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.