It's easy to get discouraged while exercising with fibromyalgia. Progress can be unbelievably slow and recovery time unbelievably long compared to what other runners seem to experience. Thanks to new technology that allows runners to share run distances, times, pacing, etc. instantly through social media like Facebook and Twitter, I'm constantly aware of how I compare to other runners I know.
In a word, I am SLOW. And lacking endurance, big-time.
I try not to focus on that, though. The important thing is that I am MOVING. I might be doing it slowly, but I'm doing it! And by golly, that's all that matters.
With that being said, I thought I'd report in on my 5K training, such as it is. I'm still running on the treadmill exclusively (a) because it's hotter than Satan's armpit out there, and (b) because I like the control it gives me. Today I did six laps on the treadmill, which equals a mile and a half. The first half lap (.125 miles) was warmup, then I ran eight-tenths of a lap and walked two-tenths of a lap until I had covered 4.3 laps. The remainder was cool-down.
Is that a lot of running? Nope. But it's a lot of running for me, and it felt pretty damn good!
My immediate goal is to be able to run a mile without stopping. Not fast, just without stopping. After that I need to increase my distance so that I'm eventually able to run three miles with just short walk breaks between miles. And then it'll be time to get off the treadmill and hit the trail where the 5K is taking place to make sure my knees can handle it (not to mention acclimating myself to the heat and humidity, ugh). My fibromyalgia is flared by weather changes so that is a huge hurdle for me, running outside with the humidity and everything and still being able to recover afterwards. I guess we'll see what happens!
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