A Week in Review

I don't think I had a very good week this week. Running wise. Or weight loss wise for that matter.

As far as weight goes, I bloated right up this week. I gained 5lbs. Of water. There's no way in hell I ate 17,000 calories over and above what my body uses. With all this running, I might eat that many in a whole week. Let alone twice that to gain 5lbs. I really feel it though. I feel bloated and gross and icky and swollen. Blech. And tired. And weak. Yea. That just about covers how I'm feeling this week.

The tired and weak and bloated feeling carried over into the running this week too. It was a really warm day on Sunday for my long run. I figured I would wait until late afternoon before I started, but I should have waited probably another hour. 7 miles. It exhausted me. I walked most of the last half.

Monday I did an easy 3 miler. Nope. Not so easy. A lot of walking during that one too. I just couldn't get into a groove. And it felt like I couldn't get any oxygen. The humidity was weighing heavily on me, I guess.

I took a rest on Tuesday. I didn't even go to the gym.

Last night, I went out for another easy 3 miler. I did feel a little better. Not great, but better. But then I got a cramp in my butt. Why yes, yes I did. A cramp in my butt so bad, I didn't think I was going to make it home. I thought I was going to end up in the bushes puking. I could have cried right then and there. That was awful.

Tonight I'm supposed to do my 5 mile tempo run. As of this writing, I'm going to say screw it. I am debating going to the gym at lunch for a treadmill run. I just had such a crappy running week, that I don't want to make it worse by forcing myself to have another horrible run. KWIM. This is supposed to be fun.

This is a picture I took on my Sunday long run. It's a house that is set down and back from the road. If you are driving you can't see the back yard. The landscaping is incredible. Beautiful. Very serene, considering the road is 20 feet away.



Sunday Stats
Distance: 6.91
Time: 1:48:51
Avg Pace: 15:46
Avg Speed: 3.8

Monday Stats
Distance: 3.50
Time: 46:11
Avg Pace: 13:11
Avg Speed: 4:55

Wednesday Stats
Distance: 3.49
Time: 48:24
Avg Pace: 13:53
Avg Speed: 4.32

June Stats

This week: 13.90
This month: 67.98

All in all. That's a pretty impressive number. For me. There's a little incentive to hit the gym. Get in that three miles and bring my month end to over 70 miles run.

Week 4 Day 1

Did my 5 mile run last night doing W4D1 of the C25K program. W4 is 3 minutes running, walk :90, 5 minutes running, walk 2:30.

You know, I'm not quite sure what happened between Tuesday night and Thursday night, but all I can say is wow.

For some reason I thought week 4 was two sets of 3 minutes running. I'm not sure why. When I found out that it was 3 and 5's I resigned myself to at least a couple weeks at this level. I headed out. 5 miles I could do. If worst came to worst, I'd just do 3 minutes of running and practice that, because Tuesday night I was just barely finishing the 3 minutes.

The first 3 minutes was fine. I mean, really fine. I mean, holy crap, that was almost easy fine. Then the 5. The first three minutes was fine and then I hit hill. I ventured to tackle it, and slowed down my pace. I'm finding a good running pace is about 11:30, so this hill I slowed down to about 13:00. About a minute into it, I stopped. My form was just NOT good. Not even a little bit. All doubled over, leaning forward.

The next 3 and 5 were actually pretty easy. There was another up hill, but I was able to finish my 3 minute run up it, and the :90 walk finished it, the 5 minute was all level and down hill. And I even ran a little of the 5 minute cool down to the bottom of the hill. I did my 2:30 walk while I reset the program and I was off again.

My legs were starting to get a little tired for the next 3 and 5. But I did it. I stopped about :20 short of the 5 minutes. Brake Hard hill. And I paused the program until I got to the top. And finished off the last 3 & 5. Walked 2 minutes. Ran 3 more and I was home.

I'm finding that breathing really is key. And that I was able to last through the five minutes by concentrating on my breathing. When I was starting I was taking one breath for three steps. Once I got going, I had to change to one breath for two steps.

Something else that I thought was pretty neat was my split times. They were all really consistent at about 13 minute miles except for the mile that includes Brake Hard hill. That was 14:55.

I'm really happy with last nights run, especially after the hard time I had with week 3.

