more plans!

I guess I haven't been doing the weekly weigh-ins, but not much is happening. I guess I'm down maybe 5 pounds (current weight ~178 lb) since this whole thing started, and maybe a touch in inches, but definitely nothing noticeable except for more defined leg muscles. My goal here isn't appearance, but an improvement somewhere would be motivating. For now my motivation will lie in completing running milestones. Since running is going somewhat smoothly now, I want to add a few additional goals that I'll assess each week.

I need to address my eating habits, but I'm not 100% ready. I've started doing breakfast better. Every day is either whole-grain toast with organic peanut butter and a banana OR kashi granola with peanut butter, almonds, and skim milk. Both breakfasts really fill me up until lunch. Lunch is a LeanCuisine plus an apple nearly every day - I can't think of anything else healthy, easy, and affordable for lunch that's not peanut butter or granola. haha. Dinner varies depending on my energy level but I still fall back on eating out or mac 'n cheese too often. I can cook, I'm just beat at the end of the day. So my only nutrition goal for now is (1) eating breakfast like a champ :) and (2) drinking more water now that it's getting hot outside.

My fitness goals outside running are:
(1) strength-training 2x a week (one day arms and back, one day legs)
(2) no more than one day per week without exercise

These goals, however, will start June 1st as I have a conference all week (ACSM in Indianapolis, if anyone will be there I'd love to meet you!!) and I won't be anywhere near a gym. Sad that exercise will suffer the week of the sports medicine conference. haha.


Side note: ran about 2.25 miles in about 27 minutes, so slower than normal. Suprisingly, there are a lot more hills in my hometown than Muncie so I think (hope!) that had something to do with it. Had some troubles again with my right ankle, calf. Again, nothing I can't handle, but it's definitely bothersome, I think it slows me down, and it just makes running less enjoyable. I feel great otherwise.

W6 D1

As I've read from other C25K bloggers, W6 D1 was suprisingly tough(ish) even though W5D3 was a longer run. I didn't really have any problems with finishing, but the first 5 minutes was pretty tough. Just like it was last week. And just like it will probably always be (it is, after all, a Natural Law of Running).

This was the first run I did without music, as I convinced my roommate to come with me. She did really well considering she doesn't ever run - She made it through all 3 segments ... in fact it kind of made me feel a little lame that it took me 5 weeks to get to that point. Oh well. Good news is she might possibly run the 5K with me.

Pace was slightly slower -- we did about the same distance I covered in my 20 minute run, except today it was 24 minutes. I blame this on the walking ... which wasn't so brisk. haha.

Tightness in the calf ... again. No pain though. I wore new shoes. They're identical in every way to my normal shoes, just ... new. I don't know if that helped but I felt a little more stable.


Question of the Day - What are your thoughts on shoelaces?? I feel like my shoes aren't tight enough, but I also know that your feet swell, etc. when you run so they shouldn't be too tight .... I'm perplexed. haha

Week 5 ... check

So I run for 20 minutes for the first time in my life ... and I don't bother to blog about it.

If there were ever a run where all the signs were pointing to "don't do it" - this run would have been it. Fortunately I didn't have to be at work until 10:30 on Saturday so I decided to go pre-work.

I wake up. I look at weather.com. It's cold. (32F) and windy (15mph) and snowing a little. Great.
So I look for enough clothes to put on to keep me warm without making me hot or weighing me down ... check
I take my apt. key off my keyring so I can put it in my shoe pocket.
Then I take the key out because I'm going to have to look the door and put it on the couch.
I throw my headwarmer and ipod on the couch.
I put my gloves and headwarmer and jacket on.
I turn on my ipod. Nothing's happening. The battery is dead. Fan-tastic.
It's hot in all these clothes.
I go looking for my old MP3 player. Something is right with the world because I find it, it's charged, and it has workout music loaded onto it.
Then I have to find my running watch.
I'm getting really hot here.
I go to grab the key and ... it's not there.
I check under the cushions ... not there.
I check EVERYWHERE. My bedroom, the chair, the floor, under the couch.
I take off my gloves, hat, jacket, one of my shirts - look for the key in my clothes.
Check under the cushions again - yay! key!
I put everything back on and head out the door.

*sigh* Let me tell you I was impressed with myself right then and there. I was kind of cold starting out, so I skipped a couple minutes of the warm up. My leg was tight. I don't know if it slowed me down or not. After a couple minutes I was at the perfect temperature and was comfortable the rest of the time.

What was weird (or maybe normal, based on what I've read) was that the first 10 minutes was hell. I didn't think I could do it. I was considering stopping when I looked at my watch and saw: "2'47''" ... wow, lisa, are you joking?

But then I got to my turnaround and then next 10 minutes were great. I stopped for 15 seconds because my shoe came untied, but solid (slow!) running for 20:44 (I had to make it to the end of the road to check mileage since I didn't have Nike+ with me.

