I'm out for a run

I played sports all my life, but never was much of a runner.  Put a ball that I'm supposed to go after, and you'll see me running around for hours.  Running for the heck of it?  Eh, not so much.

 

So last year I decided to learn how to run.  I'm sure no one that knows me will be surprised to know that this was for me to get better at volleyball...  I play on sand courts that are ridiculously large for a game of doubles, so when you're out playing and you get a bad pass, you just want to be able to get to the ball on time -- and I'm just not fast enough:  almost there, but a millisecond too late.

 

It was weird getting the desire to run -- all my life I've been perfectly fine with the notion that I'm not a runner, I never will be, definitely not something I aspire to, and I'm ok with that.  I'm good at other sports to compensate for it.  Had no desire, no reason to go running around town.  When I passed by them in my bike, going 10 times faster than they were, all I could think of was "suckers, at my speed I get to see a lot more places in an hour than you do"  But all of a sudden I got this urge to run.  I had extra energy and felt like I wanted to go running, that I needed it!

 

I never ran for the hell of it before in my life (always hated it), so on my first few attempts at hitting the treadmill, while I was stuck to doing the "walk two minutes, run one minute" thing, I thought everyone at the gym would stop what they're doing to point and laugh at me.  Ok, ok, so I really didn't think that was going to happen, but doesn't mean it made me any more comfortable, specially on my first day on the treadmill when this 50 year-old woman next to me was running like a maniac, and she was there when I got there, and still there when I left 30 minutes later, still keeping up her "I'm running for my life" pace. 

 

Within a couple of weeks into it, when I was starting to improve (walking one minute, running two minutes), I got injured playing volleyball (jumped to spike a ball, landed right foot first, cracking ensued, was out of the courts for almost two months doing physical therapy waiting for my ankle to heal).

 

So I was back to square one.  It's always weird to me that I have no stamina for running, when I can swim a mile without taking a break, I can bike-ride a good twenty miles, I can walk for hours, play whatever other sport with no problem.  But attempting the running thing my body just tells me "Haha, nice try, not happening."

 

Slowly I started improving on the treadmill.  Last week, getting inspired by a friend of mine, I went jogging on the GW Parkway.  Did the whole walk/run thing, until I finally found a pace I could keep for a while.  Yesterday was my second attempt at running outdoors.  4 minutes walking, then jogging.  I wanted to stop, to start walking again, but since I wasn't out of breath yet, I could keep going, I continued...  Ran for 3 miles, finished the whole thing in 34 minutes, which is really not bad for a total beginner, I'm just excited I ran for half an hour straight without stopping!  Plus I got to admire the cute guys running or on their bikes (nice view is always a great motivator!).

 

Today is my hit the gym day, but I'm looking forward to going to the GW Parkway again tomorrow.  Pre-volleyball of course, I must still have my priorities :)