Well, well...week 2 of my half marathon training is pretty much complete and I survived! This post will probably be pretty uneventful, which in the grand scheme of things is kind of a good thing.
The heat and humidity has been really wearing on me lately, so I went out and bought a treadmill on Tuesday. Cory put it together for me and I did 2.5 miles on it that night. It was quickly obvious that I'm even slower on the treadmill (which is SAD!), and that I'm going to need a TV to keep me entertained if I want to use it often. When it is super hot or cold, I'll resort to the treadmill...but my outside runs are much more enjoyable. I like feeling like I'm going somewhere!
At any rate, I did 3 miles outside yesterday and it was a good run. I felt like I was able to squish down that voice of self-doubt that was creeping in. You see, I go back and forth on feeling like I am totally crazy for trying to train for a half right now and feeling like I can do this thing. I also really struggle with the whole run-walk thing. In my head, I know it is okay to walk some. Yet, I don't want to walk. I also don't want to injure myself though, so I'm trying to trust my body to tell me when I NEED to walk. We'll see how that all goes, but I hope that plan doesn't backfire on me somehow.
Today, a group of ladies from Moms Run This Town planned a 5 mile run at a nearby bike path. I decided to join them. My training plan only calls for a long run of 4 miles this week, but I have my first 10k in 2 weeks so I decided that it would be okay to try to step it up a notch a week early. I told myself that I could walk if I needed. I even told myself that I probably would need to walk at some point.
But guess what?!?!?
I made it and I never felt like I needed to walk! Now, I did walk for about a minute near the halfway point, but only because the people who were nice enough to slow down their pace to stay with me (who were running like 14 and 16 miles today) said they were going to walk for a minute. I was definitely the slowest person of the 7 of us there, but I did it. Slow and steady....and doing it is what counts the most! I didn't even really mind being the turtle at the back of the pack, because 2 months ago I never would have even attempted this run. I have realized that I need to get over any self-consciousness that I have about running with other people. The only person judging me (as far as I know anyways!) is ME. So yes, I'm freaking chubby and my fat probably blobs around when I run. Oh well. I really doubt that the other people running give a crap about my blobby fat anyways. And the people who DO want to concern themselves with my blobby fat are probably driving past in their cars (You know what I'm talking about - the ones who say, "Oooh fat chick running on the side of the road, that would be 500 points if I hit her!" or something similar.) and most of them probably couldn't run 5 miles if they tried! I ran 5 miles today, and it felt good.
Eventually, maybe I'll become one of those skinny runner chicks...until then I'm learning to be happy just being a runner chick, no matter what size I might be.
Woohoo!! You did it, don't bother what other's are thinking you did it!! You must be proud of what you have achieved and you were running with a great group for them to slow down and stay with you.
ReplyDeleteThinking I might be getting a dreadmill too, can't see that I will be running at 5am in the morning when it is the coolest and trying to get 2 kids ready and myself.