I can't go back there

I have an absolutely mortifying and painful story to tell about today's run but I'm just not mentally capable of doing that yet without wincing.
Needless to say, I didn't finish my long run today. I'm upset about it, but I will get over it. I'll do it on Sunday.
I will post later.
I need to go find somewhere to hide my head.

CEC - Cheat meal

I have been so good all week. I've tried to feed my body what I felt it needed when it needed it, nothing more, nothing less. Tonight was a special night for a special friend and I ... partook. Tomorrow will be tough. I'm feeling it already. Just fair warning to myself, I suppose. Though I probably shouldn't "warn" myself, thereby making it easy to tell myself it's ok to give up in one run on one day.

I wanted to post about it to make it more difficult for me to give up.
We'll see how it turns out!

KL: day 2, 3 miles

The blister on the bottom of my left foot is just where the big toe joint starts on the inner arch. I didn't notice it much during the run itself (adrenaline) but it's about twice the size it was yesterday. I wonder if there's some way I can wrap my foot so that I don't make it worse and I can keep running.

Today was a little bit more difficult mentally near the end of the run. When I start breathing hard, I feel my lungs tighten in my back and it feels like an anxiety attack. At that point, two things can happen. I either consciously determine that I'm tensing up, and concentrate on breathing, or or flip out. Today, I just paid attention, and kept the pace up (around 6 mph when this started happening) and focused on my breathing. It worked and I finished!

Physically, I was fine once I got my breath under control. I'm not pushing yet. I'm just easing my way into this, so I ran again fairly slowly - between 4.7 - 5.7 mph until my speed bursts at the end. I will say, it was knowing that the blog was here that got me through the last of it.

I got off the treadmill and could hardly walk because my hips were so tight after all the impact. This will take a little getting used to. I think I'm going to slip in some yoga to keep my joints loose, especially while I'm adapting to the more frequent runs.

Carrie (and any of you readers), would you like to do some yoga in the park with me this summer as we train? I'll put together a series designed to speak to what running can do to the body - hips, knees, & hamstrings in particular.

Who's up for yoga (and maybe some Pilates!) in the park? ;)

Carrie, fyi, you're not whining enough. Follow my lead and start complaining, will ya? What's the fun if we can't commiserate? ;)

That's it. I'm having fun and I feel great!

4 miles, 9.1 to go!

Just got back from today's run (on a treadmill). I covered up the "dashboard" on the treadmill so I couldn't see how far I'd gone already, because I always have a tough time when I can see how much longer I have to go. I promised myself I wouldn't look until I really couldn't wait any longer, or until I was just so pooped that I had to know how much longer I had to go. I didn't look until I had already run 2 3/4 miles!!! Today's run was much easier than yesterday's, and I feel really good right now. I walked an additional 10 minutes or so at the end of my run, to cool down and get my heart rate back to normal, and I think that definitely helped my body recuperate more quickly.

I'm (oddly enough) looking forward to tomorrow's 5-mile long run! The long run is supposed to happen on Saturday but since we're going away on Saturday, there won't be time for a run. Tomorrow it is!

Blisters!!!

Perhaps now would be a good time to just mention blisters and other foot problems afflicting runners everywhere. I'll plan a post later on in our training, for our million readers out there, but for right now, we need to get you fitted for shoes, Kel. Most probably, your shoes are what's causing these blisters.

Great job on the run today!!!

KL First Training Run: 3 miles

I ran my 3 miles today, and then I walked 2.25 miles after that. My pace was pretty slow - I'd say between 4.5 - 5.5 mph - for the majority of the run. During the last 10 minutes, I did speed intervals up to 6.5 mph to focus on building strength and fast- twitch muscle fibers.

My left foot is now covered in blisters (let the whining begin), but I feel fabulous.

I haven't run in about 3 weeks, so I was surprised that I was able to grab my 3 miles, even if they were slow ones.

I'm excited to run outside too. It is considerably more challenging, but if this gorgeous weather keeps up, perhaps we can find some interesting places to log some miles. I'd like to try trail running too - softer ground. I know we need to build up the skeletal endurance to run on the concrete, but maybe we'll mix it up some.

I'd like to run around Walden Pond so that when we're through, we can jump in. I LOVE the water. ;)

Good job, Car!

Carrie's First Post

So yes, I did run 4 miles this morning. At the most disgusting hour of 5:30 in the morning.
It was tough, I'm not going to lie, though I do have some excellent experience with early wake-up calls.

I've been running relatively regularly for the last few months but some days are just harder than others. I even uploaded a profanity-laced Pink song onto my IPod to keep me going but the Ipod never shuffled it! Maybe it just wasn't my day. :) My Ipod needs to learn to shuffle better.

I need to focus on running outside. That was a significant contributor to the problems I had in my 5-mile race a couple of weeks ago. A treadmill has give. It definitely has a rebound. Concrete doesn't give you anything. It takes a lot more endurance to run on the ground, for sure. I need to focus on that. It will help when KLK and I start running outside together.

Kel's first post: pre-run

My goal today is to run 3 miles, but if I hit 4 (to keep up with Superstar Cheron), I'll take that too! I'll report in after the deed is done.

Friends who are interested - please feel free to comment as the blog turns. ;)

More soon!
Kel