Running Off the Steak and Beer

Today I completed Session One, Week Three of the 13-Week Walk/Run Program. It was 1:30 running, 3:30 walking, 10 times, for a total of 50 minutes. I haven't weighed myself because I haven't done well on the diet and nutrition side of things, but so far, I'd give the program a thumbs up. None of the sessions have been dauntingly difficult, but each week steps up the exertion level noticeably.

As I ran today, I thought that this was a really good incremental program because my exertion level for each new week's incremental increase felt about the same. I felt like I was working as hard running my minute-and-a-half intervals today as I did the first week running thirty-second intervals. But then I hit the 25-minute mark, and I wasn't thinking any more about how easy this was. Instead, I was thinking how I'm probably going to be in bed around 9 o'clock tonight. Though my opinion might change over the next few weeks, so far it seems challenging enough to make me feel like I'm progressing, but not so challenging that I dread doing it and give up.

It's the ChiRunning part of my training program that's the most mental work, though. I haven't finished the chapters on technique, yet, but I've gotten enough to give me a lot to work on. It's hard to focus on so much at once. I feel like I'm in a plate-spinning act at the circus. When I start to focus on one part, the other parts start to wobble a bit. Lean forward, let gravity provide the forward motion. Pick up your feet, don't push off, let gravity pull you. Lean from the ankle, not the waste. Engage the core, relax everything else. Pain in your shins, you're probably pushing off your toes. Land mid-food, pick up your feet, don't push off. Your shoulders are tensing, relax. Breathe from the belly, not from the chest. Lean from the ankle, not from the waist. Relax your shoulders. Why aren't you relaxing?!!?!!

It's a lot to think about all at once. I think today I really started to do better on the breathing, though, and that's pretty huge for me. I'm sure other people on the track thought I sounded like I was dying, but I had a pretty good rhythm going, working as hard, or harder, on pushing all of the air out as on pulling air in. I only felt like maybe I wouldn't make it right toward the end. But I did make it. And that felt pretty good.