Run Number One

Last night I did my first training run for the half marathon in June. I still haven't registered for the race yet, but maybe I should, because investing money is a good way to be more committed to something. We'll see...

After work yesterday I headed over to the Field House and decided to sign up for a monthly pass. I figure I will keep renewing it until it is nice enough to do more running outside. I am a self-admitted running wuss when it comes to cold weather. I don't even know if it's the cold, but I don't necessarily want to buy a bunch of special winter running gear, plus I am a little paranoid about slipping and falling while running outside. So indoors it is for now!

I decided that I would aim to run 5k or for about 35-40 minutes yesterday. I have to say that it wasn't an easy run, but it wasn't as difficult as I imagined it might be. I haven't ran, at all, since October so I expected it to be harder than it was. During the first few laps I noticed that the muscles on the front of my shins were burning, but once that stopped I felt pretty good. I took a few short walking breaks, and managed to run/walk for about 35 minutes. I am not sure how far I ran, as it's hard to keep track of the number of laps when you are on a 200 metre track. I just looked online and I was running in lane 5, which is 226 metres. So I think I went a little further than I thought. I am a little sore today, mainly my quads, but also a little in my hamstrings and adductors.

My sister's, friend's husband, is a runner and created an 18 week running schedule for her to follow and I will probably follow it or something similar. I found this plan yesterday, by Hal Higdon, and it looks quite manageable too, though it's only 12 weeks, I could probably use a few weeks to work on getting my cardiovascular endurance back up. My aim is to run three times per week, and hopefully to get outside to do the longer runs. I don't think I could spend upwards of 2 hours or more running in circles on a track, or in place on a treadmill.