Stats

Distance: 4.86 miles
Time: 1:05:24
Avg Pace: 13:28
Avg Speed: 4.46 mph

June Stats

This week: 18:45 miles
This month: 54.08 miles

On to week 4

We went out for daughter's 19th Birthday dinner tonight. We went to The Colby Bistro and Wine Bar. I had a tenderloin beef sandwich and fries. Don't ask me why. I just went through this with hubby. I keep ordering a steak sandwich looking for something even remotely close to what Pacifico's used to make 10 years ago. (Is Pacifico's even still around?) Nothing comes close. And this was unfortunately no exception. I never get french fries. But there was bragging advertising about their terrific special fries. They were pretty good as far as fries go, but not spectacular. The bar itself is very nice looking. I'm sure we'll go back again for drinks some night.

I had to wait for my wine, dinner and dessert to digest before I went for my run.

Hopefully I overestimated my food calories and can consider this a maintain day.

Food was digested and off for my run I went. I'm really finding the 5 minute walking warm up a pain in the ass, so did a couple of walk / run minutes. The first go 'round of C25K W3D3 was very good. Very very good. I forced myself to run up the hill. 44ft elevation. I completed all runs. YAY! I fast forwarded through the two middle 5 minute cool down / warm ups and I was off again. The first three minute jog was up another hill 45 ft elevation, but shorter distance. I couldn't muster the energy up that one. I stopped at about 1:45 and started again around 2:10 or 2:15. I'm happy with that.

The five minute cool down was a easy sloping down hill so I jogged all of that. ALL five minutes.

I'll be taking a day off tomorrow, and starting week 4 on Thursday. 5 miles.

Stats

Distance 3.12 miles

Time 42:49

Avg pace 13:53

Avg Speed 4.32

June

This week 13.59 miles

This month 49.22 miles

C25K Week 3

Well, that was better. I did the week 3 day 3 twice tonight. (minus the two middle 5 minute walks). I was able to do every run except for the second last 90 second run that was uphill. (I really have to do some hill work). Anyway, it was an unscheduled 5k, and I'm happy that I can see solid improvement in the week 3. I will do a week 3 again tomorrow night (scheduled 5k), a rest day on Wednesday and I'll move to week for for my 5 mile run on Thursday.

Stats

Distance: 3.49 miles

Time: 49:48

Avg Pace: 14:16

Avg Speed: 4:20

Last night was my long run. 7 miles. WOW! That was painful. I thought for sure my legs and hips were going to hurt today. But they didn't.

I actually listened to some music on this run, which isn't usually the case. But I downloaded from itunes a 105 song running album. It really has some great songs on it. They aren't original artists, but they are very similar.

I thought I could drown out my thoughts with

some music. No such luck. That's the down side of running. Being in your own head. It's great most of the time, but when you don't want to think, running is probably not the activity to do. Hopefully I get out of this funk soon. It sucks.

Anyway, here's my picture. Not a OOOH Isn't that awesome picture. This is a view through Portland Hills. I can't get over how much this has grown up in the last decade or so. 10 years ago, this was all woods.

Stats

Distance: 6.98 miles

Time: 1:45:18

Avg Speed: 3.98

Avg Pace: 15:06

June Stats

Distance This Week: 10.47 miles

Distance This Month: 46.10

What am I listening to

I don't really like listening to music when I'm running. I've tried, but it actually gets on my nerves. Someone screaming in my ear or singing at a pace I'm not running at. Very distracting.

I like listening to podcasts or audiobooks.

I thought I'd list my podcasts. These are running and health podcasts. I can't imagine anyone would be interested in what I listen to for knitting and photography. :p

The Coach Jeff Podcast

Cut the Fat Podcast

The Extra Mile

Fat 2 Fit Radio

The Fitness Boost

RunRunLive

The 20 minute runner

First run at the campground.

I did my first run at the campground today. It was a little more than 2 miles. I've been sorta trying to avoid running at the campground because it's all hills. ALL HILL. The one place that is relatively flat, and you have to go up and down a hill to get there, is a dirt road, and I'm worried about the wildlife sneaking up on me. (read: coyotes). Not that there have been sightings or that anyone else in the area is worried about it. I'm a city girl in the woods and have been molded by what I see on TV.

I couldn't avoid it anymore. The plan said to run 2 miles on Friday, so I had to run 2 miles today. I decided I'd run to the falls. It's 1km on the road and then probably another 1/2 km into the falls. On a dirt road. Don't ask my why I wasn't worried about the wildlife (read: coyotes) on this road.

