Born to Run? – Beginning Week #9 of 10k Trainer App

Christopher McDougall, in Born to Run, observed the following:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.  Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

I wonder the gazelles or the lions trained to run using the 10k trainer app that I’m using.  I doubt it, because they’re running to survive and not for fitness sake.  Today, as I finished up Week #8 in my program, I was supposed to run for 30 minutes or 3 miles plus 10 minutes of warm up and cool down.  I did it, but I thought I was going to pass out.  I keep hearing that there’s a magical moment when runner’s euphoria comes over you.  I’ve felt some satisfaction in the completion of a run, but the only euphoria I’ve felt is when I get to stop.

I’m supposed to start my 9^th week of the program this week.  The workout for the first day lasts 54 minutes.  I’m supposed to have a simple 5 minute warmup, run for 10 minutes, walk for 1 minute, then repeat the last two 3 more times before walking for a 5 minute cool down.  I’m not looking forward to this because of two facts about running:  It stinks and I hate it.

I’ll let you know if my feelings change.