Long Run on Treadmill: approx 100 minutes

My Achilles have been feeling better and I woke up with no pain.  Ok, pain in my quads from 50 minutes on the exercise bike yesterday.  It finally came in yesterday!!!!  Anyways, I was feeling good so I decided to do a longer run on the treadmill.  I rubbed in some absorbing jr, and taped my Achilles with KT tape and set out to do my run.  No incline on the treadmill and at a speed slightly slower than normal.  The first 3 miles went well and I walked for a minute after each mile.  At 3.5 miles, I was feeling good and I continue to feel good all the way to the end.  After 3.5 miles, I again decrease the speed (a little) and continue to run for approx a mile and walk a minute.  When the Achilles were feeling slightly tight, I'd run for 5 minutes and walk for 30 seconds before resuming my run.  Overall, I felt great and no real pain on my Achilles.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Before my Achilles got bad last time, I had a great run and paid for it the next day....so time will tell and I'm hoping I don't wake up with pain tomorrow!!!  Either way, I'm still going to take it easy and not over do it before the half marathon....  I just did not want to go a month running at a low mileage every week and worry about my endurance for the race.  Now having done 10 miles, I can feel good about it.

Yesterday, I decided that I was going to book the hotel room for another night.  Originally, I had planned on coming home after the race.  With check out at 11:00, it would not leave me little time to get back to the hotel for check out.  To eliminate the stress, I am staying another night.  This way, I can enjoy the race and post race activities and not have to worry about rushing back.  I will now have plenty of time to take a shower and ice down my Achilles and take a nap afterwards, if necessary! Perhaps a bit of sight seeing and maybe the after party that night.  We'll see!  I'm glad it's coming together.  I want to make this event as stress free as possible and really have a fun and rewarding experience.  2 weeks...yikes!  I can't wait:)

17 days to my first Half Marathon

I'm sitting here writing in my blog while my rice is cooking.  I am making spicy tuna rolls for dinner. I still need to prepare the crab meat but that can wait.  I am actually feeling good right now.  I hope I'm not being delusional but my swelling on the Achillies looking better and I'm not feeling any pain. It felt good walking on it.  I have been keeping  asorbine jr. on it most of the time.  I have been going easy on my training and took Tuesday off.

I purchased a new pair of sneakers last week.  The current pair I am wearing is not that old, maybe 3 months but I have run in the rain with them several times so I was concerned about the padding.  It is a good thing I took a closer look because the outer edges are worn.  I also looked at the other pair of sneakers I purchased several months back and they too seemed worn.  It's weird because I ran in them a few times on training and once in a 5k race.  I purchased them on line and honestly, I wasn't happy with that particular pair of shoes but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of sending them back.  In hind sight, I should if sent them back.  Next time, I will know better!

Today, I decided to do a light taping on Achilles before my run.  I did 40 minutes on the treadmill, again at only a slightly slower pace and no incline,  it still feels weird to run with no incline because I have run for so many years on a 3.5 incline and I wonder why I have Achilles pain!  To not further aggregate the leg, I took many short walk breaks.  It was a good run and no pain when I was done.  I still iced it for 20 minutes afterwards.  So far so good and I hope it will continue to improve.  Again, I hope I am fooling myself but I want to be happy and not depressed about the injury.  I am again getting excited about the race which is only 17 days away!!!!  Yeah!!:)

My exercise bike should be here tomorrow so I'll be able to do some cross training.

I'll keep posting about my training and progress on my blog!

Update on my half marathon training

I had a great run last Tueaday.  After running for 30 minutes on the treadmill, I decided to run the other 30 minutes on the road.  Instead of going to the trails, I ran by the house.  There are lots of rolling hills.  I felt very strong and ran at a great pace and finished strong.  To my surprise and anguish, my Achilles hurt the next day and in fact my right Achillies were swollen.  Not good.  I am about 3 weeks away from my half marathon and I do not want to think about not running, let alone my Achillies blowing out and I won't be able to walk.  What a nightmare.  Not being able to do something I love.  I didn't think I love running but when faced with the possibility of taking time off or not being able to run again, I realize how much I do love running....

It has been hard taking 5 days off.  I have been icing my Achilles a lot and putting absorbing jr. on it. It's amazing the emotions I have been through these last 5 days.  Mostly anger, sadness, denial, etc...  My Achilles started to feel a lot better on the 3 day and there was very little pain....  Maybe I am in denial but I am still planning on running my first half marathon in September.  After that, I will see if I am able to do the 2nd half marathon I signed up for in November.

There is so many reasons why I want to run this half marathon in September.  It's my first half marathon after all.  After all these years of running 5ks, I finally got the courage to train for a half.  I have also made the hotel reservation and my MIL will be here from up north to run in the race series. I need the short vacation!   Not to mention, training hard...maybe over training!  So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to run in the race.  Okay, run/walk/run.  I will not have the time I want to finish in but my goal has shifted to just finishing the race because of my injury.

I did return to my training today.  Of course, my training is at a much easier level.  I did a total of 30 minutes on the treadmill with short walk breaks.  Weird to run on the treadmill with no incline, I have never done that...and at a slightly slower pace.  I didn't want to push my luck so we'll see.  I hope the Achilles will be okay tomorrow (fingers crossed, no pain hopefully).  I will really be cutting down on my mileage until the half.  I ordered my exercise bike (will be here Thursday) so I'm hoping to do some major cross training on it for endurance, instead of going for the long runs.  Let's hope it's enough for me to finish the race amd cross the finish line.

