The last time I ran more than 3 miles was March 2012. Let’s do the math…2 years and 8 months ago. A lot can happen in almost 3 years, but in my case, not much happened on the running front. I just stopped. The race I ran was an awesome race. It’s one of the best ones I’ve run, however, I personally did not do well. My pace was off and I guess I just didn’t train as well as I should have and ended up hurting and walking quite a bit of the way at the end. It deflated me. So I stopped.
The last time I ran 3 miles was about a year ago. It was a 5K I ran with my then 6 year old, and it took us 45 minutes. Is that even considered running?! What’s funny is he won 3rd place in his age group! Imagine if we had actually run!
I haven’t run more than 2 miles since. So it’s time to do something. I’ve decided to register for the Reston 10-Miler which is March 1, 2015. It is the only thing that will motivate me. I have to actually register. Not think I’m going to register, not say I’m going to register, not pretend I’m going to register, but actually register. Once I spend the money, since I’m so cheap, I will feel obligated to participate. And I have about 4 months to train, which is plenty of time.
My problem with training for a race is I get too obsessed with following a training plan, that I stress myself out if I miss a day or get off schedule. So I knew I really needed to find a plan that works into my schedule. I can’t run 5-6 days a week, I ain’t got time for that. And I don’t want to do long runs on the weekend that will take me away from family time. So I found this plan, the Bupa 10-mile Training Program – Beginners and knew right away it was one I could follow. The best part of this plan is that it has 2 rest days in a row and guess where I made those days fall for me? Why, Saturday and Sunday, of course. And since this is a 3-month plan that I have 4 months to complete, there is room to veer from the plan every once in a while (such as this week as you will see!).
So I’m going to document this feeble attempt to get back into running. I figure if I journal about it, it will keep me accountable and maybe someone will join along with me. I plan to keep up my weight training as well and will document that as well. Who is with me?
Here is what my first week looked like:
Monday (I started with day 7 on the plan because it was the first day after the 2 day rest period, which I knew I wanted to fall on the weekend. Of course I already screwed up right off the bat and instead of running for 2 miles, which is what day 7 is, I did the 30 min/run walk):
Cardio – 30 mins run/walk on treadmill at a 1.0 incline, 2.5 miles
Weights – Legs and abs
Tuesday:
Cardio – Rest (did a 5 minute warmup walk on the treadmill)
Weights – Shoulders and tris, abs
Wednesday:
Cardio – 2.0 mile run/walk on the treadmill at 1.0 incline, took me 22.16 mins.
Weights – Back and bis, abs
Thursday & Friday – I didn’t get to the gym at all. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
So week 1 was meh, and I was definitely sore because I think my body was in total shock, but I did it. And I am happy to put more (or less) detail, so feel free to comment and let me know what you think! I hope you’ll join me so we can encourage each other along the way!