This is Indian Falls. This is what I got to see at the half way point. Great swimming and fishing here.



Overall, it was just an ok run. The hills were yucky. I did C25K W3D1 again. I'm still having trouble with the 3 minute run. But that could be because I still have a little chest congestion. Whatever the reason, I'm not moving on til I get the 3 minute down comfortably.

Today's Run

Distance: 2.76 miles

Time: 41:38

Avg Pace: 15:06

Avg Speed 3.97

June Stats

Distance this week: 17.19 miles 27.5 km

Distance this month: 35.63 miles 57 km

No picture today :(

I thought I had a crappy run tonight.

I did the C25K W3D1. That's 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking. I did the first go through. I set it to run the second go through and didn't even finish the 90 seconds. Then stopped again after 2 of the three minutes. Then finally turned it off. I was done. Couldn't run anymore. So I walked almost the rest. There were a couple of down hills, so I gave a little jog a go.

I got home and loaded my times from my Garmin and realized, it wasn't really that horrible.

Stats from tonight

Distance: 4.69 miles

Time: 1:12:??

Avg Pace: 15:22

Avg Speed: 3.90 mph

Here are my splits

Splits

mi	Pace (min/mi)	Elevation (ft)
1	13:32	-28
2	14:55	-22
3	16:24	38
4	17:05	29
5	14:43	-26

It's raining, it's pouring

It's days like this I'm glad I have a gym membership. 60mm of rain expected tonight and tomorrow.

My scheduled run was 2 miles at a pace of 15 something. Gym treadmill it was.

I bought a pair of these when I went to pick up our race kits for the bluenose 5k back in May.

I haven't been able to wear them much; walking around one day, and then a twenty minute treadmill run to try them out.

I've thrown them in my gym bag to use, and tonight I did.

You definitely have to build up endurance in them. You can't heal strike in them at all. It's just plain awkward. Even just walking on the treadmill was really odd feeling. It's almost like you have to walk on your tippy toes. If you heal strike it's just like hitting a brick wall. You feel it all the way up your spine. Running was interesting. You have to hit either forefoot or mid foot, and your stride shortens substantially. When I say "You have to" it's not like I'm saying that's the way you should, or are supposed to. No, you don't have a choice. The shoes force you to run like that.

I did 5k in them. And I have very sore calves and lots of blisters. Owey. I won't do any more than 5k in them until I build up. I also don't have another short run until next Tuesday, so my blisters will heal and toughen up by then.

Tonights run stats

Distance: 3.12 miles / 5k

Total Time: 48:40

Avg Pace: 15:36 min/ mile / 9.44 min/km

Avg Speed 3.8 mph / 6.08 kph

Do you know the muffin man

I ran the Lunenburg World Heritage 5k road race today. What a great race. Lunenburg was a fantastic host. The spectators were awesome. The course marshalls were fantastic. Other than the hill at the one mile mark the course was pretty flat. I think the total climb was 285 feet.

I didn't stay for much of the festivities afterwards, but there was notices that the fisheries museum had free admission today and I'm sorry, I can't remember what the other place was called, but it was an old school building that is over 100 years old? They were having some activities as well. Kids bouncy things, cake walks, etc. Lots to do in Lunenburg today for the race. It would make a great family day trip, if your family is so inclined.


This was the Atlantic Chip truck at the start / finish line.


This was the view to our right at about the 2 mile mark





And the muffin run. Lots of goodies for the runners. I had some sort of poppy seed bread. It was so yummy. It had some other seeds in it too. Orange colored. About the same size as the poppy seeds. I'd love to know what they were. YUMM.



Thanks Lunenburg.

Unofficial Race Stats

Distance: 3.12 miles / 5k
Time: 39:48
Avg Pace: 12:43 min/mile / 7:53 min / km
I climbed 245 feet.

Brake hard hill

Do you know what hill this is. It's the very big hill on Portland street before you get to Cole Harbour. I had to go up it. From minutes 40 to 49. I gave it a try for about 30 seconds. Then walked. I don't feel bad about that in the least.

Lets start at the beginning.

I started out on the route that I took the other night, but instead of heading back at mile 1, I kept going. Around the mile 1 mark you get a smell of these wonderful lilacs.

Around mile 2, I was smelling what I think are these. I'm not sure what they were, but they were very nice. And bright.


