Last night I spent a lot of time freaking out being able to complete a 4 mile walk/run. I've only been doing 2 miles walk/running, how am I going to complete 4? How long will it take me? How am I ever going to survive walk/running for over an hour? What if I can't do it? These were some of the choice thoughts running through my head. Ha, ha. No pun intended. So, I did what I've been taught to do with other difficult things in my life. I made a phone call to get out of my head and let another person know about the craziness in my thoughts. Then, I talked about it with other people. Oh, and gave myself a pep talk; you aren't in tomorrow, all you have to do it right now. Right now you are driving, and you can totally handle that. 4 is ONLY double 2, that doesn't seem THAT difficult. Then I'd be able to think about something else after the pep talk.
Talking with people about my craziness resulted in one of my friends offering to come along for the walk/run. She must be just as crazy as I am to agree to a 4 mile walk/run at 7:15 am. And I welcomed it. Everything I've read suggests running with others, especially on long run days. Somehow it makes it easier. So, my brave and funny friend Allison agrees to this nonsense. And then I can breathe. I had someone else to brave the unknown with me.
We met at actually about 7:20 am. Neither of us are truly morning people, but she didn't glare at me while I was all awake and smiling AND saying hi to people on the trail. So it was great! We tied our car keys into our shoelaces, and braved it without taking bottles of water with us. I will have to post the photos/videos later, when I figure out how to do so.
It was quite cool this morning which was great! We made it through the first mile and a half pretty easily. Without being OCD about it, we tried to keep a 30 sec run/45 sec walk pace. Neither of us had a stop watch. Then the hills increased. This was definitely not a PG rated walk/run and hopefully the trail/dirt/hills weren't offended by our cursing them. But this gave me the opportunity to share some of the information I read with Allison. To remind her that Jeff(Galloway) says that it's about the mileage, not about the time. And that it's more important to stay together then to try and go at a higher pace then the person you are jogging with. (Is it weird that I still can't stand to leave prepostions at the end of a sentence? Either way, I'm still going to do it.)
I would dare say that I actually had fun on my walk/run today. We talked about all kinds of things, including a movie called Idiocracy. And we laughed. I never realized how much breathe you needed to laugh. It sort of complicates being able to breathe while jogging, but worth it. So, Jeff suggests using certain phrases to help the battle in your brain during your walk/running. I shared these phrases with Allison. You are supposed to choose the ones that relate the most to you, and he has a ton of them. Some may call them dirty little tricks, because they work. The one that stuck out the most to me was "Every step gives me benefits." It helps me stay in the present. Another one was "I'm gaining strength from endorphins." The one word that confused me was "glide." Apparently this is one of his favorites. So this became a joke the rest of the run. . .I'm gliiddinng said in a sing-songy voice. It's fun. You should try jogging and repeating. This conversation actually got us to our 2 mile marker where we could turn around.
Then some more hills. Those downhill spots are bea-u-ti-ful. The scenery also helped. It was a gorgeous morning, blue sky, clouds, sun, AND cool. The streams glistened, there were birds and chipmunks scurring around. The hills were probably the most challenging going back. My leg muscles started feeling heavy. That was when I reminded Allison that smaller strides apparently help and that we didn't have a time goal. And we made it up all those hills. Before I knew it, we were at the bathrooms. I'd had to go since we saw the 2 mile marker. Got a drink of water, and Allison pointed out the very thoughtful doggie drinking fountain. How great is that? A drinking fountain for dogs!
Guess what the great thing is about the bathrooms? The 3 mile marker was about 500 feet away. We made it and I feel like passing out. After a high-five, we jogged on up another hill. Insert choice words here. A conversation about the awkwardness of saying hi to people on the trail. It is sort of awkward. Some people are smiling, some people are jamming to their music and don't hear you. Some are covered in sweat and just trying to keep there body in motion. Those people usually don't even look at you. I think from now on that whenever I say "Hi" to people on the trail, I'm going to view it as saying "Namaste." Namaste is what is usually said at the end of a yoga practice. It has been described as meaning, the divine in me acknowledges the divine in you. I always like that part. Because I do believe that each of has a spirit, and it helps me remember that.
We started passing parking lots, there was no river in site, and we knew we were close to the end. It was amazing, we were almost finished with 4 miles. We jogged a little quicker and then walked our way to end. We made it! We did some walking to cool down and of course stretched. I am a huge fan of stretching. It lessens whatever soreness I may have after my workout. And I can tell when I don't stretch afterwards. Thankfully, Allison pointed out that with our warm-up and cool-down, we actually did 4.5 miles and next weeks long run of 5 miles is only .5 longer than that. And that actually helped my brain.
Leaving the park, I was so thrilled that I had completed the 4 mile walk/run. I will be able to check it off on my training schedule! And my brain was worried for nothing. This experience today has me questioning a lot of things that I worry about and think that I can't do them. I love it. Today is the reason why I wanted to run a half-marathon. (Please remind me of this when I have a 9 mile long run.) For today, I did it. And I am again shown that my higher power will carry me through. I'm very grateful.
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