Treadmill Run

Treadmill runs are mentally tough.  The impulse is to check your time, check your mileage, check your speed over and over and over for however many miles or minutes you can handle it. 

Today I had to run 6 miles on the DREADMILL.  I would have rather gone out in the cold and wind but I was worried about my foot creating too much pain for me to be out 3 miles and done.  Then what, I hope for a magical sleigh to pick me up; chances are my chances of that happening aren’t that great.

Dawn, what a great sport she is, ran inside with me and we chatted for the first 2 miles then we both upped the speed a little and quietly tried to find our bliss.  I caught mine alright up until mile 5 when my foot pain started creating knee pain. 

I finished out my 6 miles with a growth to my running.  I left with my head up high, a limp in my proud step knowing I am a runner.

Worst Day of the Week, Sunday

Sundays are the hardest day of the week for me.  You would think staying home all day with no agenda other than laundry, dishes, spending quality time with the family, changing sheets, and all other mother/wife things would make me feel complete but they don’t. 

Without physical activity I feel irritated and sulky and annoyed and disgruntled.  This is wrong so I feel like a bad parent and wife on top of it all and that makes GUILT!!!  I do most of those things most days of the week but with those things I get to workout and socialize and decompress.  Every other day of the week I have a schedule and the children and Jimmy know the schedule.  I don’t like being ho hum.  I’ve tried to make a Sunday agenda but it never seems to work, something always disrupts it or my time table gets off so I get even more bitchy. 

To add to my annoyance I am a little sore and the kids have spent a little too much time together so it all boils down to I don’t enjoy Sundays.  I really feel awful about saying this, more guilt, but as I sit here while my children fight over a puzzle piece I want to explode!  I do love them all, I have so many, but not on Sundays. 

I’m really just biding my time until 8 pm, bedtime for some!!!  Then till 9:30 pm, bedtime for the rest!!!

Lord help me, Monday can’t come soon enough!

Smart Running…Accomplished!

As I ran in from my 4.38 mile group run this morning I was extremely proud of myself.  I pushed my lungs but not my legs.  It always amazes me at how quickly the body loses its fitness level, especially cardiovascular health. 

My goal was to turn around at the water station and I did, my goal was to slow down if I felt I needed to and I did. 

I completed my run in 39:38.  I finished sore but not in pain. 

On a different topic; competitiveness

I have a problem with wanting to always compete.  I do not like to be in the back of the pack anymore.  My entire life, up until a year ago when I lost all this weight, I was totally fine with being on the sidelines or last or just finishing.  Now every time I go out I want to do the absolute best I can do.

For me it is not about my last workout it is about the workout NOW.  It is about today.  If I don’t workout today then I don’t feel like an aspiring athlete.  If I go out mentally easy then I feel like I’ve lost my mental edge. 

Today when I went out I started out harder than I usually do because I’m tired of going out easy and feeling like I have make up my speed to lower my average pace.  I’m always thinking “what do I want my average pace to be”  If I want my average to be 9 min mile or under than I know I have to go out at no slower than a 9:15 because I don’t want to have to spend the last 1/2 of my workout going faster than I can handle to make up for a slow start.  I know starting slower is important but I think I have, in the past, taken that a little too literally.  Now I feel like I’m sprinting off the block. 

So anyway, today I was told, “hey, yo, Mel, this isn’t a race”.  In my mind it always feels like a race. 

The clinic before the run today was on Mental Toughness, I’m thinking, I’ve got that but I don’t know if my body has as much as my mind.  I’ve got so much to learn with my aspirations to become a long distance runner.  I guess that’s life, always a learning process.

Smart Running

Met with the Doc yesterday re: my foot. I was informed that it is a strained muscle that goes from the outside of the foot up the calf. She has seen a few of these issues recently and it is due to the running on the slush and snow and having weak ankles.
I was given a few exercises to strengthen these muscles and told to ice and ibuprofen for inflammation. I was also released for SMART running.
Smart running, WHAT??? I can comprehend what this is right now, when I'm not running but I cannot guarantee anything once my feel start hitting the pavement. I need a mother out there running with me.
Smart running goal for today; water jogging and ankle/stability exercises and core strengthening. Smart running goal for tomorrow IE long run day; run only 5 miles!!!

Run Camp Meeting

Kalamazoo Marathon, Borgess 1/2 Marathon & 5K meeting last night. A few of us Y...Runners made it there to get even more excited about running this race and to get packet info. What an amazing group here in Kalamazoo ready to lead Michigan in health and fitness. I am so excited to be a part of it.

I will add, we were probably the only sub group that went for drinks after the meeting.

What a great night!

Learning More By Running Less

I'm assuming and I've been told, by non medical professionals, that chances are I have plantar fasciitis. I need to stay off my foot and ice and stretch and ice and ice and ice and wait even after it doesn't hurt to start running again. I hate icing, I hate waiting, I hate staying off; it makes me feel like one of those runners who doesn't run but always complains of the infamous shin splints.
I am not going to let this get me down mentally or physically. I am going to substitute my running with water jogging. I am going to continue lifting my upper body and core conditioning. I am not going to worry about whether I will be able to run 11 miles when I first start back up, I am going to go out slower and shorter distance. I am going to learn about pace, mental and physically.
Learning about why I tend to push myself so hard in some areas and not others is going to be a priority. 2 weeks, I can do this. It's only 2 weeks if I behave myself, hopefully. I can't promise how I'll act after that!

Out Again….

I’m finally feeling healthy but, of course, my life can’t just stay there.  My foot is, is pain.  Along the right side of my right foot is pain, not shooting up my leg pain or radiating to my toes pain but right there pain.

I hopped into the Y today to swim and lift my upper body looking completely ridiculous.  Someone told me to massage it out, someone told me to ice it; regardless of what I do I can’t run today or tomorrow or probably even the next day. 

So what can I do other than feel sorry for myself?  I can bike, swim, water jog, lift; I guess I’ve got plenty I can do. 

Tues and Thurs as a family we go to the Y at night, tonight I’m going to spinning class.  On the hunt to locate my bliss!