I had a really good run on Monday, and followed it up on Tuesday morning with a gentler and slower recovery run. Then on Tuesday evening I made the mistake of getting very drunk, which really killed me on my run on Wednesday evening which was an 11 mile off road route which I had no way of getting out of doing, even though I really wanted to. It was a recce for a race in a couple of weeks which isn't marshalled and involves you following quite complicated directions, so you really need to run the route beforehand to know where you're going, and I didn't have the mobile numbers of the people I was doing it with to rearrange. I got to half way and begged them to let me stop, but the second half was actually better than the first, thankfully! No running yesterday, I wasn't hungover any more but was very tired after being out three nights in a row, and I went out and did another 4.4 this morning which did feel a lot better so hopefully the tiredness has worn off a bit. Tomorrow is my rest day, and I'm planning a long run on Sunday.

Yikes, sounds like a rough go Helen. I can't do much on a hangover, let alone an 11 mile run!

Did not enjoy my 3.25 yesterday. It wasn't that hot, but I ended up having to take a considerable walk break because my dog just refused to keep pace with me at some point. He didn't look so good and I didn't want him to overheat. Anyway, it was one of those runs where by the end you're thinking, "please god just let it be over I want to die now". And I had a side stitch. Blah! Anyway, got it done.

Supposed to be cool and perhaps a bit rainy tomorrow, going for an early morning trail run by the lake.

Awww, crap... tried to up my speed on the treadmill today to 6mph (not exactly Speedy Gonzales!), managed 10 minutes and then walked. Tried to run again after five minutes walking - nope, today is NOT a running day. I bet I feel more 'up to it' tomorrow :)

Hope all are well! :)

Heather

Oh man Heather we must be cosmically connected. I tried to start out at 5.6 made it about 10 minutes and forced those last 15 out so I didn't have to repeat. Went down to 5.3, choked, went to 5.2, died, went to 5.0 and pushed it. Went back up to 5.6 for the last 2 minutes but man I shouldn't have tried to start out that fast. Big time mistake.

I am entering week 8 of C25K on Monday. Three extra monutes isn't going to effect me much, but when I am going to be conditioned enough to not be puffing and panting after 5 minutes of running? I thought by now I would be doing less heavy breathing.

I know I've said it many times before, but seriously...you guys doing C25K really shouldn't worry so much about speed. You'll get faster in time. Heck, you're already going faster than I do half the time, and I've been running a bit longer. I worried a lot about speed at first but I've seen that with time you really do get faster sort of naturally as you build up your mileage, so I'm trying to be patient about it now. It's better to do slower, easier runs at a pace that you can sustain for a while. You can do those intense shorter runs later after you've built up mileage. And keep in mind -- you're doing GREAT! I'm very impressed by the progress you've made. :yay:

I did 3.5 miles with the cross country team this morning through lots of wet grass and dirt and such. There were big storms here the other day, so we were leaping over lots of fallen tree limbs -- it was quite a little adventure! I probably shouldn't have done it, though, because I'm having some pain in my right ankle (the one I broke a few years ago). It's been hurting since my 13 mile run on Thursday, so I need to keep an eye on it.

Thanks, Lisa - I REALLY needed to hear that today! :hug: You know, I'm sure I promised myself I'd do 3.25 miles three to four times a week at 5.2mph for ALL of August... so why did I try to push it? Bizarre. :shrug:

Okay - if you guys see me posting that I put the speed up on my treadmill, please give me a good, swift :frypan: or :kickbutt:! Come on, :coach:!

Of course, if I happen to sneak up the incline, that's another story! :rofl:

Heather :D

PS - Cakses - I'm not running today either - I walked the dog this morning, and MAN, my calves are KILLING me!! I'll try again tomorrow :)

Cakses--I am with you on the breathing thing. I did 25 today, and I did pretty well, though I admit to coming to a full stop to wait for traffic both directions when crossing a busy road. I was grateful for everyone of those cars, thank you very much. None of that running in place stuff for me!

Slow down you guys! :lol: I really don't carefully track my distance or speed a lot of the time. I have a couple 3 to 3.25 mi routes near my home that I run and use my watch, but on trail runs I wouldn't even know how to figure distance accurately. I figure I can pace myself to get through the amount of time I want to run, and I never feel like I'm taking it too easy, so that's good enough for me.

