At Saturday's practice, our team changed locations from the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks park to the park at Balboa. I knew that we were scheduled to complete four miles, and that this time, one of those miles would be timed so that we knew what our "pace group" would be. By the middle of the warm-up jog, though, I felt tight, tired and worried that I would not even get through the warm-up. But I somehow did, stretched, and then we all set out for mile one.
As I had been doing, I decided to power-walk this first mile. The nice part was that I was able to look around and take in the incredible scenery. I am so annoyed that I've been living down the street from one of the most serene parts of LA that I've seen, and that I only just discovered it. Balboa park reminds me a bit of Boston common...but with better weather. And birds! There were soooo many birds. I even saw a heron or egret (I'm not sure which, but definitely from that family). The worst part of this first mile, however, was the fact that I had to go to the bathroom. And I ended up a mile away from it.
But I couldn't walk back, because the second mile was our timed mile. We were only going a half of a mile to our starting point (which had the bathrooms), and turning around, so I had to just deal with it. I figured that I would power walk this timed mile, but then our coach told us that in order to learn what our 60% of our effort is (which is what we're supposed to be training at on Saturdays), we need to know what our max is. We were told that we should push ourselves to a point that we wouldn't be able to sustain for a long period of time. So, I started walking for a few seconds at the beginning, and then decided to push myself. I ran (though it probably appeared to be more of a jog). I felt pretty uncomfortable because I passed the walkers, but I wasn't quite up to speed with the runners who had started off at a run. But I figured that I would just alternate the running with walking.
But then I started to feel so good and I did not want to walk. I got to my turn-around half-mile point, feeling winded, but energetic, and enjoying the wind in my face. (I finally got weather-appropriate running gear and it makes the cold of 7 am more bearable.) I started walking again for a bit, and then felt that urge to run again. So I did. I was pretty close to one of the runners, so I tried to pick up my pace a bit and catch up. I walked once more, but then saw the finish line, got excited, and ran. My friend Kelley (who had already gotten to the finish point) ran out to meet me when I was close, and ran the remaining distance with me, pushing and encouraging me.
Before I set out for the timed mile, I asked my mentor Brett what time I should be aiming for, and he said that walkers should generally aim for no more than 17 minutes. I made it in 11 minutes, 40 seconds.
Okay, clearly, I'm no elite athlete here. But last year, I decided to run down the block from my house. Literally. One block. I thought my calves would fall off at the end of that, and I couldn't catch my breath for another block. I had just walked a mile, and run/walked another one. And, I got put into my pace group with other runners (and one amazing-kickass-fast walker).
To put us into pace groups, they told us to add 2 minutes to our time (13:40), and group one was under 10 minutes, group two under 11, group three under 12, group four under 13, group five under 15, and group six over 15. Our group is not huge, and our pace is run 3 minutes, walk 1 minute. The other week, this pace was exactly what I told our running coach (Bridget) that I couldn't sustain. But, I figured that maybe I have gotten stronger, so I decided to give it a try on the next mile. After all, I could always change pace groups.
I was actually really surprised when then next mile passed. I was running and talking with Kelley, and Victoria, who is a really nice girl that I met the first day of practice, but who I hadn't talked to much since then because I had been training with the walkers and she with the runners. But even more surprising to me than the fact that I was actually running 3 minutes at a time, was that I was having fun doing so.
Mile four came, I still had to use the restroom, and I FINALLY was running back to it. But I didn't want to stop and lose my momentum, so I kept going through the end of the mile. I ran 3 minutes, walked 1 minute, for two miles! AFTER mostly running another mile. After walking the first. WHAT?!?
So much for classifying myself on what I think I can do. I have no clue what I am capable of.
It's not like I didn't think that I would get here. I am training for a marathon. Clearly, I was eventually going to be able to do 4 miles. But I had no idea that I would get where I am as quickly as I have. Who knows what I'll be able to do in a few weeks even?
One of my favorite moments of the day was when Brett (mentor) gave me a high-five after the timed mile, and laughed at me and mocked me for saying I wasn't able to run.
After the run, our stretching and my bathroom break (FINALLY), we had clinics on fundraising and on injury prevention. I learned a whole lot of useful information, the most helpful of which was probably that most injuries are caused either by overworking (and not letting the muscle tissue heal) or by problems with a runner's form.
I cannot wait to see what I am capable of doing next.
No comments:
Post a Comment