Training day: long run

I have been running off and on since high school.  I ran on my high school track team...not that I was an exceptional runner.  It has always been ingrained in me not to walk.  Walking was quitting and I have always believed this...until recently.  When I signed up for the half marathon, I had called someone who I knew ran half marathons.  She told me about Jeff Galloway and his run/walk/run method.  I told her "I just can't walk."  Well, dispute my self I still ended up buying a few of his e-books and a hard cover book.  I still like having the book in my hands...I'm old fashion like that!  I talked to hubby about this walking thing and he said it made sense to him and Jeff Galloway is an Olympian.

I have been training for my half marathon with walk breaks.  Not necessary to the extent he has suggested in his book but when I am tired or on a big hill, I will take a 30 seconds to 1 minute break, if necessary.  Yes, I do feel better afterwards and my running seems better.

Today, was my long training run.  12 laps, with each lap being over a mile.  It was a cloudy day but humid.  My water bottle leaked and left my shorts wet.  Yuck!    The first mile turned out to be challenging and I found myself  taking several walk breaks and I wonder how I was going to finish my 12+ miles and if my time was going to really slow!  The first 3 miles were overall challenging.  Around mile 4, I had a GU energy gel.  I had purchased a few boxes with different flavor and I must admit I enjoy the salted caramel flavor!  Yes, it actually tasted like caramel.  The next 3 miles went better.  Mile 7 was a bit tough and I tried to say my mantra, smooth and easy.  It did help.  After mile 8, I told myself only 4 more miles.  I can do it.  I realized around mile 10, I was kind of in the zone (not that I was feeling energetic or anything) but my feet kept moving!  It turned out to be one of my better miles.  I have only 2+ miles to go!  The last mile or so went well since I knew the end was in sight!   I must admit that I was very excited to be done.  According to my runkeeper, 12.85 miles!  Yeah, I decided not to push myself any further, though if I had to, I could of keep running until 13.1... I was drenched from my run but it was great to finish and stop running :).  As it turned out, even with all the walk breaks, my time was 15 second faster per mile than my long run last Friday!!!!

On the drive home, I did wonder if I was crazy to want to run a half marathon...but then I realize no, I'm not.  I feel a sense of accomplishment!  I feel good about myself.  It's good to have a goal to work towards.  I think that makes makes me grow as a person.

It felt great to get home, soak in the tub and ice down my Achilles.   Goal accomplished and less than 30 days to half mararthon race!

Training update and crochet too

New project:  In The Shade Top

I didn't blog anything last week.  I did all my runs on the treadmill last week.  4 training runs, with Monday and Tuesday running for total of 90 minutes each day with 1.5 incline.  On Thursday and Saturday, 60 minutes each day and 1.5 incline.  No long run last week...tapering off a bit to give the legs a rest.  This week, I have already completed my runs for the week.  50 minutes on the treadmill each day on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Today, I did my long run outdoors at the trails.  (Today was my best bet to get my trail run, otherwise I would have to do the long run on the treadmill tomorrow)....

It was much cooler today but humid.  The weather cooperated and I did not get rained on!  I was able to run my furthest to date of over 11.5 miles!  The first mile started out good.  I have been going without my energy drink and energy candy for the last week or so because they were making me sick, od on caffeine!  I was getting tired at mile 2 and I wonder if it was because I was not running on fresh legs, having run 3 days in a row or/and the negative messages.  Anyways, I waited until mile 3 to take my energy gel.  Mile 4 was a bit of a struggle but I felt better running miles 5 and 6.  At mile 6, I had another energy gel.  I was thinking of the comic by oatmeal while I was eating my energy gel and it made me laugh and gave me energy to keep going!  I break the run up into 3 mile increments, which makes it more manageable in my head...I read in one of the blogs how it helps to break the miles up so it's not so overwhelming.  Around mile 6, I was thinking no problem, only another 3 miles then 2 more, I can do it!  My arms are more relaxed and I actually have a better running form.  Then I started to get more tired around miles 7 and 8 and I took some 30 second and 1 mile walk breaks.  Mile 10 and 11 were a little harder and I try think of some mantra in my head, "I have a lot of endurance", "smooth and easy", etc...  The last mile was tiring but having to get around some walkers, I actually picked up the pace to get around them!  I was so happy to finally be done and stop running!  Of course, it was a great accomplishment but I am glad to be done with the run!

I have been using my runkeeper to keep track of my distance.  I really like the app in that I can see how fast I run every mile and my total distance.  The last mile, the app stopped so I had to restart the last mile.

When I got home, I took a nice bath and iced down my Achilles.  After a nice meal, I am feeling better, back to normal.  I'm not sure if I will get another short run in on Sunday or call it good for the week.  I am kind of excited it's August because September is my FIRST half marathon.  :)


Now onto my crafts!  I had to put my crochet top on hold.  After getting 3/4 of the front done, the top is going to be too big so I started on another top, called "in the shade".  It is also a crochet pattern and I have completed the upper front and back portion.  Hopefully, I will be motivated to work on the top this weekend.

Top #1 (too big)