Ok, so I don't need a Garmin...

I found something just as good... my Nike+ iPod!! I bought it Saturday and it works great! It's not quite as accurate as a Garmin would be because it doesn't go by GPS (it uses stride length etc) but it seems to be pretty darn close (like .1 km off)!

My 10K run is coming up in 5 days and I'm very excited! I'm hoping to do it in under 75 minutes and since it's all downhill that might be possible, except that would be the second fastest pace I've ever had. But I'm going to try!

Ok... I officially NEED a Garmin!

I discovered today that not being able to keep track of distance during a run is a bad thing. The only thing worse that running a shorter distance than you’re supposed do, is running a longer distance than you’re supposed to! Today was 10K, the longest so far, and it didn’t seem like such a daunting number, since we did 9K last Sunday. Well, we did 12K today.

We decided to go run along the trail along the waterfront for a change, so I mapped it all out on RunningMap.com and figured out what 5K would be for our turnaround point. The problem with that is that RunningMap.com only shows roads and didn’t account for all the twists and turns along the trail.

We ran for an hour and 40 minutes and it felt like we were doing a fairly decent pace, so I knew it had to be more than 10K. When we got home, I found a satellite map and figured out that once you took all the twists and turns into account, our halfway point was just over 6K.

My legs are feeling like jelly and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk in the morning!!!

I need a Garmin!!! As soon as the Running Room has the Forerunner 405, I’m buying it!

I got lost today

It was quite frightening. I decided to drive to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery to run instead of running on the sidewalk like I usually do. Well, it's a large confusing place! I parked near a big building, thinking it would be easy to find when I was heading back but no! I was about 30 seconds away from having to ask one of the groundkeepers to help me out but then I spotted my car. Thank goodness... that would have been embarassing.

This Sunday is 10K... we're going to try the Waterfront Trail for a change. And then it's only 2 weeks till the Sporting Life 10k!!! Yay!!

9K

Yay, we did 9K yesterday and managed to survive. And it was after a really late night, so I'm impressed that we even tried it.

My hip started hurting at about the 8K mark, which it did last Sunday too, so I'm a little concerned about that but I'm going to try some stretching over the next few days and hope that helps things. Otherwise, it wasn't too bad.

Rest Day

Today is a rest day. And I'm feeling guilty for not getting out and running. Not that I especially want to go run - it's rainy and cold and being indoors is much nicer.

I was finally back down below my goal weight today, for the first time in a few weeks. I've had a few bad weekends and not enough time to make up for them during the week. Hopefully now that I'm running more, I'll be able to manage it better.

Nothing more to say today...

Much better today

I had a much better run today than yesterday. Today was just a run/walk, no hills or anything, thank heavens! I did just over 5K and it took me about 39 minutes. I think at least 2 or 3 of that was spent waiting at stop lights, so my actual time was probably a bit better. That's one thing I like about races... none of this waiting for lights crap!!

It actually felt good today... I didn't have to stop and walk other than my designated stops (every 10 minutes). I think I'm going to have to start taking water though... if I do under 5K, I don't seem to need it, but once I hit the 5K mark, I'm dying for a drink.

I'm discovering a good side effect of running... apparently it's great for the ab muscles. I didn't notice it at first but now that I'm consistently running longer distances, my ab muscles are starting to feel sore every time I run, which can only be a good thing!

I hate hills

I started my hill training today and picked a hill that I thought was probably about the % of grade that I'm supposed to be using. I'm pretty sure it was a far higher grade than I estimated because I thought I was going to die by the time I was halfway up it. I ended up turning my run into a regular run and forgetting about the stupid hill but by then I was so exhausted that I only did 2.5K.

I'm going to go to the Running Room tomorrow and find out what hill(s) they use to do their training and try that next time.

It was also warmer today than it has been lately (18 degrees) so that probably contributed to my getting tired. It's going to take a bit of getting used to this warmer weather!

Another 8.5K

Adam and I ran 8.5K yesterday! Yay! I'm actually starting to think that I might not die during my 10K. I'm still not quite so optimistic about the 13.1K though...

I'm taking today as a rest day but plan on doing 3K tomorrow morning before work. I keep talking about how I'd like to start being a morning runner but I just hate getting up early enough. I'm going to try it tomorrow though and see how it goes.

My before and after photos

Alright, so since I started running as a way to help me lose weight, I thought I'd post a couple of "before and after" photos. As much as I hate the "before" photo and don't want anyone to see it, I'm proud of the progress I made so I wanted to show off the difference.

How can 3.4K seem so hard?

That's all I ran today and I thought it was going to kill me. During my second 10 minutes of running, I didn't think I was going to make it. Not sure what was wrong with me!!! Maybe I need to find a flatter running route.