I Got This

I ran a 5k tonight. It was on the treadmill at the Y, but still -- I did the full thing. Well, I should confess that I slowed to a brisk walk after the 2 mile mark because the damn treadmill made me do a couple of minutes of running with an incline which was tough, but my brisk walk portion was short. I finished my 5k in under 36 minutes, which translates to roughly 12 minute miles. I'm happy with that. I'm actually thrilled by that!

I think I've figured out what the trick is. Visualization. I ran in a different part of the Y tonight which ended up being helpful because the section I usually run in has the TVs and I end up trying to follow along to a show and I get all caught up and confused by trying to read the subtitles too. In the section where I ran tonight, I faced a corridor that overlooks the pool so I did a lot more people watching. It was good; I think I may choose this area again next time. I tried to focus on my music and my breathing and run in beat to the music. I kept at a pace (around 11 minutes/mile) that was workable for me -- I could steadily run without getting a cramp and not so slow that it was laughable. Well, maybe for serious runners it's a laughable pace, but for me at this stage of the game it was good. I set small goals for myself -- run to the end of this song, run another minute, run to another mile marker -- and told myself that when I hit that goal that I could slow to a walk. And then I kept on running anyway with another small goal in mind. And it worked out somehow that I ran over 3 miles without laming out to a walk or doing my usual "run for 20 minutes and see how far I've gone" trick.

I've been kind of beating up on myself for the past month because I have definitely fallen off the workout wagon. I've been going to the gym, but not really doing great runs or workouts, and my eating habits have been terrible. My snacking really has been terrible. This small success at the gym was a biggie for me -- it gave me a lot more confidence and made me feel like I can do this. I got this. I can run a 5k, hey maybe even another 5k later this year?, and do it without any huge problems. Trust me, a month ago I wouldn't have said I could do it. Today? Feeling a lottttttt more confident.