GLORIUS run this morning. It was cool, a light drizzle, and I made it through 45 min. I'm guessing about 4 miles, felt really good. Quite a few friendly joggers/runners and dogs out on the trails, love that. :)

Had this crazy idea that I should be able to do a full hour soon. My runs during the week are usually 30 - 35 min, if I only run longer once a week should I be able to build up to that reasonably soon? I was thinking I could just tack 5 min on to my longer run each week. That would get me there in just 3 weeks.

that is a good plan shananigans!

been running but not much time to post lately 15 today, 10 yesterday, 7 on wed. A little weaker than pre illness but not too bad.

Rachel - I hope we can meet up when you come to portland

Rachel and Ennay, I'm totally going to be jealous if you guys get to meet up in Portland! That's much too far away! We need to plan a race we can all do in the center of the country or something!

I'm not running today because my ankle is still hurting, and it's kind of killing me not to run. I'm seriously craving a run, and I'm having to talk myself out of it. What a change from my former life!

I believe I'll do some yoga instead...

Originally Posted by LisaMarie71:
I know I've said it many times before, but seriously...you guys doing C25K really shouldn't worry so much about speed. You'll get faster in time.

So I've been beating myself up this summer because I feel like I haven't been getting faster at all. I looked up my time from a race last year, and actually, I've taken two minutes off my 5K pace. It's still a slow pace, but two minutes faster is pretty good, and I've got to realize that I'm not trying to compete with anybody else but myself. The difficult part is now I'm running at about an 11 mph pace, but I can't sustain it longer than a little over 2 miles and after that I enter this run/walk thing for the next mile. So then I get bummed about that because when I run a 5K race, I want to run it all, not walk part of it.

Ennay, sounds pretty darn good for post-illness! Did it get really steamy up there today? I ran today by the river and it felt like I was in the deep South. That will be fun if you can meet up in Portland. I'd love to watch the race, but will be out of town. Maybe next year.

Lisa, hope your ankle feels better. Do you put any kind of support on it when you run?

Cakses, I've been running for over a year now, and still huff and puff. Probably not what you want to hear, but even huffing and puffing, it does get easier and you will be able to huff and puff your way through a 5K, no problem. :)

I don't put any kind of support on my ankle but now I'm thinking I probably should... I'll probably talk to the athletic trainer at school about it.

Originally Posted by Sheila53:
The difficult part is now I'm running at about an 11 mph pace, but I can't sustain it longer than a little over 2 miles and after that I enter this run/walk thing for the next mile. So then I get bummed about that because when I run a 5K race, I want to run it all, not walk part of it.

Maybe you're just meant to run a 5K at a 12 minute pace? Or 11:30? If I start out at an 11-minute pace, I'm huffing and puffing by the 3rd mile too. I have to start slowly and ease into it. Honestly, now that I'm used to longer runs, I can see that the first 3 miles are the hardest part. The other day, I felt MUCH better in mile 11 than I did in mile 2 on my 13-mile run. Short runs don't allow you to get into a groove - I use them to work on speed, but they're far more difficult than long, easy runs.

Also, I've gotten used to sort of forcing myself to do a VERY slow jog instead of a walk when I need a recovery in the middle of a run.

I had quite possibly the worst run of my life yesterday, and I've had some bad ones. It was 90F+ and humid, and I was pushing DD in the jogger. Ugh. Run is probably not the right word. I went 15 minutes out, 20 minutes back on one of the local multiuse paths.

The only good thing was that I got out there.

Signed up for a tri in October to help get myself going. Biking is actually going very well, and I got back in the pool for the first time since May (!) so it's looking good. I'm also doing my anniversary 5K next month--first race I ever ran back in 2003. Feel sort of like myself again.

Anne

PS: You C25Kers who are worried about your speed would have run circles around this old-timer (can I really say that now??) yesterday. Just run! You are doing great!

I did 4 miles this morning at about a 10:30 pace, which was fantastic for me. Part of the reason I went that fast was because I had to go to work and I knew I was going to be late!! But I was determined to fit 4 miles in, so I did it anyway and only ended up being about 5 minutes late!

Okay, reading your posts was the boost I needed. I've been putting off my run for a couple hours now and I've just got to do it! I'm only in week one of the C25K so it's still daunting. But thanks for all your stories! I'll get there!

Ann

Annk it will get easier, heck some days it's still hard for me and I am in week 8 - you just have to keep on plugging along! You'll do great though!

