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!