This Gets Easier, Right?

LightHouse Board member, Gena Harper, is motivated! Not only has she decided to train for the 2012 Paralympic tryouts in cycling, but she has also committed to doing the San Francisco Half-Marathon as part of Team LightHouse. Throughout her training, Gena will update us on her progress. Here is her first post:

Starting last April, I began doing a lot of tandem cycling. It was my goal to build my strength and capabilities so I could do long, difficult rides. I’ve worked hard and can now do 50-70 miles rides with rough terrain on a continuous basis. As a result of that, I signed up to do my first century ride, which is coming up on October 16th. I also got accepted to a cycling development camp to learn about training for the Paralympics.

Then I met Jennifer Yeagley and Lisamaria Martinez and also reconnected with Tony Fletcher. They sweetly suggested I participate in the Team LightHouse half-marathon in February. I like these folks so much that without any thought, like a crazy woman, I agreed!! The real issue is that I don’t like running. But, I just keep telling myself how much fun it’s going to be – I sure hope so…

With the century ride coming up, followed by the half-marathon in a few months, I have been doing a lot of cycling. I’ve also been working my way up to doing one hour and fifteen minutes on my elliptical and doing some walk/runs. But I am really bad at running – no kidding, so I sought out a friend who suggested I do this run/walk thing to build my way up to running the whole darn 13 miles.

Right now I can walk for a minute, then run for a minute. I keep trying to increase the time, but it is going to take some practice!! I do this walk/run thing for 30 minutes. I play music while I do my little routine to try to distract myself from my misery. And I I’m sure it’s going to get easier. Right?

That’s it for now, but stay tuned for more updates!

Gena