give it that extra day of rest.

I have been so patient with this, while at the same time, so impatient. Does that even make any sense.

Babying my foot.

Purchasing orthotics, Strasbourg socks, new running shoes, new walking shoes.

Icing.

Elevating.

Not doing things (like dancing at my nephew's wedding) that I wanted so badly to do.



It is almost exactly six months since I quite running. I'm really hoping this time that I will be able to go ahead with C25k. The last time I tried it after walking all of June, I went backwards to no walking all over again.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

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5k / 10k for Fun and Fitness Race

Saturday, September 18, 2010

This blog should actually be entitled "Bobby's going to kill me", cause that's pretty much all I heard all the way through my race today. Trish, on the other hand, would have been beaming!

As I was driving down to the race, I thought of how great a day it would be to really race it. Cool, pretty good breeze going, sun shining.

I knew going in, that with all the excitement around me, that I was going to want to run part of it. I knew it, and thought I gave myself enough leeway to avoid the "too much too soon" part of running. My promise to myself was to walk 5 minutes and then run 1 minute - repeat as necessary!

They lined us up, and the opening speech was given. " Yada, yada, yada, please try running a bit to begin with, so we can get it in the picture"

Run a bit to begin with? Sure, I could do that.

So off I went on a bit of a run, with no warm-up. Okay, I didn't need Bobby's voice in my head for this one - my own common sense kicked in within the first minute, and I was back to walking. I did finish the rest of that whole five minute section in a walk, but was anxious to get free and run!

...flash back to the year 2006.

It's May/June/July and I'm using C25k to learn how to run. It's all I can do to not look at the timer to see how long before I can walk again. The timer goes way too quickly on the walking part, and drags forever on the runs. OMG this running is going to kill me!

...flash ahead to today.

The five minutes of walking dragged on forever. The one minute of running was over before I could even believe it. Hmmm, something has definitely changed here.

The second five minute portion was torture. I decided after about three minutes of walking, that I would run again at the ten minute mark - giving me four minutes of walking before getting to run again.

Well, I started the run portion fifteen seconds early, and finished it thirty seconds too late (so almost a two minute run).

Back to that crazed walking portion, that was driving me nuts. I made it three minutes this time, before breaking out in a run.

At this point, I just decided to quite watching my Garmin, and just run for fun! And I did. I ran til I felt like walking, and walked til I felt like running. It was awesome, and so much more than I should have been doing.

At the two mile mark, I thought, hmmm, feeling pretty good - maybe I'll not make the turn for the 5k, and continue on down the 10k path. But dang that Bobby got real loud at this point, and I thought I had better not push it. But that thought see-sawed in my head for quite awhile before deciding the 5k would be my goal for the day.

As the kilometers ticked on, I found my groove. I'm definitely built for endurance, not speed. But as the race went on, others started dropping slower and slower. I was picking off people one at a time, reeling them in and passing them. It was so much fun.

I ended up finishing the 5k as the second fastest woman! Can you believe that?

This course was actually 4.26 miles long (6.85 km). I remember doing the 10k last year, and it being a fair bit longer than 10k as well. It's put on by local people, and they run a loop around the gravel roads - half way is called 5k, and the longer loop is called 10k. I'm not going to argue. There is no cost to enter, everyone gets a t-shirt, and I walked away with a prize. Good deal all around!

And guess what? I'm able to walk without limping, and my heel feels not bad.

This is shaping up to be a great day - and I'm so happy about the run this morning.

And yes, I will go back to a run walk program like C25k to build slowly. I'm okay outside the race envirionment - no worries there.

But what a mind shift with the clock ticking down the minutes - I remember very well how hard running seemed the first time I picked it up back in 2006. Even though it's been six months since I last ran (other than two short tries to see if I could), I felt so much joy out there today. There was no way anyone could have wiped that smile off my face while I was running today.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm finally making some progress on the PF, and that I'll have a great fall season!

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