Week 7, Day 2

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).
Last night was 'BLAH'. I just wasn't 'feeling it', ya know?

I pushed to try and do that first mile in 10 minutes, and was close, but no cigar. At the 10:00 minute mark I was at 0.92 miles. And I would have gladly called it a night right then and there, but I had to somehow get back to the parking lot.

It was the farthest I have gotten so far on our original path around the lake. I have no idea where exactly I was, but there was a road you had to cross to get to the other side of the lake and it was the first time I had seen that, so that was a bonus.

The run back took me a bit longer. I walked 3 minutes before I picked back up and ran, but only for another 1 1/2 before I had to walk again. Like I said, I just wasn't feeling it.

I walked for maybe another minute and then slowly picked backup the running again..but didn't push it. After another 4 mintues I walked again for a few, then ran off and on until I got back to the beginning...

It was a cool night, so I didn't feel hot, but just more exhausted. I know I wasn't well hydrated for the run and my legs (not knees) and side seemed to cramp up alot last night. I think I may have started out running too fast again because the side cramps came on pretty fast. And I think I probably only have a few more days until the legs/knees start giving me trouble again. So far I've been lucky, but I have a feeling my luck is running out. Last night as I laid in bed I kept thinking about recovery socks and where I could get a pair pronto.

Week 6, Day 2

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)


Again, I'm a day behind since I only ran Tuesday and Thursday nights this week. We decided to stick with the Day 2 plan as that seems more attainable with the break in between runs.

We also decided to switch it up a bit and move back to the lake and an earlier time since it is so cool out this week. It felt great running out there with a cool breeze!

I pretty much accomplished the workout for Day 2. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what we ran by the time on the Garmin...I know when I reached the parking lot and stopped the time it was 28:14. So I'm going to talk this out here and try and figure it out. :)

We got to talking during our 5 minutes warm up walk and lost track of time a bit, so we actually walked 6 minutes instead of 5...and so that threw me off. I'm so used to running until the timer says 15 minutes now that I'm trying to get to 10 minutes before breaking, and that's what I did..then realized after we stopped that we had only ran 9 minutes because we walked an extra minute in the beginning...(Timer read 15:00 when we stopped)

We had just passed the 1 mile marker around the lake when my timer was at about 14:45. Because of the walk at the beginning, my Garmin actually showed .95 miles at that point. Lisa went on and ran to the 1 1/4 mile marker, but Mandy and I turned around there to head back and ran the last 15 seconds or so until I stopped us early at 9 minutes.

I *thought* we walked an extra minute (4 total) after that first run, but I'm almost positive the timer read 18:00 when we started running again (3 minutes). I'm not sure. I know we ran another 7 minutes, had just rounded the Corner and could see the parking lot when Mandy asked me how many minutes we had run and I said 7. That would have put us at 25:00 minutes...I don't remember what the Garmin said at that point. We both stopped there for a quick breathe....I shuffled the songs on my iPod and decided with the 'finish line' in site, I was just going to go for it, so after about 30 seconds of walking I took off again.

That last stretch didn't seem like it would be that long since I could see my car, but It ended up being at least 3 more minutes..like I mentioned above, I stopped the Garmin when I got there and it said 28:14 and 2.08 miles.

Mandy and I talked about that time/distance a bit and it didn't really seem accurate...but I'm assuming it was....If you remember back to my post about the Bennington Days race, I finished that 2 mile run in a time of 28:25....so that is what is confusing me, because I had to walk a lot of that race because my knees hurt so bad...and I definitely felt like I ran A LOT more last night then I did in that race, but the time/distance are almost identical....and that seems off.

I guess if I think about it, with the warm up walk and the break walk that is 8 or 9 minutes total walking time...so only about 20 minutes of running...I still think I walked a lot more at the race, but I'm not going to dwell on it right now.

I just feel really good about being able to run at or very close to 10 minutes without stopping. :)

One thing about the Lake is that you really do not have a good sense of distance like at the track, where your just running in a circle and you know how far you have gone....there are markers at the lake that tell how many yards (?) you've gone and then mile markers, but come on...how many of us can actually judge how far 400 yards are? Anyone? Anyone?? Not I. So having the Garmin at the Lake with the timer/distance tracker is huge.

I was also surprised at how well my knees are doing. I didn't wear any of the braces on them last night, and they are great this morning. Haven't had to ice for the last 3 runs or so...I didn't feel like I needed to, but I probably should be doing it anyway just in case.

Trying to keep a steady pace was a bit harder for me as well at the lake...I felt like I was going too fast right off the bat and my sides were both cramping up pretty early on...but I'm sure that had a lot to do with the fact that there were some pretty decent inclines on the path we were running...and it probably didn't help that I had a bowl of fettuccine alfredo for dinner either...but I did eat a small portion...didn't want to be hurling that up while running. :)

I'm hoping that while it's cool this next week, we'll stick to the lake. That will get us used to running on the pavement again and pretty much the exact same conditions as we will be running the 5k in August in. I wish the weather would stay in the high 70's, low 80's until that race, but who am I kidding. We've literally been breaking record lows for temps here over the last few days, so I'm expecting to have god awful record high temps by the time the race gets here! But hopefully before that happens I'll have a decent running time down.

