Today is May 1st. May Day. I was planning on writing this post all day yesterday and I thought maybe I should go and discuss all the important things that happened on this day. But then, in all actuality, I really didn't care that much. It's a very important day throughout history and I really don't know if I want to sit here and talk about...well, actually, nothing. Looking on Wikipedia, May 1st is a really boring day. True, the first cricket match was played in America in 1751 but that's about the extent of exciting historic events. At least the ones that are of interest to me.
But a year ago this month (I don't know the exact day) I started running full time. It was when I started training for my first ever 5K, which was last October. I remember it quite clearly. It was the worse thing I tried doing. I had no ability to run for longer than 10 minutes at a time. A mile was very difficult for me to do when I was first starting out. I would go to this track with my mom that was right down the road from my house. It's a nice dirt track that is a half mile in distance but when I first started, it kicked my ass. Like, I was so out of breath the first time trying it. My calves would kill after each run. My back was in so much pain. I stretched all the time but it still continued day after day. I would take some time off and try again later and it would be fine but then go back to hurting. I eventually changed shoes and all was fine.
The next few months that lead up to the 5K were the hardest months I have ever done. I had the hardest time trying to get to three miles. Other than not having a good way of actually recording my pace and distance, just trying to run farther each week was difficult. I would force myself to go faster and really feel like it wasn't working. The closer to the race, the easier it got to run three miles. I'm sure it's the training that I was doing that helped but it was still very difficult. When it came to the race, I really ran like crazy. I busted my ass to run as fast as I could for three straight miles. When I finished, with a time of 28.02, I felt like a million bucks. All the training that I did and all of the pain and agony that lead up to that moment. I finally finished a race. I did something that I have always wanted to do. And a few days later, I went right back to the pain.
I say all this cause looking back for the last year, I feel like I have come so far. I'm already running eight mile days. I get excited that I'm running nine miles next week. I look at the 28.02 I got in October and then notice the 26.23 I got this past March and see that I have gotten so much better. All this training is really putting me in the right direction. If you asked me a year ago, I would have laughed that I wanted to continue to do this. Ask me two years ago, I would have choked on the food I was shoving into my mouth that I was considering even doing a race. A whole year really makes a difference. I really need to keep those thoughts in my mind, especially when it comes to the rest of my life. One day. I will get there.
This is amazing, and I'm really happy and excited to hear about your progress. I'm on a similar mission only with cycling. I got to a point in my life where something as simple as walking up stairs became difficult to me. My blood pressure was out of hand and I was physically and emotionally miserable. I started riding a bike trainer in November and practicing yoga at the beginning of the year. I'm already riding at a 16mph average over 20miles and am working towards my first 100k which I plan on doing within the next couple of weeks. It's remarkable how much you can do when you just decide to say "fuck it" it give it every thing you have. I can't imagine going back to living how I was even just a few months ago. Probably the best thing I ever did for myself. Wicked happy to hear you're doing well. Keep it up brother!
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