December 28, 2008

One single mile

My plans of a 6.7 mile loop didn't work out today, but I did get in a quality two-miler. My main focus was consistency, and I managed to keep walk breaks only to a portion of the uphills. Coming back, no walk breaks at all. Not especially fast, mind you, but at the end it felt like I was flying right along. I grant the return route is mostly downhill, but not all of it. There's a three-block uphill section that is often more than I can handle.




My biggest problem is my breath support. It's just not there. At no point can I get a good deep breath, and if I want to run continuously, even maintaining the same slow pace gets harder and harder. But today, with the weather 20 degrees warmer than Christmas and humidity near 100%, something seemed to work out OK, and though I was still coughing a lot (and bringing up more than I have in the last few weeks), I didn't have to slow to a walk for every coughing spell. I was able to gain some confidence that I can once again, with discipline, handle the smaller hills and not have to walk every step of the larger hills.

I know it seems a very little thing to most of my readers, but being able to string together that one single mile is quite a victory for me. I don't expect to be able to do that during every run, but if I can increase the frequency when I can and just slowly get better, then maybe things will work out.

2 comments:

KimsRunning said...

WOW...CF and you run at all is an amazing feat to be proud of!!

I am in awe.

Now I'll go back and read your blog from the beginning!

Anonymous said...

It always starts with the first mile. Maybe that should be on the back of my Team Boomer shirt along with "Curing CF one mile at a time". Right now I'd like to be able to walk a mile (dang back). Remember we love you mile after mile. YOUR BIGGEST SUPPORTS
Mom and Dad