Training Day 4.2

Today's run was a surprise, and a very welcome one at that :)  Wifey was away at the beginning of the week so it was near impossible to find the time to run whilst flying solo, and the boy is teething something awful so there was no sleep for 3 days.  Literally, I accumulated zero hours of sleep between Sunday night & Wednesday morning.  So energy levels were pretty low too.

But today the boy fell asleep right before lunch, and when he was still down after the girl and I ate lunch, I decided to take my chances and try to get a run in.  I knew going into it that I might be interrupted, but I wanted to at least try to get any kind of activity in that I could.  Lucky for me, he stayed down long enough for me to finish everything & shower!!

So today's workout was run for 1:30, walk for 2:00.  Since it's been a while since my last run I didn't push it any faster than a 7 today, however for every other "walk" section I decided to run it out at a 6 instead of walk.  Originally I wanted to not walk at all but by the time the second "walk" section came around I was dying!  So I did every other, and I'm happy with that.  I think I might continue to do that too.  Going down to a walk sometimes makes it more difficult to get started again, but also only slowing down to a 6 doesn't really give me a chance to recover from the faster runs either.  So I felt like this was a nice balance because I'm so afraid that I'm going to lose the endurance to run 3.1 miles while trying to make myself faster!

Fun stats: 

• I ran the first mile in under 9 minutes!!  I don't remember what the exact time was because I walked for 5 minutes right before I ran, so I was trying to do math in my head while keeping track of my numbers, but I hit 1.3 miles at just under 14 minutes (subtract 5:00 from the time because I walked for 5:00, and the distance from that was somewhere between 0.25 & 0.3, so we'll go with 0.3 to make sure I actually ran the full mile).  So that's exciting for me - I've never done that before!!  My fastest mile (to my knowledge) was during the Spotswood 5K and it was about 9:30, so yay!!
• I hit 3.124 miles at 35:00.  Again, recalculating for my warm-up & cool-down walks, a total of 10:00 for time and about 0.6 miles for distance, so 2.524 miles in 25:00 and that gives me a pace of about 9.904.

I think these are OK-ish numbers - I really have no idea, so I'll keep track of them here to see how they improve or decrease as I move further into the program.

The sad news is that I am probably not going to be able to register for the December 1st race :(  We made some financial blunders in the past few weeks and now cash is a little scarce for now so paying a registration fee is not priority.  However, if things start to look up more over the past few weeks I will see if I can still join.  Fingers crossed everyone (and send excess money vibes please!!)  But I am going to train like I am running on the 1st anyway because I hope to be able to actually participate.

With that said, the next 2 runs are the same as today's workout.  If I can increase myself to keep running at a 6 for all of the "walk" sections I will be happy :)

Training Day 3.2

I had a chance to run on Friday (just haven't been able to write about it yet!)  Again, nothing spectacular to report.  My knee seems to be holding up just fine, thought to feel it it is quite bumpy.  Since the pain is gone I'll assume that everything is fine :)  I ran out 1 mile after the training was done and felt pretty good.

Friday was the last of the 1:00 runs.  The next time I run it will be 1:30 runs and 2:00 walks.

There is a part of me that is wondering if this training plan is a bad idea...I am afraid that since I'm not running longer distances anymore I'll lose the ability to do so.  And if it's a week like this where I was only able to get the 3 runs in and not the 4, will I be ready be December 1?  But then I remember that I did it once, I can do it again and that this training plan got me there the first time.  Yet I do feel like I'm taking a bunch of steps backwards instead of moving forward.  I don't know.  I have a little internal battle going on here, lol.

Wifey is gone for the next few days running a conference for her job so I'm going to have to squeeze all of my runs in while the boy sleeps.  It's also why I didn't get running in this weekend like I was hoping to - she was AWOL with prep for said conference so I was flying solo pretty much all weekend as well.  It's getting tougher because lately the boy hasn't been napping for very long and he's been waking up before my run is even done, and that makes it even harder for me to get the shower in after, which I HAVE TO do since I'm a drippy gross mess.  I'm debating trying to get the runs in at night, but after putting both kids to bed I have zero energy or motivation to work out.  Grrr.  I'm not able to get the time in that I want to and it's frustrating me.

But tomorrow is a new day and we will try to run the second the boy takes his nap.  Fingers crossed that he stays asleep long enough!!

Training Day 2.2 - Knee Injury

There is nothing great or wonderful to report about today's workout.  It was a repeat of yesterday's and it will be the same again next time I run.  1:00 Running followed by 1:30 walking.  Runs remained at a 7 today, I'm hoping to push faster next run, but that's all going to depend on what happens with my knee...

I'm dealing with an injury, not related to running.  I was sitting at my desk this morning (before my run) and I managed to whack my knee into the side of the desk pretty badly.  Bruise, swelling, yada yada.  It felt better by the time the boy went down for a nap, so I figured I'd give running a try.  While I was running it wasn't too bad, but afterwords it was horrible!  I decided to put the leg up & ice my knee (something I NEVER do because I hate ice - it makes every bone in my body creakier and achier).  No better.  Now whenever I put weight on it it screams at me, and if you feel my knee cap the edge is bumpy and jagged right where it hurts.  I'm REALLY, really hoping I didn't chip my knee cap but only time will tell.  I'm hoping it's just a really bad bump and I'll bounce back in a day or so. 

Fingers crossed!!  I'll keep you posted!!

My accident prone boy must be used to the ice packs being for him...he decided to bite it while it was wrapped around my knee.  He inherited my grace & coordination.

