Becoming a Runner

I have attempted being a runner several times in my life. During university I trained with the triathlon club and ran several times a week and hated it several times a week LOL. After a year of training with them I ran my first ever 5K race in 26 minutes. I stopped training with the club and didn't do much running on my own that I can remember.

6 years later I started losing some of my post university weight and started doing some running bits in my walking. Attempted the couch 2 5k program a few times. Then I got pregnant, had spotting early on and was restricted from exercise until 3 months in. And by then walking was a pretty good workout and all I was willing to risk until I knew the baby was good and ok.

2 months after my daughter was born I started the couch 2 5k program again and stuck with it. 4 months after beginning the program I ran the race for the cure in 36 minutes. One month after that we were preparing to move, winter arrived and I stopped running.

6 months later I got a gym membership and would do 1 to 3 miles a few times a week but not with any consistency and never faster than 5mph, usually there were plenty walking breaks tossed in. I didn't consider myself a runner, I just ran in a vain attempt to lose weight without altering my food intake at all.

In January of this year my sister and I decided to run a marathon to celebrate my 30th birthday. I set up a realistic training program and got to it. 5mph was my standard pace and it seemed difficult, brutal on some days. Trying to go higher than that was a guarantee of quitting before my miles were up. Unfortunately several months in I started having knee pain, my doctor sent me to physiotherapy and they strongly recommended I seriously cut back both my mileage and my speed. So the marathon was put on the backburner and I plodded along at 4.7 mph for a few months.

My knee started feeling better. I joined WW and began dropping some weight. I started BLBE and set some goals for my running. I wanted to be able to run 3 miles in 33 minutes by Christmas; 30 minutes by the summer. It seemed like a reasonable but challenging goal as I seemed to be struggling to hit 36 minutes most runs. But I started pushing myself.

I changed my workout mindset from having to finish 3 miles to running for 30 minutes. I started doing some intervals. 5.2 for 2 min, 5.4 for 2 min, 5.6 for 2 min, 5.8 for 2 min, 6.0 for 2min and then over again. That was pretty doable but a pain in the butt to keep looking at the clock. LOL. So I did 5.5 for 5min and 6.0 for 5 min for the 30 min. When I realized that I was pretty close to 3 miles at the end of 30 minutes I kept going to see how long it took to hit 3 miles. And it was just under 33 minutes.

I've been doing this run for the past 6 runs, never taking longer than 33 minutes to finish my 3 miles. And I've come to the conclusion that it wasn't my physical ability holding me back from running faster but my mental ability. The marathon we were supposed to run is this coming weekend and while there is a tinge of disappointment that I am not running this year mostly I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn that I can enjoy running. And now I'm thinking I could do a 30 minute 5k by Christmas and perhaps beat my 26 minute 5k by the summer........