Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Proud of Myself!

About 3 weeks ago I went jogging for the first time. It was ugly. My muscles hurt, my heart beat about 400 times per second, and my lungs burned.

This past Saturday morning I got up early, but not as early as Spencer, who was running* 12 miles. I started going north, and when I had reached 1/4 mile I was not happy. But I could see Spencer and his running buddy coming toward me, so I couldn't stop (it was a pride thing). By the time we passed one another (and I got a little bit of encouragement), I was almost at 1/2 mile. So I started telling myself, "I can get through one more song on the MP3 player." Then another. And so on. Pretty soon I was at a mile and starting to think I might be able to do the 2 miles I was scheduled to do. At nearly 1.5 miles my muscles were beginning to whine a little bit, and I thought, "I'll do a short rest at 1.5 miles." As I got closer to that mark I thought, "I'll finish this song, and then rest." The song ended after the 1.5 mile turn, and all of a sudden I thought, "Holy cow! I think I can do this!" So I kept jogging for a couple more songs. When the third song started I knew I was going to make it, and I did.

Spencer and Kent came into the house after their run. When they heard that I'd done two miles (as opposed to their twelve) they both cheered and high-fived (hooray for your own personal cheering section!). I was so proud of me!

Yesterday I was supposed to jog 1.5 miles, but Spencer needed a runaway, so we left the house for a while. Today I was scheduled for just a mile. So I thought I'd try to combine them (a little bit), and I jogged 2 miles. I'm really slow (two miles took a half hour), but I got into a rhythm before the .5 mile mark this time. I still talk my way through songs (thanks for the playlist, Taylor!), but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to do that 5K in a week and a half. I'm getting excited.

*At best I can only call what I do "jogging." But at the pace Spence runs, it's definitely "running."

3 comments:

Amy said...

I'm proud of your self too! Way to go! And heck yes you can do the 5k! You rock.

PS is your running schedule for sale? I really think Josh is gonna do a 5k somewhere....

Marianne said...

Hooray! I'm so proud of you!!

Suzie said...

That is sO COOL!!! You are going to rock the 5K Seriously its not east to "start" running but you are doing amazing!
P.S You did such a great job as Primary President and will truly be missed!!!