Quickie!

So I wasn't sure when I would get my runs in this week. Monday I had dinner with my aunt and uncle, Tuesday is supposed to be rainy and date night with the hubby, Wednesday it is supposed to snow and Thursday I have plans with friends. All of which meant I had zero time to go for either of my maintenance runs. But yesterday my work schedule sort of cleared up in the afternoon and I was able to escape work a half hour early. I got stuck behind a VERY slow driver so I didn't get home quite as early as I wanted to but it still gave me enough time to get ready and go. So I did a quick 2.54 mile run in 31:35.25 with an average pace of 12:25/mi.

I went out on my normal 3.1 mile course and skipped a loop. As we had to leave at 6pm for dinner and I needed time to rinse off and change before leaving. My pace was good in the beginning but my IT bands are still tight from my 8 mile run so I ended up slowing down a little at the end. But that was fine. I got a run in and we ended up being 15 minutes early for dinner. My next run won't be until Friday and then I will be doing a 3 mile Friday and a 4 mile on Saturday. But at least I will avoid the weather and still get all 3 runs in. Not too shabby.

And finally current. 10/22

So Saturday I went for my 8 mile run. The hubby was still worried about his knee so he rode his bike with me to keep me company. I was really nervous. 8 miles seems SO long. And sadly it was.

The hubby planned our route so he knew where we were going and I didn't. My Garmin had been warning me that it was getting full and I forgot to get Mike to show me how to empty it. So it stopped working just before 2.5 miles. It was still recording distance and time and pace but wasn't giving me intervals anymore. Which sucked because I ran for 3 or so minutes before realizing I should have stopped a while ago. I had to figure out Mike's interval process of running for the first minute of a song and then walking the rest. That is hard. I am so spoiled with my Garmin. Then my Garmin completely froze. I lost some distance on that and then took a break long enough for Mike to clear out everything but the last month of history on it. After that things settled down a little. But my IT bands did not like the longer time of running. Eventually they loosened up some and then my hip flexors started to hurt. It really was not a fun run at all. At the end I sent the hubby home ahead of me because I thought I was going to walk the last bit. I ended up doing one more run interval before getting home but was not a happy camper.

I convinced the hubby to go get me a bag of ice from the store and took my very first ice bath. He laughed at me because I put on bathing suit bottoms, my rash guard long sleeve shirt and a warm hat. I do not like being cold and since only my legs needed the ice bath I figured I could try to keep the rest of me somewhat warm. It meant I managed to stay in the bath for the requisite 7+ minutes to get the most out of the ice. BRRRRRRR! Was that uncomfortable. But I think it helped keep me from being so sore. So I will continue to dress funny for them but I will also continue to take them.

I did approximately 8.03 miles in 1:51:18.38 with an average pace of 13:51/mi. Not too shabby with all the obstacles I had to face. Oh yeah and did I mention the hubby decided I needed to do some hill work and planned a pretty hard hill right in the middle of the run. That wasn't that fun either but I managed to run the full minute while going up it. There will be no problems for me with the hills at Disney. Not that I was worried about them in the first place. An overpass curve is nothing compared to Colorado. Hopefully my next few runs will be better and now I know to get Mike to clear off my watch (or show me how to do it) as soon as it gives me that warning. I guess 6+ months of workouts isn't too bad for storage time.

10/20 catch up

This run sucked! I got home a little late because I was chatting with one of my co-workers. So I was hungry even after eating a Mojo bar. I managed to run about 2 miles and then my stomach hurt so bad every time I ran that I had to walk the last mile. I ended up cutting through our grocery store parking lot to cut off some distance. It wasn't much but it meant I got home that much faster. The hubby tried to go for a run that day but his knee started to bother him again so he walked home. We met just outside our parking lot and limped home together. I did 3.05 miles in 44:19.56 with an average pace of 14:33/mi.

Basically current. 10/18

This was a great run! I did 3.11 miles in 38:07 with an average pace of 12:15/mi. I felt GREAT and ANOTHER PR! The hubby went for a walk while I ran and had a hard time. As I said I felt great. I ran well and just went with what felt good. So my run pace was a little faster than usual and as normal for a maintenance run I did 1/1:30 intervals. I felt strong at the end so I decided to do one more run interval and risk not walking my whole parking lot. My parking lot walk (at walk interval speed, not slow) has always been my cool down. It has been sacred to me. I always decide to not run one more so I don't risk running in my parking lot. But I felt so good I did it. And then I saw the hubby just entering out parking lot so I ran past my 1 minute and ran hard to catch up to him. Then we walked nice and slow for the rest of our parking lot. I felt really good.

10/15 catch up

It was a rest week on my schedule which means my long run is only 4 miles. Funny how I say only 4 miles now when I thought 4 would be hard the first time I did it. The hubby came with me again. That is the plan. My Saturday runs he comes with me and then runs double the distance on Sunday to train for the Goofy. We ended up doing 3.65 (according to my Garmin) miles in 51:54.67 with an average pace of 14:12/mi. I stopped my Garmin at one point so it lost some distance and then we took a short cut to get home faster. See below for reason.

This time it was his turn to have something hurt. The hubby's left knee started twinging and then really hurt just over 2 miles in. He decided he needed to walk to keep from really causing an injury. So we walked home at his pace. I figured at least I got the mileage in even if it wasn't a full run.

10/10 catch up

I did better this week. 2 runs instead of one. I did one maintenance run (that is how I have to think of them. Maintenance runs mean my long runs are not as hard so no skipping them). I ran 3.11 miles in 39:30.75 with an average pace of 12:41/mi. I ran harder than usual because fall has finally set in and I was cold. Bad reason to run faster. But I didn't hurt myself so that is good.

I have been lazy

I skipped a lot of runs at the beginning of my running plan.

10/7 I did my 6.5 mile run. Mike had just gotten home from the Maldives after being away and 11 hours ahead in time for a month. I think that didn't help my getting out to run. I was always afraid of missing a call from him and I was depressed a lot. It helped that I got a job in the middle of August. Right before Mike left. I was out of the house most of the time and had social interaction almost every day. Anyway, back to the run.

We did 6.56 miles in 1:28:24.85 with an average pace of 13:28/mi. It was Mike's first run back at altitude and we kept it pretty easy. My long runs are still at a 1:2 ratio. Since I am increasing distance. At about mile 5.5 my hip flexors both tightened up and started to cause me pain while running. Mike was amazing and encouraged me on. The pain kept getting worse until I couldn't run anymore. We walked the last half mile because they didn't hurt as bad when I walked. So that is why my average pace was slow. It was about right until my hip flexors hurt. No big blisters though so that is good.

More catch up!

Okay, okay, I know I have been bad about posting. But that doesn't mean I haven't been running. Yes, there have been times since my last post that I have been bad and not run but at least it was at the start of my training plan instead of in the middle. I am sure I will have more struggles with getting out to run as the weather get's colder.

Anyway. Catch up. I did a 3 mile run on 9/19. Don't remember it but I did it. My pace was fine. I ran 3.11 miles in 40:13.74 with an average pace of 12:56/mi. Looks like that was the first run I switched to 1 minute run with 1:30 walk. I don't remember it being especially hard but do seem to remember feeling challenged. So I guess that is good.

9/23 I went for a run and forgot my iPod. I know this because I had to restart a couple of times which means I was in the parking lot deciding whether to walk back to my apartment and get it or not. I believe I went back for it in the end. It was supposed to be my 5 mile run but I left late and was going to be VERY late meeting someone if I didn't cut it short. So I ran 4.81 miles in 1:02:44.02 with an average pace of 13:02/mi. I remember this run being a bit of a challenge but some of that may have been stress over being late to meet my friend. I ran 1 minute and walked 2 minutes. I did learn that I NEED to rinse off after runs as I didn't after this one and ended up with some chaffing after helping my friend dig through a storage garage. Not fun!

9/26 I did 3.11 miles in 38:35.85 with an average pace of 12:25/mi. Which means I PR'd. I remember being very happy about this. This seems to be where I got over a running plateau. I did my 1/1:30 intervals and apparently that meant I went a lot faster. I remember talking to Mike that night (he was in the Maldives for a month) and being very excited about the PR.

So that was the rest of September. Hopefully I remember October better. I don't remember any huge or painful blisters so that is good.

4.25 miles RUN!

Today was my long run on the Jeff Galloway plan. I guess getting up to 7.5 miles walking this summer really helped because it wasn't hard really at all. I thought I would be struggling after the 3rd mile but I really wasn't. I did take it easier and didn't push my walk or run paces. Though I my run paces turned out to be faster than I was planning on.

I did miss one of my turns and had to take a slightly round about route to get back on my planned route. It was supposed to only be 4.1 miles or so. Oh well, at least I caught it early enough so I didn't add an extra mile or have to backtrack.

It was a great run though. I ran 4.25 miles in 55:16.74 with an average pace of 13:00 minutes per mile. I really thought I would be ruined by the end of it but I was just exhilarated. A good run to follow up tripping on my last run.

I only jarred my left knee once or twice. It didn't really bother me at all.

Feetwise I am doing really good. No new painful blisters. I now have a very small blister on my right foot in the same spot as my left inside blister. I think that is a sign I need new shoes but I would like to make them last the rest of the month. A friend of mine suggested that part of my blister problem might be a strange allergic reaction (his wife has something similar when she rides her bike) and I should try antihistamines. I was dubious as I am already on allergy meds so that shouldn't be a problem. But I decided to try adding one benadryl pill before I run. I don't know if it is working or if the cooler weather is helping but nothing big or painful has popped up so far. I guess I will keep trying it until I do get more blisters. It may just be I need higher mileage to test this theory correctly. After all I did seem to have gotten my feet conditioned for 3 mile runs. I wasn't having many problems with those recently. So only time will tell.

Next week two 30-45 minute runs (aka a 3.1 mile run) and a 2 mile run. That may turn into a 3 mile run since I did so well on my 4 miles. 2 miles seems really short to me. heh! Never thought I would say that.

