3.5 Miles on the Treadmill

So since I didn’t get in my 4 mile run this weekend on Goat Island I decided to go ahead and try to knock it out on Monday. I am mixing things up this week and doing half of my runs on the treadmill since the temperatures in the mornings are still hot and humid. I drank lots of water yesterday afternoon and headed to the gym after work with my iPhone loaded up with an episode of Glee to watch.

Overall the treadmill wasn’t that bad. I only ran for 47.5 minutes or 3.5 miles instead of 4 and since I walked the first lap and the last lap my time for the 3 miles was about what I ran for the 5K, so it seemed like a good pace. I would like to think that I am getting used to the idea of running for longer distances, since the time went by really quickly, although that might have had something to do with watching TV. The air conditioning and flat grade helped, although I missed having the wind in my face and it seemed really stuffy running inside. Also running on the treadmill was really hurting my knees, not sure what’s up with that since they don’t hurt when I run outside. They are fine this morning, which is a relief since I was kind of gimpy last night getting up the stairs. I think this week I am finally going to go get some proper running shoes since it seems I might just stick with this hobby after all.

The side stitches were better yesterday, which was awesome since I expected them to be worse on the treadmill. I am trying a new strategy of attack this week since they were really bad last week. Basically if I feel a stitch coming on, I try to get rid of it by changing my breathing and taking several deep breathes. But if after a few minutes of deep breathing it continues to get worse then I will just walk it out. It worked like a charm yesterday, I did have to walk after about the first mile, but it took a while for it to come back and when it did I was able to fix it with breathing changes. It was a nice change of pace to run without pain in my side!

2.25 Miles in 30 Minutes

So after deciding to sleep in yesterday morning I didn’t get the chance to run until after work at about 6:00 pm. I wasn’t looking forward to running in the heat, but I didn’t have time to go to the gym last night. Well my supposed 3 mile run turned into a 1.5 mile shuffle back to the air conditioning. I had underestimated how much the heat would slow me down and decided to call it a day after I made it back to the house.

This morning was the first morning this week that I have gotten up and ran. It was really foggy, humid and 75ºF, but still felt better than 85ºF and sunny. I was a little cautious about running 12 hours after the previous run, but with a good night’s sleep and a light run the night before I didn’t think it would bother me too much.

The side stitches really have been worse this week than normal. It started Monday, I had done some strength training at the gym Sunday night and my abs were still sore. I had to walk after about a mile in on the downhill section of the road with pretty bad side stitches. It hurt in three different places and I assumed that was just because I had worked out my abs the day before. Well I was able to walk those off and finish the run successfully.

Yesterday and today I only made it about .2 miles before a little one started and about 1 mile when I started to run the downhill section again and had to stop to try to walk it out. It wasn’t as bad yesterday since I only ran 1.5 miles, but later on in the evening when I was just walking through the parking lot to my car I got another stitch in the same place. Today I really tried to push through it and ended up walking on the downhill stretch again. After making it back to the house I decided that I would try a run/walk approach for the last little bit, because I didn’t just want to stop there. I thought that you were supposed to run through side stitches, even ones that really hurt so that’s what I was trying to do. Well I did manage to run a little bit more before finally just deciding to walk the last .2 miles home wincing with just about every step.

The weird part about this side stitch is that the area is still really tender and sore 4 hours after I stopped running. I’m hoping that it will heal itself after resting this weekend and that I can start anew on Monday. Well by resting I mean not running, there will still be lots of swimming, hiking and kayaking!!

Double Rainbow

So yesterday morning I was woken up by loud thunder about 10 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off for my morning run. Naturally I rolled over and went back to sleep to the sound of rain hitting my roof. I suppose I am going to have to run in the rain eventually but not on a Monday! So yesterday after work I went grocery shopping and on the way home it was sprinkling a little bit with a nice breeze and the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees, so we decided to go ahead and go for a run before we made dinner.

So about ten minutes into the run after the clouds from the recent thunderstorm had cleared a little bit you could see the biggest DOUBLE RAINBOW in my neighborhood. My husband was running with his iPhone, so he quickly nabbed a picture as proof!

