Hardest run to date

Today’s run was the suck. It was Week 5, Day 3 and it was supposed to be 20 minutes of uninterupted running with a five minute warm-up and five minute cool-down.

That would have been my longest run yet. My previous longest runs were 2 8 minute runs with a break in between of 2 minutes. I was in South Dakota and it’d snowed and I didn’t know where anywhere good to run was so I foolishly decided I could do it on a treadmill. I should have known better.

I ran 10 minutes before taking a 2 minute break and then running the last 8 minutes of the twenty-minute run. I just didn’t have it in me to do it on the treadmill. My shins and calves hurt after the first five minutes. I’ve got to figure that out. My pace was steady, obviously, a treadmill, duh. I’m not sure what the deal was. I tried varying the incline as well to see if that would help, but it didn’t.

Lucky me tonight’s hotel room got the upgrade to a hot-tub suite so I iced after I ran then hit the hot-tub and then iced again afterwards. I’ll ice one more time before I go to bed. I will repeat Week 4 I think before doing Week 5 again. It sucks to go backwards, but I was dying today on the ‘mill.

Next week is travel for work to long meetings in Denver and I’m not sure if there is a dreadmill in the hotel and I’m not sure how I’d do running in their rarified air so not sure what will happen next week. Glad Sunday and Monday are recovery days though. Monday’s a travel day by air so the first day I’ll have to figure out for working out is on Tuesday. We’ll see what happens then.

Until then. Ice is my friend.

Treadmill running

Today was my first attempt at running the Couch to 5k podcast on a treadmill. I didn't cover the same distance I covered in real life on the dirt road day before yesterday. I wasn't sure how high to turn things up, I wasn't sure how low to go on the walking. It was good in that I got a sweat going and got my heart rate up. So it was good exercise, and good time running, but it wasn't good for distance.

According to Kristin in her Greatest Running Tips post though beginning runners should run for time and not distance anyway right? Right. DOH! As I went to Kristin's site to make sure I was attributing her properly I realized she was quoting from an original article over at Women's Health. Great... I'm following Women's Health articles now?!? Next I'll be running with a pink sweatband! ARGH. Women's/Men's doesn't matter. It's good advice. Go check the source article out.

OK. Today's run I was a little tentative about because I had what felt like maybe the onset of shin splints yesterday after my walk. As I thought about it... my running form is, I think, better than my walking form. I tend to dig my heel into the ground as I over-extend my stride to walk faster. When I run I take smaller steps and keep my feet under me. I don't do that when I walk briskly. I need to watch my walking. I tried to watch it today on the treadmill, but that's such an artificial way of walking -- having the ground moving under me rather than me moving over the ground... I just don't like it. But, it's better than not running/walking right? Right.

While I was running I noticed slight cramping in my calves, probably from trying too hard to run on with a midfoot/toe strike instead of heel strike, which I find much easier to do (heel strike easier I mean) on a the treadmill. I didn't stop for the cramping though. I tried to modify my stride so as not to be so tippy toe feeling and ran through the cramp. Ugh. Not a fan of the treadmill. I need to run on it I though because come winter time it's about all I'll have.

So, that's day two of running for the Couch to 5k plan and so far so good. Now I need a shower.