Five Miles and Real Shoes!

This week I reaffirmed my hate of treadmills.  My training plan called for 2 days of 32 minute run/walks, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish either in its entirety. I made it to about 24 minutes both days before I couldn’t handle running up and down anymore.  My legs hurt in weird, different ways and my team’s resident fitness expert explained that running on the road actually uses different muscles as you push yourself forward compared to hopping up and down on the treadmill.  I also made a mental note to get some real running shoes. I was using my regular, every-day tennis shoes, and my toes kept bumping up against the end of the shoes.

The day before my 5 mile run, I went to a store that catered to runners.  I had to work up my nerve as my usual insecurities ran rampant.  “They wouldn’t take me seriously….they’d laugh after I left……I didn’t look anything like a runner.”  I just knew they would ask me what type of shoes I needed, and when I disclosed I was training for a half-marathon, I’d be met with some knowing glances and a chuckle as they politely told me they couldn’t help me.

I picked Team Nashville on the recommendation of my boss. She’d gone there the previous year and said they found the perfect shoes. She, however, works out in a kettle bell class at least 2 times per week and would have fit right in with the “fit” crowd.  When I finally pushed myself in the door, I was surprised to find a family and an elderly lady. It wasn’t full of runners jogging laps and exclaiming what great runners they were.  A man offered to help me and I told him I needed some running shoes. He quickly brought me a single pair. After lacing them up, he asked me to go outside and jog around the parking lot so he could see the fit. I made it two parking spaces before he said “Yep, those are the ones.” And I had to agree. It felt like I was walking on air. I told him I couldn’t believe it was that easy.  He told me he’d watched me walk since I came in the door and knew exactly which ones I needed. He’d been working there for so long, it was habit. Whether you came in for shoes or not, he said he could tell you which ones you should have bought. I was also pretty excited to see that they were not the most expensive. A nice pair of Saucony Ride 8s.  Any worries about some exotic, werid brand that cost $500 were gone.  I walked out of the store actually feeling pretty confident that my new shoes were the exact right shoes to carry me through my training.  They put a little biography into every bag at Team Nashville to tell you about the owners. One had never missed a day running in 30 years. I thought about all the days I hadn’t even left my house in the past year and thought about the level of dedication and love it took to do something every day for 30 years.  I could surely keep this up for 2 months.

Armed (or footed!) with my new shoes, I was ready for my 5 mile run.  I only needed a little add-on to my run to make it 5 miles this week, so I expanded my road to include a little off-shoot.  I noticed myself getting into a familiar rhythm about 2 miles into the run. It apparently took me that long to “warm-up” and lose some of the pain in my legs and feet. The pain I’d had in my arches running before was completely gone thanks to my friend at Team Nashville.  I thought a lot on this run about how I go a little over-board with my inner-dialogue and all the reasons that I “can’t finish/do something.”  I thought about all the advice I give my son when he gets overwhelmed with learning something new. I always remind him to calm down, take it slow, and he always figures it out.  I accept that I have an anxious nature, but decided instead of focusing on how it holds me back, I’d focus on how much sweeter it is when I overcome a fear, knowing how many times I’d tried to talk myself out of it.

My fitbit quit tracking my total exercise time because I got a low battery warning on my phone.  Lesson Learned : Always charge your phone before the run!  The time I did capture had a 15’47” pace.