Claire Vs. Running

For weeks and weeks I have had a glorious plan in my mind to try running.

I have a history with running: I don’t like it. I feel like I can never breath, I get upsettingly sweaty and the feeling of all my fat jiggling at once is very unpleasant. (On the bright side I made some of my best friends at school in the back of the pack while running ‘The Mile’ for P.E.) As soon as I finished off my physical education I enjoyed many years avoiding running completely.

However, lately running has been flirting with me. It has shown me photographs of bad ass healthy women running in Nike ads. I see the faces of friends glowing with pride (and sweat) at the end of 5Ks and Marathons. Even my injury prone brother has been running lately, (injury free and going strong). So the seed had been planted. I wanted to try running.

The idea formed in my head about a month ago.

What can I say? I am a procrastination master.

This morning I decided to actually go.

I had already planned out my two mile loop weeks ago (A good starting amount according to my brother). Last night I reviewed my route, set out my clothes and went to bed early.

In the morning I actually woke up, (HUGE accomplishment!) stretched, changed, and headed out the door, and ran.

I ran (rather slowly) for about half a mile before I switched to walking. I completed my loop walking at a brisk pace. My heart was absolutely still beating fast.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how far I was able to keep running. Next time I plan on keeping up the running a little bit longer before I switch to the walk. My lack of cardio endurance is the limiting factor right now, not really muscle strength. Planning on working on building that up first.

Here are the benefits so far:

-I’m feeling awake at 9:00am.

-I know that even though I have a long day at my desk ahead, I’ve already done something good for my body. (This is a little something called piece of mind)

-I feel like this is something I could do again. While I did push myself, I don’t think I destroyed any muscles or bit off any more than I could chew.

I have such a love/hate relationship with goals, but here we go. My current goal is to do the same thing again tomorrow. Long term, I’m looking forward to when I can run for a mile straight.

Have any of you tried running lately? Was something chasing you? (haha, I’m soooo witty) Any advice you can offer to a running noobie?

~Claire Out.