I have, from the beginning of my running career, maintained that while I run I do not consider myself a "Runner."
In September 2010 I defined a runner as "those who run daily, those who love to run, those who can finish a half or full marathon without walking." I didn't consider myself as such, mainly because I do not enjoy the act of running. Running is hard and uncomfortable!
A month later I started thinking maybe I could become a runner, though I still didn't consider myself one. I added to the definition, including someone who runs more days out of the week than not.
I have, in fact, completed a half marathon without walking. I think the goal of running every single day counts here. So does the fact I miss running when I am unable - like when my back is out of wack. Running is not the be all and end all of what I do, but I think I have to fess up to the fact that I am, in fact, a runner.
I woke up today with a very sore hip and shoulder... enough for me to call off painting my Mom's living room. There was no way I could ride over. There was no way I wanted to stress my back with painting. Because there was also no way I could run in that condition, I decided to go for a walk instead. A 6.25 mile walk. Moving definitely seems to help. Things feel better when I'm moving, and for a good while after.
Over the course of the walk I thought about something I mentioned yesterday: that I would really like to run 10 miles every day. In all honesty I know I cannot run every single day, at least not until I'm a whole lot stronger. I tried that earlier in the year and it only worked for a while before my body rebelled. That said, there is no way I'm going to run 10 miles MOST days if I don't work up to it, and if I don't try.
I've been focused lately on simply sweating every day. What I'd like to do is start ramping that up again. I'm looking at half marathon training plans, not to prepare for a race but to get my mileage back up. I'm looking at cross-training, like the stress test and 15% incline workouts I did last week. I'm thinking in terms of time spent sweating, rather than distances run. Right now, 10 miles is about 2 hours. I know I'm capable of half an hour daily. I'd like to get that up to an hour daily, and go from there.
I wrote that paragraph above, then worked out a plan based wholly on mileage. It has me running 6 days a week, and up to 10 miles a day by the end of the year. It's a start, not written in concrete. I have to start somewhere, right?
1 comment:
The first time it occurred to me that I wanted to run, I had just started reading the Sue Grafton alphabet novels. The main character mentioned that she runs 3 miles every day. A little voice in my head told me "that sounds awesome."
Now, I haven't ever tried to do that. But, I keep it in the back of my mind as a "if I ever stop wanting to do races/getting better, and just want to maintain."
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