I ran 2.85 miles (I had every intention of running the same 3.1 miles, but I can only run past my house so many times before I give in and go inside) at about the same pace that I ran the 5K (12:20 mm), except that it was a lot harder!! I felt like I was breathing a lot harder too. I had gone to the gym Sunday night for a little bit of time on the elliptical and some strength training and I was really feeling it in my legs and abs last night. This is the first run that I have done in a while where my legs were that sore and stiff immediately after a run. It felt good to push myself that hard, but I’m glad that today is a rest day, but my legs definitely need it.

My First 5K

Well the overall experience was really positive. My time was a lot slower than I had hoped for though. My official time for the 5K was 38:41; although my nikeplus said that I finished it about 15 seconds faster (I started it when I started running and before I had crossed the start line). They started everyone at the same time and had a racing chip for when we crossed the finish line.

The race started out great; we were all lined up in the road at the park. But then at about two-tenths of a mile we had to all funnel into a 6ft-8ft wide trail. It took it about a mile for the crowd to thin out and for me to pass all of the walkers that had lined up ahead of me. My pride was only slightly injured when I got passed by a guy pushing a stroller and a guy wearing a full fireman’s outfit including the mask. The course itself was really nice, I enjoyed running mostly in the shade and through the wooded areas. The weather cooperated on race day as well. It was overcast and humid, but it didn’t rain and we all enjoyed a little bit of a breeze.

I would say that there were two reasons that my time was slower than I expected. The first was that I didn’t handle the water station very well. They had ice cold water and I downed half of the cup really quickly and attempted to run with the remaining water in the cup, which worked about as well as you could expect. I didn’t want to give up the water (I was ready for some water way before the water station, since it was so humid outside) and they only had one trash can and I didn’t like the idea of throwing it on the ground. I ended up carrying it about a quarter of a mile before I finally just dumped it out and threw the cup as close to another cup as I could. The next half of a mile went really well, the water seemed to renew my energy levels and I passed the 2 mile marker and could see the final leg of the race. Well at about that time I started to get stomach cramps, presumably from drinking the water too quickly and went as long as I could without stopping. I ended up walking about 2 whole minutes before the cramps passed and I felt like I could run again without getting sick. By this point I had seen my goal time pass by so I picked up my pace for the last little bit of the race and was really happy to see my family at the finish line waiting for me!

The other reason that my time wasn’t as good was because I treated the race like an easy training run and didn’t push very hard in the beginning and at about the time that I had planned to pick up the speed was when I was trying to walk off those stomach cramps. At least I have something to work towards and I was already looking up other races this summer to do before the half-marathon.

So some things that I would do differently next time would be to bring my own water. If I had sipped a little bit here and there I don’t think that I would have run into the same problems with my stomach. I actually already ordered a handheld bottle to try out this week. I would also try to pick up the pace earlier than I did this weekend and try to run the race in general a little bit faster than a training run. I also really really want to run a whole 5K, and I will be working on that this week during my training runs.

The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass. ~Martin Mull

First Night Run

So yesterday I decided to try running at night after dinner, I was only supposed to do a short run before the 5K so it sounded like a good time to test it out. So I ate dinner at about 7:30 (a peanut butter sandwich, chips and some Gatorade) and decided that I would run when the sun went down around 9:30 in order to let it cool down a little bit. Well my stomach pretty much rebelled immediately after I started and I lasted about .25 of a mile before I had to stop altogether.

Let’s just say that the next time that I want to sleep in I am either going to have to run in the heat or hit the treadmill at the gym. Running after dinner is simply not an option for me. I’m glad that I tested it out on a short run this week and didn’t waste a valuable training run. I am also going to be a lot more cautious about what I try to eat before any runs; and am definitely not going to try eating anything before the 5K this weekend. I’m glad that I made the mistake last night instead of Saturday morning.

I am getting nervous about the 5K. I figure that my range of times based on training is probably going to be between 35 minutes (my best training run pace so far for a distance of 2.25 miles) and 40 minutes (which would mean that I probably walked at least a half mile). While this is not ideal, it is better than I could have done last month before I started training. The fact that I am going to get up and run 3.1 miles tomorrow morning is still a big deal to me!

Bugs and a Thunderstorm

Well yesterday’s run was a big fail, it is kind of funny looking back on it, but I was not at all amused at the time. When I first rolled out of bed I had checked outside because it did look a little ominous, but it was not raining yet. So literally about 30 seconds after I had tied my shoes, rain starts pounding hard at the windows. After realizing that I would get instantly drenched if I went outside I checked the weather map and it said that it wasn't going to subside anytime soon. I decided to crawl back into bed and salvage an hour of sleep and vowed to do my 3 mile run the next day.

