Jogging Blogging

After talking with Jojo last night, I’ve decided to start blogging about running. After my sister’s stellar performance at the half-marathon in Louisville, I’m really stoked about beefing up my running. A blog is the perfect way for me to keep track of my highs and lows, and to remind myself of what all I’ve been through. It’s amazing how some of the techniques I taught myself when I started running have left me after my running hiatus. I forgot about how to keep myself calm while running. I forgot how to about breath while running. There were little tricks I’d learned to make my runs more productive, and they’d left my head. So I figure if I write a little blurb each day about my running experience, then I can look back and see all of my successes. I plan on just writing my mileage, where we ran, and how I felt. That should be the bare minimum, and then anything else that sticks out will go on there too, or anything funny that happened.

So since I’ve started running hot and heavy with Kevin and Pam, I’ve remember a few techniques. I have to breathe deep from my stomach and not from the top of my lungs. Breathing shallow causes the side stitches, and they hurt! Also, if I keep my breathing low, it keeps my upper body more stable, and I can let my legs do most of the work. I remembered that my legs are doing the work, and that I don’t need to over-rotate my top, or again, side stitches. Also, and I think this is the most important lesson I’ve learned, is to NOT think about the end, or how far I’ve got to go. I just keep telling myself “I know my body can do this, I just have to keep going”. That’s a good mantra to have to push myself. Then when I get toward the end, within a quarter of a mile, I have to tell myself that I have to just keep jogging, and don’t think about stopping up ahead. There is something psychological about seeing the end that makes you get excited and you either get winded, or you just want to stop and walk because you’re almost there anyway. Gotta keep going!

Ok, so yesterday, our route was the Byers avenue route. We start at the bingo hall on 231 and Byers, and run down Byers to Frederica and back. This route is 3.1 miles exactly. (Pam has a nifty GPS watch that tracks mileage exactly). Anyway, it was a good run. I had my new running shoes on, and felt an extra spring in my step. It was sooo cold. I had on my running shorts and t-shirt and my big Chicago hoodie. The hoodie came off about the time we hit Frederica street and I was fine the rest of the way. Not too hot, not too cold. We didn’t run this morning, so I’ll have an update tomorrow of what we did. We’re supposed to run from McDonald’s on highway 60, down to the power plant, and back. This will be my first time running that route, so we’ll see how it goes!