Saturday, January 16, 2010

to run...or not to run?

Well, I ran nearly my whole mission cause I needed some form of exercise. I came home and quit running for about a year. Then last May I decided to train for a 5k. I did an 8 week training for that race. I ran in the Provo 4th of July Freedom Fest and it was super fun. My dad came and watched me run. I finished in about 33 minutes. Then I stopped running.

Fast forward to January 16, 2010. During the past 6 months, I've thought a lot about running. I knew I wanted to start running again nearly that whole time. I just lacked the motivation. One thing that really helped was my faithful electronic visiting teacher of running: Active.com. It kept sending me newsletters to my email every month and I would occasionally skim through the titles of articles. I dont know how this particular newsletter hit a motivational nerve for me. I really wanted to start after the holidays, but not like everyone else. So I staggered myself a little. We're two weeks into January and the super-unmotivated people are probably quitting their running by now.

So, I went for a run this morning. It was a brisk, oh, 21 degrees outside. Not the most ideal temperature for starting up running again. My lungs are weak enough as it is; compound that with the cold air and you've got trouble. After .5 miles, I was ready to be done but I kept going. If there is one thing I do know, it's that beginning runners tend to run too fast. So I kept my speed down and just focused on distance. I completed my mile in 10:47 minutes. Not terrible. I dont think I ever got down to a 10 minute mile when I was training last year. But boy could I feel the difference in my lungs.

I came home with muscle cramps and had to remind myself of how to prevent those. Ah, the joys of starting up running again. Luckily my real training doesn't start for two more weeks, so I have the next two weeks just to get in shape enough for my training. Haha as funny as that sounds.

I have a lofty goal for the end of my 12 week training (starting in two weeks) and that goal is to run a half marathon. That will be the first weekend in May. Here in Provo. And then I'm excited to plan on running in the Freedom 5k again. Or maybe I'll do the 10k. Thats a thought.

Running to be continued Monday.

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