I Hate Rest Days

I hate rest days, because I really want to run. I must remember patience.

The worse part is looking at my mileage chart on the left over there. Since Monday is the first day of the week, and also a rest day, it tells me my weekly mileage is 0. It is rubbing it in my face that I have not run yet this week.

It is almost tomorrow... Soon I can run.

Pace

So here is a graph showing my pace of each of my runs this year. Back in April I started the walk/run program C25K, and my pace was around 15 minutes per mile with walk/runs.

I slacked off and stopped running for a couple of months. When I started back up I decided to skip any formal "program" and just run. I felt that having such a regimented program was actually holding me back. I was smart about it though and knew not to do too much too soon. I do not shy away from walk breaks, but I do not schedule them into my runs. If I feel I need to walk than I walk.

As you can see, my pace is around 11-12 minutes per mile. A much better pace than when I first started. On top of that I can run for longer periods without walking than I thought I could before.

I am still a beginner, so I am not so much concerned with improving my pace yet... but looking at this graph makes me wonder...

If I ran through the entire summer... how much faster and farther would I be able to run right now?

Lessons From A Bad Run

Sorry this is so long, I hope you don't get bored.

Today was my "long" run... long for me is 2.5-3 miles, and I planned on doing 3.1 just so I could get an unofficial 5k time.

So I set the alarm for 6am. When it went off I heard it down pouring outside. I pushed snooze a time or two and when I woke the last time it sounded like it had stopped raining, but instead of getting up I turned the alarm off and went to sleep.

When I finally woke I was mad at myself for not running early in the morning. Even though it was wet out it was still a nice day to run and I should have done it first thing in the morning.

Lesson 1...
I always regret when I do not run as planned... I need to just do it, because even though it is hard to get up some mornings it is worth it. That hassle is temporary, the regret for the rest of the day sucks worse than having to get myself going.

I finally did get moving and went out for my run. As I said I planned on doing 3.1 miles but somewhere around a mile and a half my leg was hurting like hell. The pain was pretty intense and I decided to quit after 2 miles. On top of that my sock kept sliding below my shoe and my heel started burning. I reached down to fix it and saw a bit of blood. (I can actually say I ran until I bled.. lol) I took quite a few walk breaks and finished the 2 miles with a pace of 12:37. I was a little surprised to see this pace because it was only a couple seconds slower than my last long run a few weeks ago.

Lesson 2...
I am improving. Even with a bum leg and needing walk breaks my pace was as planned and could have potentially been better. Keep myself healthy and I will be better and better at running.

Finally, I am walking home after the run and a little ways ahead of me I see something moving at the edge of the road. It is a deer standing in the tall grass eating away. Cars are passing back and forth and he just stays there eating away.

I watched him for a little bit and tried to see the drivers reactions as they past. Most of them did not even notice the deer, despite being in plain view.

Lesson 3...
No matter how much you are hurting, or how fast you are going, you should always be aware. You never know when God will give you the opportunity to admire His beautiful creation. Sometimes seeing things like this also makes me realize that life is precious, and truly a gift from God.

My Story.

I can probably go on for hours about "my story" but I will make it short.

I have never ran in any organized sports and I never thought I would ever consider myself a runner. A couple of years ago I would cycle a lot in order to try to get myself in shape. I was doing well, but cold weather hit and I got lazy when it came to the bike.

I figured one day that I would go for a run. My logic was that every thing I heard about running (from runners anyway) was that it was the best kind of exercise. I also figured that it would be easier in the cold weather since I am not moving at 20 mph.

As most people do, I started too hard and too fast on my first run. I clocked a half mile from my house in the car and figured there and back would be an easy mile to run. I ran as hard as I could and did not even make it to the half mile mark. I walked and turned around and walked some more before trying to run again. I think out of the entire mile I might have ran about a third of it.

My lungs burned the rest of the day and my legs hurt for days after. I gave up.

Since then I have tried to run off and on for a while. It was not until early this year that I finally fell in love with the sport. My brother mentioned that he was going to run in the Philadelphia Marathon. I thought he was crazy because in my mind running a marathon was something that only Kenyans and elite athletes do. I did not realize that the marathon has a spirit all it's own.

After research and a re-ignited interest in running I found the C25K program and started that. I was doing good for a couple of weeks, but again I started procrastinating and slowing and gave up for a couple of months.

I got back to it in the middle of August and have been running since, with only one short break due to a small injury. Through the course of it I have fallen in love with running and would rather do that than any other sport. I look forward to running longer distances and faster times, and I am excited about collecting bibs and finisher medals.

I am improving slowly, but surely and keep getting more and more motivated.

Not Another One!

I know what you are thinking... "not another running blog about some joe blow that no one has ever heard of."

Well... yes.

I do not expect a lot of people to read this, but I am doing it for myself anyway. I like to write and keeping a running journal has been good for me, but this gives me an outlet for my writing that seems more full of purpose.. even though there is not much of a purpose here.

So read on... find out what I am about... and if you really find it interesting, you can follow my journey (both physical and spiritual) from lazy couch potato to dedicated runner.