I checked my mileage with gmaps and it worked out to exactly 12:00/mile. Which means that I either slowed down a lot from previous runs or Nike+ has been lying to me. Probably a little of both, but mostly the latter. That's okay though. I will get faster. And I'll calibrate the Nike+ better possibly this week.


so ... take home message: Yay! I did it! - The rest of C25K seems like cake now. I KNOW I can run 20 minutes even if it doesn't feel good the whole time. And it's all willpower now. I have 10 minutes left of will in me!!!


On a side note:
I've been blogging-discouraged because I don't think my blog has that same "gotta read it" feel as a lot of other runners' blogs do (at least, they do for me). So... tips are welcome. What would you like to hear about?


*sorry for the ridiculous length - if you're still with me, you're awesome. haha.

W5 D2

... did this workout yesterday evening. My calf was a little sore (as it always is the day or two after a run ... I really gotta figure this thing out). It didn't really give me any trouble during the run as far as being able to do it, but it didn't feel good (not PAIN per se, but considerable discomfort).

The run was on the rough side. I'm not sure how 20 solid minutes will go tomorrow. I was pretty tired and needing the rest break by 8 minutes. Have any of you done C25K? How was the transition for you??

The good news is, I'm mentally in a really good place right now. I don't dread running, I don't look for excuses not to run, I just go. And I enjoy it. Even though it's hard. And will probably be super duper hard tomorrow.

So...

Wish me luck.

still no running ...

and still plenty of pain.

I'm resigning not wanting to see somebody about this. I work with a guy who's an athletic trainer. I'll talk to him about this tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll go to the doctor ...

Wish me luck.

I'm trying to stay off my feet as my leg bothers me walking, even just standing sometimes. But I was getting really antsy today so I swam for 40 minutes. I tried to kick as little as possible.

*sigh*

I'm going to have to start all over. It's a good thing I haven't paid for that race yet.

bad(ish) news.

So ... I was good and skipped my planned run yesterday in favor of resting the sore calf. Instead I did about an hour on the bike and 30 minutes on the ArcTrainer. Anyway, my leg wasn't feeling too bad this morning, though I could still feel a little something. I decided to try the run, since I don't want to get behind in my plan. I went to the fitness center to do the run on the treadmill in case I was too sore to go 2ish miles and also because I thought the softer treadmill surface was a good idea.

Well, I got through the warm-up and approximately 6 steps of the first running portion. These steps went as follows "uh, hm, ow, ow, OW, OW!" then... I stopped. I don't know how some of you run through pain. I can run through soreness but NOT pain. I don't know what the problem is, but running is not the solution right now. I've been stretching my calves religiously the past couple days and nothing is improving. I'm going to try some ice therapy tonite. Currently I have a lot of tightness and it's starting to affect my knee and ankle a little even. My lower leg hurts just sitting in my chair. *sigh*

I'll be around keeping you updated. I don't know when the next run will come in. Hopefully the elliptical will keep me in moderately good conditioning.

Oh yeah, I also ate like a million cookies last nite. I really needed to run this morning.




This sucks.

Week 2 extra credit.

So, I know I already checked Week 2 off as done, but I went ahead and did it again yesterday (even though yesterday technically started the beginning of Week 3. I was planning, as I mentioned, to do the first run of Week 3 outside today in reponse to the favorable weather report. But after church yesterday it was so nice and sunny I just HAD to go outside. I figured an extra day of Week 2 would be good before tackling a Week 3 run in the relative "unknown" of the outside world.

Here's how it went:





Not too shabby, from Mr. Nike's perpespective. In fact, Paula Radcliffe informed me that I set a new mile PR for myself.

Fantastic, from my lungs' perspective, despite the slightly chilly weater (~ 37F). I typically have a lot of trouble running ... or sometimes walking ... outdoors in cold, dry weather due to my asthma, but I did pretty well. A little coughing, but no major problems. Aerobically, also, I felt I was in control and had no problems handling the running sections (even up a little hill).

Pretty nice from my skin's perspective, too - I stocked up on techie-fabric and wore a short sleeve under a running jacket - complete with thumb holes - I LOVE thumb holes - and running pants - not tights, as I looked way freaky. I'm saving tights for next winter when I have a hopefully improved physique. The pants were warm though. I was just the right temperature except I think I should have gotten the UA headband/ear coverer thing because I just wore my regular fleece one and my head was hot. Also probably should have worn some gloves but i survived.

HOWEVER, from Mr. Soleus's perspective, this run SUCKED. I don't know what happened, by my calves were burning even before the first running section. I had this problem before (last summer) and I never figured it out. I stretch pretty well I think but man. The soreness was considerably less bothersome when I was running compared to walking (which also happened before, still don't know why for sure). They still hurt today, so I'm not going to be running anywhere until hopefully tomorrow. I could really use some suggestions on this.