904.1 Miles

 (1.9 treadmill)

Still walking with our blindfolds on.

I wasn't sure about yesterday. My legs were pretty sore from Monday's run and from the chains I did with Brianna on Tuesday. Still, I have a goal to reach and it won't happen if I keep putting things off. So, I got on the treadmill. My shins were already screaming at me in 10 minutes of running/walking, but it felt more like the "go ahead and stop 'cause this isn't comfortable" kind of screaming, not the "there is an injury here" screaming. So I kept going. When I reached the 30 minute mark I was a bit surprised to see how far I'd gone since I fully expected less than 1.5 miles.

Today my legs are barely able to move in certain positions so I'm focusing on stretching, hydration, and gentle movements. I'm not going to be on the treadmill more than 3 times this week, but I'm okay with that since I know that the strength training is also building the healthy body I want to have for the rest of my life.

902.2 Miles

(1.8 Treadmill)

Today I took April's advice and ran slowly. So very slowly, it seemed. 4.0 mph seemed like I was dragging my feet the whole time. The really awesome thing about that speed was the fact that I did run for longer increments. Instead of needing to stop every 2 minutes, I actually kept going for 5 minutes, and walking for only 2 minutes. That felt really good. Tomorrow I will keep the same pace, maybe for the whole week, but I'll have to see how it all feels. So, I only ran/walked for 30 minutes today since there were other things I needed to take care of (weights) and feel awesome about it!

I'll admit that the only reason I ran so slow is because of the soreness of my upper body. Yesterday I was helping lift a truck and my arms feel like lead. Yes, a bottle jack was involved, but to raise (and lower) the darn thing you have to turn the crank, which is similar to pedaling a bike using your arms instead of legs. Not really a big deal unless you do that a few times. But it gave me an idea for a different way to use my weights!

Afterward, I stepped out into the back yard and stood in the pouring rain for a while. I can't even describe how great that felt.

900.4 Miles

I have 20 more miles before I reach Lothlorien.

Oh my goodness!!! I can't believe I did what I did today. Really. I thought I was going to pass out before I was finished, but I'm so glad I kept going. It was a bit odd keeping track of everything, but Brianna helped me out.

Now, up front I should say that I did not run the whole distance. However, I ran accumulatively longer today than I have before. Even during the 5k in June I didn't run as long (faster, but shorter times).

I discovered that the treadmill speed will jump by .5 if I hold the buttons down. Yeehaw, that means a lot less time for speed adjustment. That makes a big difference when you're going from 4 mph to 5.5 mph (holding the button for about 3 seconds instead of pressing it 15 times). After this awesome discovery, I had Brianna use the stopwatch on my old phone. Every time I was running she would press start, then press stop when I was walking. During my "oh my Gods, I need water or I'm going to die" break, I hit stop on the treadmill, too (it saves the time & stuff). That break was less than 5 minutes, then I was back at it.

So the breakdown is this:

20 minutes at 5.5 mph/1.83 miles
19.7 minutes at 4.0 mph/1.31 miles

I know the picture shows 3.3 miles, but with the few seconds of adjusting the speed here and there, I went with what the time calculations came to instead of what the treadmill said. I've already been drinking a ton of water and will be doing a lot of stretching for the rest of the afternoon. I'm looking forward to trying this again soon!

A step backward

In my Ravelry group there is a thread called Summer Era. In this thread we post goals for two weeks, then recap and revise the goals as needed. These aren't just fitness & health goals, but also goals for our overall well-being. Some of those goals can be clearing out old boxes and decluttering your home and these are good for our mental and spiritual health.

So, my goals for last Session (what we call the 2-week period) were to get running again. Which I did, but not nearly as much as I wanted to. My last time on the treadmill was on Saturday.  I know why and I know that I don't have the will or the energy to change it right now. I've had the daycare kids here for about 14 hours a day. By the time they leave and I get the house cleaned up and take a few minutes to myself, it's well after 8. This might not be a big deal if I wasn't going to bed by 9:30.

I have tried getting on the treadmill and bike after they leave but, by then I feel like lead. There is no joy in completing the miles, and it just feels like castor oil or something (you know, really icky). If I could legally leave the house while they were sleeping each morning I would walk/run around the block a few times or something, but I would get into serious trouble if anything happened while I was out.

So, as much as I wish otherwise, I'm going to lighten my goals for the next session and I'm going to post them here as well as in the Ravelry group.