So for today’s run my big question is where did all of the bugs come from?? Seriously, they were not here two days ago, I’ve been running this same route at the same time of day for about a month now and I have never encountered a bug before. I was about a half mile into the run and had already swatted away several when I looked down at my shirt and realized that I was covered in gnats!! I had at least 25-30 that I could see and probably more that I couldn’t. So while running, up the big hill mind you, I start frantically swatting at these things trying to at least get them off of my clothes!! Now, the bugs did offer a little bit of a distraction from the run, but it is not a method that I would recommend. I don’t think that I ate any bugs, but I can’t really guarantee that I didn’t. I had a couple of bugs up my nose, I had one crawl underneath my headphones to get into my ear and I even had two that got into my sports bra that I didn’t find until I hit the shower. I’m still confused about how the bugs got into my sports bra, but I don’t really think that I want to know!!

So even if you take out the bugs, the run wasn’t great. I really wanted to run a practice 5K, but only made it to 2.5 miles in a little over 30 minutes. My husband did better at 2.9 miles, I need to try harder next week to keep up or else I will really start to fall behind. Our daily runs are about to jump up to 3 miles, which means doing the hill in our neighborhood at least twice, which is still a big challenge.

Also, I had a coke for dinner and probably shouldn’t have and I was really feeling the effects of being a little bit dehydrated on a humid morning. On a good note, my shoulders and upper back have not been near as sore this week finally!! I do feel like I am getting stronger overall and am just continuing to jump into this headfirst.

On the schedule for tomorrow is a short confidence boosting run before a rest day and the 5K!!

Relaxed Monday Run

My first race is this weekend!! I am running a 5K with my brother, SIL and husband. And although I will probably be last between all four of us my individual goal is just to run the whole thing without walking. If I can do that my time wil probably be between 34 minutes and 36 minutes hopefully. I’m nervous about the whole race experience since I do run pretty slow, but I’m sure that we will all have fun together!!

For the most part today’s run felt pretty good. It was drizzling a little bit, which was the first time that it had rained at all for any of my morning runs. We haven’t gotten a lot of rain here lately, although the thunderstorms are supposed to be back this week along with the humidity. I actually wanted to get up early and run this morning, which seems to have helped with the sore shoulders. I think when I fight it the whole time and grumble because I’m not still in bed that it makes the whole run more stressful. Or maybe not, it could just be that I ran at a more relaxed pace today, a 12:30 minute mile for 2.3 miles.

My next big goal is to work on the 1.5 mile side stitch. This is where I start to get a little bit more out of breath and I try to fight the stitch and put up with the pain as long as possible, but I gave in today and walked for maybe 2 minutes. I’ve read solutions for helping with getting rid of a side stitch, but I swear that I only make it worse when I try to change my breathing patterns.

"To a runner a side stitch is like a car alarm. It tells you something is wrong, but you just ignore it until it goes away."

Spirit of the Marathon

So I sat down at my desk last night to work on my 2007 scrapbook (yes I am way behind, but at least I am still moving forward) and I pulled up Netflix to find something to watch while I worked. Well Netflix recommended that I watch the Spirit of the Marathon, which was odd, although I have watched a couple of documentaries lately. So I queued up the movie and was quite impressed.

The last half of the movie concentrated on race day and I was amazed at how many people run the Chicago Marathon. I had no idea that people ran that close together either, I’m glad that I picked a small first race. I probably related most to the two slow runners who had set a 12 minute mile pace, one who had been doing it for a couple of years and his daughter who was running her first marathon. It was inspiring to see the determination that each of these runners had and made me realize that I am nowhere near any of that just yet. The runners seemed mostly Zen with the idea of running for 2-6 hours depending on their speed and I have definitely not figured that part out yet. After only 20 minutes at a slow pace I am looking for the end of the loop to come closer.

