Tricking the Terrain

I got a phone call from Jenna earlier today, and she wanted to know if I was going to run after group training tonight. She lives just nine-tenths of a mile from the Ash Center where we train and I'd mentioned running to her place after training last week. She's getting married on May 17th and she's decided she would look better in her wedding dress if she lost five pounds. So she suggested I drive over and we'd run together.

She was a super athlete in high school (basketball, softball, golf) and played golf for all four years at Manchester College. She's got a slim, very athletic build and is one of those natural athletes that can do almost any sport well. She didn't get that from me. She's now employed as an athletic trainer and I know she goes through phases of working out, but apparently not recently.

After group training tonight, which consisted of walking/running for five minutes then two rounds of station core exercises, I drove to Jenna's. We walked the short distance to Wildwood Park, then started running. I'm at the end of week 7, where we run 7:00, walk 3:00, and repeat two more times for a total of 30 minutes.

Wildwood Park is an idyllic city neighborhood in Fort Wayne, at least as far as I'm concerned. Most of the homes there are unique, oozing with character and class, and are surrounded by lots of trees and beautiful landscaping. There are even rolling hills and the streets aren't laid out in grid squares, instead meandering and winding in and around and through.



We started our run and as we moved along, I expressed my concern to Jenna about those hills. I've not run on anything but flat terrain because that's all we have where I live. And when I say flat, I mean flat. Like a tabletop. She assured me there was a way to get around the hills. Her former roommate, Mel, was a runner and she had it all figured out how to run on the flat or downhill parts and take the walking breaks on the uphill parts.

About halfway through the second 7-minute run, Jenna hurt her ankle. She's had problems with it before, but it had been a few years, so she was surprised that it bothered her today. She tried to go easy on it, but had to stop and walk and even that was fairly painful. She felt bad that she couldn't run with me and I felt bad that I couldn't slow down for her. I told her to just rest and I would run a ways then turn around and come back to her.

I did end up having to run up one hill, and it was at the end of the third and final run. Could it have come at a worse time??? But I pressed onward and upward and met back up with Jenna and we walked back to her place.

The change of scenery helped the 30 minutes fly by. The magnolias were in bloom at about every other house and the weather was just about perfect, too, with temperatures in the low 70s with sunny blue skies. I think I'll try to do this as much as possible after group training and hopefully Jenna's ankle won't give her permanent trouble.

I've found that I'm not all that winded anymore after running and can even talk while running. It's just amazing to me how good this feels (most of the time) and also how far I've come in just eight weeks. There's still much work to be done, but I now feel confident that what once seemed impossible is actually doable.

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