Catching up 9/8

This was not a fun run. I came home from work and had a snack. Then I waited around until the air cooled off. So once again I was running at dusk. I left the house and a had a decent 2.5 miles of running and walking. But then I stumbled and didn't catch myself at the last half mile mark. I went down on my hands and knees. I hit pretty hard on my knees and skinned both of them pretty bad. It hurt landing on my hands but the next day they were fine so I obviously didn't go down that hard. I was running, not walking, at the time so that made is suck more. I got up, checked my knees sort of and got back to finishing my 1 minute of running. I decided I had to get home no matter what and I wasn't gushing blood so I finished my run. Even doing one more run interval before walking the rest of the way home. It may have slowed me down just a little because my time and average pace a weird. But I finished and got home to take care of my knees.

I ran 3.13 miles in 40:04:65 with an average pace of 12:48 minutes per mile. That is what I mean by slightly weird time and average pace. My time is slower than my first run of the month but my average pace is faster. Oh well. I did it and I got home.

I got home, dragged out my ibuprofen and went into the bathroom to clean my knees. Luckily, I was only just starting to have a drip run down my left leg from my knee so I wasn't bleeding horribly. I hydrogen peroxided both knees and then slapped lots of Neosporin with pain relief on my band aids. Sadly, I still hadn't had dinner yet and was starving. I decided to order some pizza while I iced my knees.

I think I did everything right because today my knees are looking much better. The bruising is finally coming up but the skinned parts are looking very healthy and are healing. I managed to keep some of the swelling down, though by the time I got home I had a good goose egg on my left knee. Still I think I did a good job taking care of my knees.

Catching up 9/6

Mike and I went for a run on 9/6 together. He was leaving the next day for the Maldives and is now gone for the month so we were spending as much time as possible together. It was a good run. Somehow trying to run and talk to Mike made my heart beat slower instead of faster like it was supposed to do. Very weird.

But talking to him made my run go so much faster. We each had music in one ear and were just chatting. I thought it made it harder but we also ran faster than I normally do on each run interval. And I was okay at the end. So that was good. We did walk a little slower than I normally do as Mike has a hard time keeping up with me for two minutes. I forgot to mention in the last post that I went back down to a 1 minute run 2 minute walk interval. I didn't want to start my Jeff Galloway plan off to hard. Though I think after these last few runs that on my shorter runs I will switch to 1 minute run 1:30 walk and see if I can get down to 1 minute 1 minute. At least until 1 minute 1:30 gets easy I will stick to 1 minute run and 2 minutes walk for my longer runs. Since I have never actually run more than 3.14 miles or so.

Mike and I ran 3.12 miles in 40:31.44 with an average pace of 13:00 minutes per mile. Not too shabby.

Catching up 9/2

Yes, I know I have been bad. I didn't run or walk for almost a month. I had a blister and IFGS games and I got a job. (Guess I need to update my about me) So I went for my first run in a while on 9/2. I was supposed to run earlier than that and I guess I failed my first Jeff Galloway week. Luckily, it was just three 3 mile runs. So I wasn't missing much. Mike had to be pretty forceful to get me to run that day. It wasn't bad.

I went the opposite way on my 3 mile route. That was weird but since I was running at dusk I wanted to be sure I had enough light at the end. So I did the neighborhoods first and then came down Spine Rd which has businesses on it. Better for light even if there aren't many street lights. Turned out I didn't need to worry too much as it wasn't that dark out when I got home.

The run sort of sucked because a half mile in I really had to pee. So I had to hold it through the rest of the run. Not fun at all. Oh well.

I did 3.1 miles in 39:43.65 with an average pace of 12:49 minutes per mile. Not too shabby for having taken a month off.

7.5 miles even if my Garmin says I did less

I walked 7.5 miles today. My Garmin says 7.45 but there were a few times when I stopped the time to wait for the street crossing sign and forgot to start it back up right away and a couple of times where I stopped to retie my shoes that was the same thing.

So I got new shorts from Skirt Sports (a very cool Boulder company). I actually first got a skirt from them after I signed up for their 5k in October. But then they had a 50% off sale and I bought two pairs of multi-sport shorts to wear under my running shorts so I don't have to roll the tops of my shorts to keep them from chaffing. They are pretty comfortable even if they are designed for Triathletes and have a chamois in them. I definitely need to get used to them as there were a few spots that got uncomfortable every once and a while.

My tape worked pretty well. I taped all 10 toes in some way or another. I wish I could tape that one spot just behind my arch on the inside of my foot where I get the little line of blisters. Today I apparently didn't have my shoes quiet tight enough and I got a much bigger blister there now. As always my edges came up some but then the tape just stayed put. I don't think I got any other big blisters but I guess I will find that out after I take off the tape.

So I did (according to my Garmin) 7.45 miles in 1:49:08.65 with an average pace of 14:39/mi. Not bad for taking almost two weeks off. That break happened because I was sewing and crafting for producing two IFGS games and squeezing in runs just got too stressful. That and the games were last weekend. I wish I had worn my Garmin on Saturday to see how much actual walking I did. I guesstimate almost 8 miles over the course of the day. Probably not quite that but somewhere around there. Sunday I stayed in one area so it wasn't so bad. I got blisters on Saturday thus why I didn't run this week. Needed to let them heal some.

Anyway, the walk was pretty good. It was a little bit of a struggle to keep my pace up and I have a few times when my muscles got sore but still pretty good.

1:1

I tried the 1:1 run/walk ratio again today. It went better than the last time. I think it helps that I did it alone so I didn't feel like I was trying to keep pace with Mike even if he is trying to keep pace with me. I did my normal 3 minute walk warm up and then started my run/walk intervals. At mile 2 I needed a little extra walk time so I took it and skipped one run interval. Then I had decided I would walk the last quarter mile (it was a little more than that because I always do 3.1 miles).

So today's workout was 3.13 miles in 40:19.52 with an average pace of 12:54/mi. Not too shabby. I was a little overheated for most of it because I left a little late and it has been heating up faster in the mornings. But there was a good breeze going and it was partially cloudy so I wasn't dealing with the sun the whole time.

My feet are about normal. No new blisters and it doesn't seem like any have gotten bigger. Well, off to be crafty for the rest of the day.

Longest distance yet

So I had a hard week this week and it ended up being a rest week where I didn't do anything. That is until today. Today I had a 7 mile workout planned. I got up at 7:20am and was determined to do it. So I got ready and was out of the house by 8:30am. The plan was to walk 4 miles and then run the last 3 miles. However, my body was not having that. It was hotter than it was supposed to be. I just checked the temp and it is 86 degrees. Too HOT! That and both my hips decided they wanted to be tight. So I had some time to think while walking most of it.

I think I will be changing my expectations. Each week I hope to do a 3 mile speed run, half of my long distance tempo run and then my long distance walk. At least until it is time to start the Jeff Galloway plan. So I will still be up to 5 miles of running by then. At least I hope so. Then I will loosely follow the Jeff Galloway plan until after the race. That should get me in the right kind of shape by the race. And I should be starting my longer running distances at the beginning of Sept. So the temps will hopefully be generally lower. Now to just get out and run earlier to keep it as cool as possible.

So, I did 7.15 miles today with a total time of 1:50:37.06 and an average pace of 15:29/mi. At least I was still under the slowest average pace allowed for the half marathon. Looks like I got a few more blisters than usual but all of them seem to be small. Only one blister bothered me during the workout and once it got filled enough it stopped being a sharp pain. I tried some new taping for one of my toes. Now my middle toe is completely taped as well. I may end up doing that on all of my toes. At least until I get a pair of double layer socks. That just might happen next week. Less tape will be better if the socks help. The problem I have is adding an extra layer might make me sweat more and the wetter my feet are the worse my blisters get. But it will be worth a try.

Not a great workout but I did the whole thing with a decent average pace and it was the longest distance I have done yet. So that felt good. My poor joints just don't like super long distances. Of course, they have been abused this week by crazy thunder storms rolling through too. But all is good. The tightness seems to have mostly eased already in my joints. So slowly upping my mileage while walking will be more low impact on them. At least I learned something.

Eh

I should have known today's workout was going to be bad. I woke up at 6:30am like I wanted to but felt awful so I didn't get out of bed until after 7am and didn't start getting ready for my run until around 7:20am. When I looked at my route it went on a road that doesn't have a side walk and is a fairly busy road. Mike doesn't like me running there....for some reason it makes him nervous. So I decided to change my route. That took me forever. All this meant I didn't leave until almost 9am. And then I almost got out of the parking lot without my iPod. Went back to get that.

I think I pushed a little too hard at the beginning and it got too hot at the end. I managed to keep a respectable pace but wasn't happy in the end. The first 3.5 miles were just fine. The next mile and a half was okay and then I got a horrid side ache and started to get a headache from the heat. So I decided to walk a run interval. I ended up walking the rest of the way because I couldn't get rid of the side ache. I ran out of water because I was so overheated.

I did 6.63 miles in 1:36:18.62 with an average pace of 14:32/mi. So not happy but at least I finished the whole distance. I did get one blister in a new spot. It is on my middle toe on the bottom. Just above the edge of the tape.. Looks like I should look at those double layer socks to see if they prevent blisters on the bottom of my toes. That would reduce my taping at least.

So I did 6

Thursday

Still battling insomnia so I didn't end up running on Thursday or working out on Friday. But I did walk 2.5 miles with Mike in the evening. It was a really slow pace because we were just enjoying ourselves and exploring a park.

EA Active

Workout done! Though I may do one more LimberUp workout today. I must be doing some of the workouts wrong, my back is bad sore. Not a good workout, muscles are tired and worked sore but an overextended, painful sore. Perhaps I will avoid the leg lifts and flutter kicks for now. The reverse crunches don't hurt as much and I haven't done any regular crunches or crunches with punches yet. EA Active just hasn't been giving me many crunches. I wish I could give it things I would like left out of my workouts. For some reason the stride jumps hurt me (though maybe not as bad now that I have been running...may have to try them again).

