Into Week 4 of the RW Beginner's Program
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
So, today marked Week 4/Day 3 of the beginner running program I'm doing. There's a link to it below (in my ranting post-lol) but just in case you want to check it out I've added the link above as well (just click on the title of my blog-post) :-)
Also, as I wrote in my previous (ranting) post - I did take to the open road for today's run. I noticed an immediate difference even just during my warm-up walking! Having dabbled with running in the past I knew there was a difference (at least to me) between treadmill running (TM) & pounding the pavement (PTP) but ... it's been a while.
Today I had to not only make up my run/walk but also my 30 minute walk from yesterday so as I've done before - I just tack on 15 minutes of walking before the walk/run & 15 minutes after. Although, it sucks that I'm missing days here & there & re-arranging my schedule to compensate for it .. it's actually quite nice because then I get a nice long warm-up & cool-down!
Ok, so back to how it went. The first thing I noticed was that my ankles were getting sore, then my back started getting achy. I thought to myself, no biggie - you expected this to be different (especially after 3 weeks of TM running), so I continued putting one foot in front of the other & after my nice long warm-up I proceeded to take to running.
Now, as I explained (or complained-however you want to read it-lol) in my previous post I've been struggling with keeping to my schedule. Today, per the schedule, was to be my Run 9/Walk 1-3x's. I missed Monday's Run 8/Walk so I had tossed it around in my head about whether or not to stick to the schedule or to do Monday's run. Technically, rather than jumping from a Run 6/Walk to a Run 8/Walk, I'd be jumping to a Run 9/Walk (3 more minutes running - which I did). I decided that I would push myself, yet be conscious of my body at the same time so that if I felt as though it was too much - I could cut my run cycle short by a minute & do the Run 8 instead.
I ended up pulling off the Run 9/Walk though! It was HARD - no kidding, & I ended up walking 2 minutes between runs instead of 1 & for the last cycle - I walked 3 minutes prior to the final 9 minute run.
It's funny though, because I'm so used to knowing how fast I'm going (thanks to the TM), I kept thinking to myself - how fast am I running? Am I even running? Am I just jogging? Are my feet even moving? That then progressed on to: Ok, getting a cramp so I'm definitely not just walking .... Ouch, that cramp hurts ... Be tough, you want to be a runner right? Runner's deal with pain-deal with it! Ok, breath .. keep running .... it's going away ... I can do this!! God, I must look funny to people driving by ...
Needless to say, as I said - I pulled it off & really enjoyed my 15 minute cool-down! The sense of accomplishment I feel each time is more than enough to keep my doing it. The great thing is that since I knew the mileage for the road I was on - I know that I did at least 4 miles today! The most I've done yet. Now, granted that includes walking but it shows me that I wasn't running as slow as I thought I was! It also serves as a reminder that my focus needn't be on speed but on completing my runs.
All in all - today was a great day. A HARD-ASS-run definitely, but a successful run & that is worth it every time!
Oh, two more things:
1. I'm tracking my running/walking progress so if you scroll down to the bottom of my blog, you can see what I've done so far this year. Thanks to today - I broke 30 this month! Once I complete the Beginner's Program I will only be tracking running (of course). &
2. Since I started I've been using my spreadsheet/schedule to put notes about each days running & today I looked back at my week 1 & week 2 notes. It was so neat to see how I've progressed! I had a hard time going from Run 1/Walk 2 to Run 2/Walk 1 & now (of course) it'd be a breeze to just Run 2/Walk 1! I found it to be very inspiring :-)
Now, as I explained (or complained-however you want to read it-lol) in my previous post I've been struggling with keeping to my schedule. Today, per the schedule, was to be my Run 9/Walk 1-3x's. I missed Monday's Run 8/Walk so I had tossed it around in my head about whether or not to stick to the schedule or to do Monday's run. Technically, rather than jumping from a Run 6/Walk to a Run 8/Walk, I'd be jumping to a Run 9/Walk (3 more minutes running - which I did). I decided that I would push myself, yet be conscious of my body at the same time so that if I felt as though it was too much - I could cut my run cycle short by a minute & do the Run 8 instead.
I ended up pulling off the Run 9/Walk though! It was HARD - no kidding, & I ended up walking 2 minutes between runs instead of 1 & for the last cycle - I walked 3 minutes prior to the final 9 minute run.
It's funny though, because I'm so used to knowing how fast I'm going (thanks to the TM), I kept thinking to myself - how fast am I running? Am I even running? Am I just jogging? Are my feet even moving? That then progressed on to: Ok, getting a cramp so I'm definitely not just walking .... Ouch, that cramp hurts ... Be tough, you want to be a runner right? Runner's deal with pain-deal with it! Ok, breath .. keep running .... it's going away ... I can do this!! God, I must look funny to people driving by ...
Needless to say, as I said - I pulled it off & really enjoyed my 15 minute cool-down! The sense of accomplishment I feel each time is more than enough to keep my doing it. The great thing is that since I knew the mileage for the road I was on - I know that I did at least 4 miles today! The most I've done yet. Now, granted that includes walking but it shows me that I wasn't running as slow as I thought I was! It also serves as a reminder that my focus needn't be on speed but on completing my runs.
All in all - today was a great day. A HARD-ASS-run definitely, but a successful run & that is worth it every time!
Oh, two more things:
1. I'm tracking my running/walking progress so if you scroll down to the bottom of my blog, you can see what I've done so far this year. Thanks to today - I broke 30 this month! Once I complete the Beginner's Program I will only be tracking running (of course). &
2. Since I started I've been using my spreadsheet/schedule to put notes about each days running & today I looked back at my week 1 & week 2 notes. It was so neat to see how I've progressed! I had a hard time going from Run 1/Walk 2 to Run 2/Walk 1 & now (of course) it'd be a breeze to just Run 2/Walk 1! I found it to be very inspiring :-)
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