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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Back in the Saddle

Totally fell off the running wagon, but started back up last week. Apparently all of my daily biking around campus is doing good for my legs and cardiovascular system, because I decided to try running on the tredmill for 90 seconds, and because Grease was playing on the TV I didn't realize how long it had been and ended up running for 5 minutes straight. Definitely a big step for me.

So, have some good mojo heading back into the world of running!

Also, I discovered a book. I have yet to read this book, as I am currently 83rd on the holds list at the library and it is still in hardback so I haven't purchased it yet, but it looks amazing and has really inspired me to get going. It is called Born to Run, and I highly recommend you check it out. Talks about how running naturally doesn't injure you, rather, the expensive running shoes you buy do, among many other things. The main focus is a tribe whose name starts with T but I can never remember beyond that. Apparently they are legendary for being able to run hundreds of miles at once without breaking a sweat, in bare feet, without getting injured. In the mountainous regions of Chihuahua. 

Anywhoo, it sounds really interesting and exciting and I REALLY WANT TO READ IT. Also, really want to get out and start running! But it's late, it's cold, and I just killed myself at a gym session that involved almost nothing but deadlifts. 

Excuses, excuses, I know. But at least I will go eat hummus like the book suggests. 

Friday, July 3, 2009

Very First Run

I'll get into the background story of how I started this crazy venture and the specifics of what I am doing and all that a little later, but first I want to post about my very first training run!

Well, to start, there was very little actual running involved. Primarily I just walked, with about 5 1-minute bursts of running thrown in. These little snippets of running caused my face to turn a particularly lovely shade of deep violet and my lungs to heave at roughly the sound and speed of a Airbus cargo plane. I imagine this led to those who passed me during my walking times to think I am the most out of shape person ever. On a related note, I also felt like I was going to swallow my tongue at a few different points. I hope that is normal at this stage.

There are several high points, however....
First: for whatever reason, the sort of early evening time at which I chose to go running is also the time when every single dog owner within 50 blocks decided to walk their dogs, so I saw lots of cute puppyage.
Second: I actually started training for my marathon!
Third: There were actually times I felt pretty good about my running, what little of it there was
Fourth: This is by far my favorite- it somehow worked out that whenever I crossed paths with someone who was out running rather than out with their dog, I was in one of my rare running spurts, and we shared big comradely grins as we ran by each other. It felt pretty special and cool.