Yesterday

Yesterday I worked out on EA active. It was good. I busted my butt on an upper body workout. Felt good. Today I was supposed to run but both Mike and I had a hard night sleeping. Poor guy! So I decided to do another EA active workout today. I will do that this afternoon and switch my run schedule to tomorrow and Sat. I may have to switch my run schedule to Tues, Thurs and Sat again. It just seems to be easier. Mike get's up super early on Saturdays for his running team so I can do my long walk/run then. Or maybe I will make it a slightly strange schedule. Mike likes running with me on Monday nights. So perhaps Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays for running. And Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays for working out. It might work.

1/1 ratio

Well, I tried a 1/1 ratio today. Mike and I did my normal 3.1 mile loop and we tried 1/1. I got a side ache and pushed through until I couldn't but that was okay because I set my Garmin to too few intervals anyway. So for what I set it at I only missed one run interval. So I walked my normal 3 minute warm up and then did 1/1 intervals until 2.3 miles where my weird side ache (it was under my right ribs near my stomach instead of in my side) caused me to decided to skip a run interval. Oh course that was my last programmed interval so I we ended up walking the rest of the loop. But still I feel good. I probably should have reduced my walk time by 30 seconds instead of 1 minute but oh well. Mike said it was a good recovery run for him.

So we did 3.13 miles in 41:00.86 with an average pace of 13:05/mi. Not my best time but I can't expect that when I end up walking the last 2/3 of a mile. Still all in all it was a good run. Oh yeah, and it was much hotter than I liked. I thought I would be okay with it being in the 80's but with no sun. So not okay. I do not do well in hot weather. My feet did great though. I did learn that you can put too much baby powder in your socks. EW!

Another feet update

And I totally forgot to post about my feet. I have some sore spots and one spot I made the mistake of taping. There is one spot on my left foot that get's little tiny blisters and I tried taping them today but that just made more tiny blisters. My left ring and pinky toes are sore so I need to get the tape over more of the top of the toe. I have a sore spot on the ball of my left foot too but that might be partially from the rock I picked up for the last .3 miles.

My right food is doing awesome. Soreness is not skin soreness but muscles. I figured out how to better tape my right pointer and middle toes so the edges don't pull up. Now just to figure out how to repeat that tape job. It was a bit my accident. I think the key slightly more tape than I was using.

6.1 miles

Okay, now that I have spent 5 minutes peeling off all the tape on my feet. I am not sitting here gulping my chocolate milk and thinking of what to type. Well, I did 6.1 miles today. I walked the first 3 about about a 14 minute per mile pace or two. Maybe a little slower than that. Then I did my normal run/walk for the last 3.1 miles. Or at least I did my 12 sets of run/walk that I would do in a normal 3.1 mile run.

Oh man is it hard to do the run/walk as the 2nd half of the workout. I had to pep talk myself a decent amount until around mile 2 when I hit my 2nd wind. But it is good training for pushing myself at the end of the half in Jan.

So I did 6.1 miles in 1:22:53.94 with an average pace of 13:36/mi. Not too shabby. I talked to my dad this week and my parents are still planning on being there for my first half. My dad is planning on doing the half with me and we talked pace some. But it dawned on me while I was walking the first half that I am training at a much higher altitude than he is. So he should train for a slightly faster pace than me, since running at sea level is going to be much easier for me. I think about the weirdest stuff when I am alone on my walks.

I planned the circuit so I would hopefully get the most shade for the 2nd half of the run. It also helped that at the 3/4 of a mile or so the sun was going in an out behind clouds and a breeze had picked up. The beginning of my circuit also had a nice breeze. I was just blocked from a breeze for a good part of the running part unfortunately. I also bought a white hat to run in. I hate the look of white hats and for some reason it didn't dawn on me that the white keeps your head cooler than a colored hat. So after a few runs where my head was just way too hot under my bright blue hat, I decided I needed a white hat. I can't wear a visor because my hair is so thin I would burn my scalp. At least with my hair this short I will. When my hair is long enough to pull back into a pony tail I can get away with no hat or a visor. Anyway this is turning into a stream of consciousness instead of a well thought out post. Back to my run.

My legs were a little fatigued this morning from doing EA Active but it was mostly muscles I don't use running. They warmed up during the walking portion and didn't feel fatigued again until the running part. All in all it was a good 6.1 miles but I am definitely at the point where I need to up my mileage by a half mile every week from now on. That is fine as that is what I planned on. Well, off to do my EA Active Limber Up workout to stretch out (dynamic warm up stretches and then cool down stretches).

Another workout

I was supposed to do a 6 mile workout today. But the boy was very warm in bed and I was working hard to convince him to stay home. So it got too late. That and I tweaked my neck working out yesterday. It was still sore this morning and I would hate to be out on my 6 mile circuit and tweak my neck more. So I decided to stay in and do an intense EA Active workout. I did a core workout and it was crazy. Then I found probably the best workout ever on EA active. I may have to do it every day. It is a Limber up workout. All warm up and cool down exercises. Very refreshing. So I may do that everyday or even twice a day. Just to keep limber as I have issues with tight muscles.

I highly recommend EA Sports Active 2. I just wish they had an EA Sports Active Yoga and Pilates that used the leg and arm sensors. All the Yoga and Pilates games I found use the Wii motion and/or the Wii fit board. I don't want to do yoga moves on the Wii fit board. After years of doing them on a flat wood floor I just can't do them as well on the fit board. It also focuses more on keeping a specific line of balance and not so much on grounding, breathing, stretching and relaxation. Not the kind of yoga I love. Please...please...please EA Active make a yoga and Pilates game that is focused on being limbered, relaxed and grounded. I swear I would use that one every evening and alternate my running and EA Sports Active 2 in the mornings. That would be my perfect workout schedule.

Crazy workout

Today was a little crazy for my EA Active workout. Half way through my game generated upper body workout I get distracted by my scheduled interview today. I was agonizing about if I should email and confirm my interview since they had me down for the wrong day so they thought I missed my interview and then didn't let me know that the person I would be interviewing with on the right day was sick. After I finished discussing it with Mike over GoogleTalk and was just getting back to my workout, I get a call. I let it go to voice mail and then get the dings from my phone meaning I got multiple texts. Which means my Google Voice got a voice mail. So I stop again and check it since Google Voice means job stuff. The company that screwed up called to tell me they had filled the position and I didn't need to come in for an interview. But they would keep my resume on file in case this other person doesn't work out. I am thinking the assistant who screwed up didn't own up to her mistake and blamed it on me. Costing me the job, seeing as how I didn't even get a chance.

Anyway, I finish my workout with the game bugging me that my sensors are running out of batteries. I fill out all my surveys and such for the last several days. Then I set up a good long boxing workout to work off some of my frustration. I start the workout and my arm sensor batteries die completely. I back out of the workout and the game chastises me for it. Then I walk to the store buy some batteries and other supplies. Come back and finish my workout. So I start around 9am and don't finish until almost 12pm. Next time I am just not letting anything but an emergency distract me from my workout. Oh well, at least I got a bunch of workout stuff done. Felt good to exercise.

Feet update

I just realized I haven't been adding in updates about my feet. They are doing great! Only minor blisters in the normal spots and sometimes I don't get any blisters in the normal spots. The climbers tape seems to be working like a charm. Although for some reason the way I am wrapping the tape on the pointer toe of my right foot causes the edge to come up. But it only comes up so far and then just sits there. So as long as the rest stays wrapped I just don't care.

*GRUMBLE*

Got out for my run late this morning. Got most of the way through feeling great and my right thigh tightened up just before 2.5 miles. I tried to push through and then decided while I could push through the pain that I had an interview today and didn't want to be limping in that. So I took a bail short cut and cut out only a little. But it helped that I could see home and knew I was close to being done.

I did 2.92 miles with a total time of 38:28.32 and an average pace of 13:11/mi. Not my best ever. But I think Friday will be my last day of consistent 1/2 interval ratio. Next week I will try two speed days at 1/1 and do my long run with 6.5 miles. It would be nice to be at my 1/1 intervals when I start my new plan Mike and I came up with. A way to work on distance and increasing my run time at the same time. Each week I will have a speed run, tempo run and then distance walk/run. So on my speed run I will keep it to 5k for now and as each interval ratio get's easier I will up my run time. My tempo run will be increasing by a half mile every two weeks to be half of my distance walk/run and will either stick to my 1/1 ratio or the ratio that is the last one slower than my current speed ratio. I haven't decided exactly how I will do it yet. And then my distance walk/run will increase a half mile each week and I will walk the first half and run the 2nd half. The run part will be at the same ratio as my tempo run. I am not sure when I will switch from walk/run on my distance workouts to just run. I am thinking after my 10 mile walk run I will drop back down some and start running all of it. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there. I want to be able to run 14 or 15 miles before the race and have taper time right before the race.

Just talked to Mike and he said Sept or Oct I should start trying to run my long runs. And I looked at the Jeff Galloway Disney World Half Marathon training plan for finishing upright. It looks like the last weekend in August and first week of September is the 18 week mark. So I guess that is when I will run 5 miles twice that week and then up my mileage from there. Perhaps I will start following the Jeff Galloway plan at that point somewhat. Although he starts at a lower mileage that I will be at by then.

Sigh

I can't wait for these afternoon thunder showers to be over. Yesterday, Mike and I were supposed to go for a 6 mile walk after he got home from work. But it was pouring so it was a no go. So I guess Friday morning will be my 6 mile walk. Tomorrow I have an interview so I gotta keep it to my normal 5k and keep from risking injury. Today I was supposed to do some EA Sports Active 2 but we had a carpet guy come over to fix a bump in our carpet. Only problem was he called last night and had a cancellation so he wanted to come over earlier in the morning. Which made it a little tight to do my workout, cool off and shower before he came over. So I missed my EA Active workout.

BUT, I decided to walk to the store tonight so I would have milk for tomorrow's run. It is less than a mile there and back. And the last half I did with a gallon of milk on my back. Glad I did. I do feel less in a funk and am pumped to go for my run tomorrow.

YAY!

