skipped

I skipped my run yesterday. Murderous shin splints. And other commitments.

Hopefully it won't become a pattern.

W4-D3 Frrrrosty

I just ran more than a 5K!!! I've never run that far in my life! :) Kind of fun when every long run is a PR. :)

Week 4 - Day 3

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 51:48 min

Distance: 5.6 km

Calories: 345.7

Avg. Speed: 6.5 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.2 min / km

On a more serious note, it was freezing this morning! Our first frost of the season, I think. I almost turned around after about ten minutes because I thought my fingers (with my gloves with the finger tips cut off- yeah, remembered them this morning, but wasn't sure that was such a good idea anymore!) and toes were freezing. After about 35 minutes, I added my nose and ears to that list. And my arms were not nearly as warm as usual either because I was wearing a much looser sweatshirt than usual and I think that was letting a lot more body heat escape. This isn't the first time I've said this and I can almost guarantee it isn't the last time either, but I really want a pair of arm warmers! My arms get cold but my core gets hot. Extra layers just mean my core overheats faster and I have to roll up my sleeves to get rid of some heat, but then my arms are even more cold. Doesn't work well!

Shin Splint Report: They hurt. I started out alternating running minutes with normal strides and short strides (I call it my baby waddle... I'll leave that one to your own mental images...) for the first five minutes, but they were hurting so much, I ended up doing most of the rest of the run with the short strides, just throwing in a long set every once an a while to keep my sanity/redeem my pride. Hopefully the shin splints will take a hike soon!

Catch Up W3-D3, W4-D1, W4-D2

I have been running. I just haven't had the time to post about it. But here are the rundowns:

Thanksgiving day (Thurs.): I was really surprised how close I was to a 5K! Yay! :)

Week 3 - Day 3

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 43:04 min

Distance: 4.6 km

Calories: 283.1

Avg. Speed: 6.4 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.4 min / km

Forgot to wear gloves again and was a little cold, but not bad. Also tried something different with tempo. I have been getting really bad shin splints and so was doing some research on what to do to make them go away and heard that it helps to run at a much faster tempo. (like 200 beats per minute) Did that for this run and decided that it made me feel really stupid (TINY steps!!!) and took almost all the fun out of running. You know the long strides and fluid, easy pace... BUT my shin splints didn't get worse. Also did a 10 minute ice massage on my shins when I got back. Owwww.

Sunday: Was up in Michigan for the weekend and forgot to pack my gloves (see a theme here??) so I did without them again. Pavement was wet and apparently it was lightly misting. I didn't notice until I got back and realized my outer fleece layer had a layer of moisture on the outside. Hit me while running that it isn't running that is giving me shin splints- it's doing around 300 jumps with a jump rope every day! So happy! I can live without jump rope, but not to run kind of throws a bit of a wrench in my Ironman plans! So today I mainly did regular strides except for about 3 minutes of short strides. Feeling good. :)

Week 4 - Day 1

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 26:28 min

Distance: 2.9 km

Calories: 177.5

Avg. Speed: 6.6 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.2 min / km

Tuesday: It. was. raining. Thought briefly about postponing and then knew I had to stay true to the plan or the plan would die. And who knows? I might have to race in the rain sometime. Good practice. I run with the family dog, who LOVES to run and HATES to get wet. She wasn't real thrilled with me after the first two steps and tried to turn around, but I wouldn't let her. She was probably about as enthusiastic as I was for the first couple minutes while trying to pick around the giant puddles to avoid my feet getting soaked. Then we both accepted our damp fate and had more fun for the next 25 minutes. :) I actually like running in the rain. It's just hard to make myself start. But the actual running in the rain part... I don't know, kind of rewarding. Almost like a taste of being an Ironman. Invincible. Also helps connect me to my surroundings in a culture where it is so easy to become totally disconnected from them. :)

Week 4 - Day 2

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 26:27 min

Distance: 2.9 km

Calories: 177.4

Avg. Speed: 6.6 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.1 min / km

W3-D1 Warmth! :)

Did go yesterday and it was WARM!!! :) 60 degrees at 9 am! :)

Here's the rundown:

Week 3 - Day 1

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 26:28 min

Distance: 2.9 km

Calories: 177.7

Avg. Speed: 6.6 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.1 min / km

Someday I'm going to get arm warmers.

W2-D3 Long?

So I think today was another long run, but it felt surprisingly good! :) Besides the fact that I kept underestimating my turn-around point and then having to do extra loops, I couldn't really tell that it was a lot longer! :)

Week 2 - Day 3

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 33:28 min

Distance: 3.6 km

Calories: 219.6

Avg. Speed: 6.4 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.4 min / km

It was really cold and windy today :( which was made doubly worse because I totally forgot my gloves. Last time my gloves were way too warm but today confirmed that gloves are a good thing. I will get this eventually!

W2-D2

Almost didn't go this morning. Was coming with every possible excuse. But I knew if I wimped out, I would MAJORLY regret it, so here's the rundown!: :)

Week 2 - Day 2

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 23:29 min

Distance: 2.6 km

Calories: 158.8

Avg. Speed: 6.6 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.1 min / km

Made the mistake of wearing full fleece gloves today instead of my usual cotton ones with the fingertips cut off. Don't plan on trying that again anytime soon. My fingers had been feeling a little chilly, but in the full fleece I was burning up so bad I ended up even taking off my outer fitness fleece layer and just finishing with my tank top (and it was a cold morning!). Live and learn.

