Ran today! Whoo hoo! Week 6, Day 1. I thought it would be easy (the longest stretch was only 8 minutes) but the damn heat nearly killed me. For some ungodly reason I thought it would be reasonable to start my run at high noon, just as it was reaching the upper seventies. Bad idea. I barely made it up the hill on my way home, and to make it worse I spent the 20 minutes immediately following my run in a humid and crowded laundromat so that I would have clean clothes to change into when I got home. Overall a good - if slow - run, and I'm happy to be back on a schedule, even if I had to backtrack a few weeks.
Because of the weather, I opted to wear shorts on my run for the first time (Give me a break, I started in December, okay?). I'm not going to lie I felt a bit self conscious at first and wished I hadn't chosen such a busy road for my run, but after about five minutes I was breathing too hard to give a damn how far my shorts were riding up or how ugly my knees looked. Besides, the busy street provided me with some good Easter site-seeing opportunities. The highlights? A little girl out in the front "yard" hunting for Easter eggs, tripping over one Easter egg, falling on her butt, getting up, and moving on without ever noticing said Easter egg. I also saw a fellow runner sporting a fine pair of fuzzy bunny ears, although I have no idea how he was keeping them on at his pace! By far the most outrageous Easter sighting of today's run, however, was the CREEPY, 6 ft. tall Easter "bunny" dancing about and taking pictures with dozens of small children ... OUTSIDE THE LIQUOR STORE?!?! No worries parents, you can pick up the pictures of your little tykes on Monday and receive a free coupon for your next liquor purchase!
Really?
This is the same liquor store that gives free "sample" shots of their liquor to curious patrons such as myself. That's one way to guarantee customer loyalty! I thought I was sweaty running in the sun, but now I feel for poor dude in the bunny suit. Someone had to draw the short straw..
Anyway, Spring break is now over and it's back to the daily grind for me. Five more weeks of the semester you say? I think I'm gonna puke.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Week 6 Rewind
We ran! It wasn't the best run of my life, but then I didn't have very high expectations so I was quite surprised that we got as far as we did.
Knowing that I have been stressed and feeling guilty about my small laps in running (Almost four weeks!!) Big_Shoes suggested we start today off with a run. The weather was beautiful, but we were both feeling a bit nervous, so we stuck with a familiar trail and decided to just see how far we could go. We ran for about 14 minutes (less than a mile and a half) before I threw in the towel. All in all, I was impressed with how far we did get, but of course it would have been nice to live in the land of no-consequences and be able to run a solid 30 minutes like before.
Even though we ran a reasonable distance (in our eyes) I was surprised at how much different the running felt! My lungs felt sore, my feet started dragging, and I couldn't seem to keep an even pace. Other than lamenting the sun beating down on my brow I did not even look up to notice the beautiful day or any of the interesting people out and about. In other words, it wasn't all that RELAXING. Which is kind of the goal. I will have to work back up to that point, where running is fun and legitimately enjoyable. But for now, I am just happy to have gotten my ass out there.
Since 14 minutes was a struggle (although in hindsight I wonder if it was more a mental struggle than anything) I think it will be best to take a few steps back and restart the C25k program at week 6. This seems like a long way back for me, but it's more important to me that I build a steady appreciation for running than to achieve any particular distance right of the bat. I hope to get my Week 6 Day 1 run in either tomorrow or Sunday, in between reading for classes and writing my Master's thesis.
This is the final stretch for me, in more ways than one, and I want to do it right!
Knowing that I have been stressed and feeling guilty about my small laps in running (Almost four weeks!!) Big_Shoes suggested we start today off with a run. The weather was beautiful, but we were both feeling a bit nervous, so we stuck with a familiar trail and decided to just see how far we could go. We ran for about 14 minutes (less than a mile and a half) before I threw in the towel. All in all, I was impressed with how far we did get, but of course it would have been nice to live in the land of no-consequences and be able to run a solid 30 minutes like before.
Even though we ran a reasonable distance (in our eyes) I was surprised at how much different the running felt! My lungs felt sore, my feet started dragging, and I couldn't seem to keep an even pace. Other than lamenting the sun beating down on my brow I did not even look up to notice the beautiful day or any of the interesting people out and about. In other words, it wasn't all that RELAXING. Which is kind of the goal. I will have to work back up to that point, where running is fun and legitimately enjoyable. But for now, I am just happy to have gotten my ass out there.
Since 14 minutes was a struggle (although in hindsight I wonder if it was more a mental struggle than anything) I think it will be best to take a few steps back and restart the C25k program at week 6. This seems like a long way back for me, but it's more important to me that I build a steady appreciation for running than to achieve any particular distance right of the bat. I hope to get my Week 6 Day 1 run in either tomorrow or Sunday, in between reading for classes and writing my Master's thesis.
This is the final stretch for me, in more ways than one, and I want to do it right!
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