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.