So I missed my run yesterday due to waking up at 2am and not falling back asleep till after 5am. This meant instead of getting up at 6 or so to go run I slept in (so I wouldn't feel cruddy on my date with my hubby) until 7:30. I had to be ready for the air conditioning guys to show up at 8:30 so there was just no time for a run. But last night Mike and I bought a new Wii instead of getting our old one fixed. It was only $60 more to buy a new one and it just wasn't worth it to send our old one back and wait 6 weeks. That and I watched a friend's cats for a week and she decided to pay me for it. So what all this means is I got to do an EA Sports Active 2 workout today. It kicked my butt but felt good. Tomorrow Mike and I are supposed to hike.

Now I won't have any days off from working out. A hike on Sundays, run or walk Monday, Wednesday and Friday and EA Active on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. But the EA active will mostly be cross training. So we will see how I do with all that. I will wait to start my official EA active 9 week program for a bit just to see how I do working out everyday. That way I can chose full body, core or upper body for workouts and skip lower body and cardio workouts for now. Though I might try some cardio if I can find one that isn't all running and lower body. Something with kick boxing would be nice. That way every other day I am mostly resting half my body. Hopefully I don't kill myself. We shall see. I am very excited!

I may switch my EA active days and my running days. That will depend on if I get a job soon. If I do get a full time 9 to 5 job I will need to do short workouts on weekdays and leave my long walk/run for Saturday. Still very excited for getting really back in shape! Oh yeah, and I weighed myself of the Wii Fit board today (which I haven't done for 29 days) and I was 2 pounds lighter even though I was so bad yesterday on food. *BOUNCE*

Whew!

I started a vegetable garden yesterday. Basically, I left the house after 9am and didn't stop working (either repairing my cedar planters, prepping planters, transplanting plants or running out to get seeds and more dirt) until 5pm. I did take a couple of short breaks when it rained. And lunch of course. This just meant that I went on a run with tired legs today. Lots of up and down getting my porch set up. Hopefully, I have a good late crop of vegetables and it all pays for it self.

Anyway, my run. It started out perfect. The hot air balloons launched this morning. They launch less than a mile from our house so it always brightens my day to see them when they launch. You have to be up early to see them and I haven't been getting up early enough since I lost my job. Morning running is good in that way I guess. It got a bit hot to run about half way through. Guess I need to try for an even earlier start time. I struggled a bit today having tired legs. That and my left shoulder tightened up really bad about mile 2.5.

So I did 3.13 miles in 40:25.88 with an average pace of 12:56/mi. I am pretty happy with that. I did struggle with walking fast enough so my walking pace isn't even enough for my liking. But once I get to an easy run with an even walking pace I will need to switch to 1/1 interval. So I guess that means I am not ready to switch yet. All in all a decent run today.

5.1 miles today

Mike and I got up first thing this morning and walked 5.1 miles today. Feet did fine. The tape came up a little but I was a bit fussy when I put it on so I wasn't that careful. It may be that for much higher mileages I will have to figure something else out. Who knows.

Anyway. We did 5.1 miles in 1:28:03.01 with an average pace of 17:17/mi. We weren't too worried about speed. Just distance. We did stop for coffee and chai near the end and I forgot to hit the timer stop button. So we might have been a bit faster than that. I love walking with my hubby. We have great chats.

SUCCESS!

So Monday after running completely out of Body Glide and finally getting tired of my tape failing (not that it was letting me get blisters but it was working it's way off my feet) I went to the running store. I had to ask where the Body Glide was in larger than teeny containers (though have to remember those next time for carrying around Disney) so I ended up asking the younger girl helping me if they had any sort of tape that was meant to protect from blisters. We looked and they didn't so she asked a guy who was about my age. He said he could tell I had sensitive skin and that I should try those expensive toe socks. My socks are about middle of the road socks. They are a cotton blend instead of synthetic but are designed to wick moisture for Diabetics in tropical climates. They work pretty well and I have a gazillion of them so I need to kill them before I buy new socks. Or at least use them until I get into much higher mileage. Besides I don't want to spend that kind of money on running socks just yet. The girl who was helping me went to the register to ring me up and on a whim suggested I try climbers tape. I figured what the heck and went to REI. I found the climbers tape and it seemed really similar to the medical tape I really liked. It was only $4.33 total for a fairly big roll. So I got some. And Success! I tested it on Monday by wrapping one set of toes and plastering it over two spots that tend to get blisters. I wore those all day with shoes on and while I know it wasn't as good as trying it on a run it did stay put where the stuff I was currently using would have started to peel up. So I tried it today. The tape is flexible and probably the most comfortable of all the types I have tried. I had a few edges peel up but I think I can solve that buy cutting instead of ripping the tape. That will keep the adhesive more intact. So yeah, I think I finally have my routine to keep my feet relatively blister free. That may change when I get into high mileage again.

So my run. I tried 1 minute run/2 minutes walk. It was a challenge but not too much of a struggle. I ran for 12 minutes total. That is the most I have run so far. So I will be continuing with the 1/2 ratio until it get's easy. Then I will be down to the Jeff Galloway number of a 1/1 for 13 minutes per mile (though I am a bit faster than that). After that I can start increasing my run time. I will probably increase it by 30 seconds instead of a minute each time but still that will be good. So now it is just mileage I have to work on. That is Friday.

I did 3.12 miles in a total time of 39:58.96 with an average pace of 12:49/mile. That is my fastest pace yet. Felt good but was a challenge. I was overheated and worn out by the time I got home but am feeling good now just a half hour or so later. I think once the this run/walk ratio gets a little easier I will work on getting my run and walk speeds more consistent. I was decently consistent but I would like to be even better. Get a good feel for it with each ratio change so I don't have to keep checking my Garmin. Well, off to drink my chocolate milk and shower.

Easy

Yesterday, Mike, a bunch of friends and I went out hiking around Jamestown. It was only 1.37 miles and we went nice and slow so we did it in 1:05:32.27. But it was enough to put some fatigue in my calves this morning. Nonetheless I went for a run this morning. After reading Jeff Galloway's 18 week guide to a half marathon for RunDisney, I decided I needed to reduce my walk time before increasing my run time. So I dropped back down to 1 minute run and dropped my walk time to 3 minutes. It meant I have hit my best Colorado time yet.

I did 3.10 miles in 40:25.87. Though that time probably needs a few seconds added on because I didn't have enough intervals in my workout and so I tried to add one more but when I hit the lap key my Garmin told me the workout was done. So I had to hit the timer start again. Luckily, it picked up where I had left off but it took a few seconds to realize the timer wasn't going to continue. But still even 40:30 is faster than my fastest Colorado time. I am not counting the Expedition Everest Challenge because according to my Garmin we didn't even run 3 miles for the race portion. Anyway, my average pace was 13:03/mi. Only 1 second faster than my fastest average pace. But it was enough.

The run felt really easy. I was breathing fairly easy. I still have to think about my breathing because if I don't I still have a tendency to pant. I think this is left over from having asthma in middle school and high school. But it felt really good and I felt really strong. Even though my workout schedule has not be regular at all. My feet are doing great. Right now I am basically blister free. There are a few small ones that pop up during a workout and then dry out overnight. And I have a few hot spots on my feet but no major blisters. Definitely nothing debilitating. Feels great!.

I think on Wednesday I will try 1 minute run and 2 minutes walk. I want to see where it get's to be a struggle again and then work on it until it get's easy again. My goal is for 1 minute run/1 minute walk to be easy. Then I will work on upping my run time. It is funny a 1/1 run/walk ratio should be a 13 minutes per mile pace. I am almost at a 13 minutes per mile pace already. But I think I will remain right around that pace until I up my run time. So after I get to 1/1 and it get's easy then I will up my run time by 30 seconds. Jeff Galloway says the next ratio should be 2/1 but with my trouble breathing I think it will be better to up it slower. I was shooting for a 12 minute pace for the race but it looks like I might be able to do even better than that.

Now I just need to get back to my distance workouts. Those will be all walking until I hit 6 miles again, then I will do half run/walk and half walk. Mike suggested I start doing my run/walk portion during the 2nd half of the distance so I start training for getting through the 2nd half of the half marathon. It was good I changed up my workouts. Now I am more excited about training again. That run felt soooo good. Well, off to shower.

Need new tape

So I went for my run today. I didn't go Monday because I was on my feet on cement all weekend and it beat up my feet. So I was supposed to run on Wednesday but sinus pressure was making my rear upper molars and lower jaw ache. I know from experience that running does not help that kind of pain. Mike was surprised that I got up and got ready for my run today. I was a little slow so it was a bit warmer than I like to run. I really do not react well to being overheated. But I guess I need to get used to it somewhat since the end of my run at Disney will be pretty warm.

I finally ran out of hockey tape and turned to my medical tape that was too wide. That was even better because it wasn't quite as sticky as the hockey tape and my toes didn't tend to stick together. But then I ran out of the medical tape. So I went out and bought new medical tape. The stuff I got does not work well. The adhesive is just not sticky enough so it starts to unravel. Must go on a quest for the right tape. Once I know the name I of the proper stuff, I will just order it online.

Anyway, my run today was okay. I tried 1:30 run time with a 4 minute walk. It was hard at first but got easier later in the run. I had a side ache for the 2nd mile or so but that worked itself out. I think I will stick with the 4 minute walk time until the run time get's even easier. I am fairly proud of myself. While I had to slow down my run and walk speed I was still able to keep my walk speed between 13 and 15:30 minutes per mile. On average that is. I had a two really slow spots. One was crossing the street and waiting for cars and the other I just really needed to slow down. My run speed stayed in between 10 and 11 minutes per mile. Right where I need to be. I was right that it is easier to slow down the longer I run. So I did 3.12 miles in 41:26.65 with an average pace of 13:18/mi. This pace is right in between my last two workouts. Not too shabby. Not my fastest but still faster than my 2nd fastest. Not counting my below sea level race that is. I felt really crappy when I got home being overheated. But now I feel good. So if heat was the only real issue I am good. It seems that whether I am running or walking more 3 miles on my legs is just 3 miles. We shall see when I get at higher run periods if that stays true but for now it is good that only my breathing is holding me back from running more. That is easy to build up.

13:04!

