C25K W9d5

Today was another good run, but hot - even in the morning. Steph and I hit the road at 8:30 and it was already pretty warm ( I meant to check the temp on the bank clock, but got sidetracked). I am not a morning runner, but it still went okay.

I was scheduled for 5 miles, and I did the 5 (and no more) starting at the .5 mile marker and going to the turnaround at the 3 mile marker. I'm still not wearing my watch, and I think it's probably a good thing - I think less about my time. I have been making an effort to make sure I'm running upright and not hunching over as I run. It's amazing how much you can glean from you shadow - it lets me know if I'm sagging my shoulders, or not controlling my body movements. I feel like if I run 'ragged', then I'm probably not doing well. But if I can controll my upper body, and not run like I'm worn out, then at the end of the run, I don't feel so worn out (Odd, I know, and probably mostly in my head, but...).

Toward the end of the run (last quarter mile), my legs felt REALLY good, and I couldn't help but stretch out my stride, by the time I crossed the start point, I was covering a lot of ground and moving pretty fast - it felt great! Of course I know I was going WAY over pace, and could not maintain that for very long, but it was the end of the run, so I gave it a little more speed. I downloaded a re-mix of 'Sweet Home Alabama' and Nelly - 'Country Grammar', and that song came on the MP3 player right at the end, so the music had me going pretty good.

Steph also did good on her run, and afterwards we went to Below the Knee and got her fitted for some good running shoes - so I'm sure she's ready to give them a try. Sunday is rest day, so I/we can't wait for Monday evening .

Here's what next week looks like for me:

Week 10:
Day 1: 5 miles
Day 2: 4 miles
Day 3: 5 miles
Day 4: 6 miles
Day 5: 5 mile

Day 4 is going to be fun.

C25K W9d4

Did not run tonight because of schedule conflicts. Planning on running 5 miles at the dam tomorrow.

C25K W9d3 - Feels like I'm back again

Whew! - It's a big relief to get today's run behind me. I've been languishing for the last few days because the of the Relay-4-Life walk, and my bad run day on Monday, and working late - - the schedule has just been uncooperative. Tonight I was scheduled to run 5 miles, and I was a little nervous about it since it would be my longest run since I was in high school. Also I was worried that the bad week would continue. I was contemplating whether or not to repeat week 9 of the program since the timing had been so screwed up. I did the run, and all went well. I did not push for a lot of speed (still not wearing my watch - intentionally), but I did enjoy the run. I started at the .5 mile marker and ran to the far end of the park. I'm not 100% sure where the turn around is at the far end of the park (the West Point end) since it's not marked on the ground (that I've noticed), but I had a general idea of where it should be - based on bike rides and Google maps distance tools. Once I got to where the turn-around might be, I just decided to run on the West Point Entrance of the park and turn around there. Total distance (per Gmaps Pedometer) was 5.6 miles, so I even managed a little over my goal mileage (not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it felt like a good thing).


Here's the Gmap of the route.
I did an elevation graph of the run that kind of shocked me. I didn't realize the hills were that bad around the dam.


Nothing hurts, and I stretched pretty well after the run, so I feel pretty good about the ordeal. It did take a long time to run tonight, though - my daughter even called looking for me and Steph since we were taking so long.

C25K W9d2 - failure

Well, Tuesday was a total wash (as far as running goes).

I got to run exactly zero miles. I HATE it when I miss a run.

I had to got to Atlanta 1st thing Tuesday morning to work on turning up a GigE link (actually a 2.5Gig wavelength on a GigE interface), and it took much longer than expected to get all the players together. Then the storms hit, so the drive home was much slower, so I didn't get home until just before 6. Then we had a meeting @ church at 7pm, so there was not time to run (in the storm). We didn't leave the church until 9:30. I almost left @ 9:30 to go run a quick 2 miles, just to get me legs stretched a little, but decided I could probably benefit from the rest after this weekend, and the poor day I had on Monday.

I'll also take Wednesday as a rest day, and pick back up on Thursday (should be a 5 mile day). I'll need to be especially careful about what I eat on Thursday because it will be the furthest I've run since I was in high school - and even then I was a sub-par runner, so I probably never went longer than about 6 miles on my longest days (this is the part where I regret not keeping a running log during school). I'm really venturing into new areas with this - I'm a little antsy, but looking forward to it.


Week 9:
Day 1: 4 miles - Monday (this was my nightmare run)
Day 2: 3 miles - Tuesday (missed this day)
Day 3: 5 miles - Thursday
Day 4: 4 miles - Friday
Day 5: 5 miles - Saturday

C25K W9d1

Wow - Sometimes it just takes longer to recover than you want it to, and sometimes you don't help yourself much at all.

I was scheduled to go 4 miles today. This is the first time I've not made the planned distance, but everyone tells me to listen to what my body is telling me, and today it was telling me that I was in over my head. I should have turned around at the 1.5 mile turnaround, but I was scheduled for 4 miles, so I pushed on to the 2 mile turnaround. After 2.5 miles, I'd had it. I had to walk, I couldn't run any more, so I walked for half a mile, and then ran the last mile.

I guess I was still fatigued from the weekend (20+ mile walk, and blood donation), and I also dropped the nutritional ball today. Sunday, I was still recovering from the all night walk-a-thon. I got to bed about 11pm on Sat night, and didn't wake up until nearly 4pm Sunday (I never even heard the alarm go off for church). So most of may day was spent not eating. Steph and I went to Subway, and I got a foot long sandwich that I couldn't finish - too much food. So when I went to bed Sunday night, my calories (et al) were still low for the day. Today at lunch, I reasoned that since the whole household would be out tonight (except me), that I probably would be eating very lightly (I think this is what experts call rationalization), so I gave in to my craving for BBQ ribs. I went with some guys from the office to a BBQ joint and got a big plate of ribs, corn on the cob, and a baked potato (nothing fried, but still a lot of fat in the ribs). I didn't eat all of the ribs, and left the fatty ends on them (again, rationalization), but it was still a lot of food. When I started running with all that foot still on my stomach, and with a temp in the high 90's - it was a setup for disaster.

No more ribs - the price is too high. That means no chinese food, and no ribs on training days - that list keeps growing.

To add insult to injury, I had stuffed my squeeze bottle full of Gatorade in the shade of a post, and when I got back from the distasterous run, it was covered with fire-ants, I beat them off of it, but still wound up with a couple of bites.


I'm sure tomorrow will be better - I'll make sure it is. It will only be 3 miles, so I can count it as a lighter day. (As a sidebar - Steph said she had a really good run, I'm glad one of us did).