A Little Background

So, let's just get a little background on me. I am 37 (ugh), I have two boys ages 8 and 9 (362 days apart, can you say crazy?). I also have an almost 17 year old nephew who lives with us. My husband is awesome, a better housewife than I am. And we have a fish, a hamster and two greyhounds. I have never been interested in running, per se. Every once in a while I would try it, hate it and stop (mostly in a turnover period of about 24 hours). Most recently I started in order to prepare for a belt test for Tae Kwon Do. I know how much I dislike running, so I knew that I would have to take my time working into it. I have another post that goes a little into how I started running, so I will keep more to the process to date.

We started the Couch Potato to 5K in January with a goal to run a race in June. May I say, the creator of that program is a genius. If you asked me a year ago if I would consider running a 5k, my answer would have been "never". I laughed at runners. Idiots, who actually enjoys that kind of thing? But dig me, I did it. I didn't do it on my own, and I have the utmost respect for people that can decide to do this on their own and do it. We have a good sized group of people run together and without them, I'd not be writing this little background. I ran the race on my own, but the only thing that gets me up to run at 6:00 is the fact that there are people waiting for me to meet them.

I've struggled with the running. I have a lot of problems breathing, and I had/have a lot of problems with my legs. I have very flat feet, which in turn throws the rest of my body out of alignment. I see a chiropractor weekly and we decided that I should try stabilizers in my shoes. So I had a fancy pair made just for me and lo and behold, my legs don't hurt anymore. My knees which always hurt, don't hurt near as much. Holy Moly. Now I can work on my breathing. Which I have finally figured out.

I always snickered at the thought that you should be able to have a conversation while you are running. That means you are at a good pace. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Who on Earth could have a conversation and run at the same time. Well guess what. I can!! This is the first week that I have been able to do it. My pace sits at about a 12:00 mile, which is fine. I don't care. I'm running and talking and starting to enjoy it. I get it. I have finally conquered breathing at a good pace.

Now my next task is distance. I have done two miles without stopping to walk. So now I am working on increasing that. It's a little bit at a time. And with the help of our fearless leader, we all do speedwork once a week.

So that's me in a nut shell. You can visit my other blog to see more about me.