So today I pushed my walk pace and tried not to slow down too much at any time. So my average pace went from 13:27/mi to 13:04/mi. It was a great run. I just focused on keeping my walking pace up and keeping my breathing more even. My total time for 3.13 miles was 40:55.17. I even managed to get up and start my run just after 8am. I felt great! Well, got a busy day today. I am off to get stuff done.

Oh yeah, and I spent a little time last night and figured out how to get my hydration belt to fit again. YAY!

New clothes!

So, yesterday I went out and bought some new running clothes. Thank goodness for Marshals and Target. Cheap decent clothes that I can get quantity over quality. I figure once I lose my 20 lbs and get my body where I want it then I can start buying quality. Mike was much the same way about his running clothes for a long time. I scored two pairs of Under Armor shorts that have 9" inseams (keep my thighs from chaffing), two self bra'd tank tops, a sleeveless shirt and a pair of just above the knee shorts. The just above the knee shorts are of a heavier not so much tech fabric but are supposed to be moisture wicking. I also need to add a drawstring in them. I am quite happy with my haul.

Today I went for my run in one of the self bra'd tank tops and a pair of the Under Armor shorts. They were perfect. I have to roll the waist line of the shorts once to pull the crotch up high enough to keep my upper thighs from chaffing. But I don't mind that. I was fairly comfortable, though I had a hard time figuring out where to put my iPod. I ended up clipping it to one of the shoulder straps on my tank top. I think once I get my hydration belt re-adjusted (Mike bought his own) my outfit will be perfect. Right now the tank top slides up over my belly a little but the hydration belt will hold it down. I was so much less overheated.

I also tried out my new water bottle. The Camelbak podium chill. It is insulated. Only problem is it won't work with my hand bottle holder. So this water bottle will not be for running. Which is fine. It will be perfect for IFGS, probably Disney, biking (when I finally get a bike) and around the house. And I love the new valve on the top. Very nice to know it won't spill.

Anyway, my run was good. I did 3.13 miles in 42:06.41 (approx, I accidentally hit timer start as I put it in the cradle and it added 3 seconds, so my time shows as 42:09.41). My average pace was 13:27/mi. No new blisters. The weird ones on my ankles dried up and have not come back. Though I have been smearing that area with body glide. I need to go out and get more tape and bandaids. But I have definitely found a good set up for my feet to keep blisters to a minimum. The run felt good so I think I will increase my run time by 30 seconds next week and after my first run I might reduce my walk time by 30 seconds. Just need to see how it feels.

Nothing else special happened on my run. Though I didn't leave as early as I wanted to. I left 10 minutes before 9am. Oh, and I did manage to keep my walking pace a bit more consistent which makes me happy.

Whew! Hot!

I got up a bit early so I could do a longer walk today. They just aren't happening on the weekends so until our Wii is fixed I am switching to a Monday, Wednesday and Friday workout schedule. Or until I get a job that is. So I did 4 miles today and managed to walk it in under a hour. I am quite proud of myself for that. Only had some minor tightness in my right leg too. However, it looks like I am going to have to get up even earlier from now on. It was over 60 degrees at 8am.

My goal was to get up when Mike left but he decided to sleep in longer than he said he was going to so I had to get my snuggles in. Which meant I really had no will to get up after he got up. I either gotta bounce out of bed in the first 10 minutes after my alarm goes off or I just don't wanna get up. So Wednesday I hope to get up so I can go for my run before 8am.

Well, I am dripping in sweat and need to shower. So off to get clean I go!

Frustrating start to the day

So I got up late today but the temperature outside looked okay for running. However, I had loaned my hydration belt to my husband and he had changed the fit of it. Not that it didn't still work for me but I had gotten it perfect (and I am a perfectionist) and it wasn't perfect anymore. So I decided to try to fix it. He had only altered it by an inch or so but the buckle was way off center and the excess webbing was all loose instead of perfectly rolled and fastened. It was driving me nuts. Unfortunately, it took me over an hour to get it exactly right the first time and since the elastic has stretched a little I can't get it back to the perfect spot again. So annoying. So I spent almost an hour trying to fix it. I gave up and grabbed my hand bottle instead. I guess I will try to fix it later.

The run was good once I got out and did it. I cut my warm up walk from 5 minutes to 3 minutes and did 8 intervals of 1 minute run and 4 minutes walk. Though the last interval I had to cut the walk short because I was finished with my 3.1 miles. So I did 3.1 miles in 42:04.32 with an average pace of 13:31/mi. I definitely think I have found a decent run pace. I still struggle with it a bit because I have to remind myself to go slower. I went too fast on my first run interval. But the rest were right on. It felt pretty good. My right IT band might be having minor issues because it seemed a little tight but is fine now. The back of my right thigh tightened up a bit too. Oh well, they seem fine now.

My hand bottle gave me minor blisters on two of my fingers. I am so glad most blisters don't hurt to me. My pinky and ring toes have blisters as always but are still less than they used to be. This may be where I am with blisters. Nothing that affects how I run or walk but just minor ones in certain places. I may never get rid of them but as long as they don't hurt or make me change my stride in anyway I can live with them. As I said before I will probably never have pretty feet. I still have no idea where the blisters on the backs of my ankles are coming from. I have a sneaking suspicion it is from my socks. It may be time to invest in some real running socks.

All in all a good run once I got past the frustrations before I got out.

Well, I thought I was good.

My feet felt great after my run. But I just keep discovering weird blisters. Taping my toes is definitely helping keep the blisters down on my ring and pinky toes. I still get them but they are much smaller than they were. I am now finding blisters on the backs of my ankles. Little groupings of them. Guess I gotta figure out where those are coming from and figure out how to combat them. The other weird thing is on my left heel the blister is gone but now I am peeling. Though this happens a lot when I get blisters and they heal it is still weird. I guess I will never have pretty feet. It is a good thing I have never worried about having pretty feet.

Team AllEars Avon Walk for Breast Cancer --GO TEAM FIBOT!

As many (or even all of you know) Mike did the Disney World Half Marathon last year. What some of you may not know is that in seeing him train and finally finish his first half marathon he inspired me to run and get into shape too. So since last January I have been slowly training for next year's Disney World Half Marathon and have even run my first Disney race, the Expedition Everest Challenge 5k. I am enjoying the training at am trying to get past getting horrid blisters on my feet every time. I haven't beat the blisters yet but I have made progress on my running.

Last year, Mike didn't know if he would be travelling alone to Disney World so he joined Team AllEars for not only company but to raise money for an amazing cause. This year we both joined the team and are part of a group of 99 happy haunts (as one of our team members puts it) who are raising money for breast cancer while training for our races. We are all running in one or more of the races for the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. Some are running the 5k, others like me are running the half marathon (13.1 miles), some the marathon (26.2 miles) as an individual or two person relay and others are going crazy and running the Goofy (the half one day and the full the next). Mike is one of the craziest and is running what is unofficially called the Dopey (the 5k on Friday, the half with me on Saturday and the full on Sunday). There are also other combinations within the races. Just so many choices to run different races.

You can read about some of our team members here. http://land.allears.net/blogs/#run

As part of Team AllEars we have each committed to raise a minimum of $500. So for Mike and I that means $1000 for our household. Please consider making a donation toward our $1000 goal. We are Team Fibot (after our wild Bengal cat).

How can you lend your support?

You can support my running efforts and breast cancer research by donating the following ways:

1. By check. Checks should be made out to "Avon Walk for Breast Cancer". In the memo field, enter "Team AllEars-- Team Fibot". You can send them to Deb Wills, 3520 Sugarloaf Parkway SUITE F03-105, Frederick, MD 21704. Please e-mail me when you have donated so that I can track all donations and my fundraising efforts.

2. Online donation. Here is the link for our team captain's personal Avon Walk page:http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=3843338&fr_id=2160&pg=personal Click the "Donate Now" button to get to the donation page. In the "Personal Note" field, include "Team AllEars--Team Fibot", for proper tracking. Every donation helps put us one step closer to finding a cure for breast cancer. Whether it be $1, $5 or $25 any donation helps.

Sleep is essential.

I didn't run yesterday because I had insomnia in the middle of the night and if I was going to run it had to be way early so I could get a shower. Our building had to replace our hot water heater yesterday because our practically new hot water heater (installed 2.5 years ago) was illegal or against regulations or something. So there was no hot water starting at 9am yesterday. Thus, I skipped my run yesterday.

But I got up and got it in today. I am all sweaty. I guess 60 degrees with sun is too warm for me. I started out and it felt perfect. A little cool to walk but perfect to run. However, the sun made me very warm. Oh well. It was a great run. I was a bit hungry but I think I will find a right balance for early morning runs and food eventually. I actually had enough juice to do an 8th run interval. It meant this time I don't have a recorded cool down but I am okay with that. The last run felt good.

I haven't mentioned that I tried a new way to lace my shoes lately. I laced around the highest point on my instep. That seems to be helping. If my instep doesn't get sore then I think I keep a more even form and have less blister issues. I am glad one of my Team AllEars teammates posted an article on that.

Anyway so my average pace was 13:45/mi for 3.12 miles. And I finished my run in 42:56.25 minutes. I think I finally found a good run pace. Today I decided to not worry so much about my run pace and focus on my breathing. This helped me not feel as wiped after each run interval. But somehow I settled in to a pace that would drop below the 10 minutes per mile pace right before my run interval was up. So it averaged above 10 minutes per mile in pace for the whole interval. I felt like I wasn't blowing as hard after each interval and while it still felt like it was a little bit of a struggle to stay slower, I didn't feel like I was fighting myself. Not too shabby.

HOT!

So I went for my run at 11 am this morning to try to beat the heat. Should have left earlier. Cause now I am sitting here dripping sweat and trying to sip my chocolate milk without feeling like I am going to be sick. The temp jumped from around 73 to 81 between 11am and 12pm. Oh the joys of being sensitive to heat. At least now I can hide in the mostly cool house until tonight. Except, I gotta empty the kitty litter boxes and refill them. Lovely!

