Or a box of chocolates. So really I'm nothing like Forest Gump except I went running today and did 8 miles! Eight miles! I don't think you are comprehending the enormity of this. If you had told me in 2003 that by 2006 I'd be training for a half marathon and actually enjoying it I would have felt your head for a fever. Or stopped your bar tab.
In January 2003 I was a gym going couch potato with no aerobic capacity. A friend of mine of fairly equal fitness level had trained the year before and completed a Danskin triathlon. Somehow she managed to convince me to sign up and do it in 2003. I am so cheap that putting down $75 to register forced me to begin training. I figured if I could actually do any of the three sections (half mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.2 mile run) then I'd be fine. My goals were to 1) finish and 2) not die in the process. I very slowly worked up from jogging half a mile at 5.0 on the treadmill and wanting to die, to being able to run the 3.2 mile distance (yet still wanting to die). The same went for swimming. I could only do one length (not lap) of the pool, and with my head out of the water, before I was completely out of breath. Now, I can keep going and going with my face in and out of the water (although I have not yet managed to keep my face in the water at an actual race. Too much adrenalin or starting too fast or something. I'm winded the whole time.) Biking came pretty easily and after several evil Spinning classes a mildly hilly outdoor course at my own speed wasn't so bad.
I've now done 4 triathlons, numerous 5Ks, and I needed a new challenge. I won't work out as hard at the gym if I don't have a goal so I signed up for a half-marathon this year. My friend H suckered me into it with the true warning that it fills up almost instantly every year. Faced with a looming deadline I couldn't help myself from signing up and then instantly panicked that there was no way I could go from 3 miles to 13! And yet, here I am today running 8 miles with very little problems except a knee tweak now and then. Who knew following a training program actually works?
Cinco en Mayo here I come!
In January 2003 I was a gym going couch potato with no aerobic capacity. A friend of mine of fairly equal fitness level had trained the year before and completed a Danskin triathlon. Somehow she managed to convince me to sign up and do it in 2003. I am so cheap that putting down $75 to register forced me to begin training. I figured if I could actually do any of the three sections (half mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.2 mile run) then I'd be fine. My goals were to 1) finish and 2) not die in the process. I very slowly worked up from jogging half a mile at 5.0 on the treadmill and wanting to die, to being able to run the 3.2 mile distance (yet still wanting to die). The same went for swimming. I could only do one length (not lap) of the pool, and with my head out of the water, before I was completely out of breath. Now, I can keep going and going with my face in and out of the water (although I have not yet managed to keep my face in the water at an actual race. Too much adrenalin or starting too fast or something. I'm winded the whole time.) Biking came pretty easily and after several evil Spinning classes a mildly hilly outdoor course at my own speed wasn't so bad.
I've now done 4 triathlons, numerous 5Ks, and I needed a new challenge. I won't work out as hard at the gym if I don't have a goal so I signed up for a half-marathon this year. My friend H suckered me into it with the true warning that it fills up almost instantly every year. Faced with a looming deadline I couldn't help myself from signing up and then instantly panicked that there was no way I could go from 3 miles to 13! And yet, here I am today running 8 miles with very little problems except a knee tweak now and then. Who knew following a training program actually works?
Cinco en Mayo here I come!
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