All you C25K speed demons out there, slow down :)

I agree with Lisa's advice, at such an early stage in your running career, you should focus more on building distance than your timing. I seem to remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't even think about doing speed work until you've been running for a year at least. I know it can be tough when you have people zipping by you on the running path, but you should really be working on logging miles, and the speed will come naturally.

As for me, even though I've increased in speed considerably from where I started without really working on it, I am still a total snail, particularly at long distances, and I could care less. Far in the back of my mind, my goal for the marathon is to maybe finish in 5 hours - but that is way way behind just finishing it (and finishing still feeling relatively strong, and of course, injury free) as goals.

And Ennay, I'd love to get a chance to say hello in person! I'll be the one in running shoes :lol:

I woke up late this morning so had to cut my run to only a mile. However, I still got out there and did it. It was so tempting to just skip today or "say" I'll do it tonight...knowing that I truly wouldn't.

Quick question...when do you add distance? Do you wait until the distance you're currently running feels easy? Or does that ever happen? hahah I'm still pretty whipped after my runs but thought maybe I should still be thinking about increasing my distance....?

I'd say wait until you don't feel completely whipped by the end of your run to add more on. Some days I feel like I can manage an extra 5 minutes, so I do that. Other days it's a struggle just to get through the run I planned.

Speaking of which, had a terrible run last night. Got hot and humid again, yuk! Had to walk off a side stitch in the middle. I hate bad runs, I wish they could all be good ones. :p

I had a fantastic run this evening! I've been struggling with my long runs recently, but this evening I felt good and it was nice and sunny (I suspect for one of the last times this year, grumble...) so I decided to head out early, skip running club and just do my own thing. I had a vague idea that I might try to intercept the club run mid way round, but I basically set off and made up my route as I went along. The aim was just to run while I felt comfortable running. My initial aim was for something over about 14 miles - and I ended up doing 17!!! I've done longer runs, but never on a Wednesday after work before. The last couple of miles were tough, but mainly because i was running into a headwind and hadn't taken any water or energy tablets with me (I don't normally need them for anything up to 14, so just took money so I could stop and buy something if I needed it, which I didn't really). I'm so proud of myself.

The only downside is that I seem to have discovered a new form of chafing. I think the keys and money I had in my back zip pocket must have been jiggling about a bit much, I've got chafing in the small of my back!

Two this morning. Hot, humid and yucky. Plus I was exhausted.

But I'm glad I went.

Anne

Originally Posted by WindyCityChick:
And Ennay, I'd love to get a chance to say hello in person! I'll be the one in running shoes :lol:

:lol3: me too!


Had my last pre Hood-to-Coast run this morning...a brisk3 miler with some pickups in the middle.

One of our runners got injured so we have to run extra...I can not believe I volunteered to run another long segment to free up a short one for someone who has to run 4 legs. I just volunteered to run a 7 a 7 and an 8miler in an 18 hour period. :yikes:

Helen - Chafing, will it never stop finding new ways to make runners miserable? :lol: Good job on what sounds like a great run.

ennay - Good luck with that extra run! If my math is right that's 22 miles, why not just take up an extra 4 miler and make it a marathon?

Thankfully it stopped raining long enough for me to do 3.5 mi in just under 35 min this morning. I couldn't figure out why I was so slow, then I realized I had altered my route slightly and added around .25 miles. That explains the extra couple minutes, duh.

Rain has been crazy here, lots of flooding. Plus 2 people were killed by lightning at a bus stop yesterday afternoon, yikes! :(

Yuck! Lightning! That stuff scares me!

I ran 2 this morning...LONNNNGNGG HOTTTTT MUGGGGGY 2. I kept setting markers telling myself "when I get to that point I'll walk" but each time I just set a new marker. It worked and I ran the entire way. But it was miserable. I can't wait for cooler weather! I might actually like to run, then!

Originally Posted by YP1:
The only downside is that I seem to have discovered a new form of chafing. I think the keys and money I had in my back zip pocket must have been jiggling about a bit much, I've got chafing in the small of my back!

I have often wished for a vat or spray booth of bodyglide - all over coverage. Everytime I think I hit all the spots up pops another one.

I think the farthest I've ever run without fuel was 10 miles...it was first thing in the morning though and I hadnt eaten before :dizzy: I fuel less than I used to but still couldnt do a 17 w/o fuel.

