Oranges 2 Oranges

Looking Back at 5K and Moving Forward…

Dec 10

Early Start Today

by With a Dog by My Side

Today was a day to re-calibrate my Nike+ after I had a bit of a problem last time. It turns out that when I hit the mile this time, the Nike+ said I was at .97 mile. It’s not that much of a difference, but it also means that if I’m right, I did go past the 3.1-mile mark on Sunday. It sure felt like it.  lol

I still had a little bit of pre-breakfast, earliest-time-running-ever-for-me energy left after the calibration, so I set it for a basic workout and did .2 miles at a steady 10:10 or so pace, which is getting easier each time, and I was able to go longer that way. I still need to let my lungs catch up, though. My legs felt like they could go on forever.

The reason I ran so early today is that at 4:45am our neighbor’s plowing service came by and started up the ol’ snowblower and plow. This was only feet from our bedroom window. Needless to say, we weren’t happy about it. No matter whom our neighbor gets to plow each year, they insist on coming at 4:45am. There’s a noise ordinance in our city that prevents anyone but city plow truck drivers to make noise before 6am. Once hubby had to go out there and tell the guy that he was throwing snow on our bedroom window! He didn’t even realize that this might wake us up and furthermore “T” us off because heavy snow was hitting the house. DUH! There’s just no consideration anymore (or it’s plain stupidity). I can go on and on. The point is that hubby got out the door slightly earlier than usual, and I was wide awake and thought I’d take advantage of getting this done early.

It’s cold again today. We had rain in the morning yesterday, which then turned to sleet, then snow. I’m so happy that I have the treadmill in icy conditions like this, no matter what some say about it. Sure, I could get out there and experience what it’s like to run freely on the pavement, and I will some day, but I also enjoy the challenges I’ve been able to overcome in the 3 1/2 months I’ve been running inside. It’s also a great form of exercise, as walking on it was getting boring. To each his own, and right now, this is my own.

I’m going to go grab some breakfast. Have a good Wednesday!

Shannan

Running

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Dec 8

Wii!!! Another 5K at home…

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, I just remembered that I hadn’t checked in yet today regarding yesterday’s run of 5K (3.1 miles)! I did it! There are a couple of you out there who came to mind when I wanted to stop early, but I kept going because I wanted to be able to say today that I did it. It has been a few weeks since I’ve had a regular running schedule, and I haven’t been doing well in terms of mileage, so it was a little harder incorporating my new-found, slightly faster pace with the longer distance.

My legs felt sluggish below the knee in the last third, and it felt like time was slowing down. But, hey, I finished the C25K, didn’t I? I’ve already gone this far before! Why couldn’t I do it again? I need to move forward, not backward!

I’m sore today, but it feels good, because I know that it’s because of the effort I made. I’ll need to recalibrate my Nike+ again, since I had a little problem with something falling onto the treadmill’s belt last calibration, which I think calibrated the Nike+ to think that it was taking me longer to get to the mile than it actually would have without my trying to pick up the thing off the belt. I may well have run longer than 3.1 miles, as the treadmill itself said it was 3.3 miles.

On another note, my mother won a Wii Sport and gave it to us yesterday! We played it yesterday, and I played it today for an hour so far. You kind of get a workout from it if you really put forth an effort to MOVE and not sit there just moving your arms, which some people have done. It’s fun! We’re looking into getting Tomb Raider, since it was our favorite game on the old Playstation years ago. YAY!

Thanks, Mom!

Have a good evening, everyone!  🙂

Shannan

Running

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Dec 5

Quite the End to the Week (so far)

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, so I’m thinking I’m going to have to re-challenge myself next week. I had some family things come up yesterday during the time I was going to run, and since I had waited so long to run, the opportunity had passed. Today, I had to take my brother-in-law to the hospital (after going in to work early) for knee surgery that was supposed to get us out of there by 3pm (surgery scheduled for 1pm). I find out at 4pm (after 4.5 hours of waiting in the waiting room) that he had just gone into surgery. Hubby had to come take my place in order to let me go home, which was at 5pm. I think they must be on their way home as I’m writing this. I hope. The day is gone for me. I will try again on Sunday. I think I will start again next week, but maybe just make it a weekly mileage goal instead of every day, since it seems that is not realistic to life right now.