So after watching an inspiring movie, you would think that I would be motivated this morning. Well I somehow woke up in a funk and was having negative thoughts pretty much the whole run (only 1.9 miles this morning). That extra hill this morning didn’t help either and I was gasping for air by the time I made it to the top and had to walk for probably 2 minutes before I could catch my breath. So, yeh not really proud of my efforts lately. Tomorrow I am going to take the second hill back out and focus more on my posture. My shoulders/back are already sore this morning only after about 6 hours later so I am definitely doing something I shouldn’t be doing when I get tired.

Hills, Hills, Hills

So after rolling out of bed on the day after fireworks, too much good food and not nearly enough water to get rehydrated I decided to start the day off right with a run. The real challenge of this particular run was that it was at my in-laws house, which has a lot more hills than I ever noticed before. I felt pretty good about being able to tackle the hill in my neighborhood, but I was not prepared for the up and down of running consecutive hills for two miles. There was an added bonus knowing that I was coming back to fresh out of the oven blueberry muffins, but that unfortunately did not help my speed at all.

While this workout certainly kicked my butt it did make me more determined to be stronger the next time that I ran those hills. As a result I am now going to run the hill in my neighborhood twice on my daily 2 mile run instead of coping out and just doing it once like I had been doing. It is a loop, so it does make more sense to just run it twice instead of trying to avoid it the second time.

Today was mostly a rest day. I have been having some issues lately where I tense the muscles in my shoulders and neck while I run, so lots of stretching is in order for tonight. I’m hoping that the soreness will get better as I continue to run, but so far after three weeks it’s still sore after every run longer than 1.5 miles, which just happens to be the point where I start to slow down. Today is probably worse since the hills wore me out faster and I didn’t pay as much attention to my form as I should have.

Brief History of my Attempts to Run

I think the first time that I had to run a mile in elementary school, I managed to finish in just under 15:00 minutes. Now I know what you’re thinking, but I was neither an overweight child nor one that was un-athletic. In fact I liked to play sports and enjoyed spending time outside, but for some reason this whole let’s run around the track four times in a row thing just didn’t sit right with me.

By the time that I got to High School I had picked up the pace a little bit and was running the mile somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 minutes twice a year as required by the state. My freshman year in college I would occasionally run with the girls in my dorm, but it didn’t take long for me to get involved with intramurals instead.

I ran my fastest mile time in college at around 8:00 minutes. My friend and I had gotten into an unintentional race where neither of us was willing to show weakness by slowing down.

After college my running consisted of several failed attempts at the treadmill, and then finally falling into a workout routine that did not involve any form of running.

Today I ran 2.25 miles in 25:30 minutes, which was a big improvement from last weeks 2.0 miles in 27:00 minutes. I was supposed to run for 30 minutes today and judged that the distance with my previous pace would be about right, but I hadn’t expected that running on the hills in my neighborhood during the week was actually helping. Running on a flat trail was definitely a confidence boost this morning.

I also found out today that one of my husband’s cousins is going to run with us as well, bringing the total to 6 people. This is a great way to keep us all motivated to keep going!!

Why I signed up for a Half-Marathon

About three weeks ago, my sister-in-law mentioned that she was planning to run a half-marathon at the end of September. She ran a half-marathon a few years ago and wanted the motivation of a race to get back into shape. So she starts trying to coax me and Philip (her older brother and my husband) into doing it with her.

At first I flat-out refused saying that I was not a runner by any definition of the word. I finally conceded saying that if she could talk Philip into running the race (good luck), than I would do it too. I didn’t really give it a second though, but after a few days Philip decided that maybe we should give it a try and see how it feels. Being that we are both perfectly healthy 26 year olds, a half-marathon should theoretically not be out of our reach.

So that following week, we woke up at 6:00AM to squeeze in a 15 minute run/walk around our neighborhood before work. And then begrudgingly we got up again and did it the next day too.

At this point after two 6:00AM runs I started to believe that my husband was serious about this whole half-marathon deal. So I decided to SIT DOWN AND RUN. I went to the computer to look up the basics and decided to go ahead and set up a training schedule. I like to have things planned out, especially things as ominous as a half-marathon. Knowing that the schedule said that we would be ready helped ease me into the idea of actually training to run 13.1 miles at one time.

The schedule that I choose was one that I honestly felt that I could at least start. It was actually a training schedule for a 10K race in 12 weeks and since we had 14 weeks before the half-marathon I figured that we could just tag a few extra miles on at the end and be close enough.

My goal for the half-marathon is simply to finish.