My first “extra” run

This weekend I went for a 20 minute run on the treadmill.

For those of you who are very active already, you’re probably thinking “okay, and then…?” as in, that can’t be my whole story. For those of you who are not active yet maybe you’re thinking “Twenty minutes? How did you run that long?” For me, a 20 minute run was pushing my cardio limits. Consider it my baby step in advancing my aerobic endurance.

It’s the most cardio I’ve done in a really long time. Devin suggested a schedule of doing a long run on Sundays, by long he meant 60 minutes. When I was reviewing the schedule with him I pointed out that 60 minutes is completely out of my league! Devin recommended that to start off I should try 4min run/2min walk and just try to do that for 20 minutes. This Sunday, I warmed up for 4 minutes, then ran/walked for about 22 minutes on top of that. I’m trying to appreciate the progress that I make without overwhelming myself by what I’m NOT doing. I’m starting with the 20 minute run once a week in addition to my two visits to the gym. Adding one day of 20 minutes a week doesn’t seem so bad does it?

I was able to run at a speed of 6.0 and walk at 3.5, I tried to increase the walk speed to 4.0 but that was too fast for me! When I reached my half way mark around 10 minutes I started feeling tired. I knew it would be a push to get to the end. The last run/walk was really hard to get through. If I hadn’t been on a treadmill I doubt I would have been able to do it.

The treat for myself at the end of it all was a visit to the steam room. That felt so good! I have to admit that thought of a reward kept me going during my run.

Stacey has been encouraging me to consider doing a 5K run. I’ve mostly laughed it off (as politely as possible) because to me that seems practically impossible. What was shocking to me was that my 22 minutes was about two miles which is 3.2km. Who would have thought? I’m sure with some training and lots of time I could work up to 5K…just don’t tell Stacey that