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Thursday, December 11, 2008

the RUN around

photo via: veer.com
I’ve talked several times on this blog about my relationship with running. I desperately want to be a “runner.” I think because my whole life I’ve associated “runners” with “thin people.” I also would just love to have the freedom of running as my cardio workout. You can do it anywhere….you don’t need the gym to run. You don’t need pavement to run. You just need you, and your gear.
When I first started losing weight, about a month in I decided I was going to “become a runner.” And then…the shin splints attacked. Also…running is hard when you weigh 255 pounds. So, since then I’ve solved the shin splint problem (at least the biomechanical part of it, my left leg is shorter than my right by 12mm, and I wasn’t using my heel lift. Smart, I know, talk about a messed up gait!), and I weigh about 15 pounds less, and I’m in better shape. I have an on again off again relationship with my running attempts. I take the dog for a walk every morning, currently we are doing a 1.5 mile loop. Now that it is dark out when I take him, I don’t leave my subdivision for safety reasons. I want my husband to be able to find me when my leg is broken! So, sometimes I run intervals, but not with any regularity or with any discipline (time, distance etc). I found the less rigid my running portion is, the better. I like to measure in mailboxes. Just run to one more mail box, that sort of thing.

I’ve also been running less in the mornings since I’ve been going to the employee workout room on my “sweat(lunch)break.” Well..the weather has been so nice this week (above 30 degrees and sunny) that I just can’t bring my self to spend my lunch break in the basement. It’s dark when I get to work at 8, it’s dark when I leave at 5…and I need some sun darn it! So, this week I am taking walks on my lunch break.
I was thinking about the lack of a higher level of cardio this morning on my walk. We walk 1 loop in the subdivision, then out and back on a cul-de-sac, and then around the loop again. I had just finished my 1st loop and the out and back, and was passing my house when I thought, “ I should run.”

So I ran. I ran the whole loop. I have never run the whole loop before. It is .66 of a mile. The farthest that I have run in one interval since I started this whole running thing. When I am serious about the interval thing, I usually total about 1 mile of running in .2 or .3 of a mile intervals. Because my mind tells me that I can’t go further. But I can! And I did!

Honestly, I thought about quitting a few times through the loop, about half way. But I thought about what Tina said, and what Margarita said. Tina mentioned that one of her tricks was that even when it was hard, just keep running. Even if you are shuffling along. I shuffled, in fact my normal pace is pretty slow, but I kept running. Margarita recently started running, and she shared one of her tips: she thinks about people (maybe her friend?) who can’t run. Who are in a wheel chair, or bed ridden, and how fortunate that she is that she can run ,and it always pushes her through one more lap.

I ran. And I did a happy dance while the dog looked at me like I was insane.

8 comments:

Janie said...

Wow! Go you! I have toyed with the idea of becoming a runner for the very same reasons that you mentioned, but I have never acted on it. I think there was a VERY brief stint in college that I ran, but it did not last long and I graduated 5 years ago...I don't think I've run since. Where did you get your heel lift? My right leg is wuite a bit shorter than my left but I've never found a lift that helps with it.

Allison said...

Janie,
I got my original heel lift from my chiropractor, but my dog ate that one. I found mine at www.footsmart.com, I just googled heel lift. It fits inside my shoe an works out quite well!

Tina said...

Congrats on your running success!

GroundedFitness said...

great job! if it makes you feel any better- i want to be a runner, too but just cant. or wont. i just dont like it. but i wish i could just go run for miles and enjoy it.

Kelly Turner
www.groundedfitness.com

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