Well today is the day I decided to start adding a "long run" to the routine. I decided to do one big loop because the 5k I run back and forth through my neighborhood gets boring and too many temptations to bail. I figured if I just headed out to a certain point away from my house then I had no choice but to keep running if I wanted to see home again.
I was able to run the first 25 minutes straight and then did a run/walk combo of 1 minute walking to 8 minutes running, keeping an eye on my HR. Took a wrong turn and ended up having to jump a wall at the end of a cul-de-sac or turn around and run back downhill to the right street- not an option! I wondered what the guy walking thought when I jumped up on the wall, grabbed a tree branch and swung out onto the sidewalk the next street over. Haha.
When I got home my time was 1hour 1 minute. My longest time previously was 38 minutes. I mapped my run and realized it was 5.3 miles! Amazing! Only 1 mile short of a 10k. During my run I decided I was going to enjoy running instead of telling myself how much I hate it. It really worked. I decided what I dislike the most is how slow it is compared to cycling (especially my breakneck speed of 5 mph). But I feel so accomplished today. I think I will change my plan to run a 5k in Feb. to the 10k instead.
This is just an encouragement to the other newbies out there. I started running at the end of last July and had never run more than a mile in my life.
Cheers!
