Luc the Runner

I'm a runner! I just started the hobby this year, on January 1st. I try to run everyday and have been pretty religious with it. I started by doing it every other day. Then I went right into everyday for a week. The last two weeks, I've been doing 2 days running, 1 day off to give my (aching) body a break. Once I got used to the numbness, I found that I actually enjoy running (odd).

On December 31st, Corey and I were drinking beers and, in a drunken state, he asked me what my new years resolution was. Neither one of us really had one planned, so we kinda made it up on the fly. We decided to start running. He was with me all the way for the first two weeks, but he has gotten very busy now and our schedules conflict very bad. I work 2nd and 3rd shift most of the time and he works 1st shift. Plus, he is totally remodeling his house right now (future blog post) and his job is very time consuming when it comes to daylight. Anyway, the moral of the story is that I made a new years resolution (drunk or not) and by gollie I'm gonna keep it this year. :)

We started off by running a that next morning (hung over if I remember correctly). It was rainy and disgusting and we weren't really in the mood to run. I remember joking about the fact that he hoped I was too drunk and would forget... I didn't. :) We ran down by my house at Blackhand Gorge bike path. We stopped every quarter mile or so to catch our breaths and take a short break. We ran every other day that first week (Mon - Wed - Fri) and we actually started to run a bit faster and farther. The next week we we actually ran about 2 miles with 1 brisk walk break. By this point, we had determined that we could have both went farther if we wanted too. We weren't too out of breath and our legs had gotten numb by that point. :)

The third week, I think Corey went with me 1 time; we just couldn't match time schedules. I kept running by myself and found that it was becoming a lot easier to push myself when I didn't have to keep pace with someone else. I've been running by myself for about 3 weeks now and I've ran everywhere around here (bike paths, hiking trails, local high school track, etc...). I actually ran everyday on our vacation to Kalahari Resort. They had a very small workout room with 3 treadmills and each day I ran on a different one. :)

My new goal is to run the Columbus Marathon in October. It's a long way off, but I have plenty of time to train for it. The course is 26 miles and I'm pretty scared right now (no lies). I plan to do a couple of small half marathons in the mean time (first one in April) just so I can prepare myself. In the mean time, I'll just run wherever and whenever I can. I've actually thought about plotting all the places I've been running in Google Earth so that I can see where I haven't been. I've really been thinking about running all of the Columbus Metro Parks this Spring.

Running is so easy now. I went running yesterday and the day before yesterday. Both days were single digit temperatures when everybody was telling me not to go run in such extreme cold weather, but I did. I told myself that it was the worst weather I'd have to deal with and just did it. In the month of January alone I've ran in freezing rain, pouring rain, mud, total darkness, snow, and sub-zero wind chill and I think 1 "ok" day (if that tells you anything about Ohio weather). I've concluded that weather is no longer an excuse because nothing can get worse than those conditions. I'm actually anxious for the sun to come back out so I can wear shorts and t-shirts. I have no intentions on letting up for anything right now.

I'll admit that I'm quite proud of myself. Weather and the everyday craziness of "life" hasn't stopped me yet. My muscles and bones hurt, but once I get going that all goes away. It definitely helps that Jennifer is 100% behind me too. She actually complimented me yesterday about how healthy I looked. It has motivated me to run longer and harder tomorrow. :)

The hardest part (hands down) was the first 2 weeks. I had to literally push myself out the door every other day. After the second week, I started extending my runs and picked up the pace after the first mile. Yesterday I ran 2.5 miles (no stops) in 19 minutes and would have gone farther, but my lungs were hurting from the -11 degree wind chill. Tomorrow I'm going to bundle up and run 3 miles just to prove to myself that I can.

I'm sure I'll be blogging more about my runs now that it is part of my life... One of Jennifer's friends has started running too. She ran a half marathon last fall and said it was a great feeling. She pointed me to a cool site that she used to help keep her motivated: Cool Running :: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan.