Back in the saddle?

Well, I finally got to run on some running hollowed ground, and boy did it kick my ass! So I figured what better a way to spend my first Saturday as a New York City resident by having a nice run in Central Park, right? WRONG. Well, not so bad that it warrants all caps wrong, but things didn’t go as nicely as planned.

Have no fear folks, I didn’t get mugged or anything (the worse case scenario my mom envisions, she keeps watching too much Law & Order: SVU), but it was no normal run for me. Why? Because Central Park has something Chicago doesn’t have: hills. Yup. I never ran on hills, ever. The lakeshore path was pretty flat, as were the trails around my old place, so this was a whole new bag of tricks. And let me just state that I have the utmost respect now for people that run a very hilly course.

So anyways, I didn’t even finish my 2 miles run. Granted, I haven’t run in a few weeks, so I’m a bit out of shape anyways. I stopped running so much, because I got a wicked painful case of shin splints. It hurt like hell, but I stayed off high impact workouts (like running) for a bit, and I’m glad to report that my shins did not hurt during my Central Park debut! The left one hurts when it rains or when the temperature drops (I’m assuming this has some sort of correlation, otherwise I just sound like some old person saying “I can feel rain comin in my bones kiddies!”), otherwise the major pain has stopped. So yay for non-hurting shins! YAY! But boo for being a lazy butt and not going the full 2 miles that I wanted to do. BOO!

Anyways, I’m finishing getting settled, and going to try to get into the swing of a running schedule soon. I’ve looked up and found two runners associations in Brooklyn, and found a few ads for running partners on the New York Road Runners Club website, so hopefully I’ll get in with some runners up here, feel more at home.

But the BIG NEWS is that I start training for the Indianapolis Mini Marathon soon! And I’ve got 5 friends back home training with me! So I’ll have someone besides my Dad to bitch too about my training schedule, haha. I think majority of us are following Hal Higdon’s ½ marathon training program, so feel free to jump in his program (http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm) and join in with us! I also plan on really trying to work on setting and maintaining a pace, and trying to learn and apply some running techniques to my program, rather than my past marathon attempt of just shuffling along and trying not to die.

So there ya go folks (all five of you that read this site, haha)! I’m back with a vengeance! So keep checking in. I’m a lonely single girl in NYC with no one I know, so god knows I’ll have plenty of running time on my hands ☺

Love,
Lisa

PS To date I’ve lost 3 toenails. Haha. Just in case your keeping tabs. I’m just so hardcore, aren’t I?