I received the message below from a friend who has begun her running journey. I want to give her a thoughtful reply and I would love to hear any advice or suggestions you may have.
Thanks in advance!
“Hey lady! You aren’t goingto believe it, but I’ve done the couch to 5k the past 8 weeks! A friend and I have been running in the mornings 3 days a week at our school. We run like a cross country like course. Anyhow, today we were to run for 28 minutes straight and decided to try to go somewhere flat b/c at school it’s hilly. We ran at 3:30 which was WAY too hot. We did a straight/flat run in downtown Maiden. Our usual pace has been 12:30min mile. Today we thought we were at our pace and the Runkeeper said we were running a 10:40min mile. Well, at about minute 15 we fell apart! Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated.
We did learn some things….not to run in the middle of the day and we need to figure out our pace. Help!”
Thought I would update with my reply that I sent to her…
Thank you Anna and Zen City!!! I copied and pasted both of your replies along with mine and sent to her. Below is my reply just in case your are interested.
“First of all, pat yourself on the back because you are doing something that most people at our age don’t do. Running is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It is hard physically and mentally but you are still doing it!
Second of all, running in the heat sucks always. The only time I really enjoy running in the heat(it still sucks…) is when I have over indulged on the weekend and I convince myself that I am sweating out the toxins!!! Self torture!
Finally, what you are experiencing (not talking about the heat now…) or what it sounds like you are experiencing is that you are pushing yourself to your personal wall. The more you visit that wall on your runs…(not on all your runs!!!) the more that wall will move. And, trust me…that wall will move! I can remember not being able to run a mile.
For me, some of my runs are long and slower paced while some are short and rough. I am constantly playing a game to run to that edge where I am pushing myself and training my body to get better, but not falling over the cliff. Knowing when to back off a little bit and when to surge comes with time. I promise you that in 6 months if you keep on doing what your doing consistently, your facebook message to me will be very different. And your personal wall will not be 15 mnutes at that pace. TIME on the road or trail is what it takes for you to learn your body and how it operates while you are running.
hope something in one of these replies helps!!! keep me posted! Tessa
The First Mile Sucks! 
I’m still a novice runner but she sounds like how I was a few months ago.
1. Runkeeper (and she probably knows this) allows you to program your workouts in a lot of different ways. At first, I had it set to where it gave me my pace and time each mile. But now I have it set to where it gives me my pace and time every ten minutes. Since she’s doing the couch-to-5k, I’d suggest that she set it to every 5 minutes for a week do she’ll know whether he should slow down or speed up. It gets annoying after awhile but she can gradually decrease the frequency over time.
2. Drink twice as much water as you think is more than enough when running in the middle of the day in hot temperatures. We’ve always been told to drink 8 glasses (64 oz) of water a day but that’s not enough. I learned in a few nutrition classes that you should drink as many ounces as you weigh in pounds (so since I weigh 133 lbs, I should be drinking at least 133 oz of water a day). An athlete should drink even more.
3. I always eat an orange (sometimes two) before I run/swim or work out. They keep you hydrated and help you retain energy longer.
This is awesome! Thanks for the reply. I copied and pasted your comments to my friend. Read below to see what my comments were to her. Thanks for taking the time!!! xoxoxox
Sorry for the typos…on my phone ;).
aside from pacing one self, this is how i’ve managed to not fall apart when i’ve wanted to:
i picture my niece (who has cp) and how every single minute of her day is a physical struggle yet she keeps on trying to move those little muscles – without complaining. i figure if she can spend every second of her life giving it her all, who am i – who has a perfectly capable body, to even think the thought “i can’t do it”?
i once belonged to a gym where there was a man with enormous physical challenges, yet he would show up every day & try so hard for hours! again, it kept me going – he always got me over the hump.
when you can be so grateful to have an ability, you’ll want to use it as best you can – i guess it’s like saying, “thank you” for the gift. works for me!
😉
Wow. Very powerful inspiration your have there in your neice. You reminded me of Steve Prefontaine’s quote…”To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Thank you so much for your comments. I sent them to my friend..
Thank you Anna and Zen City!!! I copied and pasted both of your replies along with mine and sent to her. Below is my reply just in case your are interested.
“First of all, pat yourself on the back because you are doing something that most people at our age don’t do.
Running is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It is hard physically and mentally but you are still doing it!
Second of all, running in the heat sucks always. The only time I really enjoy running in the heat(it still sucks…) is when I have over indulged on the weekend and I convince myself that I am sweating out the toxins!!! Self torture!
Finally, what you are experiencing (not talking about the heat now…) or what it sounds like you are experiencing is that you are pushing yourself to your personal wall. The more you visit that wall on your runs…(not on all your runs!!!) the more that wall will move. And, trust me…that wall will move! I can remember not being able to run a mile.
For me, some of my runs are long and slower paced while some are short and rough. I am constantly playing a game to run to that edge where I am pushing myself and training my body to get better, but not falling over the cliff. Knowing when to back off a little bit and when to surge comes with time. I promise you that in 6 months if you keep on doing what your doing consistently, your facebook message to me will be very different. And your personal wall will not be 15 mnutes at that pace. TIME on the road or trail is what it takes for you to learn your body and how it operates while you are running.
hope something in one of these replies helps!!! keep me posted!
Tessa
🙂
namaste,
laurie