I'm not very good at motivating myself, so I found an MP3 on Amazon called Personal Running Trainer. Personal Running Trainer recommended starting at the 4 weeks to 1 mile program for complete beginners, so this is the first program I downloaded.
I hated the electronic music instantly, but it provided a good beat and I felt better swearing at the instructor in my head for his sh*t music as well as the pounding he was putting me through.
Day one was a five minute warm up walk followed by 45 seconds of running followed by 2 minutes of walking; this was done four times and there was another five minute cool down walk at the end. I can honestly tell you those 45 seconds made me wheeze and I needed the 2 minutes to regulate my breathing again.
Like all beginners I felt like bit of a tit starting running. Then I realised it didn't matter - because I was wearing sunglasses. I am one of those people who can't open their eyes in the sunshine without them and I realised the added bonus was that people ignore you because they can't see where you're looking. No one looked at me, no one said anything.
During 4 weeks to 1 mile I developed something I still refer to as 'OAP style'. The reality is though, there are several pensioners in the park who can outrun me. When I felt really tired, or the day was hot and humid I still went out for my 'run'. It didn't help that this May was particularly warm (up to 30 degrees into the evening) and I am a cold weather person. My body reacts to heat by swelling up - you should have seen the size of my feet when I was once on holiday in 40 degrees Italy, I couldn't even wear flip flops because I couldn't get them on!
On the 28th Oof May I graduated from the 4 weeks to 1 mile program, 25 days after starting. I ran for ten minutes straight, with a little bit of an OAP pace in the mix. I was so proud of myself - I ran for ten whole minutes with no walking!
No comments:
Post a Comment