Week 3: Run 1 (#7) - 2 Miles!!

Today we ran our 2 mile Sunday run. I was hoping that our yesterdays 4 mile run/ walk had not sucked all the life out of me, and it hadn't. The 2 mile run was not super easy but it was not super difficult too. I did walk when I needed a break but never for too long. It was Harsh's first run with the group and our silly signals for pick up speed and slow down really did help me when I wanted to stop and go back to a walk but the slowing down in pace kept me going. My knees didn't run, and I can truthfully say I felt great. I did not care too much about running quickly but whatever pace we ran with today, I did not have any trouble breathing. Hurray to that! Tomorrow is my rest day. My muscles (yay! I may have muscles after all!) need some relaxation.

PS: Today our mentor said that if we keep coming regularly to our runs, we should be able to complete our marathon. I wish his words should come true for everyone! He said he knows a charity that has extra tickets for the MCM marathon. Harsh is getting one, anyone else interested?

Makeup Run: Angry birds and Bugs Bunny!

After a disappointing run on Friday, Harsh decided to cheer me a little by taking me for another run on Saturday. I was glad he wanted to run with me because I could relax and run at a comfortable pace and get my 1 mile run correct this time. We started off slowly putting no pressure and reached the half mile point easily jogging the entire time. Then Harsh gave his signal which meant that we had to pick up our pace, even that felt good. I did pause when we reached the traffic signals but ran almost all the way. We had covered a little over 1.8 miles running when the thought that we had to run back the same distance occurred. It was a beautiful day and I saw many birds on our run, 2 of them very similar in looks to the red and blue angry birds! I even saw a bunny rabbit! Oh it was so cute, hopping along!

Well we walked a little more, we wanted to see the 2 mile marker and thats when my knees started hurting. My knees don't hurt on most runs, but they were hurting after I had slowed to a walk. Harsh asked me to brush it off, and keep my mind on the trail and nature. Nature can be very distracting at times! We saw this runner in pink waiting for the signal to cross the street with us and she was such an inspiration. We started running once again. We did a quick sprint near the last half mile marker and then decided to walk the rest of the way. My knee was surprisingly not hurting as badly and the run just made our day!

First run

Sunday, April 7th was our very first run, to kick off our training for the marathon. It was a simple 1 mile run for which many of my colleagues who are part of our Happy Feet running club had showed up early morning at 8am.

I was excited to say the least and to prove it, I actually woke up before my alarm went off and was ready in record time determined not to miss the very first run. The atmosphere was almost electric (alright, I am exaggerating a little, but everyone seemed really happy and excited to be there). It seemed like an encouraging group of people and when the group finally begun our run, I was cruising off with the others filled with a good old sense of positive energy and with a feeling that 1 mile should be a breeze. It was not! Also I had never run on an actual road before and never imagined it to be so cold. I had started my run at a higher pace than I would normally and soon after about 0.7 miles I was literally panting. My throat had turned dry and even though my feet could have carried me to the 1 mile mark, my will sure wanted to take it slow. I walked the remaining distance. We stretched with everyone and I was happy, thinking to myself that it felt good that I could run as far as I did. I did go back for a cool down walk for another mile and that was it for the day.

Sunday evening I had a bad case of headache probably because of the exposure to cold and not wearing any ear warmers. Had a ton of work to be done and come monday the headache still continued and so did the feeling of tiredness. I did google it like any normal person in the 21st century and found that it is perfectly normal.

We have our 2nd run for 1.5 miles coming this wednesday evening. I think I am going to let my body rest until then. So far so good.

PS: I wonder what should I be eating before a run, I sort of skipped breakfast on sunday and I have a feeling I shouldn't have done it.