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