Here I am!

My first training blog post! Yay! Okay, so I haven’t gone to an official training session yet. I’m fighting some nasty allergy issues that I’m trying to resolve with my ENT. I think we have it down and I hope to attend the track session on Monday provided my wheezing cough has really gone away. I did, however, do to my first non-official walk/run the other night. Back in February when I was hitting the gym a lot I was running up to 1.5 miles without having to stop to walk for a short period. Unfortunately when I ran the other day, it was not even close to that! Yikes. I’m sure much has to do with the allergy outbreak but I also know I’m out of shape. I aim to fix that.

I am really excited to being part of Team in Training. As many of you know, my brother was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma when he was 9 years old. He will be celebrating his 32nd birthday this year much in part to the fantastic research funding provided by groups like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Here’s a hot picture of me in my TNT shirt after my run. I know you’re all jealous of my obvious physical prowess. :-)

Lizzie's 1st Training Day

Holy crap! What the hell was I thinking?

Day one of training was yesterday. Early Saturday morning we all met at the LLS offices in San Diego. A nice overcast "May Gray" morning.

We had our team "orientation" before the run. Spent about 45 mins learning about what to expect, what items we'll need, upcoming training events, etc. Then it was time to get down to business.

First a quick jog around the building. Ah excuse me, no warm up? No walking. No easing me into this. OK, so it wasn't a big deal to jog around the building, just wasn't ready for it. No biggie. Then we did our stretches. Learned a few new ones, relived some old ones. It's safe to say that I have no balance at this moment in my life and was extremely proud of myself for not falling flat on my face while pulling my left foot behind me with my right hand. Well, I was proud of myself until I looked over to my right and there's "yoga chick" with her leg over her shoulder. What-ever! We're here for a good cause and to get fit, not show off. Silly girl!

Anyways, after stretching it's time to run. We're split into 3 training teams
Team A - Beginners
Team B - Run on a regular basis
Team C - You live to run...and nothing else.

I, of course, am in the very special Team "A". Our distance is 2 miles.
Within the Team, we're broken into 3 timing groups following the "run/walk" method.
I don't remember what the ratios were for the first two groups, but my group was 3:1 (or was it 3:2). Run for 3 mins, walk for 1 min (or was it 2?).
Any way, the first two teams go, then it's our turn.
I start off pretty good. Run the whole 2 mins, and then I just couldn't take it any more. My shins HURT! Now, I don't mean they hurt a little. They freakin HURT! There's no way it should have hurt that bad that fast. What the hell????

So, I walk. I'm on the "run" team, but now all I can do is walk. For the next 5 mins or so I walk by myself. Refusing to give up. The pain is not going away, only getting slightly worse, and then levels off. Then a wonderful mentor comes along side me and walks with me. Lynsey talks to me about how hard it was for her to start running. That the important this is to not give up and count each step as a success. So, that's what I did. Lynsey and I walked for about 5 mins together, then we set a mini-goal, run to that tree, then walk. Walk to that pole, then run again to the next tree. Reaching each mini-goal was a mini-success!!! Lynsey had to leave me at mile 1 and continue on. But her support helped me make it the rest of the way. I did ask Lynsey if it was normal for my shins to hurt so bad so soon. She said that was not usual and that I should speak with the coach.

I made it back to the beginning, following my own run/walk method...more walk than run. BUT...I did make it back. I never stopped or gave up. For me, I accomplished a lot.

First thing I did was talk to the coach. Told her about my immediate shin pain, etc. She came around the table she was standing behind ready to give my all kinds of advice and then looked at my shoes. "Oh - well the problem is easy to see, you have to wrong shoes. They're 'cute' for the gym, NOT good for running."

Now, I want to take this moment to say, they told us that we didn't need to buy shoes for our first couple of runs. That we'd be attending a shoe clinic on our second training day. So, I wore my "cute" cross-trainers. BIG mistake, big...HUGE!

The coach showed me some stretches for my shins and calf, which were also killing me by the end of my "run". She advised me to ice and massage them to help with the pain. And get new shoes ASAP.

I got home and iced. Scott gave me a wonderful leg massage. I took Motrin. I survived.
Woke up this morning, fell out of bed, tried to walk...now THAT was funny. My legs were pissed at me. That'll teach me to run with the wrong shoes.

Guess what I did today? :-)

Pic of the "cute" shoe