Blown Away

8 weeks ago, I struggled on the first day of my “Potato-to-Tomato” class. We ran eight 60 second jogs with 90 second walks in between. I made it through 7 of them, but could not finish 8. The second day, I held onto get 8 and struggled through 9.

The next week, we did 90 second jogs with 2 minute walks in between. This week wasn’t horrible…we did 6 repeats on Monday and 7 on Wednesday.

The first two weeks I missed the Saturday run – I was out of town for the first and the second…well, I was lazy.

On the week of the 4th of July, the program seriously kicked it up a notch…we ran 90 seconds with a 90 second walk followed by a 3 minute jog with a 3 minute walk. The first day, we had to do the workout on our own (which I did) and do two repeats. I finished…but it wasn’t easy. On that Wednesday, my whole body decided to crap out. We were doing 3 repeats…I got two done and couldn’t do more. On Saturday, we were to do 4 repeats. I actually showed up and got two done again and partially through a third before my body crapped out on me again. This wasn’t looking good for me.

The following week, we kicked the plan up a notch – 3 minute jogs with 90 second walks followed by a 5 minute run with a 2.5 minute walk…and then repeat that once. The first day…I got through the first 3 runs…and made it 3 minutes into the last 5 minute. I felt like I had made huge progress…then on Wednesday, I did the whole thing. I could barely believe it. That Saturday, we took to the greenway, which has poles every quarter mile…ran a quarter mile, walked a quarter mile, ran a half mile, walked a quarter mile and repeated…and…wouldn’t you know? I actually finished that…

A bit of confidence was starting to set in.

The following Monday, I was going to a Britney Spears concert, so I did my run on my lunch break at work. It was three 5 minute runs separated by three 3 minute walks. I finished them all. We were hauling. Then on Wednesday was the big daddy (so far) – two 8 minute runs separated by 5 minute walks…and on “The Hill Route“…and I did it…and I was feeling good. I had had some shin splint issues to this point, but I had managed to keep them mostly at bay. That Saturday was the 2 mile greenway run…and I made it a half mile before my shin felt like it was exploding. Not so good. Not at all. I wanted to quit. 5 weeks and I couldn’t run a half mile.

I still showed up the following Monday. This time it was a 5 minute run/3 minute walk/8 minute run/3 minute walk/5 minute run. I made it through the first two runs…but then we hit the hill…and I could only do half of the last 5 minute run. When we hit the downhill portion of the hill, I did make it up and run an extra 2:30…it wasn’t perfect, but I did get it out. On Wednesday, however, I just couldn’t do it. It was a 10 minute run/3 minute run/10 minute run. I finished the first 10…but only made it about a minute into the second until my shin started hurting so badly that I couldn’t stand it…I was clueless at this point. I had been trying compression sleeves and everything else I could get my hands on. Nothing was working. That Saturday, my friend Kim and I ran a 4K…I did run about the first 6/10ths of a mile before resorting to a walk. Then I ran another little bit that made my total running equivalent to about a mile. It wasn’t fantastic…but it was something.

The week of August 1 was when everything started to shift…Monday’s run was three 8 minute jogs with 1 minute walks in between. I actually finished the first two and got halfway through the last one before I did I quick 2 minute walk and ran the last 2 minutes. Afterwards, I had a free visit with a physical therapist and asked him about my shin splints…he looked at my feet, told me that they were extremely flat and that I needed an insole of some sort. I went to REI, purchased a product called Superfeet and stuck them in my shoe. On that Wednesday, the run was supposed to be two 12 minute runs with a 1 minute walk in between. Unfortunately, there was a 110 degree heat index outside…so I opted instead to run on the treadmill for the first time during my entire journey…with the new Superfeet insoles. Instead of running for 12 minutes…I ran for 2 miles in 40 minutes. It wasn’t fantastic speed and obviously running on a treadmill is easier…but I did something I never thought I could do. Saturday, however, I had a road endurance reality check. Our plan was to run 2.5 miles on the greenway. I got to the half-mile point and decided to take a brief walk and kick my run back up. Shortly before the .75 mile mark I started running again, but it was hurting (mostly in my upper body…I was pushing harder than I had before…probably because the things that had hampered me before weren’t). I was going to switch my plan to run a half mile/walk a quarter mile and then just aim to run a full 5k later in the fall. Then when I hit the halfway point, my coach was waiting on me…and he wouldn’t let me walk on the way back. When I couldn’t run anymore, he made me take 100 more running steps…and then walk 50 steps before kicking back up again. All told, out of the 2.5 mile course on Saturday…I did manage to cover about 2 miles of it.

On Monday, we shifted away from the park and were taken onto the actual course for three 10 minute runs with 1 minute walks in between. The first 10 minutes was fairly easy…the course starts off uphill, but quickly makes a long downhill and doesn’t go back uphill until the 1 mile mark. However, it goes allllllllll the way uphill basically from the 1 mile mark to the 2 mile mark. It’s just one, long continuous awful, hellacious hill…and I ran the whole 10 minutes on it (although I kept telling myself I would quit). Unfortunately, I had burned up so much energy going up the hill that as the second 1 minute walk ended, I wasn’t in any condition to run again…finally, after about 2-3 minutes, I was able to kick in and run a bit. Off and on for the next 8 minutes I did the 100 step/50 step method and managed to (for the most part) finish the run…I feel like if I had known what to expect on the long hill, I could have taken it slower and run longer.

Then Tuesday happened. Tuesday was 30 minutes of straight running. Obviously, this has been a problem on the road. I can do it in an airconditioned room on a treadmill, but not when my entire method of propulsion is my own body. 5 minutes ticked away…I felt okay. 10 minutes ticked away and I knew I was breaking new ground. We hit the halfway point and I started to think about stopping. Then we got closer to 20 minutes…and I realized I had just done something on the road that I hadn’t done before…and again, I thought about stopping. Then at about the 24 minute mark…a hill appeared. There were 6 minutes left in my run. I had already made it further than I had ever gone on the street before. There was no shame in quitting now…or was there? There were only 6 minutes left…it was a nasty hill, but…there were only 6 minutes left. I was so exhausted that it killed me to expel energy to get out of the way of the hedge that was sticking out into my running path…but at the 28 minute mark, I was over the hill. I was in the home stretch. 2 minutes left and it was flat…and I ran…and ran…and ran…and finished back almost exactly where I started. Roughly 2 miles in 30 minutes with no walking. I cannot believe it.

Regardless of what I do in the 5k on Saturday. The fact that I ran 2 miles in 30 minutes on Wednesday…I know it’s the start of something.

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Here’s the full “Potato-to-Tomato” plan: