C25K - Wk 2, day 3

Met Andrea this morning for our C25K session. Weather was great, overcast and cool. We ran 1.5 miles in roughly 25 minutes with a 3 minute warm up walk. Average pace was 11:30. I love running with Andrea, she cracks me up. She pushes herself so hard. She's a great workout partner....can't wait till she is back to par so she can start kicking my @$$ again.

Andrea got me started running and stomped my rump all around Raleigh in 2007. She never took no for an answer or let me stop. You had to be dieing to stop. That's basically her personal mantra, "stop and I will kill you". hahaha

Found a great marathon documentary on Hulu.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/63726/nova-marathon-challenge
Check it out. It's about 52 minutes and informative. Kind of reminds me of the Running Gals group. All the runners are 1st time 1/2 or hole marathoners.

Week 7 - Shin Splints

• Weather: 81 degrees, 50% humidity
• Location: Lake Johnson
• Duration: 4 miles (intervals)

Me, Anne, Kelly, and Calvin met at Lake Johnson for a four mile run. My shins started to ache while running, so it's ice and Aleve for me.

I feel focused about running and need to develop a more intense training regimen. Not sure if running intervals during the week is going to get me to marathon strength by November 1. I don't know, it's just something I'm bouncing around.

C25K - Week 2, day 2 - Ouch...my head!!

• Weather: 86 degrees, sunny, 38% humidity
• Location: Koka Booth, flat!
• Duration: 1.30 miles (1:30 min run: 2 min walk for 20 minutes)

C25K training was good. Brittany and Jenn came. Brittany is struggling a little bit now but I know it will get better for her if she keeps at it. Jenn could have kept going. She was surprised that time was up so quickly.

Brittany inquired about good running form. Your running form is important in that you can expend a lot of wasted energy by holding your shoulders up, titling forward as you run, or over striding. All in all, your body should be relaxed (as relaxed as possible considering the stress of running) and you should allow yourself to settle into the natural form your body takes while running. To tweak out some of bad habits, check out this Runner's World article on good running form for tips.

Jenn emailed this morning about experiencing headaches after running. I too get headaches after long runs or on really hot 3-4 mile days. I've read that this is due to electrolyte loss. So here is my remedy....

• drink lots of water before the run (50 oz is usually what I can get in before an afternoon run) but avoid that sloshy feeling in your stomach...you've drunk too much
• drink in some electrolytes (Gatorade) during the long or hot runs (you lose electrolytes when you sweat) but no more then 8oz every 20 minutes to avoid hypoatremia
• eat within 30 minutes after the run. I usually try to get more Gatorade in at this point too

I buy Gatorade in the powder form at Walmart. It's much cheaper then buying it already bottled. After long runs, I usually experience a headache so I take a Tylenol. I read that taking Tylenol before you run is bad but you will have to do your own research on that.

**used some of my old web page design skills on the hyperlinks...how do you like the pop out windows?**

Week 7 - Kicking @$$ and taking names...

• Weather: 92 degrees, Sunny, 61% humidity (HOT!)
• Location: NC Museum of Art
• Duration: 5.13 miles; 3 continuous miles & 2 miles intervaled
• Average pace: slow!!!

Ran part of the Reedy Creek Trail , beginning at the museum into Umstead. It's scenic with green horse pastures and a rolling decent. It's a bear coming back when you are exhausted. I over did it Monday....but it felt so good, I couldn't help myself. Paid for it yesterday. :) My legs became post hole diggers most of the way back. Had to slow to what felt like a crawl. Still managed to finish in less then 50 minutes. Averaged an 11:38 pace out and 13:21 back (with intervals included). Still not bad considering how I felt.

Seems I have developed a reputation for being a drill sergeant although I do not yell at anyone. I do encourage people to run though (I'm smiling as I type this, hehehe). The Running Gals have been together for almost a year now. We can run this. So when someone stops, I push them to keep going. As slow as you may feel you are moving, keep running!!! Woo hoo! I love it. This week I kicked my own @$$!

Injury report.....

• Christa has had to scale back her running due to an achilles injury. 10 miles is a bear.
• Jason (C25K) has Planters Fasciitis

C25K-Week 2....amazing

• Weather: 82 degrees, overcast, 76% humidity
• Location: Lake Benson (LB)
• Duration: 5.5 miles (various intervals)
• Average pace: unknown

"Sometimes the moments that challenge us the most, define us." The first line from the documentary Spirit of the Marathon; powerful and true. I think this applies well for the week. The C25K met today at LB. Andrea ate her Wheaties (as Kelly would say) and was running super fast. Jenn had a hard time keeping the pace so we hung back and ran together. It was a challenging run for her. Those are the best runs; they show you what your made of. I firmly believe that the body changes and adapts when pushed past the point when your left brain screams stop and your motivation moves you forward.

Arriving at the lake early gave me the opportunity to run a mile before everyone showed up. I ran 1.06 miles in about 10 minutes. My pace was 9:55. We ran the C25K regimen for 1.33 miles. Andrea and Jason ran another .65 miles and Jason continued with me for about another half mile after that. I ran two more miles afterwards in 24 minutes, for a total of 5.5 miles.

I'm truly and completely addicted to running. I feel like a runner today, like a real runner. I ran today until my legs were tired. It took 5.5 miles. I could have pushed for more but I'm running tomorrow and didn't want to ware myself out.

10 Miles!!

• Weather: 70+ degrees, no rain, low humidity
  
• Location: Through Garner to Lake Benson
• Duration: 10 miles (intervals); 2 hr 18 min
• Average pace: unknown

We made it. I can't believe we ran 10 miles. Calvin and I got up early on Friday to run because we were going to be out of town all weekend and wouldn't be able to run. It was great. We ran down to Lake Benson which was closed b.c they were setting up for the July 4th celebration. We stuck to the trails and ran the park a couple times before Sallie, Jason, and Blake met up with us for their Couch to 5k run. They did really good. Jason continued to run with us for another mile after their 20 minutes was up.

I had a headache on and off Friday and woke up with one on Saturday. I think this is due to electrolyte loss and because I'm not very good at eating after my runs. Got to work on that.

Another little issue that has come up are these tiny little blisters on the tips of my toes. Bodyglide is awesome and I just read that you can use it on your toes to avoid such blisters. I'll give it a try for my next run.

Couch to 5k continues tomorrow, rain or shine. I contacted most of the girls via text on Saturday and was very proud to hear they all ran! This program has gotten off to a good start.

Couch 2 5k - The beginning

Couch to 5k training began today. We had 3 participants, not including myself and met at Lake Benson Park for our inaugural run.

Run started at 6pm and went really well. We warmed up by walking 5 minutes then intervaled 1 minute of running and 1:30 walking for 20 minutes. We covered 1.46 miles in about 27 minutes. Poor Jenn dropped her key on the trail somewhere and we took another two laps around looking for it. Her Mom brought her extra key and saved the day....moral...tie keys down, shoelaces are your friend.

Andrea was in drill Sergeant mode...have to say I've missed that...and whipped Brittany into shape. Brittany admitted later to wanting to curse us all but appreciated the support.

Today was a good day. It's really great to see people taking steps to make their lives better by improving their health. It's the beginning and it only gets better from here.