Background

I never thought I would call myself a runner. While I was on the track team in grade school and high school, I was a lazy participant. In grade school I threw the discus and shot-put, but I also ran the 100M and 200M. Sometimes a 400M was thrown in if my coach forced me. But I ran those distances because to me they were easy. I could do pretty well without ever really practicing. Once I was in high school, they suddenly wanted me to run around the track multiple times to prepare to run those distances! I said, "No thanks!" and moved over to throwing exclusively. 

Fast forward 10 years or so - past all the fast food, lying around the house, never going to the gym, and general disregard for my health- and I had the crazy idea I wanted to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, which is a 5 mile run that starts around 7 AM. Last Thanksgiving it seemed like everyone I knew was wearing their shirt from the event while eating their turkey- while I was just wearing a sweater and eating just as much, even though I had done nothing that morning except make a big breakfast to indulge in first. 

This decision to run was just another idea for me. I had been dieting and trying to work out, and I had at that point successfully lost around 20 lbs. In my mind running was just going to make the pounds melt off (I still had a lot more to go).

I downloaded my couch-to-5K app (C25K by RunDouble) and started the process on a treadmill. If you are not familiar with the process- the program builds you up to 30 minutes of running using running and walking intervals- with the running amounts increasing over something like 8 weeks. On the treadmill I was doing run intervals at a speed of 5 mph, or a 12 minute mile. I got stuck on the week where you run 3 5-minute intervals. I kept getting a stitch in my side and it seemed like I would never make it past that week in the app.

So, why not get pregnant and just give up on working out completely? I can't excuse this- I know if you want to be fit you have to make it a priority. I can only say I was working a TON because of a major acquisition and pregnancy made me want to go to bed as soon as I got home. 

Fast forward AGAIN - past gaining all the weight back plus another 5, having a baby, then dropping the weight except for the extra 5- and I decided that once I got the all clear from the doctor I was going to try this running thing again. Except with a baby. And outside. With a stroller. 

Running outside was scary to me- I didn't understand how someone could run without a TV. Wouldn't you be bored? And isn't outside HARDER? And how do you push a stroller while doing it? Well, it turned out the stroller thing wasn't too bad. That was actually the only way to get my son to nap. And huffing and puffing and praying that the interval is over really does seem to fill up the time. Eventually I was able to complete the C25K program, even without the stroller! 

One problem, at the end of the program I could run for 30 minutes straight. It turns out that running for 30 minutes does not always equate to a 5K distance...