I have clearly fallen behind on my blogging, but I will try to summarize the last week or so in my quest to run a 5k.
When we last left our heroine, she (okay, I) was going to start running with buddies so that I would have some motivation to keep going. Thursday morning I went to Erin's house to run around the water reservoir near her house, which was roughly 2 miles total. It was about 40 degrees outside and the beginning was a little trail-y (through the woods), and I got about 10 feet before I realized this was going to suck. Erin was really great at coaching me and trying to get me to run for a minute or two at a time and then rest for the same amount of time, but I was getting really discouraged. By the time I got to our marketing retreat later that morning, I was not feeling at all confident about being able to run a 5k in a few weeks.
All day I went back and forth about what my goals were (whether I should still shoot for running the whole thing, or just try to do my best and not worry about running the whole thing, etc.) and whether I should still be running the 5k on April 9 or if I should cancel/postpone the 5k. I even looked up the cancellation policies and found out that I could get a deferral (less a processing fee) and use it on a later race. I was just all over the place and really doubting myself.
But on Friday when I drove back up to the retreat, I told my friend Stephanie about maybe postponing the race, and she immediately told me to stop. She decided to sign up for the 5k and encouraged me to not worry about running the whole thing, just to try my best and see what would happen. I also talked things through with Erin and Carrie, and they all agreed that I should just keep going and not put so much pressure on myself. (Kudos to all of them for listening to me jabber on about my 5k all day!)
So, I went to the gym for a run on Saturday, and I managed to do two miles in about 26 minutes, and only 8-9 of those were walking. I found out that if I paced myself by going at 5 mph instead of 5.5 mph I lasted a lot longer, so I managed to run stretches of 3-4 minutes at a time. I forgot to add an incline of .5, but suddenly I was feeling sooooooo much better about myself! I was really excited that I ran 2/3 of the way and didn't even feel like I was going to die at the end. It was amazing the difference half a mile per hour could make, and how much my confidence level changed from just a few days before.
After that, I was feeling a lot more confident about actually running the whole 5k, and I reminded Steph to sign up Monday morning so we were all set to kick some butt. I went running Monday night for two miles again, this time with an incline of .5, and I didn't manage to run/jog the whole time, but I walked the same amount or less than before, plus the incline. I figured it was progress all the same, which is my overall goal, regardless of whether I make it all the way to 3 miles running by April 9; the date isn't important.
Unfortunately, Monday night my left ankle was bugging me, but I just figured it needed to pop or stretch or something. But Tuesday morning it was hurting when I walked or moved it a certain way, so I asked Natalie how I would know if I was injured. She says that if your ankle hurts, especially if you're just walking, it's really not a good sign. She told me to RICE it (rest, ice, compression, elevate) and just do some upper body and ab work for the night. I did the same thing yesterday, and today my ankle is better but still feeling a little sore.
Natalie said that if my ankle isn't better by our running appointment Saturday that I might have to drop out of the race, but I was talking to her today and decided that I would do the 5k on April 9 anyway, even if it just turns out to be a run/walk that's a baseline for future races. If I can't run the whole thing that day, I'll sign up for another one and try to beat my time. She was really supportive and thought that was a great attitude to have. I'm really frustrated that my ankle is messing up my training (if you had told me a month ago that I would be mad I couldn't go running, I would have laughed in your face), but I would also rather take it easy and make sure I'm completely healed than start doing too much too soon and injure it further, perhaps taking me out of the race altogether. I'm hoping it's better in the next day or two, but if not, I'll just have to deal with it.
So those are the ups and downs over the last week or so. Sheesh. :P
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