However, the run was not bad. Besides the sun beating down on me and having a bit of trouble with my breathing it felt pretty good. I had to slow down a lot on my cool down walk so my time wasn't as good as it could have been. I worked very hard not to go too fast but my body wanted to go faster today. There is a pace (under 10/mile) that feels amazing when I hit it but I know I should keep myself under that pace. SO HARD! I did hit my stride in my last run interval and stopped noticing how hard it was to breathe. Felt really good. My average pace this time was 14:09/mile and it took me a total of 44:13.29 to run 3.12 miles. Not too shabby.

Man, I have been bad.

Tuesday I couldn't seem to drag myself out of the house. Mike got home and I still hadn't gone for my run. It was a day where my body was demanding food ever 2 hours or so or else I got dizzy and shaky. So Mike convinced me to go on a walk with him. We did 2.5 miles. It was a very nice walk.

*GRUMBLE*

So I went out for my 6.1 mile walk today. Well, that failed. I didn't even get 1.5 miles into it before my knee and hip decided to tighten up like I have been struggling with. Very frustrating. Luckily, I hadn't gone past the point of no return where most of my bail points are behind me. So I had to cut my walk short. I only managed 2.20 miles and of course my pace sucked. I kept around a 15 minute pace for the first mile and then had to slow down or risk being in excruciating pain by the time I got home. Oh well. I can't try again tomorrow but I can try again for distance next Saturday. Do it when Mike is home and bring my phone just in case. Perhaps some preemptive pain killers next time. I might try to go back out for a bit more if my hip and knee relax later tonight.

Thursday

So I was bad and didn't post about Thursday. It was a good run. I felt challenged with my breathing but that is to be expected after almost 3 weeks off. I still managed to keep my pace around 14:05/mi and did my usual 3.14 miles in 44:15.12. Not too bad. After 3 weeks my feet had healed beautifully (not that my feet were beautiful, cause they aren't by far) and I was able to keep my band aids down to two for each foot. I didn't tape my toes thinking I wouldn't need to for 3 miles. And while I was mostly right I did get one blister on my right pinky toe. It appeared above my callus but didn't hurt at all. All in all it was pretty good.

Swimming

So, since my Wii decided to quit working I decided to go swimming. Our complex has a decent pool that I used. So I walked over and spent about a 20 minute time period in the pool. Not that I swam for 20 minutes total. I did around 10 full laps (down and back). Freestyle down and side stroke back. I got so tired by the last lap that I was sloppy. I can tell I am out of shape for swimming. But it was good to get some sort of exercise today. Now to shower off the chlorine.

Disappointed!

So my plan from yesterday for working out today did not work. I was even excited about it because I showed being below 160 lbs today. Our Wii decided to stop reading disks today. Guess we need to spend the $75 and send our Wii in to be fixed. We have been putting that off for over a year. *sigh* Tomorrow is my next workout day I guess. Running at least doesn't need my Wii to work.

Not much

I feel a bit bad. I haven't run since our race. It has been rainy and I have been busy with sewing. I was also letting my feet heal. They healed and then I beat them up again hiking all over the Heil Ranch this last weekend. A lot of these are also just excuses. Granted, I am not willing to run in rain because I think a lot of my blister problems are from my feet being damp. But still some of this has been from being lazy and stressed with my sewing. I know running can relieve my stress but trying to work in a run and get everything done was just making me more stressed.

I was hoping to run today but it has been raining. Add to that my Red Wing steel toe boots I was wearing while hiking around the Heil the first half of Saturday ate my feet. My feet and ankles were beat up even when I took care to band aid, blister band aid, taped my ring and little toes, body glided and baby powdered. All of that at least protected my toes better. I only got minor blisters on the bottom of my toes. However, my ankles were swollen within a half day and I got a funny blister on one ankle. I switched to tennis shoes the 2nd half of Saturday and all of Sunday and did fairly well. Those boots are now gone. Anyway, back to what I was saying. It is raining and I have some beat up ankles that might impede my running. Guess my next run will be on Thursday. I want to keep my Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday schedule as I planned on adding in some cross training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with my Wii EA Sports Active game. Perhaps that is what I will do. I will work out tomorrow.

So I didn't want to just disappear from this blog for too long. Thought I would post some of my recent trials and tribulations and clear my head. I feel better and look forward to getting some exercise this week.

Run Disney Expedition Everest Challenge

So, I have been bad. I didn't post right away about our race. In some ways our trip was all about the race so I am posting about the trip in here too.

Mike and I went to Walt Disney World May 6th - 10th for the Expedition Everest Challenge. This race is a 5k with obstacles and then a scavenger hunt. We got up super early, drove to the airport and caught our plane. We arrived in Orlando ahead of schedule on Friday and picked up our luggage and rental car. We first went to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex to pick up our race packets. There was some very cool theme stuff set up outside but it had rained so they had moved the whole check in process inside. Our number was 1422. Then we checked in at Disney's Pop Century Resort, one of the value resorts. Right away it was not my favorite resort. I guess I am to much of a princess about hotels. Though usually I don't care. Just spoiled by the two Port Orleans resorts, I guess. Mike thinks we were originally in a room with a queen sized bed but we wanted a room in the 70's building on the ground floor, instead of a 2nd floor room in the 80's building. So we ended up in a room with two full beds. The room was cramped and tiny. I was not happy.

We had some not so tasty lunch and eventually, we went to Epcot for a couple of hours. We were supposed to be in Epcot until our reservation at Via Napoli after 9pm. However, the heat and humidity quickly got to my feet and I was already starting to get blisters. Mike got an avocado margarita in the Mexico pavilion and we wandered over to Via Napoli to see if they could squeeze us in early since we already had a reservation. No such luck. Mike got me pizza at the counter service from Via Napoli and we headed to Port Orleans Riverside for dinner. We shared a salad and some pasta. It was perfect. Then we headed back to our room. I was already an unhappy camper sadly. So my lovely husband decided to go get us switched to Port Orleans French Quarter for the next day. We only had to stay one night at Pop. YAY!

So the next day, the day of the race, we woke up early, packed up all our stuff again (not that we got much out) and headed to Epcot for a couple of hours. We made it for rope drop and I headed to Test Track while Mike went to get fast passes for us at Soarin'. I got some great pictures of some of the topiaries for the International Flower and Garden Festival. We rode both rides and bummed around Epcot some more before going to Downtown Disney for lunch and our matinée showing of Thor. We ate lunch at Fresh A Peel. Super good! Mike wanted Chocolate and Caramel popcorn from the candy store so we walked over there before the movie. Then rode the boat across and picked up our tickets for Thor. Thor was a good movie and it was nice to sit in air conditioning and baby my feet for a couple of hours. After Thor we went to check in at French Quarter. We ended up with a second floor room with both a river and a parking lot view. It was on the corner. The really nice thing is there was almost no walking to get to our car and if I couldn't do the stairs we had an elevator. We bummed around for 45 minutes in our room and got ready for the race. Then we headed over to Animal Kingdom to ride the safari ride and eat at Yak and Yeti's before the race. Unfortunately, the safari ride had animals chilling in the road so we had to leave line to make our reservation at Yak and Yeti's. Mike and I shared the crispy Mahi Mahi. Mike also got an extra side of stir fried vegetables and some fried rice. It was very tasty.

After dinner we meandered out of the park and back to our car to put the final touches on getting ready for the race. I switched out my socks and ensured all my band aids were in place. We put on our race belts and numbers. Then we headed over to the race area to meet up with some of our Team AllEars members. Eventually we met up with Rhonda and Cynthia who were racing as singles. Rhonda is one of our team members. Then we got Eric and Michael and some of their friends over. Eric and Michael were racing as team Epic Dads and are some of our Team AllEars teammates as well. Our team was Team Fibot, named after our wild Bengal kitty, Fiona. We all stood around talking until we had to get into our respective starting groups. We also decided to meet up by Nemo after the race so we could ride rides together during the party. Eventually, the race started.

Mike and I were in group 5 so we had to wait 20 minutes from when the first wave started before our start time. But we finally got started and I switched off from jogging and speed walking until the group spread out enough for us to start doing intervals. That was about 4 and a half minutes in. We did our interval run/walking, 1 minute run and 4 minutes walking. I will tell you, running at sea level is so easy. I had no breathing problems. Our first obstacle was a series of hay bales that we had to get over. Just one high so Mike and I easily vaulted them during one of our run intervals. Some people stepped on them and some jumped over. Then we raced through the Animal Kingdom park and some of the backstage area. It was neat. Just after the turn around point we hit some tires. I almost bit it on the first set up made it through after I slowed down. Of course, they had to come during a run interval. After that we just raced. We saw another one of our Team AllEars teammates, Melanie, running the race. That was cool. Our final obstacle was a choice just after mile 3. We could climb a cargo net tent, crawl under some nets or run through a sand pit. Mike and I climbed. The rest of our team mates ran through the sand pit I guess. According to my Garmin the 5k wasn't even 3 miles and I stopped it after the last set of pads. There was a sort of finish line set up further down the parking lot that we never went through and it makes me wonder if we were supposed to go through that and something got changed at the last minute. So, unfortunately, I don't know what my racing 5k time was at sea level. We finished the race part in 38 minutes and 9 seconds, according to the race results. And of course that was pretty fast. My Garmin said my average pace was 13:19 minutes per mile. So I did have a good speed increase.

Anyway, I had taken pain killers before the race and didn't have too many problems with the blisters I already had or with my joints. That was very nice. So we were on to the scavenger hunt part. We got our first clue and Mike gave it to me. He thinks I am pretty good with puzzles. Funny thing is out of the 5 clues, I solved 2, Mike solved 2 and we got help on one. I solved the first clue and we got our second one right off. That was the one we had to get help on. Luckily, we had a long way to go to get to our next clue turn in point so I got to try a bunch of wrong combos. We got help and got our next clue. Mike solved that one right away. It was one of those perspective clues sort of like a magic 3D puzzle. I have never been able to see those. I had seen other people turning their cards a certain way and mentioned it to Mike. He messed with the card for all of a second and solved the clue. We started jogging to our next check point and got the 4th clue. This one I solved in two seconds flat. We got to our next final check point before the finish and got the 5th clue. Mike quickly solved it and I confirmed it as we were completely sure at first. You took the first letter for the last 4 clues to make the first half of the word and then finish with the number 10. AKA. Mountain. It was a good last clue. We ran to the finish, turned in our last clue and crossed the finish. The photographers snapped some really bad pics of me crossing the finish line. One cut me completely out of some of the pictures. And we were done. We finished the scavenger hunt in 30 minutes and 46 seconds. Our overall time was 1 hour 29 minutes and 18 seconds. We finished 319th in our division, which was co-ed teams. It was a lot of fun.

