Just try to get that Meatloaf song out of your head now! Come on. Try it. I know. No luck.
So, in roughly 85 days, it’s triathlon time. 85 DAYS! I’m actually excited. You know I’ve been biking for a year or so now, and I’ve added the swim in during the last month. Now that I have a bathing cap that doesn’t cut off my brain flow and I figured out that I was wearing my goggles upside down (why yes, I am blonde), I’m loving swimming. Next up? The run. Hence the Two Out of Three ain’t bad that I’ve been singing since buying all my running gear Saturday.
I’m terrified. Here is a brief history of my relationship with running.
1. Ten year-old Sara develops some freakishly long legs. Her gym teachers cheer! Have we got a 100m dash kid here or what. Sara enters the London Public School track meet and promptly trips over her own legs, like a newborn foal, and face plants. It remains unclear who cried more – Sara or the coaches who recognized that along with the legs, came some major un-coordination.
2. Fifteen year-old Sara meets all the bad ass chicks in her high school gym class during the daily runs. The girls were lagging behind hoping to grab a butt under the bridge by the Humber River. Sara was just lazy and had no interest in hacking out any lungs.
3. Sixteen year-old Sara realizes she looooves playing centre on the basketball team and gives up the forward position forever. Why would she choose to be manhandled by opposing 6″2 amazons from the other team? Because she realizes she only has to run from top of the key to top of the key. Perfect.
4. Thirty year-old Sara goes on Outward Bound mountain climbing trek. She successfully climbs a mountain with a pack on her back, spends 24 hours alone in the wilderness, scales a rock face. But when told she had to run a 10k to complete the program, she shrugs, says ‘I’m good’ and walks it.
5. Fourty-three year-old Sara agrees to run a 5k with the other UrbanMoms for breast cancer. She brings her adorable son along for the fun. He quickly turns non-adorable when he remarks, ‘Mom, why is everyone else running and we’re walking?’. No popsicle for you kid.
So suffice it to say I don’t like running. I’m not good at it. I don’t enjoy it. I dread it.
BUT. I will do it. Yes, Nike – I will just do it. (in my hideous new New Balance running shoes – sorry). I’m hoping that maybe I’ve grown up slightly and can shed my laziness and embrace the sweat, the sore knees, the red face and all that comes with running.
Any tips from you runners out there? Help….
Think of the run as just a cool-down after the bike. Plod along one foot after the other, and it will be done before you know it. Make sure you do some brick workouts before the triathlon (short run-bike-run workouts) – not sure they have any training effect, but they do get you used to having your legs feel like concrete when you run immediately after biking.
oooh good advice – thanks Sara!
Good for you to take on this challenge! I love running– obsessively at times, but I understand where you are coming from. So until you get into your groove and start to maybe even like it, make it fun. Try fartlek style of running (even the name is fun…). I do those on one of my training days each week just to keep things fun. Run fast, then slow, run fast longer, then slower, race to the stop sign, walk to the car…whatever. The point is to mix it up, try not to look at your watch, and just run like kids do…. randomly…without watches and goal times.
In my experience, when you first start running, it is terrible. You can’t even go a block, and it hurts like heck the entire way. And you can’t coast, like if you are biking. You are running, or you’re not. It can be pretty discouraging, and make you wonder why people run at all, if it’s so painful.
But when you stick with it, just like the other commenters say, it gets a little bit easier, and you go a little farther, and then all of the sudden you are running and you find yourself thinking about what you are going to make for supper. Or about the song you are listening to. And not about how much you hate running and how you just want to stop. It’s all downhill from there.
Keep it up!
You know I hated running but wanted to love it- it took a year and now I do love it. You can do it S- you will fly xoxoxo
Thanks Carolyn…I’m so hoping that’s what happens. Ira is on the playlist, got the water….and hopefully the ‘one more minute’…. I never thought I would love swimming and I seriously do, so maybe it will come to that as well…..I have doubts though.
I used to LOATHE running; but, once I started doing it consistently, I ended up loving it. You need a great playlist, water & the knowledge that you can do anything for one minute. When you feel like you can’t go any further, try to go for one more minute. You’ll be amazed at the progress you’ll make.