Tuesday 12 May 2015

First Run




So there I am. Pre-run. Obviously, cause I'm actually smiling. Almost looking smug, like yeah, running is going to be awesome! Silly past me. Fast forward to now and I just got back from my first 2 mile "easy" run, as prescribed by my plan. Long story short: it was unpleasant. Painful, even. Made me question this whole idea of mine that running is something I could do. 

Long story a bit longer: 

I left for my run, all kitted out in my new motivating running leggings. I had my mp3 dangling from my neck and neatly tucked into my bra (more on that later) and my man's ancient casio watch on my wrist. I didn't have space for my phone anywhere and have no fancy GPS pacing watch so I just set off and hoped for the best. As I realised half way through the run, I obviously set off waaayyy too fast. Way too fast. Add to that the fact that, unbeknown to me (I should have known, really), most of my route was uphill. Oh and in a final karmic twist, no matter what direction I ran in, the wind was constantly against me. Are you feeling the unpleasant? Cause I definitely was. 

I set off telling myself it's only two miles, you can run that without stopping, that should totally be achievable. Boy, did I underestimate how unfit I am! One minute into the run, halfway up my first uphill, I decided that running all the way was not going to be an option. At all. In any way, shape or form. So, I adopted an approach I've heard many people have had success with. The run/walk. You alternate a certain amount of running time/distance with a smaller amount of walking time/distance. Most people I have read who do this seem to manage 4 or 5 minutes running for 1 minute's walking. I went for 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking. It worked quite well, by which I mean it stopped me feeling like my lungs were going to pop out of my mouth. 

In the end I managed to get home in 19 minutes, 11 seconds (and 81 milliseconds) and realised that I'd forgotten to take the long way back past my house which was part of my route, which meant that I actually only ran 1.7 miles, instead of 2 miles. Still, that means (according to my running app thingy on my phone) that overall I ran at 5.6 mph. Definitely faster than I thought I would do. 

Reading back over this post as I write it definitely seems like the whole thing was deeply unpleasant, and honestly, as I neared home at the end of the run I felt like I never wanted to do this again - so much for runner's high! But now that I'm home, out of my icky clothes, have done some stretching and had some water and a banana I can truthfully say that it wasn't as unpleasant as it felt at the time and I am actually looking forward to my next run this Friday. Although, I will definitely be amending my route to include fewer hills, at least until my legs and lungs have gotten used to the idea that running is a thing that is happening now. 


Post run looking less fresh

1 comment:

  1. Way to go Ash! Your writing is entertaining and moves along at a nice pace(pun intended).You didn't get the jogging bug from me..I only run if I'm being chased!

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