Congrats Lene!!

Haleygirl -- learning to pace yourself if part of the excitement of running. If you bonk a few times you'll really learn how to be conservative for the first few miles! ;)

I did 10.31 miles this morning and felt great -- definitely banished the memory of puking on my last 10 miler! I'm contemplating adding a half-marathon race at the end of November to my schedule because it has a fun space theme and I want Princess Leia and Captain Kirk to give me water!

how do you know exactly how far you go? my problem is im going to try and pace myself with my ipod because its a bikepath so i cant exactly drive through it and check the mileage that way lol

Some people use gps devices to tell them. When I get home, I try to map my runs online, there are a few good places to do it.

Hi gang, I'm back from a week out of town ... I had some AWESOME hikes in the mountains and just loved that cool clear autumn weather!! I didn't do a whole lot of running, but did get about 9 miles in on hilly trails. However, I hiked about 27 miles in 3 days. :D One morning, I ran in 48 degree weather, what a change for this South Florida gal. Loved it!!

Getting back home, I struggled through a hot and sweaty 13 miler yesterday ... I intended to do 15, but the 13 was about all I could manage. I don't know if it was the weather contrast, a fueling/hydration issue, or just not running enough the previous week. Two weeks ago, I did 14 miles and felt strong. I didn't have quite as bad an experience as Jo, just my butt was draggin'. At least, I didn't have to clean my shoes. :p

I'm going to sign up for my first 5K of the season, scheduled a week from Saturday. It should be a nice speed workout .... and I, too, lust after a 24 min 5K!! My quickest EVER was in the 26 min range. I just hope I haven't slowed down too much over the hot summer.

well im pretty sure i jogged 2 miles on the bikepath lol i went by my ipod cause i went to mapmyrun.com and i dont think it helped but ill look again

When I first started training, I picked up a copy of Microsoft Streets and Maps. It let me pull up a map of my neighborhood and "draw" out my running route. It calculated the distance for me, and I found it to be pretty darn accurate. I mapped out routes from 3 miles up to 14 miles, for higher mileage, I do loops. That was 5-6 years ago, I bet you could find something online now.

The other alternative is to get one of the fancy GPS thingys, but that would be more expensive.

hmm ya i have a gps but its not a road so i dont know how that would work but im gonna look into that microsoft thing, thanks!

Some people (not me!) have fancy GPS sports watches that are made for biking/running/etc so they keep track of that stuff.

I was able to drive my distance to track my miles. On the web there is a site called http://www.mapmyrun.com/create_new that you can track your distance.

thanks for all the answers! i tried to create my own but i ended up getting frustrated with it lol

I did my run tonight, 2 minute walk, 2 minute run. It was actually a bit difficult mentally because I wasn't sure if I could run 2 minutes without stopping. I did it though!

good going nelie!

Oh I should also say that it was a 20 minute period of time last night. (Actually 23 but..) But the intervals were 2 minute walk/2 minute run. In 2 weeks, we switch to 3 minute run, 1 minute walk... after that we drop walking! EEk!!

Hi everyone. I neglect this forum, sorry. I have been trying to run 3 days a week on Mon/Wed/Fri and I swim on Tu/Th/Sat. I am having endurance issues this month though. I started strong and got 2 miles in, but I haven't been able to repeat that and am stuck at 1-1/5 miles. My swimming has taken off though and I am wondering why that isn't helping me with running. I know that swimming uses all my muscles but obviously in a different way but I figured it would help with strengthening my legs and would help my endurance. It's strange to me that my running is suffering. I am just trying to plug through it as well as I can though and hoping it's just a bump in the road. I would really like to be able to run for 45 minutes straight. For now, when I crap out, I walk on an incline so I am burning as many calories as I can. Anyone have any ideas? I have also started to lift (light) weights a few days a week for 20-30 minutes to help strengthen my body.

Even though swimming works muscles differently, it is still working them. It could be that you are experiencing a little residual fatigue that is impeding your performance a bit. I'd suggest slowing down a bit on your run. Either run at a slower pace that you can sustain longer, or incorporate structured walking breaks. (like: run 10 min / walk 1 min / repeat 4 times) You may feel that you're going backwards, but as your body adjusts to the increased demands, you will be able to work a little more on speed.

I'm actually a big fan of run/walking intervals. I did that for years and found that I could go WAY farther and longer that way ... and it doesn't slow you down all that much. Eventually, I found I got to the point where I could run continuously for extended periods, but that took quite a while.

Just a suggestion!