Tuesday, August 21, 2012

My Intro into the Jogging World.

My name and jogging were two words that were not to be spoken out loud at the same time.  To me jogging was just some sort of medieval torture.  I knew I needed to step up my walking and jogging seemed to be the easiest option for me.  Since I am an internet geek, it wasn't to hard to find heards of sites for runners.  My biggest hurdle was to sift through all the crap out there.  I figured my first goal should be to do a 5K.  I found a few training programs for 5K's but one that I've read the most on was Couch to 5K.  It was a free app on my android phone and there was a nice group in the MFP forums.  For a couple of weeks I would add 5-10 mins of jogging (3 times a week) to my daily walks.  While I wasn't in jogging shape, all of the walking seemed to make the intro a bit easier.  About this time I joined the Runners World Beginner Forum.  Hands down the best forum I found for running advise.  They suggested even though I've been jogging for a short time, I still should start with the C25K program so my body could get used to the beating.  I have no shame in admitting I was clueless about this at first, so I took their advise and started the program that week.

Few things right off the bat they suggested: 1) take it easy, every run isn't a PR (personal record) run, 2) follow the program, 3) use the rest days, 4) don't over do it, to much to early can lead to injury, 5) use good form, foot strike and breathing is key, 6) speed will come with miles under your belt.  While some of that made sense and the speed part with miles seemed odd, they were the experienced runners.  I threw shot put and discus on the track team.  Not once did I run a race. lol  By the point I started C25K I already could jog 30 mins straight so I wasn't sure if I would gain from this.  I started with W1D1, then skipped to W2D1 and finished the next 3 weeks.  After W4D3 I decided that I was probably a tic farther then the C25K program was but I still feel it helped me concentrate on my form and breathing.  Since I wasn't going out to do 3-4 miles at time and my pace could be timed with the sun dial, I had time to make sure I wasn't looking like a total muppet.  Week in, week out, I tried to jog 3-4 times a week.  I read up on running form and saw a post talking about shorter steps can help alleviate some knee pain.  Granted I didn't have any and figured that could help make sure I didn't get any.

Every few weeks I noticed I could go a little farther, a little faster.  I wasn't going out to run farther/faster it was just happening.  My avg 15-16 min pace was now 14-15 mins and 2 miles was turning into 3 miles.  I was starting to hit 3+ miles, while I wouldn't say easily but it wasn't hard either, so I decided it was time to start thinking about that first 5K.  I like the idea of goals and knew it would keep me motivated to keep moving forward.  Once I saw the scale moving in the right direction again (plus the 20-30% more calorie burn), TBH that was all the motivation I needed.