A Little Stronger Every Day

Week 7 Day 2/3- 5:00 Warm-up, 25:00 Jog, 5:00 Cool-down

Monday we ran day 2, we did it separately on the treadmill because it was cold outside and Ryan had a cold (I have it now) and we didn't think running in the cold was a good idea for us. The treadmill was a bit miserable, but we both conquered it.

I planned an easier route for today, Day 3. Usually our route is a loop that has a little downhill, a little uphill, and a little flat. I planned a mostly downhill course today, nothing too crazy, just a slight downhill for most of the way. I felt like we had earned an easier run to celebrate finishing week 7! We felt pretty good and strong, even with the head colds. We ran 2.35 miles in the 25 minutes, we are still certainly not fast, but it was a faster average than usual for us. This Saturday is our 5k. A week early for the Couch to 5k schedule, but I think it will go pretty well. Its a flat course. We have been trying to decide how we want to attack it. I kinda want to try to run the whole thing, but we've also talked about walk/jogging the first half mile and then running the rest, since that should put us close to the 28 minute run that would be next on our Couch to 5k agenda. We'll see how the day goes. I'm excited that I feel mostly ready for it. My goal is to get to being able to run a slow 5k, and then work on my speed. I've signed up for a couple virtual races and will reward myself with the medals as I hit new PR's for pace on my 5k distance. Then, I will work on building mileage for a 10k in January if I'm still feeling healthy. My legs did great today, thanks to the Graston, ART, and acupuncture I've been doing with Dr. Tom. Yay for progress! Yay for a little more endurace! Yay for just a tad more speed. I will take it!

Still Running!

Week 6 Day 2- Run 10:00 Walk 3:00 Run 10:00
Week 6 Day 3- Run 22:00
Week 7 Day 1- Run 25:00

Week 6, Day 2 went well,  10 minute chunks feel much more doable now, which is awesome! This was the final day of couch to 5k that allows walk breaks! Crazy that we have gotten this far.

Week 6, Day 3 was a challenging. We tried a different route than usual, thinking it would be easier for a sustained jog, but I think it was a bad idea. I really struggled. I ended up taking a short walk break twice, which was frustrating to me. My achilles were really tight and sore and I was a little mad when the run was over. But, right after the run I had an appointment with Dr. Tom my sports medicine doctor. I told him where the pain was, and he did his usual magic and then suggested trying acupuncture on my achilles. I have had acupuncture before and handled it fine, so I thought it was worth a shot. It hurt a lot more than the previous acupuncture, it wasn't the placing of the needle that hurt, but once he started prodding around at the knots in my calves it was pretty painful. Once he finished it was sore and got progressively more sore over the next few hours, I was pretty sure he maimed me! Luckily he had warned me it would be like that, so I trusted him.  Ryan and I decided to repeat Day 3 on our next run, and the difference was night and day! I felt amazing. My achilles didn't hurt at all. The were a little tight during the run still, but there was no screaming, especially when I stopped to walk at the end for the cool down, no screaming! It was a miracle. We ran 2 miles without stopping!

Today we did Week 7, Day1, we ran for 25 minutes, 2.25 miles! I was so excited. I still felt really good. We average about 11:00 minute miles, not fast, but we can sustain it which is amazing. My achilles felt pretty good still today, my IT band was a bit tight today, but I'm staying on top of it. I'm finally feeling like this might actually be a real possibility for me. I might be able to keep running!

I had my gait analyzed again and found some more tweaks to make, but overall i'm feeling great and happy!

Week 6, Day 1- And a Fitness update

5:00 Warm-up, 5:00 Jog, 3:00 Walk, 8:00 Jog, 3:00 Walk, 5:00 Jog, 5:00 Cool-down

This run seemed kind of like a nice reprieve after the 20 minute run earlier in the week. It was still hard though. But, I was glad to be back outside with Ryan! My achilles were super mad after the long run, which was annoying, but I recovered well. The runs get longer and longer from this point, so I'm a little nervous, but excited to be making real progress. I'm seeing my sports medicine guy once a week right now to make sure I stay on top of possible injuries, but I think I'm doing well at this point!

