Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Joy of Icing Calves


My first day of running left me a little beat up for the next two days. I had no idea that my calves would give out on me like that! After a night of Tiger Balm, tons of water and stretching and bags of frozen vegetables, I was much better.

Yesterday Ashley and I went for our first run together. We went down to the George Washington Parkway since it is flat and beautiful and it has mile markers. We started our running and walked when we got tired. We went about three miles like that, and I was exhausted by the time we got back to the car.

I was more discouraged by the end of this run than I was the first time. It seemed to tire me out more and I think that is because 1) it was after a full day of work and 2) my legs were still recouping from my first-ever run on Monday morning. I learned a less this time and went home and immediately stretched and iced my calves. They feel much better this morning.

It was great having someone to run with. It was less boring and I pushed myself more. I did not want to stop running too early, so I would go just a little farther than I wanted to. It was also much easier for me to go on the run in the first place. We planned on going, and I didn't want to wuss out on her.

My next step is to find a 5K that we are both interested in running. I am thinking that it should be two months out. I am confident that we can train to run a full 3.1 miles by the end of August. Then we can move up to bigger races, like a 5 mile, then 10 mile. I am not going to think any farther out than that.

My friend is in town for the next two weeks, so it will be difficult to work my runs into this altered schedule. I just started, so it is way too soon to lose this spurt of motivation!

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