Wednesday, March 12, 2014

running

Like I said before, I always thought it would be cool to do a marathon. I had never really run before though, and I never thought I would. I did track in high school, but there wasn't much running involved with shot put and discus. 

When I had tried running in the past, I would just run for as long as I could. It was hard and boring. I would do it once and then not even think about it again for months. 

But with the app that I downloaded you start slow...super slow. This is what day 1 looks like:


When I first saw it I thought running for 1 minute would be easy. I mean really...how hard could it be to run for a minute?? But running for one minute six times while pushing two kids, one of them in a car seat, in a double stroller that wasn't made to be pushed so fast....I thought I was going to die. 

But I did it.

And before I knew it I was able to run for two minutes, and then five, and then...gasp...I ran a half mile without stopping. It started getting easier. I was getting stronger. And it got to the point where I would actually look forward to doing it....never thought I would see the day!

And in July of last year I did my first 5K! Crossing that finish line was pretty much awesome, it made all the hard work so worth it!



So here are some of my tips for running:
 {again, I am definitely not an expert, this is just what I have learned and what helps me. I'm not anywhere close to where I want to be, but I'm a heck of a lot closer than I was two years ago...}

download an app. There's quite a few of them and it makes it a little easier. It's almost like having a trainer with you telling when to walk and when to run. It helps. A lot. 

listen to music. When you first start, it really sucks. But when you listen to music, especially your favorite songs, you don't think about it so much. I used Spotify, it's about $10 a month but it is so worth it!

good shoes. Good running shoes are rather expensive, but it can make such a huge difference! I highly recommend going to a running store and having them fit you for shoes. You don't necessarily have to by them there, they might be a little more pricey, but they should be able to help you choose the best shoe for you. {I absolutely love Aesics, but that's just me! They're not very stylish but I love em!)

keep going. There were a lot of times when I really had to convince myself to go run. But you never regret going, so just do it! 

don't get discouraged. It's hard. I had to repeat a couple of the weeks on my app because I wasn't quite ready to move on. And when we first moved to Texas a year ago I went about two months without running and I had to start over again. It's amazing how fast you can lose your endurance.

And lastly...just do the best you can! It's always going to be better than not doing anything at all!










No comments:

Post a Comment