St. Patrick's Day 5K -- I DID IT!!!!

Eliza and Sammy happily waiting for me to arrive.  It was very cold outside.  Doesn't Sammy look like a homeless child?  That shouldn't be funny but it makes me laugh. Love those sweet faces.

Here I am towards the finish line. So happy to see familiar faces.  Like my mask?  I wasn't sure whether to bring it.  I'm so glad I did.  With the wind chill, it felt like -2 degrees outside.  Wow, that is cold. When the wind blew in our faces, I'd hear people groan in pain.  Thankfully, I wasn't groaning, just weezing... hehe.  Oh and I'm not as fat as I look, I'm wearing a sweatshirt under my St. Patrick's Day shirt. :)

37.21 minutes to do the 5K.  I was really happy with that.  I felt soooo slow when people were going past me.  But I stayed steady and didn't stop to walk until a little after 2 miles.  I still have some residual gunk in my chest and it was making it a bit difficult to breath. I think I may have walked a total of 5 minutes here and there.  Maybe not even that much.  I don't know.  I'm not going to complain.  It was cold, I'm barely over a cold and my phone died so I didn't have music to listen to, and many other things that came up that made me wake up this morning feeling unsure but I did it anyway and I'm proud and grateful I did.

My little fans were cheering me on when I ran passed them.  It really warmed my heart.  I asked Jared if he coached them to to cheer me on but nope, it came from their hearts.  They ran to me afterwards and were so proud of me.  It felt great.  Can you believe that crazy people in Fargo run in this weather!?!  Now, I'm one of them and proud of it, don'tcha know. ;)

 

Totally worth it.  Afterwards, I went to a local restaurant/bar and got my favorite chicken tortilla soup to take home.  It was heavenly to my cold body. Then I hopped in the shower and warmed my muscles then massaged oil into my muscles to help them recover.  I'm sure I'll be fine. 3.1 miles isn't that far but it is the first step in a very wonderful direction in my life.  On to do more 5K runs in the future and train for the 10K in May at the Fargo Marathon.  EEEK. :)

 

 

****** FYI, in my last post, I changed the candida questionnaire.  I wasn't happy with the link I had initially.  So, if you want to take a different questionnaire, check it out.


****** Day 6 - 21-Day Meditation.  Today was just what I needed.  Focused on relaxing all the different parts of my body and expressing gratitude for them.  The centering thought was: "I am perfect. I am healthy.  I am strong."  Just what I needed to keep my mind on today for the run.    

 

Mind Over Matter

 

 

Last Saturday during our "Courage Retreat", I got up early to run on the treadmill in the hotel's gym.  I'm following a training program to help me be ready to run the 5K by March 16th.  On that day, I was scheduled to run longer than I had yet.  I was to run 8 minutes/ walk 1 minute x 5. 

 

I was the first in the little gym.  I put on some Lenny Kravitz to keep my body moving.  It started out great.  A man comes in who looked like a short Anderson Cooper and he starts running next to me.  My young girl self felt the sudden urge to prove that I was stronger and tougher than that dude next to me.  I was.

 

While me and Anderson-look-alike were running, a very skinny lady comes in.  She was obviously an avid runner.  My confidence was suddenly shaken by her presence.  I felt that same young girl inside of me want to get off the treadmill and let the person who knew what she was doing, do it.  But I didn't.

 

She asked when we'd be done.  I was at 15 minutes at this point. I turned around and said I was going for 45 minutes.  Now the pressure was on.  I could not slack off or fail.  The lady would come in and out every few minutes for the remainder of my run.  While she stepped out, Anderson-look-alike got off and a big old, grandpa type came in.  Now my young self was thinking, "I don't want to look like this guy when I'm old."  Not a kind thought, for sure.  But it motivated me.

 

My mind started to turn towards the situation on a whole.  I felt vulnerable.  I had a goal that I wasn't sure if I could do but I so desperately wanted to.  I just put myself above someone else which is awkward territory for me.  Usually I put myself last.  I was pushing back guilt by reminding myself that I needed to be on the treadmill.  My children need me to be healthy.  This Grandpa next to me needed to be on the treadmill too.  We were united in an effort to improve the quality of our lives.  I do not need to apologize for asking this lady to wait her turn.  Her turn would come.

 

On a whole, I was surprised that I was able to do the run without much difficulty.  My body felt fine.  It was my mind that was getting the true workout.  When I reached my goal of running for 45 minutes and then doing the cool down, I was grinning from ear to ear.  My heart was full of love, gratitude and righteous pride.  I ran a total of 3.6 miles, further than my 5K race.  I DID IT!!!!!!

 

When I got off, I walked over to the lady and said, "Thank you for your patience.  I needed to reach my daily goal.  I just ran longer and farther than I ever have before. I'm so happy."  She looked at me and replied with a smile, "I'm so glad you didn't stop for me."  What a nice lady.

Get That Body Movin!!! Part 2

Part of my quest to improve sleep has been exercise.  To keep things interesting, I mix up what type of exercise I do during the week.  We own a treadmill.  Last year, I could barely run on it.  It completely tired me out.  My lungs could hardly take the exertion.  I'd poop out and just walk for awhile.  Running has always made me aware of how mentally and physically weak I am.  Not a great feeling.

Within the last few months, I've been slowly building up my stamina.  At first I really had no idea what I was doing (still don't).  I'd just play around with speeds and challenge myself to go a minute at 5 mph (I know that sound pathetic but that was where I was at).  Then I tried to see if I could go 2 minutes at 5 mph and so on.  Then I'd peak at 7 mph (which is still pretty crazy and intense for my short fat legs).  I've been amazed at how well my lungs are adjusting to longer intervals of running.  I've gone 5 minutes at 6 mph.  :)

Lately, I've been going 5 minutes walking at 4 mph to warm up. Then I would alternate 5 minutes going 5 mph and then 5 minutes walking at 4 mph.  Then I'd throw in 6 mph for  5 minutes.  Or I'd go an extra 30 seconds running here and there.  My initial goal was to go just 20 minutes.  Now I go until I hit 3 miles (which takes more than 30 minutes for me right now). 

Yesterday, as I showed on my list of accomplishments, I ran 25 minutes going 5 mph (a little over 2 miles).  I felt so empowered.  Then I walked for 15 minutes to get that final mile.  I was somewhat disappointed that I stopped running so quickly because my shins started to tighten and my legs felt very heavy.  For those of you that run, why did my legs feel so heavy? 

I stretched for awhile afterwards.  It actually felt good. My lungs weren't about to burst which is INCREDIBLE!!!!!  Today, I just ran a mile (took a little less than 12 minutes) and then cooled down for a couple minutes.  I hear you are suppose to have days where you run less.  Is that correct?  Let me point out that I said I "just" ran a mile.  What is happening to me?  It wasn't that long ago (like last week) that running a mile straight seemed daunting.

I know there are tons of websites with suggested training programs.  I'm not sure which is right for me.  I've just been listening to my body and trying to challenge myself here and there.  My goal is to run in a 5K on St. Patrick's Day.  I'm pretty excited about that. 

My big goal which I'm nervous to share on here because that means I'm committing myself is to run a 10K at the Fargo Marathon.  EEK!  I figure if I'm able to go 3 miles now even if it's not all running, I should be able to do a 10K by spring.  Right? 

Any tips on building endurance and speed is welcome.  What are you doing to keep your body moving? Another question, I have no complaints about my running shoes now but I think I may need to buy a new pair sometime soon.  How much time do you need to break a pair of shoes in before a race?  The back of my ankles are prone to blistering and bleeding in a new pair of shoes.  Eww.