Week 1 (nearly over already):
- get on the treadmill today if they leave before 5, walk
- get on the treadmill Saturday morning, walk, maybe run
- continue building up the chains, I've been doing half and I want to get all of them done (there are 55 total reps, and the complete round consists of 8 different movements)

Week 2:
- Sunday, get on treadmill again, even though it's Sunday (normally I'm busy until 6 or 7, which would seem a bad time to do this, but I feel relaxed and content with life and I do believe that makes all the difference), walk, maybe run
- continue working on the chains
- Friday & Saturday, get on treadmill walk, maybe run

Okay, the main reason this really upsets me is that I won't be able to reach my goal of running 3.1 miles by my birthday. This bothers me on so many levels I can't even describe it. I know it's not really that big of a deal since I'm still putting in effort, but I really wanted to start out my next year on a different track. Yes, I've looked back at my progress and am pretty happy with that, but I wanted more. So much more. Once these kids are back in school (August 27th) I will be able to shift my training into high gear. I know that, realistically, I won't be able to push myself (without injury) to run that distance in 3 weeks. Instead I will push myself to get as far along as possible. Until then, I will keep doing other physical activities that will help bring strength and endurance to my body.

Whoever reads this, please keep in mind that there are times when it's important to evaluate what really will be right to do. Listen to your body. Nudge it, push to the limit, but don't go so far over the edge that you feel like giving up completely.

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Edit: Okay, my trainer told me some cool news -

Here’s the thing. You don’t need to go back to the C25K program. You need to get on the treadmill and warm up then RUN. Run for as long as you can and then hop off and catch your breath for a few seconds and then start running again. (This is because of the way your treadmill adjusts. I would have you walk otherwise.) Run at a slower pace than you usually do for your intervals. I’d try running at 5.0-5.4 and see how long you can run. The intervals you described to me are speed work. You need some easy runs in there too. The easy runs help you extend your distance. The speed work helps you improve your time. Right now you just want to run for 3 miles. You are not looking to break any speed records. I wish I were there with you. I’d have you run 3 miles today. I know you can do it!

So, provided the kids leave early enough, I will be trying this out. I'll use a stopwatch to keep my time and figure my distance that way... which means I won't get a picture, but I'll take a picture of the stopwatch instead.

Sometimes it just takes knowing that someone is cheering you on and has faith in you to keep your spirits up enough to push harder.

897.3 Miles

It felt strange getting on the treadmill on a Saturday, but I'm glad I did. Mondays are a bit more challenging than I care to deal with (up at 4:30a, not done with work until after 6:30p). With the way the schedule goes, I might not have a chance to get on there until Wednesday. When I do, though, I am going to break 900 miles. I can't even describe how that makes me feel.

Also, the battery for the camera was charging so I took this with the cell phone. Ick. Even in b&w it looks horrible.

895.2 Miles

I'm on a roll! I still have 11 miles before anything changes in the book, but at least I'm making progress again.

Today's walk/run was a little more challenging at first simply because it was so late in the day. I tend to feel like I'm plodding along after the regular work stuff is done. But still, it was important to get on there anyway. After all, my birthday isn't that far away, right? I'll be running again in the morning and that will bring me up to 3 days this week. I'm still trying to work around that tiredness at the end of the day.

The black & white seems to be working for this.

893.1 Miles

It's been a while, hasn't it. I have been focusing on no-impact movements since the dentist scraped out the extraction site and packed some vile tasting stuff into it. The first week was pretty painful and I didn't eat much. The week after that (the 16th) I started doing the chains again and got Brianna involved, too. Last week I did some jumping jacks to see what would happen and there was very little remaining pain. So, this week was the beginning of training again.

I started out with the first day of Couch to 5k, but then I realized that I didn't start feeling winded until I'd run for a whole minute. That was pretty cool, and I advanced myself to the second week. I think it will push me harder, which is fine.

It's harder on the treadmill to adjust the speed. This one can't be programmed so I have to press the buttons with each change. I had the thought of setting it to the speed I like to run, then just walking through the house for the walking section and hopping back on the treadmill for the running section. The only problem that I see for that it that I won't be able to keep accurate count of my miles (I'd leave the treadmill running). I'll keep thinking through this and see what I come up with. in the meantime, here is today's picture. I chose black & white to see if it helped make it more clear.