Saturday morning I was supposed to go running with my friend Michelle on the boardwalk in Fisherman's cove. I was looking forward to sharing with her and the other ladies in the joys of training (really? well, not quite... Mostly I wanted company and Michelle has made some major life changes that include running regularly - I was looking forward to learning from her and sharing the experience - a thought that never would have crossed either our minds 2+ yrs ago!) Well, the weather didn't cooperate, so the run was cancelled. It was probably for the best as I had stayed up ALL night Thurs. trying to get my taxes done and my parents & niece arrived for a 4-day visit Friday night. Needless to say I was worn out, exhausted, felt like I was coming down with something and just wanted NEEDED to sleep.
As Saturday wore on, a funny thing happened - I had the urge to run! So much, in fact, that I decided I would take advantage of my parent's presence to watch the kids and join my hubby and Ryan on their run Sunday morning - at least until I couldn't keep up - which I knew wouldn't be long!!
We headed out around 10:30am after a large breakfast (don't recommend) and as per their usual routine, Will and Ryan start running right away - straight up the steep hill on the way out of our neighbourhood... Jill and I always WALK to the top and start our running time on a more level place. I noticed the gap increasing as I fell behind more and more towards the top - 3min into the run, at the top of the hill, I was DONE! I waved them off "have a nice run" and started my first walk interval, very slowly, by myself again (Jill, I'm not liking the solo runs! Can't wait until you're back...) Surprisingly, my heart rate wasn't over 150, but my chest was heavy and my legs felt like they weighed about a ton each. For the next 5min I seriously debated turning around and just doing the 1km loop in my neighbourhood.
Somehow I convinced myself to keep going - I thought about the Strong Kids and how this all started - I thought about how badly I want to be able to run the entire 5km on race day, no walking - and a LOT about the fact that I had a soccer game later that evening, so why did I need to do this whole run? (I definitely need some tunes next time I go solo - too many thoughts in the brain...) By the time I reached the lake, I had run a total of 13 min, walked for 7min and had a whole, two-sided conversation with myself. 20min to the lake was the same as with Jill - which surprised me, but also encouraged me that I hadn't lost time to all the walking it felt like I was doing.
One thing I'm really focussing on is keeping my pace up when I'm walking, to keep the heart pumping. I managed to run for 5min - walk for 2min for the rest of the lake and up the first little hill. Surprisingly, even with less running, my overall time was showing improvement. I guess the speed walking was helping! So much so, that by the time I had speed-walked my way to the top of the dreaded hill by the mall, I was at least 5min ahead of past runs! As I rounded the last corner to begin my descent down the steep hill in my neighbourhood, the same hill that nearly finished me earlier, my time was 52min. I desperately wanted to finish in less than an hour this time. I kept my pace in the steep part, then towards the bottom, where it flattens out for a block before a more gradual downhill, something happened... All of a sudden my stride became longer, my legs started to seemingly 'float', my arms pumped harder, and I felt like I could go on like that for another hour!! Which brings me to the title question - is there really a "runner's high". Is that what it feels like? If so, I think I might be hooked!!
Oh, and my final time was 56min!! WAHOO!! :-)
You can help me reach my goal in support of the YMCA Strong Kids by making a secure online donation using your credit card. Click on the link: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2103855
Thanks for your support!
Corinna
No comments:
Post a Comment