Building the Base

Huh? What does that mean?

Well, when it comes to running...esp. for beginner runners like me, it means establishing a base or standard, steady pace at which you feel comfortable running.

Obviously it's the goal of most runners to continually gain speed to decrease their overall running time. So when I first started running on my treadmill it became a daily goal to try to run as fast as I could to continue to beat my previous time.

But with that process I was sprinting, then walking, sprinting, then walking, etc. because the sprints would take so much out of me that I didn't have enough endurance left as I huffed and puffed my way through it.

So as frustrating as it was to think of trying to slow down my run times to a slower, but steady, pace that's exactly what I've been working on. After all, remember these guys?

Or for a more recent example, did you see this episode of the Biggest Loser a few weeks ago?

Each person had to pull the weight of an entire car plus extra pounds added to their total weight by other players. I don't get to see the show often, because it's always on Tuesday nights when I'm at Bible study.

But in this episode...one of the blue guys and the son on the brown team both sprinted off from the starting line and had a HUGE lead during most of the race. This girl on the green team ended up pulling the most additional weight added to her car by other players. She started off at a steady pace and kept her determined focus.

And all of a sudden, the two guys began to lose their momentum and run out of steam! The green gal GAINED positive motivation as she sure and steadily noticed herself getting closer to their lead...and eventually she passed them BOTH and won by a wide margin! It was a really cool race!

So the past couple of weeks I've been working on running at a slower...steady but still challenging pace, and running longer periods of time and longer distances. I've been focusing on running a minimum of 30 min. at each run and at least a distance of 3.1 miles in whatever time it takes.

The weather has been primarily awful lately, so most of my runs have been inside on my treadmill. But yesterday we FINALLY has some gorgeous weather for a change! It was sunny and warm...still windy, so there was some wind resistance factoring in, but not too bad.

I've been practicing running for a minimum of 4.0 miles (my thought process is if I practice running longer distances, then running in my first 5k/3.1 miles race in June won't seem nearly as difficult). So I set off on the bike trail and began running at a comfortable, steady pace.

It's been several weeks since I've run outside and the last time I ran outside I had to take MANY walking breaks where I would run for 0.2 miles followed by walking 0.1 miles, back and forth.

This time...I RAN the ENTIRE distance!!! I kept telling myself, "let's just see how far you can go before you really need a break." So I kept running and running and running. I'm not sure what my exact pace was, it was mostly likely around 5.0mph, but the point is I ran steady and continuously the WHOLE time...except for a few very tiny, short walking breaks primarily at points in the trail where I turned around to lap the opposite direction.

And the best part? I ran farther than I've EVER run before! I ran a total of 5.0 miles!!!! Let me repeat that: I.RAN.5.0.MILES!!!!!!

I've never run 5.0 anything in my life! And the best part was the whole time I felt GREAT! No pain in my shins or cramps in my side like I had on a few indoor runs last week. I was thirsty, and it's not a good idea to lick your lips on a windy day because then all you can think about is how badly you want your chapstick, but otherwise I did awesome!

Now, my biggest frustration is that the stopwatch I brought with me somehow managed to get bumped and restarted to zero TWICE while I was running, so I don't know what my actual time was (I'm so angry about that!). But my best guess is:

5.0 miles = 61:38min., or 12:20min./mile pace

My actual time may have been less than this, it may have been more, but this is as close of a guess as I have. It's COMPLETELY MINDBLOWING to me that I actually did this???!!!!

I've never been a runner. The closest I've ever been was when I played soccer about a million years ago in high school, but after my jr. year in 1992 my soccer days were over. So for me to actually be able to RUN anything is so totally monumental and amazing to me! I'm so proud of myself! And now I can't wait for another chance to run outside again and record my actual total time!!!