A few posts back I mentioned I'd started training for my 3rd half marathon. (Click here) Well, I just finished week 2 of 12 and the good news is:
1. I haven't yet once dreaded a run.
2. I've never thought once I couldn't do it.
3. I'm not thinking about it all day, working myself into a panic before the next run.
4.Some days I've actually looked forward to the run.
5. It feels easy.
6. It's even been relaxing at times.
Wow! Did I just say those things? Me, Paige?! I most certainly did. Now, I should probably tell you another little something that has been a bit different about this training than the others I have embarked on. My husband is also into fitness and encouraged us to look into maybe trying to train with a heart rate monitor this time around. He has done it and found it very successful. The idea of training with a heart rate monitor is that you are building your aerobic base, never exercising above what your heart rate should be. In order to do that you have to slow things down. Like, WAY down. Like, almost to the idea of looking comical. (Actually, I know we look comical. I saw our shadows turning the corner last week. It was bad.) The good news is that as the weeks go on, you build your aerobic base and as your runs get faster your heart rate stays where it ideally should be. Running then is much easier and relaxing because you are running the pace you hopefully are wanting to go, yet your heart is doing what it needs to in pumping the blood flow efficiently through your body, not putting it under any stress or excursion. So far we are seeing small improvements but then again, we are only on week two.
I'll be honest. It hasn't been easy as far as feeling like I'm married to the beeper on my watch. Often times, in fact just yesterday on our long run, I wanted to take off in a sprint so many times but had to hold myself back. The urges come and go but then I remind myself of what this is doing for me, and in the end I will hopefully be a much more efficient runner. Patience Paige, patience.
The other good part in all of this is that maybe this is just what my body and mind were needing in order to help me truly fall in love with running? I don't know yet on that 100%, but I do know that so far this training season I'm happy, calm, at ease, and look forward to running each day. That is a first!
I will keep you posted as the weeks go on but for now I will press forward with one goal in mind - finding joy in the journey of running!
Awesome. I was thinking about getting a heart rate moniter but I don't like stuff strapped to me but thinking I may need to
ReplyDeleteI don't know at what point in your run I've seen you and Tammy the past couple Mondays, but I think it is near the end (when I'm picking boys up from track). I think you both look great--a little red in the face, dripping with sweat and moving down the road together. What a great idea of how to use a heart rate monitor. I wonder if that is part of why it's always been so hard for me to stick with running--I over work my heart instead of gradually helping it out. I'm filing this away in my brain for when I get to the point that I can run again--walking is better for my back right now.
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