Moving On Up

I know I haven't posted in a while and this would actually cover a whole slew of runs that I did. Well, last week I was run happy and did 5 days instead of 4 and did about 13 miles total. We decided to do a 3.16 mile trail run o Thursday and did it successfully except for getting lost a couple dozen times. Also, my little group moved up from doing 2.5 to 3.25 on Saturdays! I was very excited and proud of us! Later that day, I decided that I will most likely stick to the 4x a week because my quads for the first time were really sore. My lung capacity has improved and my form is also better. I am so proud of the way things are going and we have almost been training for 3 months! I remember when running for 10 minutes was a huge challenge and now I make 2.5 miles look easy.

Now, yesterday was an awful run. It was supposed to be our relaxing 2 mile run before we get tortured the rest of the week. It was tiring, painful, and miserable. First off, it felt like the summer mornings we used to train with which were bathed in humidity. We were as Leah would say "swimming in tomato soup." I was not a fan. Secondly, I think I am in the wrong shoes. The sole of my right foot feels horrible and my feet are STILL falling asleep. I am also getting pain in my left ankle and shin. I feel that I shouldn't complain too much because these are typical runner’s woes, but I think the right shoe would help. It is also around the right time to get a new pair as well. I think my cushion has flattened out and possibly getting inserts would help.

I am also having trouble motivating myself to eat better. For some reason it is easier to eat well OR exercise, but both together are rather difficult. I will start today off right, don't worry, but everyday choices are really hard. I do, however, cut calories in my lattes (not much help, but still there) and enjoy eating at Salata where we get the best salad wraps ever! We have become a little obsessed with going there and the staff knows us. Anyway, I plan on writing more than I did the last couple weeks so I will keep you posted.

Weekend Runs

Well this was a crazy weekend of running. We got together for our second Saturday run and did about 2.35 miles. I was tired, slow, and ready to stop. Somewhere in the middle of running, I started to ask myself, why the hell am I doing this? Am I crazy? Who does this for fun? Evidently I do. I had a few sport beans and pleanty of water. Leah was kicking our butts by being far ahead, and Kat and I were hobbling along. The yoga after was nice and Childs Pose was again the favorite. Actually, my favorite part is when I roll over into fetal position and just lay there like a lump.

Leah had the bright idea to run on Sunday morning because she will be missing Tuesday. I thought it sounded good, especailly since we wanted to get 2.5 miles in. We tried a different route and we played a kind of back and forth or what Leah calls "Rabbit Chasing". First I was ahead, then she was, I was, she was, and so on. Part of the route was beautiful with trees, fallen leaves, and shade. The weather was nice and cool (until the run back). I was good until about half way and then I started to fizzle. when I noticed that we were almost back I ran faster. We weren't that fast, but I have noticed that my legs are stronger and my lung capasity is better as well. Leah said that I don't do my "bouncy walk" as much anymore since my legs are stronger.

Since I did the Sunday run, I decided to skip my run this morning. I set my alarm for 5:30 and I hit the snooze button about 8 times and decided that my body loudly proclaimed "NEIN" to running. I slept in and felt great. Now for tonight, I have my foam roller exercises left to do and then a run tomorrow evening. My legs will be ready by then, but not ready for all of the lunges and squats we will do!

Trail Mix

Last night we did something totally different; we ran on a dirt trail. This was not a something my group was happy about, but c'est la vie. For this lovely trek we were supposed to wear old shoes, and luckily I had a pair. When I got to Leah's I had to relace the stupid things and the plastic end of one of my laces was gone so that was fun. Also, I am sure that these shoes were not running shoes. They were an old pair of Nike Air's that from the looks of them were stability shoes. I wear neutral shoes and my shoe of choice is the Nike Zoom Vomero. Stability shoes throw me off because they over compensate my arch and cause me to put too much pressure on the outside of my foot. The neutral shoes have made me use my arches (or lack thereof) and have made them stronger.

The weather was lovely and we were ready to go. The trail was very nice and provided a lot of visual stimulation. My wonderful coach had some surprises for us along the way. We stopped three times for strength exercises. The first stop was squats, the second was walking lunges, and the third was a curtsy lunge. On the way back our trio ended up going the wrong way because we didn't realize that we crossed a bridge. Also, I think at some point all three of us tripped over roots. The girls hated the trail, but I still liked it a lot. It was easier on our legs and pretty.

After all of this, we did yoga by flashlight! The park we were at didn't have much light at night, but we managed. The yoga is always a welcome addition at the end of a run. It felt great and we found that our favorite pose is "Child's Pose". For those who don't do yoga, it is where you look like you are worshiping someone. I might as well call it lazy pose. All in all it was great fun with the large group and I look forward to seeing them all on Saturday.

PR Smackdown

Today is the official first week of my coached running. Monday is the easy day and we did 2 miles this morning and it was beautiful outside! There was a magical fall feeling in the air and it made everything much more pleasant. We are now incorporating planned walks into our running and our coach instructs us to have a 10 minute warm-up beforehand. We do an alternating 1 min run/1 min walk and then move on to a 4/1 pattern. This might seem to some that it would slow us down with all of this extra walking, but heck no! First of all, the 10 minutes counts towards our miles, and actually we were a lot faster today. Our PR pace to date was 15:55 and we shaved it to 15:08! We finished our 2 miles in 30.34 today and I was so proud of us! I feel so energized and my foot didn't fall asleep today until we finished!

Also, I thought I'd share briefly about Saturday with the coach. We started out with about 10 min of a yoga warm-up and then we did a group run. She ran with us and wanted everyone to finish in around 25 minutes (a 2.5 mile run) and...we are not there. She cut us around and in 27 minutes we did 1.9 miles. Not much, but it got us used to the warm-up and 4/1 pattern. After this we all gathered on the basketball court of the park and did about 25 min of yoga. It was so beautiful outside and there was a gentle breeze through our poses. I might have to invest in a thicker mat though. It hurt to have a thin mat on top of cement, especially with planks. We meet tomorrow to do a trail run in our old shoes...woo. We'll see how that goes.