So for the last month, I’ve been following the Couch to 5K app’s training 3 days a week. On Sunday, I ran my first race at Messina Hof Winery: the Wine & Roses 5K. It was Tama’s birthday, so part of his gift was his registration in the race, too. I ran at his pace because we were a team, so afterward I was curious about how I might hold up if I were to run another 5K by myself.
This led me to learn about virtual races. How they work is like so: you register on the site, run the prescribed distance wherever and whenever you want to during the time frame of the race (usually a month), and submit proof that you ran it to the site. They will then mail you a finisher’s medal. A portion of the registration fee goes to pay for the medal of course, but the rest is donated to a charity. Many virtual racing sites rotate out the charity each month and theme races around whatever holidays are in that month. This offers great motivation on several levels for me in particular because:
- I’m donating to charity
- It counts towards my health insurance’s wellness initiative, which grants discounts to the cost of the insurance and rewards points spendable for goodies and gift cards
- It’s a tangible goal with shinies received for doing the thing
Now, you know what comes next, right? I registered for my first virtual race, runblingrepeat.com‘s (im)Prove Your Self(ie), whose charity was St. Jude’s. Since I’m a little over halfway through my training program I’ve already been running somewhere between 2.5~3 miles each time I get out to the park anyway, so on Thursday I ran a tad extra and completed the 5K. My medal is shipping out to me on Monday.
But there’s more. I found powvirtualrunning.co.uk, which has superhero-themed races/medals. Since I’m a nerd, that’s specifically motivating to me. And then I found other virtual racing sites like virtualstrides.com and racesforawareness.com…basically in finding out about virtual races I created a monster. I’m registered for 4 5K races in May: one for autism on behalf of podcast listener and friend Ollie; one for Mother’s Day in honor of my mom and sister; one for the troops in honor of Memorial Day; and finally one mud run/obstacle race. Three of those are virtual, but by the time I get to that mud run in the third week I’ll be pretty practiced. The addition of obstacles in that race will be fun, and Tama is running that one with me, too, so I’ll have company.
Now, I did go to a running store and have them fit me for a proper pair of shoes so that I don’t hurt myself on account of improper footwear. I also read through The New Rules of Running and of course am using an app designed to get people from “couch to 5K” as my training. As much as I’m ridiculously enthusiastic, I’m neither overdoing the training nor running blindly.
More recently Audible popped My Year of Running Dangerously by Tom Foreman up as a Daily Deal, and I snagged it for a couple of bucks. Tom is a reporter for CNN and narrates the book himself. I listened to it while running and it really encouraged me. I’d absolutely recommend it – I was in a part of my training where my nerve was starting to seize up when Tom was telling the story of how he encouraged his daughter through part of her first marathon when she was having trouble. In that moment he was talking to me as much as her, and he helped talk me through. My nerve relaxed and I was able to finish the running interval. I also learned what sorts of things I need to listen to when running in order to keep my shoulder relaxed (thereby reducing the chance of my nerve seizing up) and reflected on how running training is different from all the other forms of exercise I do regularly. All in all, therefore, the few bucks I spent on Mr. Foreman’s running memoir really paid off.
In addition to picking up running I recently tried out Piyo, which is a mixture of pilates + yoga. I have already been in the habit of doing a short yoga routine during my lunch break 4 days a week, but given that Piyo workouts seem to run on the short side (~20 mins) I will do Piyo in place of straight hatha yoga. This makes my training schedule look something like this:
- MON: Piyo (lunch) / running
- TUE: Piyo (lunch) / HIIT (personal sets, Tae Bo, INSANITY, etc)
- WED: Belly Dance
- THUR: Piyo (lunch) / running
- FRI: Piyo (lunch) / HIIT
- SAT: Running / strength training
- SUN: OFF
If I have more time on any given day I add in a bit of strength training, but right now my focus has admittedly been more on acclimating to running. I will reassess my regimen after I’ve completely finished Couch to 5K and am moving on to the 5K to 10K program. As I run farther and longer I will have less time on running days to do anything else, so I may need to change up my non-running workouts accordingly to allow for more strength work, as strong muscles help prevent injury. Belly dance class will remain the same regardless and I am more likely to keep Piyo or straight hatha yoga in the regimen than to remove it as flexibility is just as essential.
My next fitness test check-in is tomorrow, so I’ll see what the adjusted schedule has done since last month! I have a long way to go before I’m back at super-fit levels of trainer-type goodness, but this is where I’m at now, and I’m enjoying the journey. I’ve managed to finally tackle the issues I have with my chronic spinal nerve problem and have found workarounds which let me still train hard without injury. Now to kick it up a notch and see where I can go from here!
Sound Body, Strong Mind 