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Running Update

Lea and Maggie want me to go running with them, so I asked Lea to go out with me this weekend since Maggie is out of town with Mark. I haven't done any running in a while (2-3 weeks at least), so I figured I better do it again to make sure I don't regress too much.

Lea ended up cancelling, but I decided to go out and do it anyway. I really need to get out of my headspace and make some dedicated time to just relax in nature. I literally missed all of spring this year because I couldn't get out of my own head and pay attention to what was happening around me. I remember seeing exactly 1 daffodil, 2 tulips, a few lilacs, and the magnolia trees in Whitnall park... all only during fleeting glances. I don't remember seeing any flowers, even though I know they obviously came and passed; and I never saw a single plum, cherry, or crab apple tree blooming. I apparently missed everything, and when I start thinking about it, it's really upsetting. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year, and I love love love daffodils. :(

The roses are already out, and I'm determined to not let this problematic pattern continue. I only get once a year to experience spring and I lost all of 2018 because of this problem I created.

At any rate, I digress. I wanted to go someplace new, so I decided to go into Burlington on their Burlington-Norway trail. It was a decent length - not too long, not too short - and was isolated from the highway. It was also close to their downtown, and I wanted to spend some time afterward reading by the river and/or going to their coffee shop to work on my novel; but I didn't end up having time to do either because I had to meet up with Charlotte and Jordan to go the drive-in theater up in Jefferson.

It was a lovely trail. Some of it was the same thing I see everywhere else, some of it was unique. It had a very wide river with a beautiful bridge to cross and a swampy area next to a field.

I can't run in silence, as much as I would have liked to get me immersed in nature. I need music to motivate me to keep running and to give me some idea of how long I've run. I can't do that without music, so I did the next best thing and chose more relaxing/nostalgic music a la my Sailor Moon and Ai Otsuka playlists. That's been part of my strategy to get out of my head - get away from the same repetitive pop and rock playlists I've been on for the last 5 months.

So on to the important part of this update: my running progression. On the first time, I ran for 6 minutes straight, the longest I've done to date. I was really proud of myself, but then I could only run for 2 minutes the time after that. I was just too exhausted to go longer than that. The third time, I ran for 3:30 minutes. I could have run longer that time, but my feet were literally killing me in my shoes. At that point I was seriously wondering if I'd even be able to make it back in that much pain.

The next time, though, the pain suddenly subsided and I was able to run for 6 full minutes again, making me feel better. I rested for about a minute, maybe two, and then ran the entire rest of the length of the trail - a full 9 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I was able to keep going because 1) my feet were no longer hurting, for whatever reason, and 2) I finally figured out my breathing.

I'm not sure if I was actually breathing in a sustainable way, but it was perfectly rhythmic and allowed me to continue with absolutely no effort. At one point everything suddenly became totally effortless, and I briefly wondered if this was the "runners high" you're supposed to experience 30 minutes into an exercise (like I've experienced in biking). I guess it's possible, but it didn't make me enjoy running any more than I did, lol.

So far this is my running progression, which I'm really proud of:
  • 1st time, sidewalk in front of our house: 15 seconds, had to rest for 2 minutes in between
  • 2nd time, Whitnall Park along the parkway and into the woods by the Rock: 1:30-2 minutes
  • 3rd time, Whitnall Park around the lake: 4:30 minutes max, 3:30 average
  • 4th time (this time), Burlington-Norway trail: 9 minutes, 6 minutes average
6 minutes is averaging about 0.5 miles, so I'm running at about 12 minutes per mile. I think that's what I walked in high school during gym class, haha. It seems, though, that I'm progressing at a decently fast rate, which I attribute to my working so hard in other areas. 15 minutes straight seems crazy impossible at this point, but I guess maybe it's not impossible.

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