Stats:
Park track: 1.2 miles all the way around.
Date: 7/16/2014
Distance: 1.2 miles
Time: 11 minutes and a few seconds.
How do I feel at the end: I want to die, but I'm too tired to figure out how.
I want to share with you the experience of running from a perspective of never having been active before. I never ran in high school (I walked the mile), college (no activity at all) and all during having children, the most extensive activity was either walking or Pilates, which consists mostly of lying on the floor and calisthenics. I don't hike, I only bike on flat or mostly flat surfaces and only a couple of miles at a time, but usually on the hardest gear so I won't have to move much. No cardio. Ever. I'm the kind of girl who hates sweating. It's icky and sticky and makes me feel uncomfortable to do the things that make me sweaty. I clean houses for work and that is about as active as I like to get.
From my last post, you know now that I have extremely flexible ligaments and little muscle tone. This makes a lot of things difficult and several more rather amusing. Something else you should know is that I have an average-to-high pain tolerance and usually live my life in absolutely NO pain because it's uncomfortable. When I'm in any pain, I try to fix it immediately. I'll start with a short list of the 'ailments' (or excuses) that I was feeling the day I decided to start running on a pain scale of 1-10 (10 being I require hospitalization and a Morphine drip, 1 being I have absolutely NO pain at all). This is before I ever ran a step:
Bad kidney (doesn't bother me anymore really)
Bad knees - 7
Bad hip - after walking about 15 minutes, 8
flimsy ankles - 2
general fatigue and worn out feeling - 4
back pain - 3
ribs out of place 5
neck out of place 6
I'm also hypoglycemic and have a mild heart murmur/irregular heart beat (two Dr's gave 2 opinions)
So that's what I started with on Tuesday the 15th of July, 2014. For me that's a lot of ailments. If you add to that all of my preconceived notions of ailments, the list goes on, but those are just me being a hypochondriac (no really it's legit). These are the documented ailments.
I woke up early on Wednesday, 5:30 am. I laid in bed debating which excuse could get me out of the day without too much reprisal, and then rolled out of bed anyway. I took care of my morningly routine and headed out the door at 6:15.
I know that if I eat before I exercise, I'm gonna be sick. Ergo, breakfast was skipped. When I get a little farther along, it will be necessary to overcome this.
I got to the park at 6:25 and took the opportunity to check my email and facebook (imagine that, no activity and only junk mail). Deleted junk mail. My marathon buddy pulled up and I applied a generous coating of Terra Shield essential oil to avoid getting eaten alive by the pre-dawn mosquitos. It works great against mosquitos, but not those nasty flying teeth gnats. I'll have to find something else for those. My friend got the dogs on a leash and we we chatted a bit about expectations then we were off!
Within seconds of starting, a shooting pain stabbed through my right foot and ankle and I felt like falling to the ground for a good cry. I pushed through it because I know a stronger ankle will fix that.
The pain went away about 20 steps later. At that point, I was already out of breath. Run on your toes, she says, it is better for shock absorption. Keep the shoulders back, head high, on the toes, slow down.
My mind is in shape, what's wrong with my body?? Why am I panting? I can see the goal, why am I not there yet? Oh ya, because I've spent nearly 37 years neglecting and abusing the poor thing. I keep going. My lungs hurt!!
I ask my friend, what is a normal level of pain to be experiencing? I describe the pain. She tells me that my pains and aches are normal and they'll go away if I keep running. Ok. I'll be fine. She tells me I'm doing great and I believe her.
A few seconds later, it's time to walk, so we walk fast, knees up. The knees up part is as hard as the running!! I am nearly recovered. Nearly recovered means that I've caught my breath and I don't see black spots, but my heart rate is still slightly elevated. I do this by taking deep breaths more slowly than I feel comfortable doing. I inhale and exhale slowly until I can inhale for 4 steps, exhale for 4 steps. My body wants in-out every step. I am walking at approximately two steps per second. Right about now, I am aching with thirst and want a nap.
We run again. Slow down, knees up, on your toes as much as possible she says. I'm doing great she exclaims. The dogs are busied and she tells me she will catch up. I continue to jog at a mentally excruciating pace, but it's more than my body wants. I make it all the way around the curve before walking again, about 3 minutes. I walk for 1 minute. She catches up, we jog again. I am ready to lie down and get a crane to carry me back to the car.
I keep going too fast, so she reminds me of a slower pace and tells me it's better on my body to start slow until I can run the whole distance.
This is where I suddenly don't feel pain anymore, at .8 of 1 mile. We continue to jog and, while I'm exhausted, it feels like I can do it if I push. Like giving birth or eating a sandwich, I realize I'm nearly done and quitting now is going to leave me feeling dissatisfied with the experience. We nearly make it back to the car, and I opt to push and run the remainder, about 3 minutes. The whole time around is 1.2 miles. I am disappointed mentally that I couldn't sprout wings and just fly, but my body is grateful we've stopped. My face is beet red, I'm sweating (ew) and I'd like a nap and a cookie please and thank you. I never knew I had stuff in my lungs to hack up, but (surprise!) I do so now. We stretch, I catch my breath and know this will hurt later but I feel really good that I 'ran' a mile. It took 11 minutes and change, but I feel like I can do this!
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