Hey Mads! Prepare yourself for a rant on running so lace up your sneakers this might be a long run. I know we’ve talked about our running routines in college and I remember texting each other when we were both up early and walking back from the gym… what simpler times :)
Well when quarantine happened and I moved home, let’s just say my routine was, uh, not very routine-like. I would go on runs when I felt like it but put zero energy into tracking time, distance, or even planning a route. After a few weeks of this, I was losing all interest in running and that made me want to change something.
Purpose
I decided I needed a reason to run, something to pull me through the days I didn't feel like running. I sat down and thought about what some different running goals could be and identified that 8 miles has always been a goal of mine. Jumping to 8 miles after only have been running 2.5 was a little intimidating so I decided that a 10K (6.1 miles) would be a good place to start. For my sisters and me, continuing to figure out each of our running goals was so important. One of my sisters realized that she doesn’t particularly care to run farther than 3 miles, so we worked out a way to still get some running time together by making a turning point for her to split onto a different route while the remaining two of us pushed distance. For my other sister, after completing this goal she is decided that gaining speed is a goal of hers as she will be running cross country in the fall. My goals, however, are to continue to gain distance.
Plan
The next step was to start searching for a running plan to help me structure this goal because I had never attempted something like this before since most of my distance training came from high school cross country. Some things I was looking for when I started my google searches were how many weeks the plan took, how in shape you should be to start a particular one, as well as the organization of the plan. After looking at thousands (okay, maybe hundreds) I decided on a beginners’ guide since I was going to be training with my two younger sisters who have not been running as long as I have. The plan I liked the best was from Women's Running . I ended up only using the structure of this 8-week plan but I liked that it incorporated run, walk, and rest days while recommending additional strength training on the off days (but giving you the freedom to figure out what that actually looks like). The progression of adding distance also seemed doable to my two out-of-running-shape-though-fit-sisters. Immediately I pushed for a 5min on/5min off pattern as opposed to the 1:1 which was written in the plan, then soon decided that working on the actual mileage rather than the time was more important to me. So by the end of week one, I had basically forfeited the plan, we shifted the designated running days to Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, a walk day on Thursday, and rest day on Sunday.
Patience
One of the most difficult parts of following this running plan was the PATIENCE it took, oh my goodness, when we were finishing week two I thought to myself, “there’s no way.” Living in this world of instant gratification it took many pep talks to convince myself that I would reach my goal ( s o m e d a y ) if I continued to put in the work each day. I’m so excited to tell you: This. Freaking. Worked. It wasn’t easy, and it took a half week longer than planned, but we ran our 6.1 miles and I am so proud of my mini cross country team.
-hp
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