Next week I think my focus will be on watching my mile time and seeing if I can keep that consistant. I'm thinking that I'll have Lisa time our first 5 minute walk, and then I won't start my Garmin until we actually run...that way the time/distance is calculated by running and not the walks too.

Week 5, Day 2

The Workout:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)


Eight Is Enough.

Last night was a hard one. Those first eight minutes seemed to drag on and on and on, and the five minute walks flew by.

I wouldn't say last night was a complete failure, but I didn't make it through the second eight minute run. After five minutes It was hard to keep up the pace and my knees were starting to complain, so I decided not to push it.

I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to run for a straight 20 minutes on Thursday night.

That will be a challenge....

We did decide to start a bit later last night, which helped with the heat. It was quite cool by 9:00 p.m., but it was really windy! I think that might of contributed to me pooping out at the end. It was hard to run against the wind, even if it was only for 1/2 a lap each time. It's much better having that wind at your back.

I'm hoping for another cool night Tomorrow and that the knees hold up and how many of those 20 minutes I can stick it out for.

Week 4, Day 2

This Post pretty much sums up my run last night...minus the hot weather and the trip to Target afterwards.

Ran on the track again last night and I still perfer that over the hard cement, but it didn't seem to matter last night.

Part of the problem I'm sure is that I also went out Monday night and tried to run a bit. Hoping for a repeat of the great run I had on Sunday, but that didn't happen. I pretty much had the same luck on Monday as I did last night...pain.

So I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised that running sucked last night.

My best days of running seem to be when I have at least 2 days inbetween runs. I'm starting to think that maybe I should just cut back to Sunday's and Thursday's only for awhile and see if that helps. Skip the Tuesday night run so get a few extra days rest in for the knees.

At the rate I'm going I'm never going to make it through a 5K...maybe not even TO a 5K. :(

Props to Lisa (who made a come back last night) and Mandy who were both able to complete the entire plan last night!

You Go Girl(s)!

Week 3, Day 2

...which really should have been day 3 for this week.

I skipped out on running Tuesday night, which should have been day 2, and last night day 3, but my knee just wasn't having it. I decided that it would probably be a better idea to stay off of it that night and ice it and then give it a few extra days rest so that I'd be ready for Thursday.

And that's what I did.

And last nights run sucked.

On top of my knee still not being 100%, add in 90 degree heat and about 1000% humidity even at 8 p.m. and that made for one sucky run.

I'm not sure if it was the heat, or the fact that I probably didn't stretch out enough, or the fact that it had been 4 days since my last run, but my legs just decided that they did not want to work...even the easy 90 second first run was hard for me...I just felt like I couldn't get my legs to bend and move. I couldn't get going. :(

But I toughed it out and made it through the first 90 second, the first 3 minute and the second 90 second runs...but by the time the last 3 minute run came around, I was really pushing it and the knee wasn't having it.

I had to fall back and walk quite a bit..run a little...walk again...run again...off and on for that last three minutes. I finally did catch up with Mandy and Lisa, so that was good. It is really encouraging to have friends to run with...I know I would not have the drive to do this on my own, so I'm thankful that I have them. This morning every part of my body is a bit stiff...both knees a little achy.

There is a 2 mile run this Saturday morning that I have been going back and forth on about participating in....I finally decided yesterday afternoon that I was pretty sure I could do it...thought the knee would be good after 4 days off and that if last nights run went well, I'd be ready to go on Saturday morning....I even called the guy incharge of the run to make sure I could still sign up at the race on Saturday and was really excited about it...but after last night I'm starting to have doubts about it again. At least being able to run it...which I never really intended to be able to run the entire 2 miles...but maybe just off and on..now I'm not so sure. I think I may still participate even if I have to walk the whole thing.

I was kinda hoping I could say it was my first official 'race'...or run...whatever....but it may have to just be a long walk. :) We'll see.

Day 2

Was much harder then day one! :) Probably because my body was still aching..but that's what happens when it's not used to excersize of any kind.

But I still give myself credit for going out there and running..even as my body protested.

Friday night I ran by myself around the high school track. Which was much more boring then the first night running with Mandy at the lake. I did have my iPod, which helped a bit, but it was alot harder to time myself and make sure I was running according to the recommended Week 1 plan: 60 seconds of running, 90 seconds walking, repeat 8 times.

I really need to invest in a stop watch of some sort.

I was totally prepared to feel even more crappy come Saturday morning...I really thought I'd be hurting big time after the second run, but surprisingly, I felt great the next morning. Perfectly fine! Almost like I hadn't run the night before...but I promise I did!

I technically still have one day left in Week 1...but Mandy is already two days into Week 2 and if I'm going to run with her I might jump on over to the next week tonight. Week 2 consists of 90 seconds of running, followed by 2 minutes of walking; repeat 8 times.

This might pose a bit of a challenge for me, but I'm up for it. Why else would I be putting myself through this torture!