Lots of hills on this route. Even besides Brake hard. I hit Mount Edward Road too. Up and down.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in my gazilion posts that I've written. OK. Three. I started running in January on the treadmill using the C25K program. I got up to week 4 and then started running outside. Running outside is a completely different animal and the C25K program went straight out the window.

Once I started running outside I had no plan to increase my endurance and nothing concrete to measure against. I did however have a plan of distance and time. I'm using the smartcoach on Runners World .

So, as a remedy to that, I started the C25K program again. I started right from week 1, day 1. Last Sunday I did w1d1, w1d2 and w1d3. Yes, I'm still continuing with the distance portion. After Sunday's run though, I decided that I wouldn't rush through and do a whole week in one run, I'd repeat the same day during each run. Tuesday I did W2d1 and tonight I did w2d2 twice.

Tired of reading yet???

I just have one more thing to add before I head to get my bed lunch.

It's interesting that I have more endurance at the end of my run than at the beginning. I ran a whole 7.5 minutes at the end of the run, but I would seriously die, if I tried to run that at the beginning.

Stats from tonights run

Distance: 4.9 miles

Time: 67:15

Avg Pace: 13:49

I climbed 376 feet.

That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading.

Don't take it personally

This isn't really running related, but I wanted to post it for posterity.

I was reading a post by Scott Bourne. (He's a photographer. Photography is another one of those hobbies that I drive my friends and family crazy with.) He was quoting another blogger. Seth Godin. Know him?

Anyway, the quote is...

“When someone moves on, when she walks away or even badmouths you or your work, it’s not personal about you. It’s personal about her. Her agenda, her decisions,
her story.“

I was going to paste it as my facebook status, but decided against stirring up a huge, huge hornets nest. So, I'll post it here instead.

You can't take this stuff personally. The reason for bad mouthing is solely to make themselves feel or look better. To justify their own decisions. Or to promote their own agenda.

That is all.

Going for my run soon. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm taking a new route. I'll post about it later.

Tuesday June 7, 2011

Just a little run tonight. 2.44 miles in 34 minutes. That's a good guess as my Garmin died and I had to use Runkeeper on my iPhone. This was the first time I've used the app for tracking my mileage and time as opposed to entering it. Pretty cool app. I also decided to run a new route for the variety. EEK. It was pretty hilly.

I also signed up for the Lunenburg World Heritage 5k run this Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. The goal for this run is some more race experience, enjoy the scenery and finish. If I run it in less than 42 minutes, that would be great too.

Here's the pic from today's run. I was going to take a pic of all the slugs on the path EW. But I thought I'd spare y'all. So instead it is a pic of the path that all the slugs are on. Oh yea. And the camera is in a baggie to protect it from the rain.






Stats from this run...
Distance 2.44 milesTime 34:15Pace 14:03

My Sunday 10k

What a crappy run. I was sleep deprived and food hungover.

I struggled, but I finished it.

I'm also going to try and take a pic during each run. Here's the pic from yesterdays run.



Stats from this run.

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 1:29:04
Avg pace: 14:55

National Running Day

June 1st is National Running Day. So what better day than today to start a blog about my running.

http://www.runningday.org/site/


5 facts about me and running

1. I started running in January on the treadmill to lose weight
2. I ran my first 5k race May 22, 2011, in the Bluenose Marathon events.
3. I am currently training for the half marathon, that I plan to run October 9, 2011
4. I have lost about 30 lbs from eating properly and running.
5. I also joined Goodlife Fitness to work on my upper body strength
6. I have learned not to overtrain. :) Well, I don't know if I've learned the lesson, but I definitely know the lesson needs to be learned.
7. Gu Gel's are kinda interesting. Kinda yucky going down, but it's a pretty cool kick for the energy level.
8. Running is definitely a numbers game. What is my pace? What time do I have to beat? If my pace is this for this mile, what does it have to be for the next mile? I like numbers.
9. I purchased a Garmin 305 after borrowing one from a friend. I love love love it.
10. The Couch to 5k program is awesome for anyone that wants to try and run.


and 11 for good measure


11. Running on a treadmill is NOTHING like running on the road.



A picture for good measure. This is a pic of the kids and I at the starting line for the Bluenose 5K race.

I guess I've started a running blog

I have been posting things in various places, plus I've been asked if I have one, so I thought i'd oblige.

Here it is.