Walking

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Weekend running and 10K goal

I haven’t yet written about my weekend runs because of life getting in the way and my pondering the 11 year old me yesterday.  By the way, if you haven’t done so, ask yourself what you would say to the younger you with what you know now.  It really is helpful!

Yesterday was my off day and I took it with eagerness.  I ran 9 days in a row and was quite sore.  In fact my hip was really bad, but I walked 3.1 miles yesterday and that seemed to help quite a bit.

So Saturday I ran with my running geek friend (@BigBigGeek) and had a great time.  Realize I didn’t say I had a great run, but that I had a great time.  I think my running streak really was getting to me even though my mileage wasn’t very high.  After the week was over I realized that I ran almost 50% of the mileage I ran in September last week alone, so I might have over done it. 🙂

Anyway, we had a fun run talking the whole time.  I was glad to be the one listening more since by the time we hit the 3 mile mark I was about ready to walk.  Neill is really improving a lot.  It was just a few months ago that our runs would have messed up my pace for the week and now I am pushing to keep up with him!

We finished the 6 miles and I had to head out for weekend errands.  It was really a beautiful day and seriously a lot of fun.

Sunday was another run in the park.  TJ, RS and I ran in the park for about 5 miles.  TJ asked Saturday if I wanted to go there on Sunday morning, so I said sure.  We got there and knowing that he enjoyed the trail run we did right after our marathon (that I had to cut short), I chose to run the trails with my boys.  We got half way through and RS wasn’t feeling well so he walked back to the car on the road and TJ and I ran back on the trails.  I was a bit apprehensive since my achilles hasn’t been doing too great, but it really felt good.  At the end of the trail we still had a half mile to go to make it a total of 5 miles, so we ran up the road and turned back after a quarter mile.  I was exhausted, but in order to learn to push through, I ran as hard as I could back to the car.  TJ measured us running under 6:00 pace at the fastest, which was exciting to me.

Now this week.  TJ and I drove the Vulcan 10K course last weekend and it is going to be fun.  It is pretty flat other than a mile hill that goes up a mountain.  So I am going to try to get my speed up over the next few weeks preparing for the race.  I have 3 weeks to get back into racing form, so it isn’t long.  Between hill runs and tempo runs, I hope to be able to run the 10K under an 8:00 pace.  Actually I hope to hit 7:30/mile.  Time will tell.

Say hi to your 11 year old self for me. 🙂

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Running legs!

I think I finally have my running legs back.

Yesterday was warmer and I was tired, so my run didn’t go quite as well as the two previous days.  But I am excited to say that I did run negative splits and once again ran 4 miles.

Negative Splits!

Negative Splits!

For me, 4 miles seems to be the point at which my body loses weight.  I have experienced this over and over.  I can run 3 miles a day and gain weight.  I then up it to 4 miles and I lose weight or at least remain steady.  I’m not sure why that is specifically, but I’ll take it.

I’ve really enjoyed running lately.  I think for me (post marathon) 4 miles is a good amount of running, at least for the next few weeks.  It gives me some cardio, but doesn’t feel overwhelming.  Funny, when I was only walking last week I had the same mental issues as I did while training for the marathon.  Just the thought of doing something for 2 hours puts me into a mental spiral.  I thought it was just all the running, but I’m really glad to know it happened while walking.  Now I need to train my brain to stop the negative thoughts and to just enjoy what I am doing.  That is my goal in running right now.  I want to enjoy running again.

So all in all things are going in a good direction.  I really can’t complain!!!

 

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How do you deal with a bad day when you can’t run?

Yesterday was a particularly rough day.  It was one of those days where you know that a good run is “better than therapy”.   One of those days where you would barely get out of the door with your running gear on before you are off running as hard as you can just to get the junk out of your head.

For me, yesterday was a day of frustration.  Yes, the day was difficult, but the frustrating part of the day was the fact I can’t run until Friday.

Seriously?!?

I could have set a PR.  I could have run so hard and so long.  I could have run off the day.  I could have saved my mind and my body a lot of stress if I could just have gone for a run.

I walked.

I walked for hours.

I walked along highways with no shoulders.  At times I was inches from cars on a two lane road.  I had to leave the neighborhood and there aren’t many areas to walk nearby and I didn’t want to drive somewhere.  I was careful though and most of the time stayed a few feet from the traffic.  Cars were considerate and moved over for me when they could.  At one point I slipped on pine straw, but I caught myself and was fine.

Finally after miles of walking I headed home.  This walk helped.  I’m glad I could walk and I am thankful I am in shape.  I had no fear of doing “too much”.  I just walked off my day.

I miss my running.  I think some of my problems from the day was the fact I haven’t really run much in the past month.  I was hurt the week before my marathon so I didn’t run.  I was too sore to run (or even walk) the week after my marathon.  Now I had to take a week off for other reasons.  I guess I’m having endorphin withdrawal.  🙂

Tomorrow my hiatus from running is over.  I can run as much as I want.  I already have a 6 mile run planned with my friend Neill on Saturday.  I’m looking forward to that.

We take so much for granted in this life.  I never knew how much of my mental well-being was tied up in running.  I never knew until yesterday how much I NEED running.  I have been transformed into a runner and I cannot go back.

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Walking then running – Why didn’t I think of this before?

Interesting run yesterday.

It began with my daughter JR and me walking for 2 miles.  She used to love to run and exercise.  Then she had a series of health issues that has kept her from doing much in the form of exercise for the past few years.  So, I thought I could walk a couple of miles with her each day after I get home from work and before my run.

I got home, put on my running clothes, said goodbye to my Lovely Wife and we headed out for our walk.  It was a very nice time of walking and talking.  It was in the low 90s, but the humidity was low, so it wasn’t too hot during our walk.

After we got home, I headed out for my run.  The interesting thing is that it was the first painless run since my marathon.  It was only 3 miles, but that is also the most miles I’ve run since Sunday.  Also I ran 9:16, 8:51 and 8:17 pace for an average pace of 8:48 for the three miles.

When deciding whether to walk with JR before or after my run, I decided to walk before to see if it would help warm my muscles up for my run.  That seems to be exactly what happened.  It was so nice to run without issues and run relatively fast for the heat of the day.

It was a great day, until…

I was heading out last night to get some milk and jammed my little toe into a wall on my way downstairs.  Needless to say it is hurting this morning and I don’t know if I will be able to run on it today or not.

Still I am thankful for the fun time with JR and my great run.  Life doesn’t get much better than that!