Getting out of the finish shoot we grabbed water and some snacks and headed over to Nemo to meet the team. Mike and I were a little worried we finished so much later than most of them we wouldn't get to meet up with them. Eventually, the whole group got back together and then we waited for our AllEars teammate Melanie to perhaps meet up too. We must have just missed each other because eventually our group went down to ride Triceratops Spin together. We skipped out of the dance party and Mike and I decided to wait for the bag pick up line to go down before getting our bag. So we headed over to Dinosaur and rode that. Then we rode my favorite Expedition Everest. I love that ride at night. It is so much cooler because you can't see anything going through the mountain. Sometimes during the day you can see the track and such. We rode Everest twice and I started to fade. So Mike and I said goodnight to everyone and our group broke up. Mike and I got our bag on the way out of the park and went back to our hotel room to crash. Such a good race.

Sunday morning I had a hard time getting up and we missed the opening of Magic Kingdom. Sadly, that is one of Mike's favorite parts of Disney. They have a pretty cool welcoming ceremony every morning. We parked at the Poly, got me some Advil and a bagel with cream cheese and Mike some real coffee instead of the Nescafe stuff. He was a little happier after that. Then we rode the monorail over to Magic Kingdom and played. We decided we wanted to try to get more pictures with characters. Normally we refuse to wait in line over 15 minutes if we can help it. But we waited for some characters and took it easy. We rode some rides and were about to get some lunch when I got a text from Melanie that she was in Magic Kingdom and wanted to hang out with us. We did a couple of rides with Melanie and then split up so Mike and I could get some lunch. Oh yeah, I got my Dole Whip. So much better in hot weather. Mmmmmm! We headed back to the hotel room for a while, had dinner and then headed back to Magic Kingdom for fireworks and to use some of the fast passes we had picked up earlier in the day. We did our tradition of riding the Jungle Cruise at night. Then we headed home (as I call our good hotel room) and crashed.

Monday, I woke up and could barely walk. We had done too much for my feet and legs. Mike thought the race caught up to me. I sent Mike out to Hollywood Studios and I stayed in to rest. I tried to soak the pain out of my feet and legs. That didn't help much. Mike came back just after I had applied Icy Hot to my legs. He was a sad puppy because I decided I couldn't go to the parks that night. Sadly, I didn't eat enough that day and so I was nauseous that night. He took me out to get pasta at Riverside. I slowly worked on eating that and the baguette Mike brought me back from Epcot. Eventually, I felt a little better. Mike went back out to the parks for a little while longer before coming home to play on the computer. While Mike was at the parks I was supposed to check him in at Southwest. We always pay for me to have early bird check in so I can get a window seat but don't pay for Mike. I spaced the time and checked him in 5 minutes late so we ended up in B group for boarding.

Tuesday was a our last day. I tried to get up and pack so we could go to Magic Kingdom and make opening. We missed it again. The plan was to go to Magic Kingdom, make rope drop and try to get pictures with Rapunzel and Flynn, then go to Hollywood Studios so I would get to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. Of course, we missed rope drop and by the time we got to the park the line for Rapunzel and Flynn was too long. Even though we didn't miss it by that much. I wasn't feeling well still so we skipped the pictures and I decided to skip Hollywood Studios too. So we went to Downtown Disney (by then I was miserable) to try to get food and then go see Fast Five at the AMC. Luckily, I tried eating some of my beef jerky and figured out that I needed protein, not carbs. We got me some more food and I slowly felt better. So we went to the movie.

After the movie we headed to the airport to drop off our rental car and catch our plane. We cut it a little close for my comfort but made it with no problem. Melanie was waiting for the same plane. Melanie and I were in A group and sat in rows across from each other. I stuck a bag in the seat next to me and dinked around with it until Mike got on the plane. I know, I know...sort of bad of me. But I want to sit next to my hubby. I was more nervous this time since I checked Mike in late. It all worked out though. We got to Denver and there was supercell weather activity that shut down the airport. So we got stuck in a holding pattern. Eventually, we had to fly to Colorado Springs and pick up gas. We were on the ground at Colorado Springs for over an hour. We finally got into Denver 2 hours late. At the luggage claim Mike and I met Melanie and her husband, Bryan. After we got our luggage we got our car from the Pikes Peak parking lot and drove home. We had to stop and get me a little more food before finally getting home. But we got home okay, loved on our kitties and crashed out.

All things considered I really enjoyed our trip. The race was great and I had a lot of fun.

Just a walk

So today I went on just a normal walk. I needed more tea from Celestial Seasonings, so I walked the mile and a half to their corporate offices. There they have all the teas the make in their Tea shop. And you can stop in their cafe to try some free samples.

I knew I needed something to keep my feet in condition. This walk seemed perfect. Unfortunately, I made the choice to wear my Reebok EasyTones for a little extra oomf to my walk. They rubbed a spot on my heel. Also, weather was rolling in, so I had the same thing happen as when I did the 6.5 mile run/walk. My left hip and knee both tightened up. Not as bad as the 6.5 mile time but still not fun. Luckily I was almost home.

Blister and joints aside it was a pretty pleasurable walk. I didn't bring my Garmin or anything. It was just about getting out and getting fresh air and sun. There was a cool breeze and the sun was shining. I wasn't worried about speed or anything. Just walking. It felt good.

Running with Mike

Yesterday, Mike and I did 3.16 miles. I wanted him to get a feel for my pace before we race as a team at the Expedition Everest Challenge. I am still struggling with finding the perfect pace while running. I am either too slow or too fast. It seems my jogging pace is slower than 11 minutes per mile and my running pace is faster than 10 minutes per mile. So I find myself constantly struggling to either speed up or slow down a tiny bit. I am maintaining my goal speed which is being somewhere between 10 and 11 minutes per mile. This might work itself out as I increase my run time and perhaps find that right pace.

We finished our run in 42 minutes and 32 seconds. Our average pace was 13:26 minutes per mile. Mike had a little trouble keeping up with my walking pace. He is used to walking fast for 30 seconds, not for 4 minutes. But it was great! We started out walking and chatting a bit. Then we put our music on and started our run walk intervals. Well, I listened to music. Mike listened to podcast that he kept chuckling at. I had a little trouble with keeping up with my breathing. It was cold and my nose was running, so I had a little bit of post nasal drip. Along with my nose being stuffed up I was breathing all through my mouth. This makes it hard for me not to pant. At least for the race I shouldn't have any of these problems. Being a sea level and in warm Florida weather (even at night) should make my breathing a non issue. I can't wait for the race, less than a week.

My feet were fine after the run. But I made a mistake in that I chose to keep my running shoes and the same socks on for the rest of the day. I have a hole in my ankle that might be from that or something else and some of my pinky and ring toes got sore. Good lesson though. Changing my socks will be key at Disney. I sort of knew that from that last couple of trips. I always changed my socks at our mid day breaks and any time we returned to our hotel room. I was planning on bringing spare sets of socks (pre-baby powdered) to the race. Now I know I need to in order to be able to play at the park afterwards. A fresh set of socks before the race and then after the race should make all the difference. I just hope the hole my ankle wasn't from my shoes. My running shoes were the only shoes I was planning on wearing at Disney.

All in all my workout was good.

The usual

Well, an addition to my long walk on Monday, in my shower I noticed a blister on my left pinky toe. No pain, just there.

Today's workout was good. I took a break from cutting out sewing projects to call my mom and then realized it was getting late and I should get my run in. So I got ready and went. It wasn't anything super special. The back of my right thigh felt off for most of it but cleared up near the end. I did try taping my toes instead of the bandaids I usually use. The tape will work for short distances but seems the baby powder might make it useless for longer runs. Oh well. Back to bandaids. Just expensive using so many bandaids.

Anyway, back to my run. I did 3.13 miles in 42:51 with an average pace of 13:40 minutes per mile. Seems my average walking speed is getting faster. That is kinda exciting!

Next week is the Expedition Everest Challenge. I have two more workouts to do before then. One on Saturday so Mike can get a feel for my pace and another on Tuesday to keep my feet in condition. I am still toying with the idea of doing one more on Thursday to keep conditioning on my feet since the race isn't until Saturday night. But you are supposed to taper off before a race so I am not sure. That and I will be on my feet a lot more than I usually am before the race. So I guess no run on Thursday. I guess I will see how I am feeling and if I need a workout to up my emotions.

Anyway, I need to eat and shower so I can get back to cutting out sewing.

Oops!

I always post my time and my average pace. Totally slipped my mind. I did 6.54 miles in 1 hour and 36 minutes. Not too shabby. And my average pace, even after having to massively slow because of pain, was 14 minutes and 42 seconds per mile.

6.54 miles today

Whew! I did 6.54 miles this afternoon. Not my best workout ever. I had to push it back because the weather was threatening to rain all weekend and I can't chance running or even walking in wet shoes. That would just be asking for a blister. SO....I waited until today. The weather cleared up nicely around 1pm or so. I went out at almost 3pm. There were more clouds rolling in but I thought I had enough time to get a long workout in. After all, I did feel like I needed to do this workout as my test to see how well I will be able to play after the Expedition Everest Challenge.

This was my first long workout where I was trying run/walking for half of it. I was supposed to do 6.73 miles according to Google maps. But had to bail at my last safety shortcut. I should have known my workout was doomed, as I had issues just getting ready. I left my iPod out in the car and had to run outside to get it. Then I spilled some of my pre-workout chocolate milk on my thighs while already in my workout capris and my bed. I had a nice hole in my lip there. It took me forever to get ready too. Not like that is much different for me. I have a whole routine I try to follow as it gets me in the mood to run.

