Sunday, October 16, 2011

Time To Start Training


I love to run.  And I love reaching new distances.  I especially love when I hit those new distances without realizing it.  If you remember a few months back when I was doing the Nike+ Cardio Challenge and suddenly, without realizing, ran 6.5 miles.  That was a great moment for me.  It was a new distance record and just an overall amazing run that came with ease.
Ever since that day, I’ve been wanting to hit 6.5 miles again.  I’d even be happy with a 5 miler.  4 has happened but the general 2.5 - 3.5 mile runs have remained.  They are great runs and I’m okay with them being my “normal” distance but I want to push myself and create a forward momentum.
There’s a part of me that would love to some day run a 1/2 or full marathon.  I have bad knees and asthma so I’m not holding my breath that that day will come but a girl can dream, can’t she?  And meanwhile, I can at least keep stretching my boundaries and putting my body to the test.  I’m strong, remember?
Well a couple weeks back, a friend of mine posted on Facebook that she wanted to run the Santa Monica-Venice Christmas Run 2011 on December 10th and was looking for people to join her.  I’ve never run a race, despite the number of times I’ve said I wanted to, I haven’t.  She wants to run the 10k and it’s a perfect opportunity for me to dive right in to my first race with a friend.  So I figured, why not?
While the initial 6.5 mile run came with ease, I know better than to just wake up on December 10th and hope my body feels like running a 10k.  Instead, I decided to find a training program to help me work into this distance safely (for my joints and lungs).  I decided on Hal Higdon’s 10K Novice Training Program.  I used his program (I think) when I first started running a few years ago and it was the perfect ease.  While I’m sure I will break away from this program a bit to actually fit into my schedule and exercise cravings (like yoga!), I’m most concerned about the run schedule.  It’s a great way to ease into the distance without feeling like you’re moving at a snail’s pace.
With that, today was my first day starting the program (I’m not following the days of the week he has but changed them to work with my race day).  
As always, I welcome you to join me!



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