I am happy to report that not only did I break it, I KICKED...IT'S...ASS! Woo hoo!!
I was feeling really good this morning. Ate some granola. got my coffee in early, slept mostly OK-ish. Then the boy decided to take a morning nap (YAY!) so I brought the girl with me. As she puts it we were, "goin' runnin'".
I was feeling kinda balls-ey so I started running at a 6 right out of the gate. After 5:00, I realized that I may not be ready to run for 25:00 at 6, lol. But the good news is that I only slowed down to a 5.8, which was higher than where I had been aiming for, and after I hit 8:00, I brought it back up to a 6 anyway so I was pleased. For the first time since I started this, I was paying attention to my distance instead of the time - it actually helped a lot since I don't have a feel for how quickly the distance goes by yet so there was nothing to really to trip me up like the last minutes do. When I saw the mileage hit 1:000, I looked over at the clock and was shocked to see it read 10:10!! I couldn't believe it! I thought that I was going to have to fight to eke a mile out within the 11:00, I was SO happy!!
Again, running at a 6 for this long was proving to be too much and I had to slow down for a little bit. This time I brought it to a 5.7 but I was still having trouble breathing so I brought it to a 5.5. When that didn't help me either I went to a 5.2, which I was upset at but I said to myself, "I'm still moving, I'm still jogging and not walking, so it's OK". I would vary my speed naturally if I were running outside anyway, and more easily than on a treadmill so I'm not going to beat myself up over this. Once I caught my breath a little I went back up to a 5.5, and as I approached the 2 mile mark I sped up again. I was still hoping to make a good time, and I hit 2 miles at 20:50, so the second mile I did in 10:40 despite my little breathing blip! Definitely not going to beat myself up over that! I finished out the rest of the time at a 5.7 and that put me at 2.395 miles, so I was happy.
A few things I am noticing....
- I am clenching my jaw while I run. I don't know why, but I have to pay attention to it because it's starting to hurt! Every few minutes I have to remind myself to ease up and open my mouth.
- A little bit of a sore neck. Not sure if that's related to the jaw clenching, but it might be.
- I am squeezing my hands into fists. I don't think this is too much of a problem, other than my fingers start to feel funny, but I'm trying to keep any eye on it and make sure I loosen them up every few minutes.
Good news: we are all freaky runners! I have a tendancy to stick my tongue out when I am tired - I don't notice it except when I see my race pics! So yeah, nothing wrong with anything you are feeling, but you are on the right track with trying to get yourself to relax. My guess is your body is reacting to the goals you are setting for yourself and tensing up. So check in with your body every few minutes and relax those muscles. No need to be more sore than necessary! A relaxed running gait is a happy running gait.
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