. . . in the distant, early morning . . .

I found my form!

Today, for the first time since I started running, I felt like I was floating.

The truly barefoot runs outdoors were a real help in getting to my form.  Running on a treadmill is a bit different than running with forward motion outdoors.

But today, on my treadmill, after the first 2 minutes I realized I felt awesome.  I was forefoot striking perfectly, I couldn’t hear my feet landing, my weight was centered and I felt peaceful - the whole thing just felt right.  My calves are getting better too, able to go longer and recover more quickly.

Today I ran the longest: 33 minutes, and the furthest: .67 miles.  I didn’t run the whole time.  Remembering that my goal is to stay at my target heart-rate for 35 minutes I tried something else.  I had noticed that when I had the dogs with me; every time Elka pulled, or pee’d, or stopped to smell (Milton too, of course), I would stop.  But I wouldn’t STOP, I’d run in place, and toward the end I’d walk in place.  After that slight rest I would feel energized to keep going much longer.

So I tried it on the treadmill today.  I ran at 2.5mph; and after the first 8 minutes my calves felt really sore, so I walked for 2 minutes at 2mph.  Then I ran again for 2 minutes at 2.5mph.  I did this for approximately 22 minutes: run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute.  My heart stayed in the target heart rate the entire time and my legs felt amazing.

For cool-down I walked and then did some stretching, sit-ups, and yoga, carefully bringing down my heart-rate.  I noticed during this that my flexibility appears to be increasing as well.

It’s been nearly a month since I began.  I’m over the 21 day “new habit” break-in and I am addicted.  Around 8pm tonight I got “the itch” to run, though prior to that I felt somewhat drained and feeling like skipping.  Now that I’ve run I feel energized and happy - not a real surprise there: exercise is known to release good stuff into the brain.

My goal now is to be going a full mile by the end of July.  I think I’ll hit that goal and then some; but I want to “keep it real”.

For the first time today I had the thought that I might one day be able to enter a race.  How cool would that be?  I don’t know if I ever would, it seems doubtful; but I’ve never, ever, ever before been able to think of that as a possible future goal.

-Lisa, on June 29, 2010 at 9:22 pm

---