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.