Guess what I did today? Well, most of you already know from Facebook, but I totally just ran a 5K at my wonderful Juilfs Park. 3.1 miles. I called the park to confirm the track distance today and figured out that measuring 3.1 miles is quite easy. Running it is a different story.
This is a huge milestone, people! In fact, it's two huge milestones. One, I finally did more than the usual 2 miles. Two, I did it all without Mr. C25K, with whom I have a a relationship that was slipping into codependency. I found myself starting to think I couldn't run without his help. Well guess what! I can!
To top it all off, I just did it with some pretty impressive times. You should note that I don't think I've ever, EVER run as well as I did tonight. Not even when I was fit--oh wait, I was never fit.
Heh.
Anyway, here are my lap times (forgive the inaccuracy of the first two ... I haven't figured out how to use the lap feature of my phone's stopwatch):
Mile 1: 12 something
Mile 2: 26 something
Mile 3.1 (5K): 40:47
Congrats to Leslie for guessing so close on Facebook! WEEE! You're More to Love Running famous now! Shut the front door. Still in disbelief. I also stretched my first running interval out to over 3:30. I can run over 3 minutes at a time. What? Oh, and I'm pretty sure I did a few more that were over 2 minutes long.
And, I feel amazing right now. Nothing hurts. I cooled off quickly (I'm actually freezing because I'm sitting on my balcony) and with little sinus resistance (a topic for another post).
Now, it's important that I point out that it wasn't easy. Yes, the weather was great: it's a cold and drizzly kind of day. Yes, I was itching to run after an icky personal day yesterday and this morning. But yes, I had to work hard.
And ... it worked.
I did a lot of talking to myself:
"Just let your legs work; they'll tell you when to stop. Breathe. Keep going. If you stop at that tree, you're okay, but if you go to the next one, you're awesome. Just run, just run, just run, just run. Do it. Go. Run. You're doing great."
I always hate hearing how positive self-talk can help you, but I knew from the other day that negative self-talk can really bring you down. So, I thought what the hell, let's give it a go.
And ... it worked.
Oh, and I've mentioned before how important loud music is to me while I'm running. I breathe very, very heavily and really loud, and when I can hear myself breathing, I tend to try to quiet it. Not good. Well, there were breaks in my playlist today where I could hear myself breathing. Today's solution? "Get over it, Beckey. Breathe as loud and obnoxiously as you can. Make people look."
And ... it worked.
So, I'm freezing and starving so I'm going to call it a blog night. Here's something to look forward to, though. Today I decided to sign up for the Redlegs Run for Home 5K. It's a 5K run sponsored by the Cincinnati Reds. Rumor is you get to run across home plate when you finish. How cool. Thanks to Jacqi and Allison for reminding me of this run, and to Sarah and Nikki (and maybe Jeff) who I will be forcing to run with me. Love you! I'm friggin' paying to run? Are pigs flying yet? Oh that was a few weekends ago, right? Right.
HAPPY RUNNING!
NICE!!! Good job. :)
ReplyDelete