Running Towards a Goal

Let me be clear, I am NOT a fan of running. So ask me why I’m going to run my first 5k in November?

Go ahead…ask!

Well, I’m going to run a 5k because I can. Plain and simple. Actually, it’s not really all about the race. This race is a symbol, if you will. I have another goal in mind and I’m conditioning myself and training myself over the next few months so I can reach it. And since running has been known to be a thorn in my side and something I never thought I could do with success, I’m using this race to prove to myself that

I.CAN.DO.ANYTHING!

I’ve been online and read a few beginner running plans and have pretty much taken what they said and modified it a little. My goal is to run the entire race in November and not walk. But if I should walk, the goal is to finish in less than an hour. I know I should just choose one, but in life, sometimes you have to switch gears a bit to reach the ultimate goal.

Right.

So this morning, The Kirk texts me at 5:15AM asking are we running today. My first thought was NO. You see, I have a problem with getting up in the morning when it is pitch black outside. Darkness equates to night in my mind and night means sleep. But I knew better. It’s no time like the present and if I shrugged it off today, I’d certainly shrug it off tomorrow. So I sent him a return text (he’s only upstairs, mind you) and tell him that I’ll be ready in 15 minutes and to wake up The Last , since he wanted to run too.

Fifteen minutes later, I’m still in bed and I get a knock at my door.

“We’re ready”.

*deep sigh*

I tell them I’m coming and hop out of bed, throw on my yoga pants, sports bra, t-shirt and shoes and walk upstairs.

We stretch.

I knew in my mind what my goal was: run/walk – 5 minute warm up, walk briskly for 90 seconds and run for 60 seconds. I didn’t know what my distance would be.

We started. The Last told me to “JUST RUN”. And I quickly let them know that unless they wanted to carry me home, I need to go at my pace to avoid injury and frustration. He then says, “Well when you get tired, just push through it”. Sounds good, in theory, but I had a plan and I didn’t want to deviate from it too much. As long as I reach my goal, I’m good. I told him to go on and I’d catch up at some point. Their goal was to run 1.5 miles to our local convenience store and back – 3 miles. I knew better and figured I’d run/walk about 1.5 miles total.

I start with the walk and quickly nix the idea of walking for 90 seconds. Seemed too long. I start jogging…but, slowly. I do this for one block because it’s too dark to be looking down at my watch and I can’t lose my pace. I don’t know much, but I do know that when you run, pace and rhythm are key. The boys had their iPods. I wasn’t smart enough to remember that so guess what song I ran to in my head: The Bedroom Intruder Song…”he’s climbing in yo windows, he’s snatching yo peepo up…” Thank God for Antoine. LOL

There was only one major snafu on today’s walk/run. Leg itching.

Oh.my.gawd!

I have experienced this feeling before during brisk walks. It is the most awefulest, irritatingest feeling in the world. Feels like I could scratch my legs to the white meat. I’ve consulted Google about this matter and well, it’s not an unusual occurrence.

Basically:

If you exercise consistently, you have healthy arteries and capillaries that allow for maximum blood passage. If you are unfit, or have not exercised in awhile, then the capillaries can start to collapse. So when you start exercising again, the capillaries basically struggle to open back up which cause the nerves to create an itching sensation. This usually goes away once your body gets used to exercising. (Contributor, caramel825)

This makes sense to me. And when I think back to when I was really consistent with my exercise routine I remember the itching in the beginning but after a couple weeks of consistent exercise, it did disappear.

But let me tell you that today, I wanted to stop at the first sign of the itch. Because the last time it happened, I scratched my legs so much until red streaks appeared. Not cute! But then I remembered reading this blog post yesterday about a woman who just finished running the Chicago marathon. A good ways into the race, she felt soreness in her IT Band and what she did was recognize the pain and then leave it. She said, “…if we dwell on the pain in a race, we won’t get passed it and then we let our mind WIN!” So I acknowledged the itch and I moved on.

It worked!

All in all, I ran/walked about 2 miles today in 30 minutes. I felt great! I stretched afterwards and started my day.

Easy-peasy-bo-breezy.

Let’s just pray it remains this way.