Why does it have to hurt?

We ran outside today, slowly and with a bit of walking… Again, it’s that much harder to run outside, I find, with a strong wind blowing in your face and cold getting down to your bones, and pavement being hard on your feet. Also, all the roads around our house are VERY hilly – that’s probably yet another reason of why it seems a bit easier to run on the treadmill, because I usually just run there at zero incline. Anyway, today we ran 4 km in 38 mins (some walking in there, hence slow time). My shin on my right leg have been bothering me for the last 2 runs, which conincindentally were the times that I’ve worn my brand new running shoes. I was so excited to finally pull them out of the box and wear, but now I don’t even know what to think… Last time I just wrote it off to being tired, but this time, I am starting to wonder if, somehow unfortunately, my new shoes could be contributing to the pain. I’ll have to try with the orthotic inserts or perhaps back in my old shoes next time, and see if that’s any better. Meanwhile, I’m putting ice on my strained muscle/shin area, and hoping that it helps…

Yet another workout… And a new non-scale victory!

At the gym today I ran for 2.2 miles in 25 minutes (not bad, but not all that great either), and burned 371 calories. I felt so tired and my shins hurt so much, that I just couldn’t even finish the whole 3.1 mi (5K). I guess, I could have walked the rest of the distance just for the sake of covering the distance, but I decided that I would rather go workout on the fitness center machines while I still had time left with the kids being in  the childcare at the gym. So not too bad. I am still really tired though – I’ve been on my feet most of the day, running around different stores all afternoon, so I’m sure that wasn’t too helpful for my workout.

I did have an exciting non-scale victory today (speaking of scales, I have been pretty disappointed with mine, since I haven’t seen it move in the downward direction in a while). I noticed that all my pants and jeans were getting way too baggy and loose, so I decided to get a new pair of jeans. Now, my previous pairs were all size 16. Imagine my surprise when every single pair I tried on in size 14 fit fine! I was so surprised! But it gets better – I found a pair of jeans I really liked, and size 12 actually fit even better than 14!!!! I was so happy, beyond words – I haven’t worn size 12 jeans in several years. That’s not to say that *any* size 12 pants will fit me, but these ones did, and I was excited! My non-scale victory for today! Yay!

Back to the gym

Since it was raining outside today, we went to run and work out at the gym. We had a pretty good workout, if I say so myself. I ended up running (still with a bit of walking in the middle) for 38 minutes, but it was an entire 5K (3.1 mi). During my race in August I had a time of 36.5 minutes, but these other couple minutes were my walking in the middle (actually I probably walked more – maybe about 5 minutes, but the parts that I did run, I ran faster). Some of the time I was going at 6.5 m/h, some of the time I had to slow down to 5 or even 4.7 m/h (obviously, I couldn’t keep up the 6.5 m/h pace the whole time, as much as I would have liked that). But I burned 520 calories! And also it’s a progress from my previous two workouts which were both just under 4K in just a tiny bit shorter time. Granted, it’s harder to run outside, especially in a more extreme weather, especially with some hills (that we have around our house), but I feel like at the gym I was able to push myself more, especially watching Stan run the whole 5K at 7.7 m/h! He finished the distance in just 25 minutes! Yes, I still have a long way to go to be that fast, but hey, baby steps…

We also worked out for about an hour on the weight machines and did some more cardio at the end (just walking). I probably burned close to 800-900 calories total, which is pretty awesome!

It’s too cold out there!

After being sore for most of the weekend after not running for so long, we ventured out this morning for yet another run.  It was SO chilly out there! I had to have a hat and a scarf, otherwise I was just freezing. It was really strange – with the hat and scarf on I was sweating too much, but without I was freezing… Such a hard choice…

Anyway, I ran (and walked for a total of 300m in the middle) for 3.9K in 36 minutes.  Total calories burned: 388. Again, not great time, but I already said that before 🙂 I know I need to work on two things mainly;

1) planning my strength accordingly so that I don’t run out of steam early on and have to walk in the middle, even if it’s just a short walk,

2) my speed.

Hopefully I can accomplish both of those goals before Thanksgiving!

Back in the saddle

Or in my running shoes, to be exact 🙂

Well, after two months exactly (to the day), of no running (of which I am not proud) we started to run again. This partly was caused by the fact that we all (including my oldest son Edward) registered for another 5K (Edward will be running a kids’ run of 1.4 K) on Thanksgiving day. We have to earn our turkey and stuffing by huffing and puffing for it 😉 Actually most of my husband’s family decided to run as a team, so that will be pretty awesome. For a lot of them, it’s a first time to run a 5K. I’m sure it will be great! I am already getting really excited about it!

I was afraid that after so long, I’ll have to pretty much start from scratch of my C25K program, but I actually had a pretty good run today. I ran (and walked for about 200 m twice in the middle) for 34 mins for a total of 3.75K. Pretty slow, I know, but I was expecting worse.  Total calories burned: 381. So, not too bad. I know I’ll be pretty sore tomorrow, but tonight it felt good.

