Week 4, Day 3

So I'm not sure what the heck happened between Tuesday Night and Last Night, but we ran day 3 of this week last night and.....

I DID IT!!!!!


I did it, I did it, I did it, I did It!!!!! :)

I can not believe that I actually ran the entire 'workout' start to finish...every run for the correct amount of time...no cramping, no stopping, no falling behind, no having to walk when I should have been running. I ran THE ENTIRE THING!

I'm so pumped!!!

But still have no clue why I had no problem with it last night.

I did pay a lot more attention to the speed/pace I was going and also a lot more attention to my breathing...especially when I started to feel like my side was going to cramp up. Plus, having the Garmin on my wrist has really helped...it makes me want to watch the time a lot more, which probably isn't good, but last night It really helped me encourage myself to keep going...only 1 minute left...only 30 seconds left...and when the 5 minute run came along and I made it past the 3 minute mark, I was really telling myself:

'you're gonna do this...you made it to 3 minutes..only 2 left...keep going...you're really doing this!"

I think I tend to start out wanting to run too fast and then my legs/knees give out on me..so I started slower and kept the pace.

When I started to feel the pain in my side, I made sure to take longer, slower breathes until it went away, but kept the running at the same pace.

My right knee had a bit of a twinge to it, but I had the brace on that knee last night and it held up. Not too sore last night, but I did ice both knees when I got home (since I've been doing that anyway each night) and this morning they are pretty good. Right one is a bit stiff, but not too much pain.

Overall, it was a really good run! We all had a great night, and I think it's safe to say that this was probably my best night yet!

Next week will be the true test though.

I'm hoping for a repeat of last night on Sunday since the first day of week 5 has us doing the same run/times we did this week (except in the opposite order). Okay, so I read that wrong...it's run 5, WALK 3...then repeat...I got all excited about it being the same for nothing! :)

Week 5 also has you doing something different every night...instead of the same run each day for the week, there is a different goal for each day...and by the end of the week our expected goal is to be able to run 20 minutes straight..no walking in between...and this pattern continues for the remainder of the 9 week program.

If I continue to have days like last night, I think I should do pretty well for the rest of the program...but I am nervous about those 20 and 30 minute runs...I know everything we've been doing has been working up to that...but it's a pretty big jump to go from 5 minutes to 8 minutes to 20 minutes all in the same week!

I'm anxious to see how it goes. :)

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 4, Day 1

Here's the Weekly Plan:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Yesterday was a GOOD DAY!

I'm almost completely convinced that the heat/humidity are my worst enemy...and since yesterday was a beautiful day, low temp, low humidity, I had a GREAT run.

Knees held up very well. I had little or no pain all weekend.

We decided for last nights run to give a track another try, just not the same track. :)

We headed over to one of the local high schools and ran on their track and it was WONDERFUL! I felt like I could actually run again and at a decent speed.

The 5 minute runs were still a challenge for us. I was only able to make it to 3 minutes on the first 5 minute run and then my side just started cramping up big time and I had to stop and walk a bit. I assume that has alot to do with breathing? I need someone to teach me how I'm supposed to breath when I run!

The second 5 minute run I had to stop after about 2 1/2 minutes, walk for about a minute and then finished up running to our starting point...probably just another 30 second or so. I was just pooped by the time that last 5 minute ran came along.

The 3 minutes runs were really good. The first seemed easy this time around. Again, I'm sure that had alot to do with the cooler weather. And I'm pretty sure that I ran the entire second 3 minute run after I had the bad side cramp..the 90 seconds of walking, even though it goes by way too fast, did help.

I really needed this run to be great. I was really getting down on myself about not being able to keep up and was starting to think that maybe I was just one of 'those people' that just can not run. I'm feeling much more confident today.

But also pretty sore! :)

My knees are feeling good, but my legs in general are just hurting. Just that normal feeling after a good workout, but still sore.

I need Niki to tell me more about these Recovery Socks! :) Are they just for after serious runs/races? Or would I qualify to wear them with the little running I'm doing? :) Would they make my legs hurt less the next morning? And most importantly, where do I get me a pair! :)

Also, on a side note, two things:

First: Lisa has been out of commission for the last few days...feeling a bit under the weather and we've missed her! I hope she's feeling better and back to running with us this week sometime.

Second: Since Lisa didn't run with us last Thursday (or yesterday) we were missing our official time keeper! So before we ran last night I asked the Husband if he happened to have some sort of stop watch we could use and he said it just so happens that he does, and then he pulled this out:

WTF? Why did he not mention to me that he had this little baby before?!?! I *might* vaguely remember that it exsisted....but don't you think a little light bulb should have went off in his head when I started running to alert him to the fact that he had a device that does this:

"The Forerunner 201 offers athletes a personal training device with GPS that measures speed, distance, pace and calories burned, and runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. After you run, connect your Forerunner 201 to your computer to store and analyze your workout."

Um, HELLO!? :)