First Run

I nearly died, but I did it. I went on my first actual PP run last week.

I got Monster to sleep and had all of my spin stuff out and ready. Cleats by the trainer, clothes, and water. I hopped on my trainer and it just spun all willy nilly. There was practically no resistance. I hopped off and messed with it for a few minutes and realized I had no idea what I was doing so I’d leave it for Kevin to look at. I then changed into running clothes and sat all sad on the bed because I still hate running. Some things never change. Alas, I would still do it, because I’m still determined to be a better runner.

I decided to use c25k to help time myself and also actually keep me running – otherwise I have a horrible habit of talking myself out of it and just walking instead.

I opted to run WITH Monster and the terrorist dog. I wanted to burn some energy off of the dog and well, I can’t leave the kid at home. Also, I knew that if I ran solo I would be unreasonably hard on myself/pace. It’d be really upsetting and discouraging for me. I know that’s dumb – it was my first run since the half marathon, so uhhh… 11 months ago? And also my first run since I had major abdominal surgery/a baby.

So, realizing all of the above, I set out for my run. Now, I seriously thought that day 1 on c25k was a 30 second run, 60 second walk. I hit 29 seconds, glanced at my phone and thought, “Hell yeah – I got this.” and then the timer kept going. Apparently day 1 is a 60 second run, 90 second walk interval. As I approached 45 seconds I had the “Eff running” moment that I typically have at some point in my run. Then at 60 seconds, as the timer dinged telling me to walk, I had the “I’m such a boss ass bitch” moment that prompted me to continue the torture.

I only skipped out on two of the seven c25k run/walk intervals because of ME (not kid/dog related.) They were uphill and quite frankly, my ass was dragging. Running with an additional 55lbs on my frame, 50lb stroller/kid combo and 35lb crazy dog is no easy feat. I had to stop multiple times for the dog to pee, crap or act like a jackass at some point and also to handle Monster whens she woke up and was wildly unimpressed with our run. Both had an amazing ability to need me to stop running when I felt like I was really hitting my groove.

Finishing my run was a fantastic feeling. I had some soreness at my incision line (as I’m definitely running earlier than they suggested, but whatevs my Western University of Google Medicine Medical Degree says otherwise. It was a short run anyhow. I was fine with the numbers simply because I did stop a bunch. So, I was probably running more like a 3 minute mile, right? RIGHT! No, but seriously, the few times I did glance down I was in the 15 minute mile range, which is pretty awesome considering.

The run was only the start of my week – I manged to exercise 6 of the 7 days last week! BOOM!

Kevin and I took full advantage of the nice weather and we made it out to Newtown Park and took three 3 mile walks with the stroller and dog. I even snuck in some weights last week.

I won’t lie, it’s A LOT harder to exercise with a kid. A lot harder than I imagined. The Dietbet is definitely a great motivator. I lost a crazy amount the first week: 8.3lbs. Granted a lot of that is water weight, but whatever, it feels good to see and I’ll take it. It definitely encourages me to keep exercising despite my exhaustion. I’m still waiting for it to give me more energy. That is going to happen again, right? Please?