No more daily gym updates. That was getting to be too much for me. I can't even find the time to blog twice a week and I don't want my entire blog to be about running. Seriously.
Last week (2/14 to 2/20/11) was good. And then bad. And then good again.
Roller coasters are my favorite. Especially when I'm striving for consistency.
I had good intentions of running outside last week. It was freezing a couple of days and I've been fighting some cold/flu/allergy issues, so I was just happy that the gym provided a warm place where I could run and breathe. I ran at the gym all 3 days...Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
On Monday I ran a continuous 2.5 miles. I ran at 4.7 mph, so that put me at a 12:45 minute mile. That put me at 31.1 continuous minutes of running. And my lungs rebeled. So did my heart. But I did it and now it's easier. It seems that once I run a certain distance one time that it almost (I said almost) instantly becomes easier. I've been told that it's because I was better than I thought at the beginning and I'm still learning my limits...you know, starting from scratch and all.
On Tuesday I woke up sick and missed Tuesday and Wednesday. I went back, apparently prematurely, on Thursday and could only get in a mile before I nearly collapsed. I had a coughing fit that caused the very helpful and concerned girl next to me to take out her headphones and asked if she could "get my inhaler." She was just sure I was having an asthma attack. I assured her that I do not, in fact, have asthma and I just had a really horrendous cold. I left mainly out of embarrassment. I probably could've recovered and ran another mile, but I was way off my game and just wanted to go home.
By Saturday I was feeling 100% better, so I went with the intention of running 3 miles. I took Benadryl before I went for an allergy-related issue and I'm pretty sure that that's the worst thing I could ever do. I'll just have to suffer the allergies. I began like I do everytime and at half of a mile, I was light-headed and crampy and SUPER EFFIN' PISSED because of those things. I was doubled over in pain from the chest/side cramping and I thought I was pretty close to passing out. I pushed the dreaded stop button and just stood there doubled over and close to tears. I was sooooo angry at myself.
Just as I was gathering my things to leave, one of the trainers at my gym that I see everytime I'm there noticed that I was having less than a stellar workout and said to me as he walked by, "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back in a minute. Start walking again." So I followed directions.
He came back and gave me the motivational speech of a lifetime. I offered to hire him to go with me to the Mini, but he's also running. It also helps that he has actually witnessed all of my progress since he works there. He also gave me some pointers that I'd already been given by various people about breathing and stride and such. He said I was doing things right by taking it slow and that if I just stick with it I won't fail. I was told that "you don't need to one-up yourself EVERYTIME you run...if you do that you'll get frustrated and want to quit. Try only upping mileage or speed every couple of runs." It was nice that at that very moment I had someone on my side. :)
I ended up running another 2.25 miles. Thank you, Ryan.
So, there you have it. Up. Then down. Then up again. Here's to a new week of much needed consistency.
No comments:
Post a Comment