Today I ran 4 miles. It took 46 minutes, which is a little over 11 minutes per mile. That is very slow, but! I RAN FOUR MILES. It was hard and I wanted to stop, especially when I was about two-thirds of the way through and felt very tired. I kept going until I completed it because I have that 5k race (3.1 miles) coming up in less than two weeks. I kept telling myself that today's hard run will make the next time I do the same distance much easier. That will be Friday. Look here for more whining come Friday.
That's not what is scaring me, though.
I signed up for the Smith Rock Race which has either a 15k or a 7 mile Fun Run (P.S. Just because it rhymes with "run" doesn't mean it is "fun"). I am doing the 7 mile un-fun run, and that is a looong way. I have seven weeks to train for it, but still! Seven miles is a long way!
The good part has been watching my body change. I was shaving my legs today, for example, and I noticed this bump and I wondered for a second what it was. "Oh, that's muscle!" I said to myself, surprised.
That's not the only good part, there's the food part, too. I had to do some research about what to eat before and after a workout. It turns out I have good reasons to get fully crazy into cooking with whole grains now, because a body that works out needs plenty of fuel in the form of carbohydrates. I could live on rice, beans, pasta, and grains, so this is good news to me. Oh yeah, don't forget the dark chocolate with raspberries! One needs protein as well. Ahem.
This week I made chili-scented pork chops with jalapeno quinoa salad. It was not as spicy as you would think; it was a light, sweet spice. There was a lot of olive oil and lime juice, and I left out the seeds of the jalapeno, which helped keep the spice level reasonable.
The Smith Rock Race came about as a challenge from my husband, who is participating in it as well as the upcoming 5k run. I'm looking forward to it (being over) and seeing how well I do. I find that I work best when I have a goal in mind, otherwise I tend to procrastinate. I think my next goal will be: run four miles averaging 10 and one-half minutes per mile and then see how much chocolate I can eat without getting sick. Goals are good.
6 comments:
Is the breast cancer 5k that you're doing? I'm doing that one, but I'll be walking with a group.
I'm writing a reply in my comments, I hope you read it!
Yes, it's the Heaven Can Wait 5k in Bend. I hope the course is fairly flat, because the trail that I run for practice is mostly flat. Maybe we could meet there? Say hello?
I'd love to say hello. If you email me at kadyet at yahoo dot com, I'll give you my cell number.
um, YAH.
I was stoked to run ONE mile. I haven't been able to run in TWO MONTHS and now I don't think I could even walk a mile. I'm supposed to be participating in a 5k this month and I'll have to walk it.
:(
Very cool that you have made so much progress, though. I want to be able to run 4 miles by fall. I just hope I'm able,
Good for you! I'm not exercising as much as I'd like these days, but a weekly ballet class and a rehearsal will have to do for now. Plus carrying around the little dude when he's tired of walking. That counts too, right?
Wow, I'm so impressed! I lost all this weight when my husband was deployed and I've gained about 8 pounds since he came back. *sigh*
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