Bummed

I'm more than a little bit bummed. Last week I was so excited that I ran for 45 minutes, but my foot still hurts. Nothing bad, except that I'm afraid to run on it too much for fear of making it worse. It's been a full week now, and except for that lame run last week I haven't done anything. And we're going out of town tomorrow, which means it will be another week.

Foot pain & a cancelled race

Last week I ran for 45 minutes straight, which was awesome. I could have gone longer but decided to stop since I normally only go 30. The next day my foot was killing me. I could barely put weight on it. It looked normal, but I was worried that maybe I had a stress fracture. The following day it felt a little better but was swollen where it hurt (on the outside under my ankle bone) & a little discolored. That was day before yesterday & it’s almost back to normal now.* Today we had hoped to run a 5k at The Homestead Resort, but it was cancelled. We decided just to run our normal 3.6 miles around the neighborhood.

I don’t know whether it was the heat or the fact that we haven’t run since Tuesday, but we both felt awful. My foot held up ok although it’s a little sore now. We ended up cutting the run short because we felt so crummy. I’ve had another killer migraine all day & Phil is getting sick. We were talking about running a race Monday morning but honestly I don’t know if we will be up to it. I hope so.

*I told Phil I must be a “real runner” now since I was contemplating whether I could run on a foot that I could barely walk on.

Our first race!

Phil and I had our first race Saturday, a 5k. I’d been looking forward to it for at least a month, but all day Friday I had “pre race jitters”. I don’t know what I was uptight about, to be honest. I had no expectations, aside from finishing the race. Hard to mess that up when it’s only 3.1 miles. Phil wasn’t anxious in the least but the closer it got, the worse I felt. As it turned out it was a great experience. I ran faster than I’d expected, the views were fantastic, and I felt really good during and after. And then I was tired all day & ended up with a migraine. Still, I have no regrets. We’re going to try and run as many races as possible this summer, ideally every weekend.

Things I learned this time:

~ Eat well the night before because the morning of the race I won’t want to eat anything. (I choked down some eggs, though.)

~ 30 minutes into it feels FREAKING AWESOME.

~ 31 minutes into it feels freaking awesome except I feel like throwing up.

~ Having lots of support there makes a world of difference.

~ I need to do something to prevent future migraines. Maybe drink more water ahead of time?

I was fortunate to have my sisters, my mother and father in law, and some of my kids there cheering for me along the way. It was really a lot of fun.

Ignoring the voice.

I think it was the combination of 3 things that got me started running.

One was an online acquaintance - a runner - who told me she’s “always hated running”. That’s me. I figured if someone who always hated it had grown to love it, there was hope for me.

The second thing was Starling Fitness. Laura, the author, started running awhile back and I was living vicariously as her mileage climbed higher and higher. Her enthusiasm for the sport made me itching to run long before I started.

The third thing was the book, Running with Angels. I found it especially inspiring because it was written by a local woman who lost a lot of weight after joining Weight Watchers and taking up running. I read the book shortly after I started running, and at just the time I joined Weight Watchers. It was exciting to realize I wasn’t the only person who had weird thoughts and emotional ties to food. The author’s success was inspiring.

At our race this weekend I saw the author of the book. And she’s gained weight. She doesn’t appear to have gained it all back, but she did appear to have put on quite a bit of weight. Admittedly, I don’t know her circumstances. Maybe she just had a baby. Maybe she’s having thyroid trouble. There could be any number of reasons why she looked heavier than in her photos & I’m sure I will never know the real reason. But seeing one of the people who I found most inspiring slip from the pedestal unsettled me more than I would have guessed. And there’s that little voice in the back of my mind that says 6 months of running is nothing when weighed against 36 years of being unathletic. That little voice doesn’t believe I will truly succeed.

Foot pain

I was so excited last night. For the first time ever, I ran a full 45 minutes. The beautiful thing is that I could have kept going, but since I'd only been running 30 up until that point, I decided not to push it.

I felt great, nothing hurt, but then today I woke up and my foot is killing me. It looks fine but I can hardly put weight on it. I hope it's not a stress fracture.

30 glorious minutes

Although I intended to run for 30 minutes today, my original plan was to do it in 5 minute blocks followed by 1 minute of walking. When I headed out the door though, I was feeling frustrated and decided to take it out on my running. My running clothes were all in the laundry so I was wearing a cotton T-shirt, dance pants, and thick hiking socks. I was worried that the change in clothing would make it difficult to run (which didn’t happen, but BOY, WAS IT HOT!).

As it turned out, today’s run was easier than yesterday’s 28 minutes. I don’t normally run two days in a row, so it was a pleasant surprise. I normally have a stitch in my side before I’m even done with my warmup and today it didn’t happen until I’d been running for 25 minutes. I had a cracked femur 20 years ago which still aches from time to time, and it did today, but it really was hardly worth mentioning.

I ran the entire 30 minutes & now I know I’ll do it every time. It’s no longer a question of whether I’ll be able to do it, but rather how it will feel and what I’ll do when I’m done. It’s pretty exciting.

Today’s mileage: 3.3 miles

28 minutes

This morning I walked 5 minutes to warm up, then ran 28 minutes, then walked 11 minutes to cool down and reach 3.2 miles. For the first half of the run I was miserable as always. I sure wish it would get easier and that I wouldn’t struggle to keep going when I’d much rather give up. The last half of my run I was mentally composing a letter and the time passed without me paying much mind. I’ll be ready for the 5k in 1.5 weeks, and I will most likely be able to run the whole thing. But it will take me 45 minutes and honestly, I can probably walk faster than that.

Today’s Mileage: 3.2 miles

25 minutes

Phil & I went running this morning. For me it was the start of week 7 in the Couch to 5k program. I ran for 25 minutes (jogged is probably more accurate) and it. was. hard. I spent most of the run wondering just why it was that I’d picked running for my sport. I’ve never been a good runner. Why did I think anything had changed?

I was and still am a little dismayed at how difficult it was, this jump from 20 to 25 minutes. And when it was over I was ready to collapse into a gelatinous blob on the floor. But it didn’t take long before I was feeling refreshed & energetic, and trying to remember why I’d been so miserable running.

25 minutes

Yippee! I'm up to 25 solid minutes of running. I can hardly believe it myself.

20 minutes without stopping

I was a tad nervous about today’s run. My last one was 8 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking, and another 8 minutes of running. So today I just had to run during that middle part.

My body felt old and achy for the first three minutes. I wonder if that ever goes away. After that I kind of found my groove, but I admit, it was a VERY slow groove. I did the whole 20 minutes though & I wasn’t miserable in the least. By the end several places were not feeling awesome, particularly my side, the metatarsals in my right foot, and the ligaments that connect my femur to my pelvis. But here it is the end of the day and most of that has dissipated.

I’m very psyched about being able to run the entire 20 minutes. It’s hard to believe that a week ago I had never run more than 5.

I’m supposed to go back to running and walking intervals for my next two workouts. I will probably follow the plan, but I may skip ahead to running 25 minutes.

I did it! I ran for 20 minutes without stopping.

Up until today I've only run 8 minutes at a time. My last run was run 8, walk 5, run 8, walk 5. I never would have guess I would come this far this quickly. I am so psyched!