Sunday Runday

Muwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I win :) 

My mind has officially taken control over my body and the mental block between knowing I can run a mile and actually RUNNING the mile has officially been broken :D My official feeling? Just look to the left ! And for the record- I know the guy in the background and the hand gesture is the NCSU Wolfpack sign, just with the mouth pointing at me, but yeah, this was a couple beers in (hooray for Big Boss ).

Anyway, my success came with the insight of both KR and KB. KB reminded me that it was just a matter of lung strength and mental toughness to really go the distance. KR agreed and said I should just go to a place where I had no landmarks, no way to tell time or distance, and just go. They both said I should just run until it hurt and I needed to stop, and see where I was.

While running lots of errands yesterday, I took a shortcut through an unfinished housing development and realized the plentiful sidewalks and even more plentiful asphalt with 0 houses would be perfect to just go and go. Hooray for housing boom and busts? There weren't lots of people or traffic, but man, the houses were beautifully landscaped! I will definitely be going back there, taking my camera, and hopefully just running freeeee! 

But yes, I just went listened to some good tunes with my iPod secure, keys secure, and a GPS tracker on my phone in my pocket. I wore black shorts and a black jacket, so I was uncomfortable fast, but blamed it on the black in the 1pm sun. I wandered around, running away from random bums (just one), towards things that looked interesting and gave me the chance to be on asphalt, not concrete sidewalks, and didn't look at my distance until .94 miles. I took my first walking break after a long hill at 1.21 miles, walked for only 2 houses worth of land, then wandered back. I could've gone longer, but once I saw my car, it was hard to turn away, what can I say? I sprinted (on Summer Music Ln, hee hee) to my car, but it didn't click the way my sprinting usually does. 

OH! The other things I tried were improving my form. From KB, I concentrated on keeping my hands lower, around my hips, not above my belly button. She'd talked about working on my breathing, too, but KR really suggested I try breathing through my nose. It definitely slowed me down, but I felt a million times less exhausted. 

Phew. That's a lot :) Off to get clean and keep being productive this Sunday! Lucy has been quiet... TOO quiet! Teaching the roomie to make yummy bread this afternoon :D

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

PS- GO BEARS! Stupid Panthers, making me miss out on da bears!

Rain Delay

24 hours ago, I thought I'd be working right now, having just done the 2nd workout on the Couch to 5k plan. When I got to the gym, I finally understood what my running friends mean when they complain about "tightness in the hip" and ew. Just getting started was the hugest step, I realized, so I started walking, started zoning out to SportsCenter and the first 10 minutes breezed by. To push myself, I kept amping up the speed on the treadmill and what had been a standard run speed Sunday was close to my fastest walking but it all felt good. The creaky joints wore down around the time ESPN dedicated itself to baseball and bleeeggghhh! It was all in my head, so I had to keep chugging along. The end push was at 11:00 pace.

While watching Monday Night Football (GO BEARS!)I'd told my friends KB and Mr. Clean that I was trying to run, you know, get myself some encouragement, advice, and potential running partners, so KB called yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to go running with her for this morning. First of all- what am I supposed to do on the 4 days not on the plan each week? Yoga? Bike? Or is it allowed to keep doing runs of some random pace/length/time those days? Anyway, KB and I were supposed to go running this morning at a county park but its raining soooo raincheck. Literally. Back to my original plan from 24 hours ago, and still feeling good :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd