Running

My brother-in-law, Brent inspired me to write this post. He's a crazy runner (you can click on this great big long link to check out his blog and send him some cheers for his insane 100 mile race this weekend).

I have always hated running. In school, on the days when we would have to run the mile for the fitness challenge I would try to fake sick (I faked sick a lot in school, but that is a whole different post). But the teacher would just make me run it on a different day - darn it all. The cut off was 12 minutes. You HAD to run the mile in under 12 minutes, otherwise you'd have to try again on a different day. Ugh. I have always had a hard time breathing when I run, and usually feel like I'm dying by the end of the mile. I would sometimes make it in somewhere in the 11-minute range, but usually I went over the 12 minutes and had to try over again a different day. It's not like I was totally out of shape, either. We would swim an entire mile all at once when I was on the swim team, and I even won a trophy for being one of the swimmers who did 8,000 yards one day (in a 3 hour practice). It was something with running.

Last summer I began running outside in hopes of running a 5k at some point. I ran for about 3-4 months, but my shins hurt almost constantly. I joined a fitness club in September, and have been faithful about working out there ever since. I changed my routine to work out on an elliptical and do weight-lifting, and did not experience anymore pain in my shins.

Last week I decided that I wanted to try again to run a 5k this year. I set my sights on one in September - Nickle Dickel Days in Waconia. On July4th, there is a 5k walk in my hometown that I will do with my mom to get a feel for how long the 5k route is, and what a race route looks like. So I started running again last week, and I'm going to use the blog to write down exactly what I'm doing for training.

Thursday - Got Yoga Booty* Ballet DVD from Nik. Did the entire beginner session and thought my legs were going to fall off when I went down the stairs later that night.

Friday - (Treadmill) Warmed up with a 5 minute walk. Ran 1 mile in 12 minutes. Walked 8 minutes at a brisk pace, with alternating inclines. Cool down walk for 5 minutes. Did the leg circuit at the gym. It felt soooo good!

Saturday - No running, but did YBB again, which kicked my patootie (again).

Sunday - (Treadmill) Warmed up with a 5 minute walk. Ran a total of 1 mile, but alternated running at a 10-minute mile pace for 2.5 minutes, then walking for 1 minute. Walked 6 minutes at a brisk pace, with alternating inclines. Cool down walk for 5 minutes. Worked the arm circuit at the gym.

Monday - (Treadmill) Warmed up with a 5 minute walk. Ran for 5 minutes at a 10-minute mile pace. Then alernated walking and running the 10-minute mile pace at 2.5 minutes each. Brisk walk on alternating inclines for 8 minutes. Cool down walk for 5 minutes. Did the leg circuit at the gym. I was wheezing by the last running set - the 10-minute mile is so hard for me! My goal is to be able to run a 10-minute mile (all at once) by June 15th. Okay, maybe June 30th.

I'm feeling pain in my shins today. Darn it all. I don't know what to do about that. Last year I tried icing my shins after my runs, but it never seemed to make much of a difference. Do I work through the pain? Or rest on it for a while? Today is one of my rest days, so I'll just walk tonight anyway.