Running Confessions & Suggestions

I have a confession to make...

I've totally slacked on my running this summer. 

FL summers are too hot, and since I'm a teacher, I'm totally out of routine.  I'm staying up too late so I don't want to run in the morning when it's cooler and by the end of the day, I'm too exhausted and hate running at night.

A lot of excuses, I know.

So that's it.  I know it's a slump & pre-school week starts up in exactly 1 week.  I'll get back into the swing of things this next week for sure.

How do you handle your slumps?

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In other news, I've had several friends ask how to get started.

First thought that comes to mind, "YAY!! You will love it and do so great!"

Second thought, "INTERVALS!"

After coming back to running after a many year hiatus & two pregnancies, my standby routine is to do intervals of walking and running.  I bought the book Complete Book of Women's Running and used their starter plan either verbatim or my own slightly modified version each time.

The intervals look like this, (taken from Running 101 on Runner's World's Website):

"If you're starting from a low fitness level, we recommend you begin with several weeks of walking for 20 to 30 minutes at a time before attempting Week 1. Also, if you have not exercised for a long time, are overweight, or have existing or family health problems, see your physician before you begin this program.

Week	Run	Walk	Repeat	Total Time
1	1 min	2 min	7x	21 min
2	1 min	1 min	10x	20 min
3	2 min	1 min	7x	21 min
4	3 min	1 min	5x	20 min
5	4 min	1 min	4x	20 min
6	6 min	1 min	3x	21 min
7	9 min	1 min	2x	20 min
8	12 min	1 min	Then run 7 min	20 min
9	15 min	1 min	Then run 4 min	20 min
10	20 min	Leap for joy		20 min

Note: Always warm up for your workout with a couple minutes of walking and/or slow jogging, and cool down afterward with the same. If you cannot reach 20 minutes of continuous running, try to run 8 or 9 minutes, walk 1 or 2 minutes, and repeat. When you succeed at reaching the 20-minute goal-and you will-gradually increase your distance to whatever level you choose."

And that's it! 

It produces great results.  I loved it because I didn't feel like a failure when walking because I was SUPPOSED to walk.

As a former runner coming back to the sport, that was a big deal. I had this idea in my head of how I used to run and of my old fitness ability, so when I would go out and run and have to walk because I was dying, I felt defeated and wouldn't run again for months.

The interval training changed that! I'm going on 4 years of consistent running now (albeit with a couple of slumps, mostly due to post-half marathon blues ~ stopping because pregnancy doesn't count in my opinion) and it's because I've been able to give myself a little grace.

What did you do when you started running or came back to running?