Day 20 of Training

Over the last couple of weeks a few things happened. I finally got to the point where I could finally start running for little bits at a time. Then... I hurt my knee. I think that it got overdone because I was trying to increase my distance and my speed all at once. I made a visit to my chiropractor and he said that the arch in my foot had fallen and that was making me step weird. He fixed it. I also went back to Striders and got different supports for my shoes.

It's been frustrating, I don't like it when I feel like I'm not making progress. I've been trying to heal the knee so I decided to keep the distance but slow things down to a walk. The first few days were a speedy walk and then after a few days and after my knee was feeling a little better I decided to walk as fast as I could without jogging. I've done that until today.

I found out that if I drink 1 cup of V8 before I run and 1 after I run I don't get nauseated. Since I started doing that I haven't felt the nausea come on at all. I'm glad I figured that out! What a relief!

I decided to take a different route over the last few days. They've just finished the "Rail Trail" by my house and it's awesome! The trail was the old west tracks that stopped being used sometime in the 1980's. The rails had all been taken out a while ago and they have paved over it to make this really nice walking area. The trail goes from West Bountiful to Roy. (23.69 miles) It makes a great path for running because it's so level. Streets are always slanted off to the sides which makes it harder on my body to run on. From my house and back again I'm doing just over 3 miles a day.


So, today was finally the day that I was adding spurts of running again. I'm recovering from a cold but that's not stopping me and I feel confident that it's time to start moving ahead with running. My goal was to run 5 minutes then walk 5 minutes. I head slightly up hill toward the rail trail. I have my kitchen timer in my hand and it's time to start my five minutes of running. I push the button and start going. My body is working hard and I start to feel like I'm not getting enough air. There comes a point when I think that I might die so I decide to forget about the timer and walk again. I look at the timer and only 1 minute had passed. 1 minute? Yikes! Well... I tell myself that it is slightly uphill and that I am recovering from a cold so maybe... that's why I couldn't breathe? I decide to wait 5 minutes out and go again. This time I should be on the rail trail so it should all be pretty flat, easier.

There's nobody on the rail trail right now and that makes me feel better that I have no witnessing neighbors for my sorry attempts at running. My 5 minutes of walking is up and I run... no... I jog...(I decided to take it easier). My lungs start burning again, I feel like I need to gasp for air. I stop and walk. I look at the timer and only 1 minute 30 seconds had passed! Whatever!

I walk for 5 more minutes and people have come from the other direction and are walking toward me. I hit a busy road and it's my place to turn around and head back. My timer goes off... time for me to run. I start going, I'm coming up quick to the people in front of me. They're walking pretty fast. I move over to the left to pass, I pass!! OK... This might seem like a silly thing to some people but I was pretty excited about that. I passed 3 people on the trail! To me that's pretty exciting! I've never done that before, well... except in a car! Not with walking or running or anything like that. It felt great! (Although one of them was probably just doing their warm up.) The fire starts again in my lungs and I slow down to a walk. I take a peek behind me and they're pretty far back there! I look at the time and again... 1 1/2 minutes. 5 minutes just wasn't happening today.

That's my goal. I'm not thinking about the marathon in May. I have lots of time for that. I'm not thinking about how according to my "training schedule" I should be running 30 minutes at a time right now. My goal for right now is to run 5 minutes without feeling like I might need an oxygen mask after and to be able to repeat that 4 times during my morning walk. I'm not setting up a time frame that I need to finish it by... I'm just going to work hard to reach my goal. I feel pretty good about what I did today.