Report on Running

Those are runnin' legs!

So I blogged in this post about my desire to become a runner and I just wanted to report back to tell you how I am doing.  

The first two days that I went running I had no clue how far I was going.  I just wanted to start running, so that's what I did.  Before going to bed on day two, I talked to Doug about my running and told him I wished I knew how far I was going.  He told me that there was a free app that I could download on my phone that would use GPS to calculate the distance of my run.  REALLY???  So before I went to bed, I found and downloaded the app.

The next morning, I was very excited to start my run.  My biggest worry was that I was only running like a half a mile because I really had no clue how far I had really been going.  So I ran the same route as I had the two previous days and checked the app for the distance. I had been running 1.8 miles a day!!!  So, I went ahead and did 0.2 more miles so I could make it an even two miles.  That was really good news to me because I honestly thought I had running been running maybe a mile.

After I finished my run that day, I saw that it had taken me 26 minutes to go the two miles.  I hadn't even thought about timing myself!?  So the next day I wanted to see how long it was taking me to run just one mile of my run.  I found out that it was taking me a little over 12 minutes to do the first mile of my run.  Each day I ran, I pushed myself just a little harder to see if I could get a faster time.  My fastest mile so far has been 8 minutes 45 seconds, but most days I'm between nine and a half to ten minutes.

As I run, I give myself short term goals and landmarks.  When I start getting tired, I look for a landmark in the distance. (a tree, a fire hydrant, a car, etc...)  I push myself to get to that landmark and then I try to go another ten paces or so if I can.

It turns out that my estimate of being able to run for "only two minutes at a time" in my last post would have actually been good.  I didn't realize until I was actually timing myself that in reality I was probably running in bursts that lasted maybe a minute and half.  Now two weeks later, I can run for a little over two straight minutes.

I took this picture with my phone during one of my runs.

I don't listen to music when I run.  Not yet, at least.  I'm thinking about getting a shuffle or something, but I'm feeling broke because I'll be spending all of my personal savings on finishing the basement.  So right now I'm just enjoying listening to the sounds of nature around me.   My housing development in the middle of the country and we are surrounded on three sides by farmland.  I run early usually around 5:30am because that's right after Doug leaves for work.  The crows are usually cawing and a few birds are singing.  The roosters crow every morning when the sun comes up and there's usually fog in the fields.  One morning I was pushing myself to finish my mile at a faster time and I wasn't watching where I was running.  I almost ran into a herd of deer!  It really scared me because there were suddenly a bunch of them running all around me.

So I've been keeping track of my running as a form of accountability to myself.  I usually run two miles a day.  I ran four miles on the 6th because I was trying to reach a 20 mile goal.   Then, I went running with a friend on the 8th after my morning run to try to push myself and see how I was doing in comparison.  My friend runs two miles, but does more prolonged running stints than I do.

This is my running calendar so far.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
May 26	27	28 1.8 miles	29 1.8 miles	30 2 miles	July 1 2 miles	2 2 miles
3 2 miles	4  2 miles	5 2 miles	6 4 miles	7 2 miles	8 4 miles	9 2 miles
10 1.5 miles (walking)	11 2 miles	12	13	14	15	16

The biggest problem I've been running into lately is that I'm SO STINKING SORE!  For the first six days, I had been running like I felt came naturally to me, but my shins had been bothering me.  A friend of mine at church that is a runner told me since I had just started running that I should train myself to run the correct way.  I researched it a little and I've been running more on my toes than on my heels. (if that makes sense)  I think it's called the POSE method or something and its supposed to help reduce injury.  When I started that I was actually feeling A LOT better after running, but my calves were a sore instead of my shins.  I'm pretty positive I'm not doing it the right way because I am seriously the least coordinated person in the world, but I AM trying.

I didn't want to lose any momentum, so I've been forcing myself to go out EVERY DAY.  I'm worried that if I take a break one day that I won't start up again.  I keep on saying that I'll run through the pain and wait for my body to catch up with me.  Yesterday (Sunday), I was feeling particularly sore, so I asked Doug to go on a walk with me instead.  Today when I ran, my pace was a lot slower, but I actually started to feel better as my run progressed and I finished in 10 minutes.

I'm sore, but I still feel energized by my run, so that's a good thing.  I just hope this achy stuff dies down a little so I can feel good again.

On a side note: Happy 27th birthday 7/11 to my main man, my dearest hubby, my one and only DOUG!  :)