Running Against My Fears

For those of you who read my Goals and Dream for 2012! section, you know that one of my goals for this year is to be able to run a 5k!

I really want to get beyond this!

Now, I’m going to be very open and honest here and admit that I had a terrible, embarrassing, scary thing that happened to me last May when I was getting really good and able to run 1 mile without stopping. I was at the gym, running on one of the treadmills I had never used before, getting ready for the 5k I had coming up in a week and a half. Let me take a moment and paint a picture for you. The treadmill I usually use is up on a side balcony where people rarely go and it’s nice and quiet. This treadmill I had never used before, well it was down in the middle of the weight room where all the guys workout, right outside both group fitness rooms, and you could see it from both balcony’s. So here I was running along , when all of the sudden I felt myself falling……I tried to catch myself but I landed on both of my knees with the treadmill going at a speed of 5.0, then I proceeded to hit the floor!People came from all around me asking if I was ok. To which I replied “I’m fine!” and laughed as tears formed in my eyes. I stumbled into the locker room, looked at my burning knees to discover that the skin was burned clear off of them and I was bleeding. I left to come home and somehow completed the 5k 2 weeks later. Needless to say, my knees where still bandaged and in a lot of pain so I didn’t end up doing much running. I have been terrified to get back on a treadmill ever since!

Today was a gym day so I decided that I would start that goal and get on a treadmill! Now, the first thing you need to know is that I haven’t run on a treadmill in about 6-8months. The last couple of times I tried I couldn’t do it without holding on, and would have to get off after about 10 minutes because I was so uncomfortable and feeling like I was going to fall off!

My goal getting on was to be able to go 20min. running for two songs, then walking for one and continuing that pattern until the 20 min. was up.  So I got up to my “old faithful”, the only one in the gym I feel comfortable on and started the 5k program. I had my ipod so I was listening to some rocking music which helped a ton! I had a 2 min. warmup and then it went right in to running. I ran for 17 minutes without stopping and realized that I had just run 1.3 miles! I had to take a breather at this point and walked for for minutes and then finished it off by running another .6 miles!   And can I just say I barely held on this time! What a motivating day this has been. I’m excited to see where I’ll be in the next few months! Do you have any fitness goals you are working on this year? Or perhaps an embarrassing gym story that mine reminded you of?