The Buddy Run experience
I went to my first official Buddy Run today. Usually on Tuesdays, I've been going to the gym and working on the treadmill for the allotted time, but this week I thought I would brave the world of the Buddy Run.
The first thing I noticed was there were far fewer people than I expected. Based on the comments from the other members of the group, there were far fewer people than normal. The second thing I noticed was I was the only not skinny person in the group. Sigh. I started to doubt myself and think about bailing off to the gym. Then a gal named Sam introduced herself to me and we started chatting a little bit. That helped.
We headed off on a brief warm-up run (by way of the bathroom for me), then went into our normal routine of stretching, shout-outs, a moment of silence, and then the team cheers (which I could probably do in my sleep, but for some reason can only remember half of them now). We decided on our route (east from Heather Farms Park along the canal trail), how long we would go (40 minutes, half out & half back), and started to run.
I pushed myself too hard on the warm-up run (the bathroom trip was somewhat responsible for that, but so was feeling inadequate among the other runners in the group), so my asthma was bothering me before I even started running. I had to take a couple of extra puffs on the inhaler. That didn't fix it entirely, but at least it was better.
I also pushed myself too hard at the beginning of the run. Even though I knew I had no hope of running anywhere near as fast as any of the other folks, I was trying to not be as slow as I usually am. That didn't work very well. For one thing, my heart rate was up higher than normal. For another thing, my breathing was NOT getting any better by pushing it. I slowed down, reminding myself that the important thing was that I was doing the run, not how fast I was doing it.
By about 15 minutes into the run, I had settled down a little bit, started to get my pace under control and breathing back to normal. My heart rate was still a little higher than I wanted it to be, but physically I was in an OK place. Mentally though, I was still ruminating on how slow I was compared to the other runners.
At that point, a lady ran past me (not a TNT person) and shouted out, "You're doing great - keep it up!" Before the whole TNT experience, that would probably have made me mad - who does she think she is, judging what I'm doing - completely disregarding the positive encouragement in her comment. Today, I shouted out, "Thanks!" And not only did I say it, I meant it. It's amazing how much a stranger's encouragement really lifted my spirits.
When I reached the 20 minute mark, I turned around and headed back. I focused on running at my pace, calm and slow breaths, and making sure my heart rate stayed in the range I wanted it to. I made it back to the starting point at about 40:30 (no idea how far I went, though it was probably about 2.5 miles). After finishing the run, I joined the other gals who had already finished, and felt a little more like part of the group than I had before we ran.
The first thing I noticed was there were far fewer people than I expected. Based on the comments from the other members of the group, there were far fewer people than normal. The second thing I noticed was I was the only not skinny person in the group. Sigh. I started to doubt myself and think about bailing off to the gym. Then a gal named Sam introduced herself to me and we started chatting a little bit. That helped.
We headed off on a brief warm-up run (by way of the bathroom for me), then went into our normal routine of stretching, shout-outs, a moment of silence, and then the team cheers (which I could probably do in my sleep, but for some reason can only remember half of them now). We decided on our route (east from Heather Farms Park along the canal trail), how long we would go (40 minutes, half out & half back), and started to run.
I pushed myself too hard on the warm-up run (the bathroom trip was somewhat responsible for that, but so was feeling inadequate among the other runners in the group), so my asthma was bothering me before I even started running. I had to take a couple of extra puffs on the inhaler. That didn't fix it entirely, but at least it was better.
I also pushed myself too hard at the beginning of the run. Even though I knew I had no hope of running anywhere near as fast as any of the other folks, I was trying to not be as slow as I usually am. That didn't work very well. For one thing, my heart rate was up higher than normal. For another thing, my breathing was NOT getting any better by pushing it. I slowed down, reminding myself that the important thing was that I was doing the run, not how fast I was doing it.
By about 15 minutes into the run, I had settled down a little bit, started to get my pace under control and breathing back to normal. My heart rate was still a little higher than I wanted it to be, but physically I was in an OK place. Mentally though, I was still ruminating on how slow I was compared to the other runners.
At that point, a lady ran past me (not a TNT person) and shouted out, "You're doing great - keep it up!" Before the whole TNT experience, that would probably have made me mad - who does she think she is, judging what I'm doing - completely disregarding the positive encouragement in her comment. Today, I shouted out, "Thanks!" And not only did I say it, I meant it. It's amazing how much a stranger's encouragement really lifted my spirits.
When I reached the 20 minute mark, I turned around and headed back. I focused on running at my pace, calm and slow breaths, and making sure my heart rate stayed in the range I wanted it to. I made it back to the starting point at about 40:30 (no idea how far I went, though it was probably about 2.5 miles). After finishing the run, I joined the other gals who had already finished, and felt a little more like part of the group than I had before we ran.
Labels: Motivation, Training
posted by Erin at 9:31 PM
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