I Forgot How Hard It Is

It's funny. I have been looking at 5k races and getting myself all excited to run one and I was thinking, "it's 3.1 miles... I can do 3.1 miles." I even signed up (and paid) for my first 5k with the 5k Crew and I was super excited to get out there on Monday and run.

I got a text from Leigh Anne saying that because of the rain, she didn't want to take her twins out and have to deal with them and the rain. I can't blame her. So she said she'd train on her own later in the day and she'd catch up to us another day.

Lesley and Ann were still game for W1D1 of C25K, so we met at the Haynes Bridge Greenway. It wasn't raining too hard (yet), but it was sprinkling. We started out and it was good. I'm not sure when I started to realize how hard it was, but I definitely did.

I had forgotten how hard it is to start up again. All the sore muscles, the burning in the legs, all forgotten. Then I mentally started to beat myself up. If I had just stayed with running over the summer last year, this wouldn't even be an issue today. But I didn't. I stopped because of the weather (it gets SO HOT in the summer here) and because I was afraid to run at 5:30am by myself.

We finished our training and we were soaking wet, but I felt good. I was happy that I had successfully finished day one and we went a total of 1.6 miles (I ran .6 and walked 1.0). I was feeling good and then when I got home, I sat on the couch and tried to relax.

That's when everything started to hurt. 

Today, I am hurting.m My back muscles hurt, my abs hurt, my inner thighs hurt, and my hips hurt. 

 

So I decided to read back to when I started this blog back in May of 2012. Surly, the pain I'm experiencing is similar to the pain from the first time I started, right? Well... what I discovered kinda amazed me.

Yes, the pain is the same. It's normal and as I was reading, I realized that the pain WILL go away eventually, and the first time out is REALLY hard. I've done it, and I can move forward.

What excited me though, is that I ran W1D1 as expected on the app. I ran a full minute and walked 1.5 minutes. After reading past posts, I realized that when I started last year, I did 30 seconds of running then 45 seconds and finally worked my way to 1 full minute after like a month. 

I am proud of myself. I am happy that I got out there for the first time in over a year and I survived. As I told Lesley, "I can do just about anything for 30 minutes."

In other news, my brother Dave and/or his wife Heather have said they'd like to join me in the Turkey Trot, and my dad is thinking about it. So it will be me and Jessica for sure and then hopefully a few others in my family too. I am really excited, but a little scared to run in such cold temps. Jessica said she's going to talk to someone about how to prepare ourselves for the cold, so we don't injure ourselves.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, which is my crazy day. Hugh has a baby playgroup at 8:30am, so I won't be able to train in the morning. Instead, we're going to try to run after the kids are in bed, so we'll meet at 8pm. The good news is that it's without kids, and later, so should be cooler. The bad news is that it's the end of the day and I'm afraid my motivation to train will be gone. We shall see. The good news is that by tomorrow night, (HOPEFULLY) I won't be as sore and I'll be feeling better.

I'll post again after tomorrow!

Back in the Saddle Again

Aint that the truth?

Okay, so the important thing is that I'm starting back up. What prompted this?

Well, a few months ago, Steve approached me about doing a 5k walk/run with his work in memory of their co-worker that died from brain cancer. I said sure, and we got a double-jogging-stroller. We used it in MI and IN and it's perfect (I like it better than my single). Anyway, we're doing the 5k on October 5th.

I'll be 37 on October 2nd. I think there's no better time to run my first 5k than just after my birthday. I stopped running last year because it started getting hot and I was afraid to run by myself early in the morning. Then the summer came and went, and then it was fall and we were in the middle of preparing for Hugh's adoption and I just had no motivation and no one to run with me anymore.

Fast forward to this past week. I'm not sure what got me motivated, but I decided that it's going into fall, cooler weather, and there are a lot of 5k races coming up. Why not?

I asked a few friends in my MOMS Club if anyone wanted to train with me. To my utter surprise and delight, I've got four other friends who will be training with me and we're going to do 5ks. We are the 5k Crew.

We have a FB private group and we've been discussing races that we want to run and what ones look fun. We found one on October 19th that's a Color Run (not an official part of The Color Run, but a knock-off race). I signed up today and I am registered for this race.

I am so excited and hopeful. I CAN do this. I WILL do this. I will run my first "real" 5k and I can 't wait to start preparing.

We will start training on Monday and do MWF mornings. I am aware of how hard it's going to be to start all over, but it will only get easier.

So be looking forward to more updates from me. I have been watching what I eat and using my FitBit and I've lost a total of 8.5 pounds. I'm happy to see numbers going down and with more exercise it can only help things.

I emailed my family to see if anyone wanted to run the Turkey Trot which happens before the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade. My cousin Jessica, she is so awesome and supportive, wants to run it with me. So if no one else wants to do it, she and I can do it together. I am so excited for that one. Ever since I went to the parade for the first time, I wanted to do it. I'm really excited to think that I might get to make a dream come true.