W2-D1

One last gorgeous day! Had snow on Friday, but this morning was 55! Supposed to get up to a high of 65 today! :)

Here's the rundown:

Week 2 - Day 1

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 21:27 min

Distance: 2.3 km

Calories: 142.2

Avg. Speed: 6.5 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.3 min / km

Felt better today than on the last run, which surprised me. When I looked at how long it was supposed to be today, I figured I wouldn't be able to breathe again and it wouldn't be too fun even during the run, but I feel pretty good! :) Progress! :)

W1-D3 Long run and Asthma

So today was the first "long run." When I saw it was supposed to be all of 20 minutes (an obvious lie, they always make me go longer than that! Check the time!), I almost laughed. In terms of my overall goal of an Ironman that you have to finish by the time the clock hits 17 hours, or even in terms of my short term goal of a 5K, twenty minutes should be a walk in the park! Especially with the Ironman, 20 minutes would barely be enough time to even realize that you were running! Ah, well. Baby steps. After about 15 minutes I wasn't laughing anymore. In fact, I was considering quitting on a minutely basis. But I didn't. I wanted to do the complete program. So here's today's rundown:

Week 1 - Day 3

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 24:46 min

Distance: 2.57 km

Calories: 157.13

Avg. Speed: 6.22 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.6 min / km

When I got back home I think I had a bit of an asthma (which I've been in total denial over having for about 10 years. Who knows? Maybe I don't have it!) attack. I had layered up pretty good and walking through the front door felt like stepping into an oven. So I ripped off several layers collapsed onto the floor trying to force air into my lungs and telling myself to get over it. Air was coming out totally fine, no problem at all, completely at ease, but inhaling seemed like someone was sitting on my chest with about 10 sheets and a 5 pound bag of flour over my mouth. After forcing air in for a while I still felt very lethargic but my head ache and dizziness started to go away a bit and I started breathing more "normally." Or at least I thought it was more normally until I started counting and realized I was only breathing about every 20 seconds. I started making myself inhale every 10 seconds and soon was actually breathing normally. Hopefully whatever that was will go away soon.

W1-D2

Beautiful day today! High of 69 and I ran in shorts and a tank top!

Here's the rundown: (... get it? rundown?? ohhhhh!!!! I know it's bad, welcome to my humor! ;) )

Week 1 - Day 2

1 min run / 1 min walk

Time: 18:29 min

Distance: 2.0 km

Calories: 113.2

Avg. Speed: 6.4 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.3 min / km

Just keep running, just keep running... running... running...

Today I started a new running coach app thing on my ipod (brief side note: to my credit, I did do a 0.89 mile brisk walk in 13 min on Thursday as planned. And I swam 1000 yds on Saturday.) and I love it! I have music that is preselected to have me run or walk to the right beat, a timer telling me how long it's been and how long to go, and Jeff Galloway in my ears telling me when to walk or run, feeding me bits of encouragement along the way, and explaining how and why his run-walk-run program works.

Here's what it told me at the end of the workout:

Week 1 Day 1

1 min run/ 1 min walk

Time: 16:26 min

Distance 1.8 km

Calories: 107.6

Avg. Speed:6.4 kph

Avg. Pace: 9.4 min / km

So my plan for this week is to run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday again. That's all I'm going to commit to for this week, any cross training that happens to occur is bonus! My current plan of attack is to finish this Do Your First 5k plan and then go back to trying to do a triathlon plan. There you have it.

If you want to watch an interesting video that will make you think, my recommendation is "Forks over Knives." Saw that last night and loved it. Really makes you think about food choices! :)

Starting!.... (again)

Well today I embark on my road to an Ironman- again. I've set out to do triathlon training before and fallen off the wagon, moped around a couple months and repeated the cycle several times. Usually what trips me up (no pun intended! Okay, well maybe slightly intended... ;) ) is the run.
I. hate. running.
There I said it.
I want to like it. I admire those who can do it. But when I try it it's like pulling teeth. Or like having my lungs filled with burning embers. Your choice. ;) Either way though I fail to find what people say is so relaxing and rejuvenating about it! 
I've had a couple friends recommend the Galloway method (run-walk-run) to me before and today I finally went on his website to browse around and try to discover the magic formula that would change my life. He recommended that I start with being comfortable with walking for 30 minutes (check) and then walking briskly for thirty minutes and then adding in 100 yd jogs every once in a while in the brisk walking. I then looked up his 5k plan and saw that Tuesday I was supposed to go for 10-15 minutes (how convenient that today is Tuesday!).
So.... I did it.

With dog leash in one hand and "You are an Ironman" book in the other (why waste a brisk walk by not reading at the same time??), I set out. 
Destination: library.

All in all it took me about ten minutes there, (about ten minutes talking while returning one book for another plus several cds I'd had on hold), and about ten minutes back. The "course" was 0.62 miles or 1K one way.

So a 2K in 20 minutes. Hopefully onwards and upwards from here!