working for the city / she has to discipline her body

[auntiemeesh]

I continued my three mile streak today, but it was not easy. There should come a day, shouldn't there, when I'm not feeling ready to quit a half mile in and then just struggling along for the entire three miles. I would like it if at least part of the run felt good. On the plus side, I don't feel quite as tired as I did after my run last Tuesday, so there's some hope for the rest of the day. I'm also not quite as hungry as I expected to be. I was starving before the run, and bought a breakfast sandwich in anticipation of needing extra food today, but I was barely hungry enough for a powerbar (crucial protein and energy to prevent a crash later today).

I've come up with a plan to get more running in, too. There's a city park across the street from work, with a playground, a grassy field, a baseball diamond and a spectacularly crappy track. I'm going to attempt to run on the track after work the days I don't go to the gym. Now, this is totally dependent on the building manager allowing me to come back into the building to get my bag afterwards, because no way am I taking my back pack out with me and just setting it on the bleachers with the hope that no one will lift it while I'm on the other end of the field. I'm pretty sure the building doesn't get locked up until 8 pm, so it shouldn't be a problem, but B might lock up the basement earlier than that, since no one uses it after the daycare closes.

Seriously, if I don't start feeling like I'm getting some physical benefit from this running, soon, I may start losing the motivation to keep doing it. And I know that one of the ways to actually get some benefit from it is to run more than twice a week, so this plan has to work. That's all there is to it.

Comments

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

I found the best way that I got into running was to stop trying to run 30 mins.

I would run for 9 minutes then walk for 1. And repeat. And do that three times. It is a lot easier to digest then "holy crap - run for 30 mins/3 miles". When I needed to add on more time for a longer race, I would just add another time segment. It is much easier to push through the rough spot if I know in three minutes I get to take a scheduled walk break.

It's how I did the half marathon.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about doing intervals at least some of the time, but more along the lines of warm up for ten minutes, sprint for a minute, walk two or three, repeat for twenty minutes or so, in order to build up speed and muscle.

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

Good luck getting in some additional running time on non-gym days! I think 3-4 days a week are the minimum for me in terms of feeling semi-OK about my efforts. That said, it was a struggle for me this morning too. I just put in the effort so it will be easier tomorrow.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It will definitely be a struggle for me to make myself change into gym clothes and go out onto the track tomorrow after work, but something's got to change and this seems like it's worth a try. I'll have a better idea of how well it will work once I've done it a few times and figured out exactly how much pain it's going to cause (the track is old asphalt, rather than an actual running track surface).