Confession Time

So I have a confession to make and don’t worry it’s not a super serious confession. But in high school I hated running long distance. What I shocker I know, you’d think that I would enjoy running since I love soccer. In Jr. High I ran cross country but I wasn’t the best at it. I just did it to be around my classmates and to be outdoors. But recently I have started to really enjoy running. I go in spurts of running. There will be weeks where I run quite often and then several weeks will pass and I won’t run at all. There is just something about running and having music playing in your ear that keeps you going. Also just the ability to think while running is quite amazing.

Last semester I took a health appraisal and prescription class and one of the requirements for the class was we had to run a 5k with our client at the end of the semester. Up to this point I don’t think I had ever run more than two miles in my life at once. But there is just something about a competition that excites you and keeps you motivated to keep going. The 5k was tough on me physically as well mentally, but I will say my body started to shut down before my mind did. It was at this point that I just had to push through the pain and my body screaming at me to slow down and walk. I believe to be a pretty mentally strong person when it comes to those things. I mean I did tear my ACL when I was 14 and I came back from that. But after the 5k I felt really good and decided that my next goal was going to be a half marathon. I felt really good but I was also extremely sore at the same time, it was one of those good sores though; know what I mean.

I also need to run more often so I can get in better shape in general but also for soccer season that is going to be upon was rather quickly. I also tell myself that I need to run to get in shape for soccer but it never happens. I mean I don’t play soccer a whole lot anymore but I ref instead and I think there’s more running in that than there is in playing. I also tell myself that I need to run more so I can improve my VO₂ max. But that hardly motivates me though as well.

When I do go running I tend to prefer to run outside because who doesn’t love fresh air and the scenery. In the winter months it’s rather hard because of all the snow and ice. I find that I actually run a lot slower when I run outside during the winter months. I don’t necessarily like to run the treadmills because you don’t go anywhere but BYU-Idaho has an indoor track which is nice because even though it’s inside you at least go in circles. When I do go for a run I usually take my phone and I listen to Itunes radio with it on the pure pop station. I don’t have a lot of music on my phone but I find that the pure pop station offers just enough variety of music with an upbeat to keep my pace up. I also use Nike+ to map my runs and to tell me how far I have ran. Recently I have tried to run for at least 30 minutes each time. Sometimes I accomplish that and sometimes I don’t. It depends on the day. I like the Nike+ app because you can add your friends and see how you’re doing compared to your friends which also adds an element of competition along with accountability. They recently, (not so recently about a month ago but I just found out about it today) that they have Coach+. Coach+ helps you with your training if you are going to run any type of race. They’ll tell you when to start and how far you should run each day all the way up to race day.

Today I decided that I was going to go play futsal up on campus and there were a lot of people there. I played several  games but towards the end the team I was play on would end up losing with five minutes so it wasn’t fun anymore. Plus I had already been there about two hours playing so I was getting tired of it. At this point I decided that I would go run to end my night. So I grabbed my headphones, my phone and my armband which holds the phone. I then decided that I was going to run for 30 minutes because then I would be meeting ACSM guidelines. It’s amazing the things you do once you learn them from class. Before I stared running I thought this isn’t going to be very pretty because I was already tired from playing two hours of futsal but I figured I could fight through the physical break down. About ten minutes into my run my calves and knees were beginning to hurt, along with my gut because I wasn’t well hydrated. But I just fought through it all, it’s all mental. Everything is a mental game. When I was coming up on my 30 minutes I was close to three miles. I was closing in on the 30 minutes, I decided that I would run just a little extra so I could complete another 5k.

With that being said, it was while I was sitting down putting on my stuff on that I thought about how good I felt overall after my run. So when I got home I was looking at my Nike+ of my most recent run and was making adjustments to it. Once I was finished with that I found out about the Coach+ and decided that I wanted to run a half marathon. In the app it asks you the name of the event and the date of the event. I realized I needed to find a marathon that I could participate in so I could have an attainable goal. It was then I remembered that Rexburg has a several race events in the summer. It’s called the Teton Dam race, they have a 5k, 10k half, full marathon and a relay marathon.

So my goal is to run in the Teton Dam half-marathon on June 14, 2014.

Does anybody want to run it with me? I think it’d be fun to have a group of us that runs it. Shan? I know you read this blog and you like to run, just think it could be a mini vacation for you and your family all the while doing something you enjoy? If anybody does want to run it with me, let me know. If no one wants to run it with me that is ok as well, I’m still going to do it. Here is the link to the Teton Dam website and all the information, Dam Marathon.

 Here is the map of the half marathon. 

Also let's be honest saying I ran a Dam Marathon is rather fun and you can get quite the looks from people. 

-N-