Getting started

This week was the kick off of my running training program and so far, I am surprisingly in love with it.  Not to say that it's easy--it's not--but I'm loving the effort, loving that I am pushing myself, loving that I am not quitting!

Here's your visual for this week:  Sweaty, overweight, red-faced woman huffing and puffing down the street with a dorky grin plastered on her face.

Each Sunday our trainer emails us the schedule.  Tuesday and Thursday are group training runs; Saturday we have monthly group seminars and weekly long runs with the group; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we cross train on our own; and Sunday is rest day.  I'll post my weekly schedule along with brief notes on the "Running" tab here.

I really had to psych myself up just to show up for the first group training on Tuesday.  I get super stressed in new situations and in groups I tend to be the one standing against the wall.  Plus I had no idea where to meet, what to bring, if I was wearing the right thing...  Which I definitely wasn't, because did I mention the massive thunderstorm that was currently under way?

But Coach said rain or shine, so there I was along with about two dozen other women getting completely drenched.  (There are quite a few men in the group too, but most only come to the Saturday meetings.)

First thing, Coach says, "We've got to get you out of cotton."

I know, I know...  But the running clothes I ordered hadn't arrived yet so I looked like a drowned rat before we even started.

For the run I was paired up with the other run/walkers and a mentor for our intervals: three minutes running at a "conversational" pace alternating with two minutes walking.  Here's the thing about that:  I do not have a conversational pace.  I have a "gasping for air" pace.  Also a "when the hell is this effing interval going to end already" pace, along with a "please let me be struck by the next bolt of lightning" pace.  So it was a good thing that our mentor was chatty.

Nevertheless, I kept going.  See how handy a competitive streak can be?  There was no way I was going to be the first to cry uncle.  But by the end I felt liberated.  Well, mostly exhausted and completely drenched, but liberated too.  For so many years I have been holding on to the belief that I CAN'T run.  I guess I'll have to rethink that...

The next two meetings I switched to a 4/1 run/walk pace.  On Thursday my eyes were practically glued to my stopwatch on each interval and I had to mentally coach myself the whole way (just to the next tree, just to the stop sign, just twenty more seconds...).  But on Saturday my buddy was doing the timing and I really didn't think about how long I was running.  I didn't have that "please let this interval end now" desperation that I did on the previous runs. 

Plus we got to run on the trails and my buddy was pretty cool--she's actually completed triathlons!--so it was a fun day.

So bring it on, Week 2.  I can't wait to see what my body can do this week!