Wednesday Wisdom: Gasp for It!

Tags

challenge, Endorphin, exercise, Feeling, Motivation, running, Wednesday Wisdom

Yesterday, I ran for the first time since 2003. Yes, you read that right. Keep in mind, I’ve been struggling with jogging, with working my way up to running, with feeling like I’d never run again. I didn’t know what I was missing, what part of the joy of running was escaping me, but I knew something wasn’t right. Ever since I started this journey to finding my fit passion, I knew running used to be it, but I couldn’t remember why; now I do.

I finally got to re-experience something. Not just runner’s high. I didn’t get to feel light legs. I didn’t have an “easy” run. But what I did get to experience, for a few seconds, is that moment when you feel like you’ve outpaced your skin you are moving so fast, yet in your head, there’s complete stillness. It was a moment where my form naturally fell into place. I was an economy of motion. I gradually increased my speed, like a car getting back up to speed after stopping at a red light. Holy crap; I’m running! I’m really all out running. Am I bouncing? Did I even touch the ground the last five feet? This is awesome!

Of course, all those thoughts burst the bubble, and I was literally reaching for the mile marker by the end of it. I doubled over the minute I stopped running (after I stopped the iPod; let’s not get crazy). Holding my thighs didn’t help, so I held a hip. Still no. Oh no, I’m going to hurl air!  Why did I come running right after Smokey Bones? I opened the car and lay across the back seat, feeling like maybe I’d popped a lung. My throat burned and my chest was sore. My abs were cursing me out like a fisherman’s wife, and what my legs/feet were saying isn’t printable. After a minute or two, though, that receded. The feeling of accomplishment still hasn’t, though.

I realized that I’ve been holding back all of this time, afraid to be gasping for breath, afraid to push my body, afraid to stop concentrating so hard on my form and allow my body to find its own rhythm. I didn’t think I had it in me to do what runners do naturally.

Have you been holding back, not giving something your best because you’re afraid of failure? Are you only putting a safe amount of effort into your dreams, just plugging along at a sedate pace, feeling like something is missing from doing what you love, yet not knowing what it could be? Maybe it’s time to really push it. Show yourself the wall and start climbing even before you fully form the thought. Leave it all on the course/court/page. You may be wheezing and gasping by the end, but you’ll recover. You won’t even remember that part. What you’ll remember is how great it felt to fly full tilt towards reclaiming a bit of your passion.

I’m not suggesting, I’m telling you: get that book done. Get your workout clothes on and get your butt out of the house. Press the edges of your comfort zone. If 500 words a day is comfortable, do 550, then 600, then 650. If 20 minutes on the elliptical is comfortable, do 22 (handy ten percent rule). If you can comfortably run a mile, run 1.1, or run faster. If you’re work is “finished,” send it out to be judged: run a race, send out a query, submit to a magazine, apply for grad school, test your fluency with a native speaker. The only way to improve is to challenge yourself, and the only way to measure your improvement is to test it. More important than that, even if you wind up sore and out of breath, you’ll feel better than you’ve felt in a long time.

At least, that’s my two cents. Leave yours in the comment section.

XOXO

2blu2btru

Related articles

• “I Place a High Value on These Black Market Pearls of Wisdom.” (happiness-project.com)
• Running Against the Odds (handsonjacksonvilleblog.wordpress.com)
• Feel the burn to feel good, say scientists (telegraph.co.uk)
• runner’s high (susanpi.com)
• c.a.j: ‘A Runner’s High’: A Q&A with the director (lovingtherun.com)

From Miles to Minutes

Tags

Couch to 5K, hurt, injury, lessons, life, love, Mile, Minutes, pain, running

I started using the Couch to 5K Lite (aka free) app yesterday. I wanted to start doing Couch to 5K for my July 4th proposed “after” run (it’s way to late for “before”), and since I have a smartphone now that allows me to download apps like this, I figured it was a good idea to start. Carpe diem. All of that jazz.

This app SUCKED (no, this is not a review. There’s a point, I promise)! Well, at least it did for me. I was also using Pandora, which worked out better than I thought. The problem is, I couldn’t change a song in Pandora, open my phone to re-engage the screen and see my time, or breathe without resetting the darn Day 1 app. In fact, according to my app, I still haven’t completed day 1, even though I did it over 1 1/2 times! But this isn’t about that.

When I started out trying to get back into running, I was concerned with mileage. I picked my route based on the fact it’s a mile loop. I concentrated on doing a certain number of miles each time. I felt like if I didn’t reach that amount of miles, I had failed. I was moving too fast (literally) to be able to sustain that type of pace for very long. I hurt in all the wrong ways. I didn’t have the right equipment. I didn’t know what would work. I just laced up shoes and ran…and got hurt.

Has anyone’s love life, or life in general, ever been like that? You are going to embark on this new love or new job or whatever, and you’re so excited you can’t think straight, let alone properly prepare yourself. You don’t have a plan and you don’t know what you’re doing. You start out going too far too fast, and you just end up injured, bruised and sore. You weren’t prepared and were overly optimistic of what you could do, and it bit you in the butt.