Sigh. Thanks, Thomas, for your comment. I will do well on Sunday. I really want to try to get more miles, so I’m going to plan on a longer running time and take whatever mileage I can get in that time. It’s been a rough eating week, too, and I need to recommit to doing both the running and the eating the right way. I guess it’ll happen when I make both of them a higher priority.

Have a good weekend, everyone!  🙂

Shannan

Running

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Dec 3

Day 3 of My One-a-Day Challenge

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, so it’s the third day of my challenge to myself to run a mile each day until Sunday, when I’ll run 2 miles, bringing my weekly total to 7 miles. I’m up to 2.5 miles, since I didn’t run yesterday. I have legitimate reasons for not running yesterday, but the point is, I made up some of it today, running 1.5 miles. I even did it with an 11:53 pace, which is fast for me. I’ve been challenging myself to run a little during my runs at a faster speed, to try to get my average pace up (fewer minutes per mile). I hope to be able to at least do the tomorrow’s mile between doing a project for work and other things around the house.

As for the reasons I didn’t run yesterday, I’m first an earlier-in-the-day runner (more like late morning), and I got home around 4pm, making it much later than I’m used to. It was not a priority for me at the time. Secondly, and probably the more legitimate reason, is that a few days earlier I had been doing strength training and did a favorite of mine that I learned on the Biggest Loser DVDs, which is the wood chopping movement, where you hold a weight in your hands and slowly pretend you’re chopping wood from one shoulder down to the opposite foot. I did fine that day, but the next two days my hamstrings were hurting — more so on Monday night and Tuesday morning — and my right leg had also been twitching on Monday night. I was afraid I’d damage something if I ran, and I knew I needed the rest time.

It’s been difficult getting back into a routine the way it was when I was on a strict C25K schedule. There’s no chart to tell me where I am, and I’m not really answering to anyone but myself. The fun part of it, though, is that I’m starting to really try to better my times and to get used to the faster speeds. It’s been interesting finding my limits and trying to go past them each time.

So…my aim is to run the next 3 days and then on Sunday do a full 2 miles. Maybe I’ll even pull off something better.

I hope you’re all keeping warm, and for those of you in warmer climates, appreciate it!

Shannan

C25K Running

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Dec 1

Let’s Try This Again

by With a Dog by My Side

So today is the first day of our restart of Weight Watchers. We kind of stopped counting points a few weeks back, and now we’re getting back on it. It’s not hard once we actually decide to do it. I’m hoping to be at my goal by Valentine’s Day. From then, I may try to lose more.

This week I’ve decided to see if I can run each day, but only a mile a day. It doesn’t sound like much, but I wanted to see what doing half my usual distance each day without breaks would be like. I don’t think I’ll need the rest days between, just because I’ll be running so little and easy (about 13-15 minutes depending on pace) that it won’t be too hard on my muscles. I’m eager to test this. If I do M-F at one mile, and then 2 miles on Sunday, that will give me 7 miles for the week.

I also went out in the wee hours this morning and shoveled the 1.5 to 2 inches of snow we got overnight. It’s the wet, heavy kind, but it wasn’t deep, so I was able to lift it. I did get in my strength training doing it, though.

So, I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I’m trying to get back into things after the hectic Thanksgiving period we always have around here. I’m even going to start my free, downloaded MIT writing courses soon. Work’s going to get busy, and it’ll be a nice distraction. I printed out all the coursework and have my two books. I failed miserably in the NaNoWriMo, and ended up with under 3,000 words. It just wasn’t the right month for me, and I think quality work can’t be done in 30 days, fixing it up later or not. What’s the point of writing 50K words if it’s all going to be nonsensical jabbering? Just to get a certificate? No, thanks. If I get good enough to accomplish that one year, then it’s going to be quality work, not just whatever I can type up in the time allotted.

I’ll be back to let you know how the running’s going. It’s my one-a-day challenge.

Shannan

Running Writing

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