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C25K – W9D1 – I can see the end?

Today I ran three miles in 32:44, that is a pace of 10:55.  I was dying, for a while.  I wanted to do something different.  I thought maybe I can make the 3 miles before the 30 minutes is up.  So I ran at a 9:36 pace for the first mile, then 10:00 for the next 1/2 mile and some other paces for other distances.  When I looked and had one mile to go I thought I would just quit!  Then thought “Well, I have to go 30 minutes anyway”.

I’m getting cough up in times and paces like I never wanted to do.  But today a friend asked if I wanted to run the YMCA Turkey Trot.  It’s an 8K race through Buffalo with a relatively level grade Thanksgiving morning.  Just think, run that and you can pig out as much as you want and not feel guilty.  I can complete 5K (three miles) but five miles?  I have a  month to “train” so I will have to get a 5K to 8K plan.  I also need to start running a long run on the weekends.  Maybe this week because I missed yesterday and I am going out to lunch Thursday.

Missing a run day.

Sometime it’s lack of time, sometimes it’s injury, sometimes it’s family and sometimes you just feel lousy.  I have a headache today.  Not your everyday headache, a migraine.  I cannot move.  Some say they can run the headache away, I cannot.  I am a useless vegetable when I get headaches.  I walk around with my head hanging to one side, avoid all sources of light and sound and grunt and mumble when spoken to.  So I skipped my run.  I had good intentions of doing anything but couldn’t drag myself to walk far enough to get to ghe gym.

Tomorrow is a new day (Tuesday and that throws off my schedule) and I will run.  Until then, I will sit here in the dark and moan like Young Frankenstein’s monster.

C25K – W8D3 – Had a good run.

Yesterday bummed me out and I started to feel like I let myself down.  I made sure I ate better last night and today, drank far more water than the last few days (back to normal basically) and went into the run with a better attitude.  I left behind everything and enjoyed the moment.  My feet knew what to do and seemed to keep my lungs, heart and mind in line.  Yes in that order.  :)  I pushed hard.  I ran three miles again and felt like I could go further.  I wanted to but my 30 minutes were up three minutes ago and I do not want to risk my knee hurting again.  I’m hungry.

C25K – W8D2 – Almost didn’t make it.

I don’t know what was wrong today I just didn’t feel the groove or whatever it is.  I made it the full 2.75 miles but it wasn’t easy.  Maybe it was lack of hydration (water cooler is broken at work) or eating for comfort not fuel (at 3 miles that shouldn’t matter).  Either way it was a struggle.  But I’m not going to let that get me down, not even close!  I posted something on runnersworld.com about enjoying the journey.

Here is what I wrote:

“The journey and struggle are what make the goals worth while and that much more gratifying. Personally, I would rather run a marathon and say I trained for over a year and put in XXXX miles, and suffered and came back from X to be able to run this marathon than say “yeah I ran for a few months then decided to run a marathon. But that’s just me.”

Granted today was but a pebble in the road but each pebble help in their own way to make the road what it is.

Missing a day – Counts as day of rest… :(

Yesterday was a bust.  I didn’t even get to the gym to run since I had a bunch of other things to do during lunch.  Even worse nothing worked out.  My spine X-Rays would have taken at least a full hour (four on my neck, three on my middle back and two or three on my lower back).  I said forget it I will go run and come back a different day.  Turns out that I forgot I had some banking to do and when I got to the bank I couldn’t even deposit.  Well the day is done and I cannot get it back, oh well there is always tomorrow.

Cross Training Day

Having my knee hurt and the ever declining situation with my back I decided to schedule cross training on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Nothing too intense, elliptical, bike, some light weights whatever comes around.  Today I ran for 1/2 mile (I probably shouldn’t have but couldn’t help it – It was only five minutes).  Then did a Circuit of weights, legs, arms, back, stomach; excuse me – abs.  At the end I tried the elliptical for the first time ever in my life.  I felt like I was going to fall but eventually got the hang of it then it was time to go.  That’s it, my first official cross training day.

C25K – W8D1 – Redo…

After two weeks off of running I jumped back in right where I left off.  1/4 mile walk, 2.75 mile run, 1/4 mile walk.  I am happy I still made it 2.75 miles since I have decided to run 30 minutes instead of distance.  Running during lunch I have been taking longer and longer because I do not want to stop running even if I slow down as time goes on.  So I had to convince myself that a 30 minute run three times per week at lunch will have to be good enough for now.  I will be using the time to work on speed.  I will see how many miles I can fit in to those 30 minutes.  I have all winter to improve.  Winter, fall, spring; it doesn’t matter, I do not have a set goal.  My goal is better health, fitness and feeling good.  So if eventually I get up to 5 miles in 30 minutes: that’s a 6 minute mile!  We’ll see.

Just Checking In

Since last week Monday I did not run even one mile.  I have a very good reason but it has nothing to do with running, or being lazy.  Either way it is personal and I will not post it here.  I am dying to get running again, it’s driving me nuts.  I think tomorrow I will be able to squeeze in 30 minutes.  Since I was able to run three miles last Monday I decided I will now just run for 30 minutes trying to improve my distance in that time.  Once things settle down I hope I can get in a “long run” on the weekends.

C25K – W8D1 – Stick to the program!

Today was W8D1 for me, 2.75 miles.  Today was also the day my son goes in for surgery so I pushed it a bit.  I ran 3.0 miles in 34:28.  At 2.70 miles I increased the incline to 9 and slowed down to about a 12:50 pace.  I did this for .05 mile.  Whoa!  I leveled out the TM and ran the third mile normally.  Another thing I tried was to run on my toes.  I could feel different muscles being used, I think I will either buy some of those toe shoes or try running barefoot.

My knee feels better after the weekend rest and I hope all will go well with my son so I can squeeze in another two runs this week.  So I am almost ready for my first 5K!