Jogging? Me? Really??

I hate running. I have always hated running. The only time I have ever seen any point to running was when I was a basketball player and needed to travel from one end of the court to the other. So when I see people running, for the sake of running, I don't get it. But then again, before completing the half marathon in October, I never understood anyone's desire to do that either...

So I am in the midst of training for another half marathon. I am very excited about it. It's a birthday present to myself. I will be turning 35 in early May and really wanted to do something healthy for myself to celebrate, so I got this idea in my head to do another half marathon. I hadn't really put too much effort into looking for a half marathon, but had located one in China... but figured that was a bit too far to go to walk 13.1 miles... and if I am going to travel someplace that is THAT far away, I will be going to Africa, thank you very much. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked.

When I had done one of the races in the fall, either the 10k race or the half marathon, I was eligible for a free subscription to one of those health magazines. To be honest, I had forgotten about the free magazine because it hadn't been delivered... until a couple of months ago. Upon flipping through the pages I found an advertisement for a half marathon, and thought it looked pretty cool. And it happens to be within a couple weeks of my birthday. So, I thought it would be cool to do. I put the idea out to some friends, saying I would love some birthday half marathon company, and much to my surprise a few of them have also signed up and will also be participating! Very cool!

The catch to this thing... THIS half marathon has a time limit. You have to be able to finish in 3 hours and 30 minutes... which means, that in order to finish, without being booted off the course, and in order to have an official time, I have to finish in less than 3 and a half hours... so.. math geeks... that means that my pace MUST be about/under 1 minute miles. Which doesn't necessarily sound that intimidating, unless you have spent time walking and realize that it is about 3.7 miles per hour. So, on the treadmill, having to maintain that pace can be tough... or at least for me it is. So... I am worried that I may not be able to meet that time goal, 3 hours 30 minutes... unless... Unless....UNLESS there is jogging involved! UGH, yep, I said it... I think I am going to have to jog a bit in order to do this thing in a respectable way... This is an idea I have bene toying with in my head for a while, but had not, until recently shared it with anyone... but now it's out there... this idea of me at least jogging pieces of this half marathon...

So with that in mind, last weekend I did 4 miles on the treadmill in 64:45, (16:12 minute mile) which included 0.15 miles of jogging. Today, my mileage training goal was 5 miles. (The pic above is me AFTER finishing today.) My goal was to do 16 minute miles, which meant finishing 5 miles in 80 minutes. My first jogging leg of the trip was under a quarter of a mile, I started jogging and found a landmark to jog to... and when I finished that first jogging piece I was not happy. My asthma was not behaving itself (mental note to start carrying my inhaler if I am going to jog) and it took me a little while to get my breathing back to where I wanted it. After a while I did the same thing again... and during the 5 mile run, ended up having 5-6 mini jogs...which probably added up to 3/4 of a mile total jogging time. So... I think my plan for this week is to get a watch (I've always hated watches too!) that is one of those runner type watches....So glad to combine 2 things I hate, watches and jogging... who am I anyway? And whenever I am doing my training, I will walk for for a mile , then jog for 3 minutes, then walk until I get to the next mile marker, and jog for three minutes... and keep that up... with the hopes to get to the point of extending that 3 minutes to 4 minutes, which hopefully would be about a quarter of a mile... if I get up to jogging a quarter of a mile out of every mile (except for mile 1) that means I will jog 1.75 miles out of the 13.1.... oh yeah, plus that would mean jogging the final 0.1 mile... so joogging a total of 1.85 miles out of 13.1..... doesn't sound too bad... I suppose... That would definitely keep me at the pace I want to be able to finish in under 3 and a half hours...

Phew... this is hard work... the math part, not necessarily the walking part! Ha, just kidding. I do have to say that I am lucky to have supportive friends who also have health as a priority. Today's walk/jog adventure included my friend Suellen walking, jogging by my side, letting me set the pace. (She is participating in the half with me and is planning to jog more of it than I am!) Also, my friend, Debbie, her husband, and her son, also met up with us at the starting point. They went at their own pace and my friend Debbie jogged a lot! A LOT! Talk about getting healthy and having no fear - Deb has worked really hard to lose a significant amount of weight, and her goal is to run a 5k without stopping... I don't think I can do that, 3.1 miles without stopping... or could I?? Nah... It was very cool to meet up with friends for something healthy...

While I have never liked the idea of jogging/running... I have liked it even less since PVNS was involved in my life...not that i have done any jogging to make me like it any less, but the idea of it...while I know logically, that my doctor has told me that there is nothing I can do physically that will cause pvns to come back, that is a HUGE part of me that says the gentler I am to my knee, the longer I will keep pvns at bay... and for some reason, in my head, jogging/running is the worst thing I could do for my knee... even though my doctor told me that one of his other patients had returned to doing full marathons, running full marathons... So... my head has two very different schools of thought on this, first being don't jog, don't ever jog on one side, the go for it, you can do it, kick jogging's ass! ... well now I just realized maybe there is a third side... that if I mentally worry about hurting myself by jogging, then maybe I will... maybe I would cause a self fulfilling prophecy... that whole idea of attracting to yourself the things which you fear... ok ok... deep breath... I am overthinking....

My goal is to do the half marathon... as a way to be healthy as I turn 35... I will finish it in under 3.5 hours... and in order to do so, I need to jog. And, jogging can be healthy... CAN be healthy... and I have come a long way... my knee has come a long way... and it can handle it.. I will build up as I can tolerate it, listening to my body... and it will be okay....

So, yes, Me. Jogging. Really.