I want to be a runner

A few of the blogs I read have mentioned the training methods of Jeff Galloway. I decided to see what all the buzz was about so I went to his website, http://www.jeffgalloway.com/. Jeff Galloway was on the 1972 Olympic team and has coached thousands of runners for marathons and more. He also writes articles for Runners World and has written many books.

His method is based on taking "walk breaks", stating that runners will have better times as they will not slow down at the end of their run. When breaking up a run, especially long runs, into segments, it makes it "easier" to endure.

By no means have I ever proclaimed to be a runner. When I run, it is not pretty. I picture myself lacing up my cool running shoes and running around the park like it's no big deal. That is FAR from the truth. It is not pretty when I run. I huff and puff and sound like I'm about to keel over. I hunch my shoulders forward and I think eventually it will get better. It never does and my attempts at running usually end with me hurting all over. You'd think I'd give up by now because clearly, my body is not made to run.

Several years ago, I could run 3 miles. I worked my way up to it over time. Well, what happens when you stop? If you don't use it, you lose it. This time around, I'm having a hard time pretending to be that runner that I strive to be.

So, after reading about Jeff Galloway's method, I decided that this morning when I went to the park to run,I would give it a shot. Based on an optimistic pace of a 14-minute mile, it is recommended that I run for 30 seconds and walk for 30 seconds. So I did this. Thanks to my nifty Garmin watch on my wrist (which I'm not sure how I've not had one all this time....), I was able to easily glance down at the big numbers and see when every 30 seconds was up.

The first thing I noticed was that I did not feel fatigued as quickly as I normally would. I felt like I could run farther if I tried, but I stuck to the 30 second intervals to see how it worked out in the end time wise. I beat my best time ever, finishing in 38:14. And bonus, the third mile was my fastest one. Normally if I try to make myself run longer than I should, I slow down at the end and find that it is a real struggle to finish.

I am not necessarily trying to beat times, but it was pretty neat to see that even with walk breaks, I finished quicker that if I tried to run as long as I could. My optimistic guess of a 14-min mile was proven to be a 12:18 minute mile. I am faster than I think when I use this method. And according to Jeff Galloway's site, with this pace, I should be running 2 minutes and walking 1 minute. The next time I run, which will be Tuesday, I will go for 1 minute running and 1 minute walking to see how I do with that.

Ultimately, I would love to be able to run a full 5K. That is one of my biggest goals for 2012. And I think with this method, I have a pretty good shot at reaching that goal, sooner than later.

If any of you have any desire to run, I suggest you visit www.jeffgalloway.com and read up.

My motto for today...