I did it!

Today was the day of our first 5K run! And I am VERY happy to report that not only did I do it, but I accomplished my goal with it of running the whole distance without any walking. I am so happy! Thank you, Melanie, for flying out here to support us in this endeavor, for running the whole 5K with me, even when I needed to go so slowly. Your support was invaluable.

My time was 36 minutes and 27 seconds. While it wasn’t very fast, Melanie and I certainly didn’t arrive last, there were at least a third of the people still behind us. It was also a record for me for the continuous running – I have never in my life run for 36.5 minutes straight. Even when we had to run 5K back in school, I would sprint, then have to walk, then sprint, then walk again, etc. I never did learn endurance running back in school. But I’m happy I was able to complete this 5K. Now, like Melanie said, “I have a time record to better”. 🙂

Stan ran with a double stroller with both kids in it and made an amazing time of only 26 minutes and 8 seconds. He was FAST (for being with the stroller anyway) 🙂 He’s now talking about running a 10K race in 3 weeks and wants me to do it with him. I am not sure I can be ready for it that fast (he has run for 6 miles previously while getting ready for 5K several times), while I never ran more than this 3.1 miles. So it’s hard to say. Plus at this point I’m not sure I can push myself to do it and whether my heart is really in it. But I am still looking at all the options and evaluating it.

Here are a couple of blurry pictures from the race day. Never mind my red face – running was hard and yes, I was tired 🙂

My family on the morning of the 5K race

After running 5K race

All of the participants of the race got medals just for participating 🙂

~ 400 people running in the race at the Tanger Outlet Center

This was hilarious! Melanie was trying to take pictures of me just before crossing the finish line.

Stan and kids running in the 5K race

It's hard work to run a 5K in the stroller - it can get boring, you know!

It’s tiring to run on days like today

Well, it was 1.86 miles (3 km) in 24 min today. Same route outside as Monday, but 3 minutes slower…  Not bad, and I did run the whole time. But it can be better. It needs to be better. And fast. As in – by this Saturday –  fast…

I feel exhausted now, not sure why. Maybe, it’s staying up late cleaning everything up late every night, maybe just from running, who knows. Either way, I feel cranky, and want to snap at someone because all my muscles hurt.

I need a nap… That must be it…

All by myself :)

This is it! The moment of truth… LOL

Seriously, with the race coming up this Saturday, I’ve been a bit stressed about how I am going to meet my goal and run the entire thing without walking, and outside, no less… But after reading my beautiful sister-in-law Diana’s blog, I got inspired. I went out by myself, while the boys were napping (yes, all of them, including the big one – it’s been raining hard here the past couple of days, so it must have made them tired ;), and ran 1.86 miles (3 km) in 21 minutes. All. Without. Any. Walking!

Can you tell I am a bit happy?

Anyway, I know 5 K is longer, but I am hoping to do a longer run on Wednesday, and also hoping that the energy of the race and seeing other people running will also provide me with a needed boost. I need to overcome my psychological hangup (telling myself it’s too much, too long, I can’t do it, blah, blah, blah) and just run. Yes, of course, I was very tired, but I did it.

So, thank you Diana for providing me with my daily dose of inspiration 🙂

Tough run

With the race day rapidly approaching we decided to do our today’s run outside. Although it was a little humid (not too terrible though), it was nice and cool. I started out running pretty well, but ran out of steam pretty quickly – even before I approached half a mile. I had a walk a little bit after that because I literally felt like I was going to die. I’m not sure why, hubs thought I started out running too fast, but it didn’t feel incredibly too fast… Throughout the run I did quite a bit of walking (which I am entirely not proud of), but I did run most of it… It took me 44 min to do 4.3 km – not quite 5, but the distance that I mapped out on google maps somehow ended up being shorter than on the map…

My shins are VERY sore after today and my legs feel like led. Don’t know, maybe it’s to be expected, since most of the summer we ran inside on the treadmill (since mid-June). I’m not even sure what to think and how to make myself not feel so tired and sore so quickly. I need to run that whole distance, and I have no idea how I will… In just a little more than a week…

Good run today

I had a fairly good run today. I ran a total of 25 minutes (broken up into 5 minute segments with 1-3 min walks in between). Not ideal, I know,  but for the first time my run+walk equaled exactly the 5K distance – 3.1 miles! Yes, it took me 40 min to do the distance (since I was walking in between the 5 run periods and cool down at the end), but I managed to burn 510 cal on the treadmill. I know this is not where I need to be at this point in my training, but honestly this is the most I’ve done in terms of running in probably a month and a half, so not bad. Next time I need to try to have longer stretches of running and get the total running time to 30 minutes.

Hubs RAN for 40 minutes today (entire time, no breaks) at 6 m/h and did 4.1 miles, which is 2/3 of the distance of the 10K. So I know that he’s definately ready for the upcoming 5K. He’s actually now talking about running 10K in early September.