Training Day 1.2 - A New Beginning

I am a lousy runner.  Actually, it's not the running part that I'm that bad at, it's the keeping on top of it that kills me.  If I don't have a goal and a plan to get me to that goal, everything falls apart.  This is why I was awful at those "distance learning" classes in college where you do everything on your own but show up for the tests every month.  I always did ALL of the work & studying the two days before the test.  This is why I could NEVER do online college because I'd never actually do anything on my own.  This is why I would make an awful homeschooling mother - unless everything is broken down for me and written out step by step and scheduled, I'd never do it. 

It's not for lack of want - I WANT to stay on top of things.  But everything else gets in the way.  And then it's a cycle.  I go off track for a few days.  No big deal.  But after a few days I am physically exhausted and I have no energy to put myself on that treadmill.  You know why I have no energy?  Because I haven't been on the treadmill in days.  And the more I put it off, the less I want to do it, the less motivation I have to do it.  And it just keeps repeating.  I know all of this in my brain, and yet it continues to happen.

But dilemma resolved - I have another race to train for on December 1st.  I have just over 7 weeks to train for it (54 days to be exact, that's 7 weeks and 4 days), and that's just about how long it took me to complete the Couch to 5K program the first time around.  It's set up to be 9 weeks long, but that's if you're only training 3 times a week for 9 weeks.  If I do it 4 times a week it's 7 weeks.  So I have 27 training days to get myself back to 5K ready.  And since I feel like I'm starting all over again and I want to get myself to a faster speed, I've decided to start the training program from the beginning.  Figuring that if I start at a faster speed and keep it up the whole time, I'll be able to run the full 5K at the faster speed by the end of it.  It makes sense in theory, we will see how it goes in reality.

So here we are, it's Day 1 again and I just completed my first run-type thing.  As a refresher, it's 1:00 running followed by 1:30 walking, with a 5:00 warm-up and 5:00 cool-down speed walk for a total of a 30:00 workout.  Since I don't want to lose the little endurance that I have built up, when the program is complete I plan on running a set distance afterwords as well, at least in the beginning weeks because I know if I don't I'll lose the ability to go as far as I have been able to go. 

It's been well over a week since my last run so I really feel like I'm starting over completely!  When it came time for the first 1:00 run, I hit the 7 button and threw myself into it, hoping I wouldn't fly off of the treadmill.  Of course I didn't, lol.  I'm undecided if I want my goal speed to be a 7 or an 8, so I'm starting at a 7, but I have a feeling I'll be working my way up to an 8.  I was already tempted to push it up today but I didn't want to overdo it since it's been a while since I've had physical activity.  I gotta say that those 1:00's were tough, but it felt SOOOOO good to be moving again!

When I got to my 5:00 cool-down walk, I had gone just over 2 miles.  I wanted to run out a mile and make it an even 3 miles, but I kept it simple and ran another half mile.  Maybe I'll go for the full mile tomorrow.  I'm feeling really good right now, and I don't want to push too hard and have the aches and pains affect me early on.  I don't want a reason to lay off or have to rest for an extra day because this time I don't have the extra days to lose!  Of course, I already know that the last few weeks are straight running for 20, 25 & 30 minutes, and at that point I'll just be shooting for the 3.1 miles instead of the time, so there is wiggle room, but I don't want to go into this thinking that. 

I have a goal, and I have a plan.  Let's do this!  (Again!)

Running in VA - Another Hotel Gym

We recently took a 4 day trip to Virginia Beach to visit my sister (MF) for her birthday.  Originally our hotel was on the beach so I was hoping to get the chance to run on the boardwalk in the mornings.  However, that didn't work out and we ended up having to change hotels.  You can read about the drama here (if you can't read it but want access, let me know!).  So we ended up at the Hilton Garden Inn and I got the chance to use another Hilton fitness center.

The last time I used a gym was when we stayed at a Hilton for my cousin's wedding, and that was a much different experience! I actually went back and re-read what I wrote and am amazed by how far I have come since then!  Not only with running itself, but with my confidence in running and in myself.  Since both hotels were Hiltons, they had the same treadmills in them, so I sort-of remembered how it worked from last time.  I did have to text wifey to find out where the jack for the earbuds was, but other than that I was good to go, lol.  I've been doing this for longer than 2 weeks now so I know I am a capable runner, I have three 5K's under my belt now.  I know I don't look ridiculous, and I know that adults who are working out aren't going to tease me or throw gum in my hair during their workouts.  So I went into the run at least not worrying about all that extraneous stuff.

I was, however, worried about how I was going to perform.  I ran on Saturday morning, 5 days after my last run and we all know how I feel when too much time goes between runs.  I was also dealing with some crazy allergies that morning and having a difficult time breathing in general, so I wasn't too sure how my lungs would hold up.  My expectations weren't that high to be honest, and I was just looking forward to doing as much movement as my body would allow, whatever that meant.  These fancy schmancy machines all have TV's built right into them and I was lucky to find a marathon of Roseanne to run to.  Seriously, if you can watch a comedy while running the time really flies by!

I kept my pace at a 6 for as long as I could, and I ran 2 miles in just over 20 minutes.  After that I had to slow down because my lungs were not holding up too well, so I kept alternating between a fast walk and running at a 6 for a total of 3.5 miles.  The last 0.25 mile was my cool-down walk.  I have no idea what my total time was but it was not my best and not the worst.  I was happy just to get any exercise in at all.  The rest of the trip was filled with activity so there wasn't too much time to get back to the gym.  I am hoping that now that we are home and don't have any trips or guests scheduled for a while we can settle back in to a normal routine, running included.