Half Marathon Training: Week 1

My first run with my training group was on a Saturday.  (We run Monday, Thursday, and Saturday – Saturday being our long runs)

We were supposed to run 3 miles.  Just 3.  But I was beyond nervous because I had never run 3 miles before.  I mean, I’d gone 3 miles before, but some running, a lot of walking.  And when I signed up, it said you needed to be able to run 3 miles. 

I kept whining (in case you didn’t know, I’m a whiner, and sadly I’ve passed that fine trait onto my child) that I didn’t want to be the last person, and everyone would say the thing you’re supposed to say, “who cares if you’re last, the important thing is you’re doing it!”  Come on, let’s all just agree that it sucks to be the last one, because it does. But I showed up.

When I signed up, you had to tell them your pace (how many minutes it takes you to run a mile).  The choices were 8,9,10,11,12,13,14+  My pace? 13 min/mile (and that’s actually my fastest time). I didn’t sign up in time to get the email about what pace group you were in.  So, I walked around that morning looking at all the signs.  The slowest one I could find was a 12+ group.  That was my group. 

When it was time to start running, my group took off…walking!  Hooray! I was so happy.  We walked for 5 minutes and then everyone started running, including myself.  But, I didn’t keep up with everyone.  From what I could tell they were doing intervals: walk some, run some, walk some, etc.  But, I never did keep up, and really, I didn’t care.  Honestly there were so many out on the (public) trail, that you really didn’t know if someone was with a group or not, so that made me feel better.

Anyway, I wasn’t last!  BUT, the few people that were behind me?  They turned around before the halfway mark to meet back up with the group!  I was so mad.  But I did end up passing them later :)  Don’t let that fool you though.  I was going s.l.o.w.  Like, the last 1/4 of a mile, I was keeping pace with a 70+ year old couple that was walking while I was running!!  But thank goodness for them.  We started talking and that really got me through the last part.  I was grateful.  They were training for a half marathon, and it was so cute :)  They asked if they were holding me up.  Haha!

So, that first run was tough, but not as bad as I was expecting.

The second run that week was on Monday.  3 miles again.  This time, I ran almost the entire thing!  I got held up at a stoplight after 2 miles.  I met 2 girls from my running group at the light, and they were running intervals: Run 1, Walk 1.  So I joined them.  Holy lord.  It was more like SPRINT 1, walk 1.  Haha.  But I went the last mile with them.  And I was so happy that I ran most of the whole run!  However, I really hurt my calves on that last mile.  Like really hurt.  I could barely walk to my car.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t get my calves to stop hurting.  So when Thursday rolled around, I didn’t go run.  It just hurt sooo bad.  I was really frustrated and wondered if they would ever get better. 

So, that was my first week.  I was disappointed that I didn’t run every scheduled run, but I was so glad that I had gotten started.  That’s the hardest part.