Resilience!

My workouts have been on the elliptical machine for about the last week. No knee pain or anything. I also have been doing more leg, arm, and ab strengthening. I will probably continue this for about another week and then ease back into running again. I am pretty sure I am not going to even attempt the Lincoln half but there is a slight possibility that I could change my mind if running goes well. It wouldn't be the worst thing if I only ran 10 miles of the race and walked the rest. Only time will tell what the future has in store. In the mean time I remain optomistic!

On a different note, a word that I have been incorporating into my life a lot lately is resilient. It is so fascinating how anytime I have something negative go on I just think "have resilience" and I am easily able to move on. For example, something bothers me in the office. Nothing really bad or unfair happens at my work but I find myself focusing too much on a single negative moment. Now I just think "have resilience" and surprisingly I am able to move on and forget about it. I even put a post it on my desk that says BE RESILIENT.

The reason I came up with this new phrase is because my boss brought up the fact that there is a difference between academic intelligence and emotional intelligence. Many people are able to succeed in school or jobs but have a hard time with relationships and personal situations. I was telling my boss about a certain someone that I deal with from time to time and my boss said, "they lack emotional intelligence." I have never thought about this kind of intelligence. I went on the internet and started reading about it and thought I could use some of the information for myself. That is where I started using the word resilient. A simple article on the internet might have changed the way I handle situations from this point on. I just had to blog about this.

My Progress

My training started last week and lets just say it is not going like I want it to. I mentioned before that my knee would start hurting after a mile into the run. Well, things haven't changed much to my disappointment. I think I need to ease into running more slowly and strength train. This puts a stop to my half marathon training program for right now but I am not going to stop running completely. There is a half marathon 6 weeks later than the one I was planning to run. It's in Chicago and my cousin is actually training to run that one as well. If my strength training and additional rest days help ease me back into a harder schedule, then I will definately run it with her. I am not going to get my hopes up too much because this pain might not disappear like I would like it too and I am already pretty bummed about this surprise pain that is delaying my training plan. It's a win win situation though in my opinion. If I can't run in Chicago, it just gives me a great opportunity to visit family and cheer on my cousin. Tonight is a run night so wish me luck that my knee feels good!

My ultimate plan was to run these two half marathons and then move on to a different type of exercise. After completion of the half marathons, I am going to get certified to teach exercise classes. I have a few types of classes that I would like to instruct but I have not narrowed down my choices to one. I have a CPR class scheduled because I know that you need to be CPR certified. Then I have a couple people I need to contact who already instruct so they can guide me on the best way to increase my knowledge and what I need to know for the test. Different websites say different things about books and study courses. I just don't want to get sucked into spending $500 on books that won't help me or taking unecessary courses. So my summer will be full of learning and exercise fun!

Happy healthy living to all!

Worries

So I haven't officially started my 12 week training program for the half marathon yet but I have been running for a couple weeks regularly...rather than once a week. The last two times that I ran, my right knee starts to hurt after about a mile and just gets worse until I stop. This worries me because it may mean that I need to take it easy for now. Well, I can't take it easy because my training starts next week! I decided to ice my knee after running and it made my joint even harder to move. You see, right after I stop running my knee feels fine so the icing made me feel the pain again. I don't get it. For right now I am taking full advantage of resting and still hoping that the knee pain goes away.

A little background. About a year and half ago I twisted my right ankle and it has never felt the same. These days I only feel aches in my ankle after I workout. I think while I am running I land differently on my right foot so not to aggravate my ankle. Maybe this is why my knee hurts. Also, I have been running on a treadmill in this nasty Lincoln cold and I am used to running outside.

While I am expressing my knee issues, I bought a new pair of shoes Tuesday night. I went with the experts advice to get a half size larger. I voiced my hesitation because I have always run in a size 7 shoe but he assured me that with the larger mileage I would need a little more room for my feet to swell. So last night was my first night to run in the new shoes and I have to say that I did not like the extra room in the toe area. I wish I could say my knee pain was from these shoes but my knee started hurting before I got the new ones. So tonight I will be returning the shoes for the size I need and getting the pair that was $30.00 cheaper. I trusted what the expert was saying but had a gut feeling that I would not like the extra room. I have a narrow foot to begin with so I think there is already a little room for swelling.

All in all, my mind is just a little worried about running so much. I worry about my knee and my ankle. My mind made this decision that I would run a half marathon and now I feel like my body is telling me not to. I don't want a pain in my body to take away from something I really want to do. I'm not giving up! I am just hoping that when I run tomorrow my right leg feels like my left leg :)

I got my own blog...fun!

So lately I have been reading a lot of other people's blogs and came to the conclusion that I would like start one as well. The reason I suddenly thought this is because I am going to run a half marathon. This blog will serve as motivation for me to stick to my 12 week training schedule to be ready for race day on May 2nd.

I ran cross country in high school and really wish I had the endurance that I did back then. I guess when you don't run for a few years and then go into spurts of running one month and not the next, you don't really get to keep it. Even though we used to train like crazy and run 40+ miles a week back in high school, I can only think of one day that I ran 12 miles all at once. So why decide 8 years after my cross country days to run a 13.1 mile race? Well, I have always wanted to and I found some people that kinda gave me a push and excitement about the whole thing. A few of my boyfriend's co-workers kept talking about this half marathon they are going to run and I decided to do it as well.

Today I picked a training schedule(the link is at the bottom) and bought a new pair of running shoes since the ones I was using were worn. The schedule is pretty easy at first and increases in mileage 10% each week. February 8th will be day one of my training schedule and I am pretty pumped. Until then I am just running like I usually do and taking it easy. Wish me luck!

Half Marathon Training Schedule