Monday, May 25, 2009

Running with Hubby

It is a rainy weekend here in Colorado but I don't really mind because I can get my miles in and not worry about it being to hot.  Nothing zaps a run like a super hot day.  Yesterday my husband lovingly came with me! I use to beg him to come with me and would get mad when he wouldn't.  Now that he is coming I realize that I don't do as well when he is there.  I still love having him with me but I realize that his pace is much faster than mine and I can't pace myself with him next to me.  Pace is everything when you are running and the biggest thing I am working on to get my endurance up.
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Yesterday we started on the trail the exact same time that another family with a dog started, my dog went nuts and was trying to get them till we passed them.  I increased my pace to pass them and burned myself out so we went back to walking, they passed us then half a mile later.  Since I didn't get any substantial running in for the day I wanted to increase from 4 miles to 5 for the day.  We passed the two mile marker where we would normally turn around and just kept going without discussing it.  He finally tells me he wanted to go 5 miles as well. We got a little running in between walking but nothing amazing.  We hit the last mile and I decided to run again.  I instructed my husband to stay two steps behind me and started out slow.  I figured at best I would make it half a mile and that only if I was lucky.  When we got to half a mile Hubby asked "when are you going to stop?" I pointed to the half mile marker but felt so good when I got there that I just kept on going.  Hubby caught up to be a few time in my last half a mile but every time he was running next to me it ruined my pace and I could feel myself tiring super quickly. I would ask my husband to slow down and I kept on going!  Remember keeping a slow pace is the key to getting in any distance. I got to the mile marker that signified the end of my 5 miles and kept on going the last couple hundred yards to our car.  I couldn't believe how great the end of my run went.  I could have kept going if my husband hadn't been waiting for me to finish.  We also finished at the perfect time, a few minutes after we got home we received a huge downpour. 
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I have only run one mile straight in the two months since I started training and yesterday was so different than last time.  Last time I was pushing myself just to finish the mile, yesterday I was on such a high ran past my mile end point.  My legs didn't feel like dead weight and my breathing wasn't labored.  I can't tell you how accomplished and proud I feel.  I even went to bed dreaming of my next run.  
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I realized that the reason my husband was ruining my run was because I was listening to his footsteps and it was making me speed up.  This is the reason I love to listen to audio books when I run rather than music. Books let you keep your own pace not the pace of the music.  The perfect running mix is great but how many times can you listen to the same music and how hard is it to find?  I can't wait to hit the trail and hear more of my book, it really keeps me coming back.
I get my books on tape from the library and just upload them to my shuffle.  I find that people forget about books on tape and you can get the most popular books sooner than the actual book.

5 comments:

  1. I also run with my husband and notice that I don't do as well when he's next to me either! I think it's because I'm too focused on him/his pace/not slowing him down rather than what *my* body is doing and how it feels. I do enjoy the company though!

    What a great idea to use a book on tape rather than listening to music! I may have to try that sometime.

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  2. I run with my husband alot I just tell him that I am setting the pace and he stay with me sometimes I have to tell him to slow down but af ter a mile he catches on

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  3. My husband refuses to run with me. I guess it is ok though.

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  4. Wow, thanks for this post. I love reading other insights on how to pace yourself. I know that I am going too fast but when I slow down I feel like I am crawling. I have to have music on so now I wonder if I am pushing it too much because of the tempo of my selections? I have a lot of friends that are runners and I am hearing that pace is the hardest to get down.

    I went out today for 5 miles of walking/running and I was dead at the end. I followed my training program but it was HARD. My hubby gave me a good tip. He told me to focus on what I did this workout vs thinking about the next one. I am training for a 5K. I realize that for me as I was running I was always thinking, "Oh, 3 miles is so far i'll never do it." He's right. I need to celebrate the fact that I ran for 5 minutes straight. 3 weeks ago I could never do that. It's HUGE for me.

    Congrats on running a full mile. What an accomplishment. You should be so proud of yourself. Sorry for the rambling comment but I am at the same point as you with the running so I feel like I can really relate!

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  5. I went running with a friend the other day and I did horrible. My pace is much slower than hers and it is really distractible to me. I was costantly trying to push myself and wore myself out. I will have to try the books on tape!

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