The thing is, though, since my earliest experiences, I’ve learned a lot. I could have decided that I was never going to run again–it just didn’t seem to suit me; I wasn’t made for it–but instead I took a step back and did what I should have done the first time: I gathered information and made a plan. I learned about running form. I got fitted for shoes. I learned a bit about pace. I incorporated my knowledge on how to breathe. Then I found a training plan.

What I discovered yesterday is that I’m a lot stronger than I think. It’s easy to keep going with Mr. Perfect pushing prodding browbeating encouraging me to keep going. However, motivating myself to keep going is always difficult when it comes to exercise. With the couch to 5K app, I didn’t let myself talk myself into taking it easy or not pushing. When the app said run, I ran. Period. And guess what? I had more in the tank than I thought.

Just because you go in full throttle and get hurt doesn’t mean that you aren’t ever meant to accomplish something–whether it be publishing a novel, finding love, or running. Sometimes you have to pull back and take your time in the beginning. Learn from your mistakes. Gather information and come up with a plan that works for you. And stop being cheap and buy the app that lets you change songs, etc. while it runs in the background so you don’t have to keep starting over (oh, was that just for me?). That’s my two cents, anyway; feel free to leave yours in the comment section.

P.S. How do I feel about going from minutes to miles? It’s an adjustment. I can still tell on the trail how far I’ve gone by the 1/2 mile, so I can still stalk my mileage, but I have the added benefit of knowing when to run, how often to run in a workout, and how many minutes of a mile were ran, total. It also keeps me from increasing my mileage by too much too soon. Besides, the mileage is so small in the beginning, it’s not important (I’m trying to convince myself). I have to thank one of the bloggers I follow ( I think it was Heidi at Runaroundaroo) who had the inspirational quote I used the most while in my running segments yesterday (I can do anything for 1 minute. I can do anything for half an hour). It was really helpful. I’d also like to think Britney Spears for all of her help, courtesy of Pandora. 😀 Anyone know how to prevent tight calves?

Related Articles

• Couch to 5K for iPhone Gets You Into Marathon Shape (appscout.com)
• Couch to 5K: Day 1 (enteratownrisk.wordpress.com)
• How to Start Running: Couch to 5K (fitsugar.com)
• I don’t even get past the second song on my playlist… (ask.metafilter.com)

Go See The Doctor

Tags

5K, health, Operation Give Back, pain, Physician, PR, race, running, time

I went to the doctor today for aggravating hip pain. I still haven’t found a doctor in the area, so I went to Centra Care. I’m $75 lighter (:-(), but I have a diagnoses: swollen and inflamed lymph nodes in my groin (yeah…not excited about that). The bad news: sitting upright in a chair HURTS! This is not good for the next few days of work. I want to scream when I’ve been sitting for more than a few minutes, and the pain never eases. The doctor suggested warm compresses and ibuprofen for the pain. The good news: it’s not a running injury. I’m not a hopeless wanna be after all (at least on the injury front). In fact, running/walking are among the few ways to bend my hip that don’t hurt.

I bought new shoes on Friday as planned, and they are great. Avia something or others from Kohl’s. I paid $40 for them, and they are my new best friends. I went jogging in Jay Blanchard park, then went jogging on the Seminole Wekiva Trail, both with Mr. Perfect. No foot pain and quicker recovery time. We kept a conversational pace and chatted the whole way. I felt really good about it.

In fact, I felt so good about it, I convinced Mr. P to do a 5K with me on May 14th. It’s two weeks from Saturday right down the street from him. We get a free tech t-shirt. It will be my first timed race/run. I’m very excited! It’s for Operation Give Back, and will benefit wounded soldiers. Both Mr. P. and I have family members who have served in the military, which makes this not only a fun race for us in a familiar area for me, but one benefiting a cause we can both feel good about supporting. I’ve walked the heart of campus so much I still have it memorized, which goes a long way to easing my fears of surprise hills.

We won’t be able to train much in just two weeks, but I know we can complete the distance. The only thing now is to work on my endurance so I can run more of the distance and walk less. Oh, and also not to be too competitive and start out too fast and pull something or have an asthma attack. And to buy a cute outfit that matches my new shoes. But that’s it.

Seriously, this is going to be a nice “before” race for me, to see where I am at this the beginning of my return to running journey, a good way to gauge if I like this running thing. Best of all, no matter what I run, it’s still a PR. Hooray! I’m going to try my best anyway.

After this one, if I don’t die and still want to continue, there’s a 5K on or near the fourth of July. If nothing else, I’ll be able to make room for some BBQ!

What events are you planning on racing? What fitness goals are you working on in the upcoming weeks? Am I crazy for thinking of running a race in FL in July? What are some good beginner tips/things I can do to improve quickly and not die?

P.S. Reading some of these related article links, this swollen lymph nodes thing could be WAY worse. Praise God for sparing me some of those symptoms!

Related Articles

• A Pain in the Hip. Literally. (katcanblog.wordpress.com)
• Fitness Trainer (letsloseweighttogetherladies.wordpress.com)
• What Are the Causes of Swollen Lymph Nodes in the Armpit? (brighthub.com)
• Are swollen lymph nodes in one’s groin normal? (zocdoc.com)