Just 1 day shy of 1 month ago, I wrote this post about starting to learn how to run. I'm overjoyed to say that I am still at it! ...Even in this stupid heat! (I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the cooler weather! come on scarves and boots and sweaters... I'm waiting!)
I've been going 3-4 days a week for 40-60 minutes depending on how far I decide to go and how dark its getting outside. Its getting darker earlier and I'm such a chicken. I don't like being out when its dark... and don't even get me started on the frogs that come out when it gets dark. I almost stepped on one last night... I'm not so sure I could recover from squashing a frog. :/ I wouldn't mind if it were like 1 or 2 of them, but no... its like 30 of them all scattered along the sidewalk waiting until the last possible second to jump out of the way and make me scream. I am not a fan of this frog mess.
I run with a little timer in my hand so I can time intervals and hopefully measure progress as time goes on. In the beginning, I watched that little clock like a hawk willing it to move faster so I could move to walking again and catch my breath. Begging it to get to the 30 second mark. <--That was my first goal. run 30 seconds. walk 1 minute. repeat repeat repeat........ Last night I didn't watch it as much. Over the last 2 weeks I've been playing with testing myself... running 40 seconds, 45 seconds, then 30 seconds again. Just to push myself a little more part of the time..... In the beginning, I STRUGGLED through the last 1/2 of the 30 seconds running. Like 'God, don't let me die, please' STRUGGLE. I can easily hit the running for 30 seconds goal now and its at about the 1 minute mark where I really feel like I am pushing myself too hard. The way I feel at the 50 second mark is what I used to feel at the 15 second mark just ONE MONTH AGO. I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else... Numbers and seconds and all.... I'm trying to listen to my body and go for the long haul, huffing out of breath but not be bent over gasping for air. I don't know if this is the way to do it. I'm just learning as I go. Any regular runners have some advice as to how uncomfortable I should be?
In my last post I put some goals out in the open. One of which has been incredibly hard for me. No scale stepping until September 17th. Because I can't see any numbers/progress, its been rough. And I've been tempted 100 times (yesterday alone...) to pull out the scale and just check. But I've kept my focus and found other things to be proud of. (see above as an example) My eating has been pretty good. not perfect... but I'm finding what works is for me to focus on protein above all else to keep myself in a healthy mindset. If I eat proteins, there is not much room for yucky stuff and I stay fuller longer.
I'm looking at doing a 5K in December with a friend. I have motivation to keep improving my time and my ability to run without feeling like I'm about to die so that I will do better that day. I want my goals to keep growing and getting bigger.
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