Only a week on from my last blog (I’m suppose to have it into Ray on Friday’s, whoops it’s Monday), but I am making progress!!
I’ve broken through the “I can’t run on the road” mental barrier this week. My ‘wifey’, and No.1 motivator said, “You just have to get out there [on the road]. You’ll find it’s a lot easier”. It was the first 20 minute run I had to do too. So off we set. She chatted away and kept me going. I answered when and where I could. Puff, puff, grunt, grunt. I didn’t break any land speed records. At times, I had to check my watch to make sure I was actually getting somewhere, as I literally felt like I was jogging or ‘wogging’ (walk/jogging) on the spot. But we slowly got to 5kms. What a relief that was.
Middle of the week, the rain came. Great weather if you’re a duck, but I am not, and it was ‘that time of the month’. Now I had to get back on the treadmill, but all I wanted to do was run on the road. I did not enjoy these two middle of the week runs at all. So much so on Wednesday, I stopped and walked. I did try to keep running but I was done. So using the inclines I walked the last half. It was that or throw my towel in, but didn’t want me to get the better of myself, so I kept walking.
The sun came out Thursday. The mood lifted and the crappy runs were forgotten.
So today, Friday, I headed out by myself (on the road), and actually found the first bit fine. I did extend my walk by a couple of minutes at the other end, but in my head, I was still going forward. Then I was off to acupuncture and I actually fell asleep. It was very nice to just have all my muscles relax.
Saturday, was busy and exciting with the kids sports, family visiting and the Cirque Grande! (and a day off from running!) The circus was awesome! I loved every minute and if these guys come to your town (they’re headed up north now), go see them, even if you don’t have kids. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed! www.cirquegrande.com
Sunday a 4km run was scheduled. It’s just a 4km run. Nothing too major. Don’t overthink it. Nanny had taken the kids for a walk, my husband was going to cut wood and I was going to have a nice wee sleep in. No actually. Before I had a chance to talk myself into things I would much rather be doing, I got up, got dressed and said I’d catch a ride up to where he was cutting wood, and run home. We got there and it was only two bimmin’ kms. So we carried on as we knew roughly how big the block is and he let me out with 4km to get home.
I had a nice wee jog home. I did pass a rather disgruntled looking bull standing on a hill face by himself, watching me. Funny what goes through your head, like ‘shit, I hope he doesn’t decide to jump the fence and chase me as I actually can’t run any faster!!!’ So I was looking at different escape options and which fences looked jumpable. Thankfully he just eyeballed me and probably wondered what the heck this bright orange thing was and I sighed a sigh of relief as I plodded off down the road.
I got to 4km and had a wee internal party, and mentally my brain went ‘you can walk now’. I wasn’t home yet, so either I’ve measured the block wrong in the past as it’s slightly longer, or hubby thought he’d be funny! Either way it was only a km out and the walk to home was actually good. So 4kms in four weeks. I’m happy with that! However, I think new running attire may need to be one of my top priorities.
But more on that next time!
– Lisa Harris
Lisa will be writing weekly as she continues her journey to achieving her goal of completing the 10km Kaikoura Whale Run. Check in next Tuesday for her next article.
Read Lisa’s article from last week here:
Lisa’s Journey, Week 3: Mind games, is it all in your head…?
And all her previous articles are stored here:
https://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/lisas-journey/
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