Training Day 3 - Aches & The NeverEnding Story

Today's workout was interesting to say the least!  The 1 year old went down for his nap at about 10:00, and since the 3 year old was wide awake & I didn't want to leave her upstairs, alone for 30+ minutes, I brought her to the basement with me.  I had set her up on the couch downstairs (thank you Aunt Stephie for needing a place to store it!) with a snack and the portable DVD player, which is always fun for her because we rarely use it, and I was able to keep an eye on her the whole time.

I realized today that we might need to make a slight adjustment to how the couch & treadmill are set up - They are VERY close to each other, so if K dangled her feet the wrong way, or mis-stepped while getting off the couch, she could have fallen onto the treadmill & it would have ended badly.  Luckily, she listens fairly well for a 3 year old so we were able to avoid any catastrophies.  I honestly wasn't sure how all of this would go, assuming that if it all went south I'd come back to finish in the evening.

But it wasn't too bad!  I had to remind her a few times to stay on the couch or not to try to put her feet on the treadmill, which is tough when you're finishing a jogging section and you're trying to catch your breath.  But we did it :)  Lucky for me there are a TON of instruments in my basement, including two drum sets, so she was able to play around a little bit with those.  It kept her occupied and out of trouble so we were both happy.  I need to come up with some other things for her to do down there if I'm going to try to keep this up in the mornings, which I'm finding I prefer to evenings.

This was also the first day that I woke up with some aches.  My right hip bothered me from the moment I woke up.  Not sure if it's from having bad sneakers ($9 from PayLess), or maybe it's the way I carry myself while I run, but as I got out of bed I realized that my whole right side was in some pain.  Not PAIN, pain, but also a little bit more than just your regular achy muscles.  The right side of my lower back all the way down to my glute and into my calf and shin was achy/sore.  But just my right side - the left side is fine.  For a while I thought about taking the day off and doing the workout on Saturday, but I really wanted to have the weekend off, so I said that I would just stick to what the app had me doing and not push it any further.  Just do what you need to do and take it easy, but I wasn't sure how that was going to actually feel; I wasn't sure if I'd be able to complete the workout.

At first it was rough.  My right calf & shin muscle (I have no idea what that's called) were burning!  I didn't know how I was going to make it through 30 minutes of this.  But after the second spurt of jogging, they both loosened up and I barely noticed it for the rest of the workout.

Other things I am noticing: 

1.  My heart rate is already starting to become more steady.  When I first started, it would zoom all the way up into the high 170's.  Today, the highest it spiked was in the low 150's, but it mainly stayed in the 140's.

2.  The point in which I wonder how much longer I have is getting later & later in the game.  At first it was 18 minutes to go, then 12, and then today it was 8.

3.  I am starting to feel more balanced while on the treadmill, and I'm hoping that the more I do this, the better it gets.  It's still a little disorienting to be on there, and lowering the incline helped a little bit, but I still have some acclimating to do. 

4.  I need to make a running playlist.

Number 4 needs some elaboration.  Since the workout app is on the iPad, it pulls from the music that is on there.  I must tell you that it is the most random selection of music I have ever seen.  It is almost impossible to run to Sia's Breathe Me.  I don't recommend it.  So I have had to skip a few of the songs that have come up for that reason. 

BUT, there are some songs that are surprisingly fun to run to!  The Proclaimers' 500 Miles just makes me laugh and I find myself breezing through the parts of the workout when that song comes on.  And today, when I was in the cool-down period and I had only done 2.06 miles, and I had already made the agreement with myself that I wasn't going to push any further than the app called for, the theme song to The NeverEnding Story came on.  How can you NOT run to that?!  So I broke the deal with myself and ran for 90 seconds, walked for 1 minute, and then ran for 2 minutes, followed by a 5 minute walk to cool down.  Total distance of 2.75 miles and a 40 minute workout.  I am taking off the weekend to relax & enjoy myself but will start up again on Monday.  I'm hoping to keep a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday workout schedule, with weekends free, but if I have to skip during the week the weekends can save me just in case.

Happy weekend everyone!