Whew what a busy week we have had! I have had the distinct pleasure of visiting with one of my bestest friends during one her few and far between visits to Northern California. See, we have been friends since our freshman year in high school (at this point, too long ago for me to want to admit. OK, it's been fourteen years.) and although she lives in Texas she remains one of my best friends. We can go six months without seeing each other and pick up a conversation like we just left off five minutes ago. I love her. Since she has been here, we have eaten pizza twice. I'm a superhero athlete now though, so those things don't tempt me like they used to. I lie. I really really really wanted that damn pizza. After slice 2 when I'm supposed to cut myself off I found myself longingly staring at that delicious round goodness sitting mere feet away fom my face. But I win, and the pizza stayed right where it belonged- on it's pan for someone else to shove in their mouth.
We worked out in the Church of Work aka my garage twice last week. Lots of crunches, jump rope, stretching, and knee ups. Lots of weights lifted. Lots of sweat dripped. We ran twice at three miles each. I feel like I'm getting slower, not faster, which is completely a buzzkill but at this point I'm just happy that I was able to finish. With each run that we do, I feel like it's going a little bit smoother and I feel a little bit better. I also feel like quitting completely a little further on in the run so I take that to mean that my endurance is building.
On Sunday, we were supposed to do our first long run. Long runs in this training plan start at four miles and gradually progress up to ten. We are supposed to run ten miles on the last weekend in September. <--Knees shaking about this one, seriously. Anyway, we didn't do the long run on Sunday. We wound up heading out to the lake that afternoon with the canoe. We paddled around for a decent amount of time and pulled up to the shore to let the kids play around. It was really a beautiful day, perfect for hanging out lakeside and people watching. The kids had so much fun digging up rocks and clamshells. Before heading home, we decided to meander out onto the lake again. While out in the middle of the lake, hubs thought it would be a great idea to let our son jump out of the canoe and into the lake. I protested- loudly. But it didn't seem like I was going to win this one so I opted to compromise. Fine, I said, but only if we get a little closer to shore. If we tip this dang thing over, I want to be a little closer in. So Hub prepared my son for the fact that the water would be very cold and told him to go over the edge- easy. Easy does not come naturally to a six year old ball of energy so he went bailing out over the edge. Needless to say, we ALL felt how cold the water was. Hub's popped out of the water first and flipped the canoe back over, at the same time pushing our two-year-old daughter back into it. She was completely ballistic, poor thing. Our son was laughing hysterically, he thought it was the funnest thing ever. Hub retrieved his hat and a flip flop that was floating near us and we proceeded to swim back to shore, towing our canoe with us. At this point, the canoe was full to the brim with lake water, our gear, and both kids. Poor babygirl was screaming bloody murder and littleman was completely hysterical the whole way in. The water was cooooold and even though we were swimming pretty hard, I was shivering. I can see why the swimmers I see going across the lake wear wetsuits. Looking back, it really wasn't that bad. I just felt really bad for babygirl who at that point was overtired and the shock of tipping over was just too much for her to handle. She fell asleep before we even turned out of the parking lot, but we were all burnt out from being in the sun all day. We skipped the long run.
So last night, we made up for it. Four miles, measured from our house....is pretty much all the way around one side of town. West Cap down Harbor to Reed to Jefferson and up West Cap back home seems like a really long way...but somehow it's just barely over four miles. I have no idea how long it took us since we didn't look at the clock before we left. All I know is that we finished it, and I FELT the extra mile. My knees are aching today but otherwise I feel great. We are going to need to get some reflective gear, because we have been running a lot at night and as these runs get longer and longer we are finding that there are less and less streetlights. I think that some of the knee pain is from running on the sidewalk as opposed to the asphalt but I am not running on the streets without reflectors on. I found myself in disbelief while we were running- this was the longest run we have done to date. And then found myself in further disbelief that we would be over doubling this by our last training run and even further, running this over THREE TIMES for our race in just a few weeks. I am speechless every time I think about this. Speechless but hopeful.
So we have another three miles on the slate for tonight. I hope my knees can hold out for it. I'm sure that it will feel like a walk in the park after last night......here's hopin.
your poor little girlie! I would have been crying too with that cold water :)
ReplyDeleteGood job on your four miles! Be proud!
you're probably NOT getting slower in the run, but don't fret about speed anyway. Speed will come in time. I promise you that if you run a 10K during your Half training (which I do recommend if you can find one) and then another 10K a few weeks after your Half Marathon, you'll see speed improvement.
ReplyDeleteIf your knees are achey after 4 miles, I would suggest stretching your hip flexors at mile 1 and mile 3 of your run every run from now until your race. Probably you're unstable in your hips, and your knees are picking up the extra work. Don't worry about it, it sounds pretty normal, just try to stretch during the run. Because you're doing it a mile in and then again, you'll really see progress in loosening them up. Happy running!