That's 3.1 miles.
THREE!
This marks my three (3!)-month anniversary of running.
It's May 1, but I'm wearing wool here because some sleety snow-like precipitation is falling, spring be damned.
I'd jogged 3 miles last month, once, but today still feels like a milestone, even though I doubt I went any faster.
But the run felt ...easier.
Not that it was "easy," exactly, to run 5K---I mean, it took some effort, but I absolutely knew (in my body) that I could finish easily, and that's a nice feeling.
Plus, I ran past a muskrat swimming in the same direction.
"I can run faster than a swimming muskrat!" I thought to myself.
I looked it up when I got home:
The Dept. of Natural Resources says muskrats swim 2 to 3 miles/hour (which is Olympic-athlete fast for swimming).
I'm encouraged because I've signed up for my first 5K "fun run" on June 1.
That's about 5 weeks from now.
I got a copy of Runner's World from the library that advertises on the cover, "5 Weeks to Your First 5-K Training Plan."
Talk about false advertising:
the article inside is really titled "Time for a Fast 5-K" and is about training to run 5K in faster than 30, 25, or 20 minutes.
Come on!
I am hoping to break 45 minutes!
No, actually, I'm hoping for 45 minutes.
(MOSTLY I'm hoping I won't injure my knees or any other part of me. If I did manage it in 44 minutes, though, I would feel downright athletic.)
The article also says, "There's no room in your training plan for mindless running."
?!?
Mindless running is my training plan.
Bad memories of Running Class no.1:
on the second night, the teacher handed us stop-watches.
I said, "Oh, no! Not math!"
But yes, math:
If you have to run 14 times around a track to complete 1 mile,
how fast do you have to run each lap to run a 13:40 min. mile?
I admit it was kind of fun to pay so much attention to running, to try to coordinate my pace to the clock, but it's not what I want to do regularly, especially not as the baby beginner I am––and maybe never.
I do vary my pace when I run--I add in some sprints; I jog up and down any hills I come by ("jogging" here meaning trudging-and-gasping); I walk a bit every so often.
But I'm glad that I can achieve mindless running--it took me almost 3 months to be able to trot long enough that my brain turns off.
______________
P.S. I want to note that I have not lost any weight, after jogging 2-3 times a week for 3 months.
The fat-muscle machine at the YW did say I'd gained muscle after 2 months, so that's great. But I'm going to stop looking at scales: they're not a good indicator of how I'm doing.
Come as you are, and race the swimming muskrat, I say!
1 comment:
I jogged outdoors for ten years, and now I go on my treadmill whenever I can. I was slow out there on the street, but happy (now my hips and knees prefer the cushier treadmill). The one 5-K I did found me trotting somewhere between the last runner and the first walker, which embarrassed me at the time, but I look back on it as a fun day, especially while giving cheerful comments to those putting on the race (they work hard).
I didn't lose weight, either, but my legs gained a better shape, and I found jogging to be good training for hiking mountain trails.
Keep enjoying.
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