A Running Workout for Those Who Hate to Run

My Deal with Running

I’ve been athletic and exercised on a constant basis my entire life.

But for some reason, I’m just not a runner. I’ve never enjoyed it. And that’s coming from me, who actually loves to workout. Even as a kid playing soccer, I remember feeling like I was going to die after we ran sprints. Not much has changed since then.

The first time my husband deployed, I decided that I would add running to my workout routine as something new. Even though I disliked the actual running, I loved how I felt after a hard (well, hard for me!) run. I wasn’t training for anything in particular, but decided I would build up my running endurance and then figure out a specific race/distance to do. I got up to running 5 miles at the end of my workouts, and I thought I was doing pretty good. I would get in a zone, blast music into my headphones, and push myself to keep going. But one day I got a bit too much in the zone and maybe pushed my body a little too hard…

I had just ran 6 miles and as soon as I stepped off the treadmill, I knew something was wrong. When I got home, I was feeling strangely sore and saw that my calf was really swollen and red. After much procrastination in getting it checked out (I waited way too long…lesson learned: go to the doc immediately!), I found out I had torn my calf muscle. I went to physical therapy, iced it like crazy and took it easy (ok, not really easy, but easier than I usually do). And here I am, coming up on 2 years since my injury, yet it’s not fully healed.

What I’ve learned is that it doesn’t bother my calf to do short bursts of running. It only gets ridiculously sore when I apparently put too much strain on my leg muscles for too long. You might be wondering why I even would try to run since I don’t enjoy it and have a nagging injury that gets aggravated by it.

Well, the answer is that it bothers me to think I can’t do something. I like a challenge. So now, I’ve decided I’m going to do an interval run just once or twice a week and see how the injury feels, and hopefully, slowly progress. Yesterday was the first time I’ve run on the treadmill in months. It went pretty well, and my calf feels totally fine today!

With that, I give you the I-loathe-running-and-need-a-workout-that-flies-by-so-I-can-feel-good-when-it’s-over interval run routine. Doing intervals really does make time fly by, and research has shown that there are tons of benefits to doing them, including increased endurance, the ability to burn more fat than if you were working out at a steady pace, and helping to avoid injury and overuse.

You might also find it necessary to blast whatever song you find motivating on repeat during your run. Yesterday for me this was Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger”:

Then, here’s the recipe for my favorite smoothie to have post-workout to give your body some nutritious and delicious fuel (it’s great for a pre-workout snack as well).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake

Ingredients:

1/2 banana, fresh or frozen

1/2 scoop of chocolate protein powder, I use Designer Whey

1 cup of Soy Slender chocolate soy milk (or any kind of milk you prefer)

1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder

1 TBSP peanut butter (I use my favorite PB – Peter Pan reduced fat)

Ice

Combine all ingredients in a blender, then enjoy! I swear, it tastes like a milkshake. I have been known to get people hooked on this smoothie!

Stats: 280 calories, 11 g fat, 21 g protein, 25 g carbs

Back to doing some work, then tonight I’m meeting with my book club. We read The Hunger Games this month, and I absolutely LOVED it. From the middle of the book on, I didn’t want to put it down. I highly suggest reading it and can’t wait for the movie to come out! Anyone else read this book and fall in love with it?