I should preface this entire post by telling you that I am not a runner. I’m not one of those graceful creatures you see just gliding through the air on the side of the road. Nope, I’m more like that person that you see that looks like they could be in slight pain who is going slower than your cat on a leash.
But that’s okay. I’m still doing it.
About five years ago, when I realized that my darn metabolism was slowing down as I was getting older I decided that I needed to start exercising in some way. At the time I had three little ones at home, a hubby who was always traveling for work and no real concept of how to use any equipment at a gym. But I did have a jogging stroller and a desire to make a change.
I used the couch to 5K program, and pushed my babies all around my neighborhood, up and down hills 3-4 times a week for about a year. But I never really enjoyed it.
In fact, I kind of hated it.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing the progression. Going from not being able to run for more than two minutes at a time to running 4 miles was fantastic and I really appreciated the changes in my body, but I still dreaded lacing up my shoes and heading out the door. I eventually stopped running all together and hadn’t done much of it at all in the past 4 years.
But about six months ago I had the genius plan to add a half marathon to the end of our family vacation in February. We will be driving to and from Miami for our cruise, so why not stop at Disney World and throw in the Princess Half Marathon while we are at, I thought?
Until it came time to train…
Living a busy life, and constantly being able to make excuses to myself about how I would “start tomorrow,” or “I’m in pretty good shape, I don’t need to train much” led me to putting off my training until I realized one day that I could put it off no longer. I sat down with the calendar and just about had a panic attack when I counted out three months until the big race.
Three months! And I could only run about three miles at that point! How would I be able to go for a full 13.1?!
After some deep breaths into a bag, I knew that it was time to buckle down and work for it. Now I know that I am not going to PR my race or anything, but at this point, about exactly one month away, I am confident that my run will not kill me and that I will be able to go without stopping.
Here is what my personal weekly running schedule looks like (you can print your own at the bottom). If you are comfortable running just three miles at a time, you too can go from hating to run to completing a half marathon in three months.
I know that some of those numbers can look a little daunting. I felt the same way. And for the first few weeks I had to give myself some walking breaks. But you will be amazed at how quickly you can work up to running without stopping. Just keep at it and make sure that if you are allowing yourself walk breaks that you go further each time before taking the break (i.e.: week 1 run 15 minutes, 1 minute break then week 2 run 18 minutes, 1 minute break and so on).
If you are a new runner and just trying to get the motivation to get out the door, I do really highly recommend the couch to 5k program. There are tons of online groups that you can join too that will help to hold you accountable if that helps you.
Do you like to run? Have you ever thought about, or participated in, a half or full marathon? Is it on your bucket list?
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