Shenanigans...hey why not! ;)

OY this starting a race in the late afternoon is TORTURE. Van 1 started at 10 am, my Van doesnt start until 3, I wont run until 5:30 pm. I have race gut with nothing to do but pace!

I know the feeling - the first time I did an afternoon race I had no idea what to do all morning. I'm getting a bit better at it now, but it's still strange. I'm just glad that in the relay I'm doing next weekend I'm doing leg 2 which starts at between 9.30 - 10am (depending how fast the first pair are) and finishes just in time for lunch.

I did a nice 10k this morning before work. I'm off to Italy now, so I'm not sure how much running I'll get done in the next week or so. I'm 4 miles off my goal for the month though, so that's an incentive to slip a short one in either I'm away or as soon as I get back. I an currently trying to think of an excuse to get some quality carb loading in while I'm out there ;)

I am buying a treadmill this weekend for days I don't get to the gym. Took a few days off this week to give my left leg a break - apparently it hates me lol. Hoping to get back on track Monday!

Good for you, cakses - I LOVE mine :cloud9: and I couldn't be without it!! Mine has an ortho belt, which runners are apparently divided on, but it's good for my knees!

Let us know what you get :)

Heather :D

Ugh, I haven't run since Monday!!! :mad:

I was sick most of the week, and I was crazy busy with getting everything ready for the new school year. I planned to do a 7 mile run Thursday but had to go to the doctor instead. Then I planned to do 10 miles this morning, but I went out last night and had a few drinks and the bar was all smoky so now I'm sick (I'm allergic to cigarette smoke so I'm always sick if I'm around it). That was a stupid thing to do, but I wanted to celebrate my last few moments of freedom before the students show up Monday and everything gets crazy!

I'm running tomorrow no matter WHAT!!!!

Just got back from hood to coast, fun but exhausting. I ended up doing a 6.2 then a 6.9 then a 4.25 The 6.9 was my best...I ran faster than I have ever run before under any conditions

I've had 20 minutes sleep tops though, so as soon as I get my baby down its zzzzz time..

Originally Posted by ennay:
Just got back from hood to coast, fun but exhausting. I ended up doing a 6.2 then a 6.9 then a 4.25 The 6.9 was my best...I ran faster than I have ever run before under any conditions
.........

:cp::cp::cp::cp::cp: SUCH A STUD :cp::cp::cp::cp::cp:

Woohoo, ennay!

I finally got a nice long run in this morning, and it was my last long one before the half marathon next Sunday. I hadn't run since Monday, so I was afraid it would be tough. It was tough in a way, but I felt really strong and I pushed myself. I did 10 miles in 1 hour, 53 minutes, which is an average 11:18 mile pace. That's the fastest pace I've ever had on a long run, by far, and I still had energy for a push at the end. And zero walk breaks -- I drank water twice, but I ran while doing it.

I'll run with the students during cross country practice on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Then I'll do an easy couple of miles on Saturday...and then the big race Sunday! Scary!

Good going Ennay. Good for you getting your run in Lisa.

I ran 2.5 miles yesterday, on vacation no less. I was at altitude (5600 ft) and it was still easier than dealing with the horrid heat and humidity.

Anne

Wow Ennay, sounds like you had a great set of runs, must be hard to start and stop like that, no?

I made it through 20 miles today, feeling pretty good about it. The last few miles were definitely challenging, but I could see toughing it out for a final 6 when the time comes (and it's coming soon - can't believe there are only 6 weeks left till marathon day).

Wow, Rachel, is it that soon? Good job on your long run. Do you have another 20 miler, since your are 6 weeks out?

Anne

Originally Posted by ennay:
Just got back from hood to coast

:bravo: What a satisfying feeling that must be!

Now, you weren't one of those people who left their, er, um, droppings in that lady's front yard, right? :)

Thanks Anne! Yup - it's only 6 weeks away now. It does feel good to have a 20-miler under my belt now...helps me visualize being able to do the full 26.2. I'll get one more 20 in before I start my taper, and I have a half marathon in two weeks, which I think will help to get me into race mindset.

Going to the doctor sometime this week when I can get in to be seen. I think it's getting worse. I did buy a treadmill so I am guessing now that I have bought it the Dr. is going to make me take a break and I can just stare at my investment - LOL.

Someone send me some healing vibes before my legs give out on me!