The first running clinic!

This morning, I arose from bed at 7:15am, which is too early for a Sunday morning, and shuffled to the kitchen for a half a banana and a zuchini muffin for energy before my 8:30am run, my first official half marathon clinic. I was a bit nervous because my cold has made me feel a bit crappy all weekend, and I was worried I'd be suffocating on phlegm during the run. However, by the time I got myself to the CBC building, I was feeling okay.

The group is about 12 people and a variety of running levels/experiences. From what I could tell, based on the people with whom I chatted, it seems I'm the most "advanced" runner (although I could be wrong, who knows). There's a 60 year old woman in the group who has never run before, and I think it's so exciting that she's doing this training!

I missed the first session last week when the group started with an 8.5km run. Today we did 9km. Next week, we'll do 10km. I got a copy of the training manual, which seems quite comprehensive and I'm anxious to dig into it. Our instructor told us we should aim for 4-5 runs per week. Three runs is a bare minimum, he said.

This morning was a great day for running; there was little wind, not too cold, and very sunny. My only complaint is that my IT band started to kill about 6km into the run. I'll have to monitor that. It probably means I need new shoes, which I've been intending to get anyway and now the pain just makes the task that much more urgent.

I was running at the front of the pack with two others, and I found that my pace was slower then when I run on my own, which was both frustrating and fine. Frustrating, because I love pushing myself and I'm used to my natural gait/pace and I want to train within a particular speed zone. Fine, because I could still talk with my fellow group members, and reduce the risk of running out of energy. There were a lot of other runners out and it was fun to pass enthusiastic groups who would shout "hello" and "good morning". And I felt really good being out there so early and doing something so satisfying. I mean, even if I accomplished nothing the rest of the day, at least I accomplished that one 9km run! In short, I had a great time and am keen for next week! Now I need to look at the training schedule and plan out my runs for the week!