Thursday, February 23, 2012

Day 1 Part 2

Not only is it a gorgeous day outside, but I ran further than I really expected to! I made myself a nice, country playlist to listen to and just told myself I'd run until the playlist ended. Not surprisingly, that didn't happen. But the playlist was nearly 50 minutes long, so I can't really blame myself for not running that long! I did end up doing 3.6 miles in a little under 38 minutes. I know that is slow, but hey, I'm just starting out again! I haven't done over 3 miles in a long time, so I am thrilled with 3.6. My town is incredibly hilly, and I'm still not so great with the hills all the time. I ran quite a few of them, but I did walk a little bit. I had some hip problems last semester (yes, I'm in school, so I measure things by semesters) and I could feel them bothering me again today. I have no idea what the issue is, but hopefully I'll get that fixed soon. That definitely played into my walking, but obviously a larger part of it is being out of shape. All in time! Either way, I'm thrilled and know I need to keep this up. I feel great after I run and I know it's great for me. Now if I could just get this eating healthy thing under control...

Day 1

As of right now, I can comfortably run a little over 2 miles. That is a long way from the 26.2 I'm hoping to accomplish. I've set out on journeys to start running distance many times, but I've always stopped for some reason or another. This time I am determined to hold myself accountable through this blog.

A little background on me. I come from a family of runners. My dad has done multiple marathons--he's even done Boston three times. He's pretty much a champ for your "average Joe" runner.  My sister has done a few half marathons and seems to be training for a marathon right now.  She hasn't come right out and claimed she'll be running a marathon, but not too many people run 18 miles just for kicks, right? They are both rock star runners in my eyes.

I trod along at my lowly 10 minute mile pace. I maxed out at 5 miles in the fall, and then somehow I gave up.  This running journey started my sophomore year of college, but I just wasn't willing to make the time. I revisited the journey my senior year of college, but then I got hurt and wasn't in any hurry to make it back to running.  This past summer, summer after my senior year, I was determined. When I started running I could barely run 1 mile. You can tell me that's embarrassing or whatever you want to say, but it's the truth.

I grew up dancing. I danced classical ballet, pointe, tap, and jazz my entire life. I was never amazing, but I loved doing it. I kept up with it through college and this past summer was the first summer I can remember that I haven't danced.  All of this is to explain that despite only being able to run 1 mile, I wasn't out of shape. Dancing and running are two entirely different beasts. I really struggled, and surely still do, with the monotony of running. There is very little monotony in dance. You might repeat certain moves quite a few times, but it is just not the same as running. I imagine any of you could attest to that.  That is part of what makes this whole process so frustrating to me. I'm not out of shape, I'm 23 years old, and yet I still suck at running. Big time. I told myself that I just wasn't good at it and some people just are. Then I realized that was BS. Okay yeah, I will likely never be running 6 minute miles and there is some natural inclination, but everyone has to work at it.

So here I am. Day 1 of the new journey. It is absolutely gorgeous outside today, and I have no excuse not to go do this. Off I go!