Time to Catch Up…

… My dad told me so many times just to TRY. Wake up sick before school – Try. Can’t do homework – Try. Can’t go to sleep – Try.

Can’t – TRY.  I come by it honest.

So this ‘running thing’ that I do – it’s time to try.

The other day, I began with a AN OUTDOOR 1.51 MILES because the weather was mild and I needed to gage where I am physically.  Not bad – not much soreness after.  Not a whole lot of stamina, but I wasn’t pushing – I was just testing the running waters.  That night, I had some leg cramping that I couldn’t get worked out – I finally wrapped a heating pad around my calf and that seemed to do the trick.

Muscle memory took over on the 1.51 mile run and I didn’t really have to THINK about form any more than I usually do. When I looked at my running pace/time – I’m not far off where I had been this Summer.  This is very encouraging to me.

Today was my first test run in the new custom orthotic inserts. [They’re to help with my INJURY.]  It wasn’t  a horrible 1.78 MILES AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD. I’m sure they’re not completely broken in yet – but that’s okay.

Here’s my strategy for training for the Pittsburgh Marathon Relay – I’m beginning with timed intervals. Normally in the past, I’ve run 10/2, 8/1 and most recently 5/1. [That breaks down to 10 minutes running – 2 minutes walking.]

I’ve decided not to continue on the C25K PROGRAM simply because it doesn’t really meet my needs at this time. It’s a wonderful program and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s starting out. I did it, loved it and obviously, it worked for me.  The premise of the program is to run a continuous 30 minutes.

However for me, I’ve found that RUNNING/WALKING INTERVALS works best for me, both in strength, stamina AND working within my physical limitations.  The plan over the next few weeks is to go from 3/1 [and I’ve reversed the process because I’m breaking in the orthotic inserts AND getting over an injury] 3 minutes of WALKING and 1 minute of RUNNING.  Every three days of this training, I will decrease the walking interval and increase the running interval.

At least that’s my plan.  Square ONE plan, but it seems to be working, so I’m happy with that…

Happy and HEALTHY 2013!