The start of my workout went well. I briskly walked 5 minutes as always as a warm up. Then I started my intervals for the first 3 miles. I had programed my Garmin for 1 minute run with 4 minutes walk for 8 intervals. I wasn't sure how many I would be able to do in 3 miles. So I figured if I did one or two extra intervals it wouldn't hurt. I ended up doing most of my running up hill. Good training but no fun. Felt like every time a run break came up I was on an incline. I tried out an interesting way of doing hills that Mike told me about. You don't worry about your speed going up hill, put only a little effort into it. Then you lean forward on the downhill and let gravity carry you. Was sort of fun and did make the downhills easier on my shins. Boy, did I fly down hill. So, 3 miles pass and my watch says one more interval. Great! I can just finish this and then finish out the workout with 3.5ish miles of walking. Little did I know I was already on my last interval. So when my watch beeped I thought it wanted me to run but it was really beeping for my cool down. So I ran and then noticed I had already been running for more than a minute. Heh! I look at my watch and I was done with intervals. I worked to keep my intervals similar to last time.

On to walking. So the clouds had already rolled in faster than I had hoped. I felt like I was racing the rain. I worked to keep my pace around 14:30. But no luck it sprinkled on me a couple of times and threatened to rain harder. At least it didn't get worse. At one point I was walking under blue sky with clouds to my left. The wind was blowing the rain on to me. Eventually, I turned right and walked far enough away from the weather to get away from the rain. I didn't get very wet at all. It was sort of nice because the rain was nice and cool. Eventually I reach the home stretch. My thighs were starting to feel really tired and used up so I slowed my pace to around 15:30 to 16 minutes. I still felt like I was racing the weather though so I didn't want to slow too much. Just before mile 6 something messed up happened. At first it felt like my left thigh tightened or even cramped, but then the pain settled in my left knee and hip. It was horrid. I thought I had screwed my IT band or something like that. I HAD to slow down. There was no choice. So, that is why I bailed before going the whole distance.

However, that last little bit wasn't all bad. My left hip and knee were still killing me. But, as I am walking through the parking lot I see my car back out of the visitor spot I had left it in (because someone was parked in my assigned spot when I got home) and into my spot. I knew Mike had gotten home and was being sweet to me. So I whip out my cell (which I had brought in case of injury or rain as a safety measure) and text the hubby. I tell him to wait for me. And here he comes walking towards me. But he thought it was funny because the pain was making me "waddle", so he teases me a bit. That is until he realizes I am in real pain and am barely continuing to walk. He gets me in the house, I crash on the couch and he gets me vitamin I and ice packs. Mike also brings me my recovery chocolate milk and some mandarin oranges. Such a catch, my husband.

Of course, it turns out my pain was not from my workout at all but from the slightly wacky weather we were having. I think we had a clash of two fronts and they were messing with my joints, as does happen. Just happened at the very end of the workout. SUCK! But after my shower the bigger front had moved in and I only have a little soreness and stiffness in my left knee. Stupid weather.

Oh well, I have now proved to myself that I can do the race the weekend after next and still play at the park afterward. YAY ME!

1 minute run / 4 minute walk

Tried upping my run time again today since 45 seconds run at about a 10 minute pace just felt too easy. This feels just about right. My average pace was 13:55 minutes per mile and I finished 3.14 miles in 43 minutes and 40 seconds. I was working to keep my run pace between 10:30 and 11 minutes per mile I managed just perfectly. And I also worked a bit to keep my walk pace under 16 minutes per mile. Looks like I kept it between 15:30 and 14 minutes per mile. Felt really good. I felt like I was pushing myself but not using myself up.

Almost forgot my tunes again. Got the front door open and realized I had almost forgotten my iPod again. Heh. While I can do a run or walk without music, it does keep my spirits up even higher. This weekend I am trying 6.6 miles with 3 miles run/walking and 3.6 miles walking. This is to gauge how used up I will feel after the Expedition Everest Challenge. Can't wait! Busy weekend though so I have to be sure to make time for my long workout.

AH HA!

Yup, my Garmin does show my current pace. I was just on the wrong display page. YAY! I will be able to better regulate my run speed.

Back to running after my cold.

Yay! I got to run today. Finally mostly over my cold and that meant I could breathe well enough to run/walk instead of just walk. I did 3.14 miles today in 45 minutes and 10 seconds. I did a 5 minute brisk warm up walk, then did 45 seconds running and 4 minutes walking intervals. Still struggling not to run too quickly, though according to my Garmin I was a bit too slow on some of my run intervals today. Hrm. Need to see if there is a setting where I can display my current pace. My average pace was 14:23 minutes per mile. Not too shabby.

Feet feel pretty good if warm. Just looked and I don't think I made any of my current blisters worse. I definitely don't have more blisters. One funny thing is that when I pull off my socks there is a puff of baby powder and my feet look a bit like a gymnast's, all caked white. So all in all a great run. I felt so good I might try 1 minute run and 4 minutes walk on Thursday. We shall see. Very excited about being able to run/walk again.

6.1 miles

So I managed 6.1 miles today. Just walking, of course, as it was my weekend workout. However, I am proud of the fact that I kept a 15:43 minute per mile pace. I forgot my iPod and so had no tunes while walking. I finished in 1 hour and 35 minutes. It felt a bit like a struggle but I did enjoy walking even if I had no tunes to keep me going. It is exciting that I did 6.1 miles because that means I should have few problems for the Expedition Everest Challenge.

I did get another small blister over my healing blister on my heel. And another blister got a bit worse on my right heel. Still a good walk.

First post!

I guess I will first start off by explaining a bit of what I have been doing since January. After my husband, Mike, ran his first half marathon at Walt Disney World he inspired me to try as well. As I state in my bio I am incredibly prone to blisters on my feet. On our honeymoon to Walt Disney World I had blisters upon blisters in a way. You could see the layers as the blisters grew each day. Let's just say I was not a happy camper.

Mike loves Disney. If he had his way every vacation we took would be Disney related. And in a way so far they have been. I am not as much of a fan though Disney World has grown on me. Which is why his first half marathon was at Disney World. You see running the Disney half marathon was a way for my husband to get to go back to Disney sooner rather than later. I had told him I didn't want to do another Disney vacation after our Honeymoon and then a 14 day vacation to Universal Studios and Walt Disney World last summer. But I told him we could go back for marathon weekend since it was his first half marathon. This was the first trip I was really able to manage my blisters well and was in very little pain. I truly enjoyed myself the whole time with little difficulties. Thus my first half marathon will be at marathon weekend at Disney World as well. I don't think I will ever be as much of a race enthusiast as my husband but the Walt Disney World marathon weekend was pretty special. And like many things Disney does it is done right. They have character picture opportunities along the course, bands playing and you run through Epcot and the Magic Kingdom during the race. Sounds like way more fun than a normal race.

So back to what I have been doing. My husband lost 60 lbs so far with diet and running. Well, I could stand to lose a little weight and certainly need to get back in shape. So during marathon weekend at Disney World I got the idea that maybe if I trained for a whole year and took it easy I could walk a half marathon too. Perhaps this would toughen up my feet and solve some of my blister problems. So I started walking. Just a simple 3 mile loop. And I will admit during January, February and the beginning of March I was not super consistent training. Though I think I have done pretty well in the grand scheme. As I said, I started walking a simple 3 mile loop. However, the Disney races all require a person to be able to at the most walk a 16 minute per mile pace. If you can't manage that during a race they will sweep you and you will not be allowed to finish the race. I have managed 14:30 minutes per mile just walking. That is pretty fast. But I wanted to be even faster so I would have time to take pictures with the characters along the way. My husband said he would do the half with me and then do the full marathon the next day (this is called the Goofy). So I thought it would be fun to get as many character pictures as possible. This meant I needed to start working on running as well.

Mike is a big supporter of the run/walk program for athletes. It is proven to cause less injuries doing structured run/walk intervals. So I decided to try running. Now before this I was walking in Reebok EasyTone shoes. These are not meant to run in but are great for walking. Completely comfortable. I could get the run version but thought it better to get my gate tested and see what the pros think I should wear. I went to our local running store that offers gate analysis and spent a couple hours trying different shoes. I ended up with the female version of the same shoes my husband wears, Brooks Adrenaline. And I started adding in running intervals. I do 30 seconds of running and 5 minutes of walking currently. I plan on upping my run time and lowering my walk time.

My schedule right now is run/walk 3.1 miles twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and I am working on distance walking on the weekends. I am currently up to 5.6 miles of walking. I learned after one disastrous week that I have to have at least a day between each workout. Still healing from the huge blister I got that week. So now my plan is to continue to my 3.1 run/walk during the week while concentrating on running more and walking less and walking a half mile more each weekend. This plan has been working, so far.

Though this week has been hard. I learned last week, as I suspected, that I have had a minor sinus infection for the past couple of months and just finished the antibiotics for this. But on top of that I have a cold. Which means this week I walked for both 3 mile walks. It set back my increasing my running some as I was going to try 45 seconds running and 4 minutes walking. Oh well, I guess that is for next week.

You see Mike and I signed up, as a team, for the Walt Disney World (I know, I know, yes, we are going again) Expedition Everest Challenge. This race is a 5k run with obstacles interspersed along the course and after we get to do a scavenger hunt. All of this is done through the Animal Kingdom, at night! Super fun. Means I will run about 3 miles and then walk about another 3. So I need my pace to be a little faster to keep from being swept during the 5k (right now I am run/walking about a 14 minute per mile pace) with obstacles. So next week increase running and over my long walk I might try run/walking 3 miles of my 6.6 miles. We will see how that goes. I was hoping to be running 1 minute and walking 4 minutes by the race. I guess I still have 3 weeks till the race. Though the week we leave I am going to be taking it extra easy, maybe just one run/walk. I am excited for my first race since I started training in January.

Well, I guess I better wrap it up for now. I will post about my 6.1 mile walk tomorrow.