Runner's Best Friend

When my alarm started going off Saturday morning I kept snoozing, thinking it wasn't that big a deal if I didn't run in the morning before heading to the game...it was Saturday after all, the one day to sleep in right?  I then thought of how I had said on my blog I would go and told all of my family and could see them teasing me allll day about backing out so I finally drug myself out of bed and went.  As a last minute decision I decided to take my dog with me.  She's never been a good leash walker-we took her to many training classes and they told us it may just never happen, she was too stubborn.  I gave her one last chance, and she did great!  It was my first time running outside, and the hills were a surprise, as was the cold (54 degrees), but it felt like my best run and I was so proud of myself afterwards.  My person running buddy doesn't have to worry about being replaced though, Lucy (my dog) didn't appreciate my running pace.  She kept looking back at me during her slow trot and spinning in circles like "mom, when are we going to start actually running?!"  She did come home panting and took a nap though, so it must not have been too super easy for her.

"I'd rather run FAST on the beach!!"

Step 1: You Start Running-there is no Step 2

For any How I Met Your Mother fans (if you're not one you should become one) you'll appreciate the title of this post.  Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) tells another character training to run the New York City Marathon there is no need to train-you just run.  As a bet he decides to run in his place without any training to prove he can, and actually does finish.  After bragging about his accomplishment though he gets on the subway and then can't get off because his legs don't work and rides it end to end.

I keep thinking about this episode because my sister laughed at me when I said I was going to train for a 5K, she said the same thing to me.  She's a runner, thinks it's nothing to run 5-6 miles a day.  I've found their line of thinking to be very, very far from the truth...

The 1/2 mile is getting easier, and my plan (not sure I'll go through with it) is to get in a 3rd run this week tomorrow morning before heading to Chapel Hill for the UNC game.  I also worked out with a real workout person yesterday and have been super sore today!

Tired Tootsies

This past weekend my family (minus my brother) went to DC for a long weekend, very jam-packed full of sightseeing.  We walked soooo much, and dumb me wore shoes that were a little too big.  I thought to fix it I'd just tie them really tight-bad idea.  They finally got to hurting so bad I took them off on the side of the road to find them purple, with a couple of nickel size blisters as well as a bruise from the laces cutting into my feet.  I sucked it up though because I wanted to see the city, and now my ankles and chins hurt as well from walking funny to try to avoid stepping on blisters.  I wish I had some sort of pedometer or something to tell me how much we walked, but to give you an idea one of the first things we did was walk from our hotel to the White House (just a few blocks away), then the Lincoln Memorial and head from there across the bridge that my dad convinced us wasn't that long (lie) to Arlington National Cemetery where we did a lot of walking around (it's huuuge).  Curious at this point (halfway into day 1 of 3) to see how far we walked we googled the distance from our hotel to Arlington... 5 miles.

Thanks to my buddy system I did suck it up, take some Advil, put on some band-aids and head to the gym where I actually completed my 1/2 mile, plus walked some and did weights.  I told her ahead of time I might quit early and she could just lap me but I didn't have it in myself to stop while she kept going, and it felt good to finish.  I highly recommend having a running buddy!

Buddy System

I've decided having someone to hold me accountable is a good strategy and lucky for me I have a friend who is at about the same level as me so we're planning to run 2-3 times a week together.  She's also registered for the same 5K.  Tonight was our first run and it really helped to have someone there with me.  She claimed to be at my level but actually ran much faster than I do when I'm alone so I had to push myself to keep up with her.  It felt good though, and when I got to the point that I wanted to stop early I didn't want to look dumb so I kept going and it felt good to finish.  We also did some weights afterwards to try to tone up to help our running.  I think this is going to work out well.  I can't say I enjoy running though, I still don't see the appeal....

Day 1-October 18, 2010

For a class assignment I was asked to pick a culture or subculture I am not a part of and learn about it.  I've always been fascinated by people who actually enjoy running... I really really do not.  To really give it a shot I've decided to start running regularly and have even entered a 5K in San Francisco in February so I can officially say I'm "in training", which makes me excited.

Monday I started my training by doing a few laps around the track walking, then running 1/2 mile, which was difficult if that gives you an idea of exactly how out of shape I am...  I did follow it up with 10 minutes on an elliptical machine that I realized at the end I accidentally had set to level 15 so that was much harder than expected.  I also did some weights to build muscle because I assume that will help.

We'll see how the rest of this training goes...