First Day of Training

Our first day of our Team In Training.. training and I was soaked by the end of it all. Not dripping with sweat as you might guess, but with rain. Yup, it rained our first day of practice.. in So Cal of all places!?!.. and in May of all months. Our 7 am practice time turned soggy on us. It was all good though. The energy of the team was pretty intense and I could tell that the little bit of rain was not going to stop this beast. Our coach Brett took the runners through some brief warm up exercises and talked about proper running technique... "chest out and push the tush (forward that is)" as he put it. After a brief warm up walk WE WERE OFF!

Jamie and I started about 30 seconds after the first group. We got to run together for the first three minutes where she then stopped to take her one minute walk and I continued on to my eight minutes run to one minute walk regimen. As I ran I found myself passing many of the people that started ahead of me. I eventually made it up to the lead group and kinda hung with them for the rest of the run. We found our half way point and turned back for the second 1.5 mile trek. Heading back I got to see all of the other runners including my beautiful wife, who was not very far back from the front pack (HELL YEAH BABY!!). As we passed our team mates it could not be helped to throw out a high fives and shout some encouraging yelps. The three miles ended a lot sooner then expected... that's a good thing, right? Maybe it was because I was focused on my newly acquired running techniques.. "chest out - push the tush".. which by the way made be feel a little bit too proper. I finished my run in about 21 minutes which put me at a 7 MINUTE MILE!! WOOOHOOOO!.. I'm getting faster! Jamie was not too far behind with a 24 minute run time.

The practice ended with a potluck, where we gorged ourselves with carbs, fruit and cheese. Water was at the top of my list and I killed my entire bottle. Back at home we powered out some stretching and then hibernated for a good part of the day (being up at 6 AM already had my butt kicked).

Aaaaaaaarg the pain!! The next morning proved to be very painful for me. I thought I had made it through most of the start up pain, but I guess Brett's running techniques challenged my body in new ways. THANKS BRETT!! Epsom salt and ice packs were added to our equipment list, and we headed out to Walgreens.

Keep up with me... if you can.

B