I thought I would take a second now to talk about the rest of my fitness journey as it stands right now. I'm kind of at a weird crossroads right now that I can't really figure out in my head. I spend a lot of time thinking about where I am right now, and where I want to be. I'm generally happy with my fitness level. I can go out on a long bike ride, no problem. I can workout 6 days a week, several of those days being double workouts, and i'm great.  My run is improving, I'm lifting a little heavier all the time, but somehow, I've plateaued again, or possibly even gone backwards a little bit. I feel a bit fluffy. I know its my diet. I've been really really struggling with finding my nutrition niche again. I have spent the entirety of this year tracking my food pretty meticulously, and I think I just hit major burnout. I haven't seen a big drop on the scale or body fat %, and its hard to be that careful and think about food so much without seeing big changes (I did see a big drop from January to April, and then have bounced around since then). I get to the point where thinking about food all of the time makes me crazy and pushes me off the deep end. I end up binging on junky food because i'm frustrated. Which I know is the total wrong thing to do. I get annoyed at myself because I have learned a lot about nutrition. I know the kinds of foods to eat, I know the combinations of food to eat, I know what serving sizes look like. I know how to eat. But for some reason I don't trust myself, so I track everything and then beat myself up every time I slip up. Or I do the most silly thing and don't put the junk food into my food diary, like it doesn't count if I don't write it down. Ha! I'm sad that i've let myself slip back so far from when I was at my best this year. I know there was a point this year where I was eating mostly healthy, having an occasional treat, feeling satisfied, and feeling happy with myself and my body. I know there is a sweet spot for me, I just really can't seem to find it right now. I've been eating terribly for the past couple of weeks, and I can tell! But i've just been so frustrated. I even went and talked to my doctor and asked him to check my thyroid and all my hormones and stuff and see if there is something physical that is making it so hard for me to break through difficult plateaus. My blood work came back completely normal and healthy. I can't be sad about that, but it is frustrating to know that there is no easy fix for whatever this is.

So the questions I've been asking myself are 1) How badly do you want to hit that body fat % goal? 2) What are you willing to sacrifice for it? 3) Is there a point where you just learn to be content where you are and stop stressing about it all so much? 4) Can you find a happy medium between relaxing and still moving forward to your fitness and body fat goals?

I don't have any answers. I'm really trying to spend some time to get my head straight. To figure out what the answers are. To find my happy spot where I can stop beating myself up so much. The place where I can love myself as I am ,but still have forward moving goals. I know that place exists. I just haven't found it yet. I think running is helping me, its something that has been impossible for me to conquer and now i'm making good strides toward conquering it. So I just need to do the same in the nutrition realm. So that's where i'm at right now. My brain is a little muddled, but I'll keep working on it.

Week 5: Day 3!!

5:00 Warm-up, 20:00 Jog, 5:00 Cool-Down

We did it! We did Day 3! It seemed so daunting, but we did it!  Sad thing is, we had to do it separately, and on the treadmill. Boo! But this morning Ryan had to leave for a meeting, and it was pretty cold outside, and the kids had no school today, so there just wasn't time to run outside together. Ryan got it done this morning, and I was so so proud of him, so I knew I needed to tackle it. I had a busy morning with my leg doctor, and errands with the kids, so I had to wait until the afternoon. I just bought another new pair of shoes (Hoka Clifton) and wanted to give them a real try, I did 8 minutes in them on Saturday to try them out and felt great, so I decided to wear them for today's run. I would be lying if I didn't say it was hard. I don't enjoy running on the treadmill much these days now that I've been running outside more, and I went to my leg doctor this morning and got my IT band and achilles worked over, so they were a little sore to begin with. But, I did it. I had to take a quick break in the middle while I answered an important text (couldn't do it while running), but I jumped right back in and finished the 20 minutes. It was slow! 11:20-12:00 pace. But that's ok, its still almost 2 miles! Right now its about endurance and not hurting myself, its not about speed! Thus my new headband. :) Slow and steady wins the race!

I'm not sure if i've mentioned my current workout schedule, but I also lift on the days that I run, so after dealing more with the kids for a bit, I went back down to my workout room and knocked out my lifting session. I HATE afternoon workouts, but I'm so glad I got it done. I had a BAD eating weekend, so today is back on track and on top of life. I'm determined. :)

Week 5: Day 2, Again!

We decided to repeat day 2 today. We both felt great again, and accomplished with our 8 minute runs. Dare we say we might be ready for the 20 minute run?? That still scares me. We shall see!

I went to the running store today and got another pair of shoes. Hoka Clifton's, I'm rather excited about them! They felt really great on my feet, I can't wait to do a run in them and see how it goes!

I really really look forward to my runs now, and that is amazing to me. Ryan even admitted he looks forward to it too! I love our time together.

Week 5: Day 2!

Day 2: Warm-up, 8 minute Run, 5 minute walk, 8 minute run, Cool-Down

Ryan and I were both very nervous to move on to day 2. 8 minutes seemed like a really long time! We are not above repeating days, and were considering repeating day 1, but we decided to give it a shot. We told ourselves that if we were really struggling we could take short walk breaks during the 8 minutes if we needed to. We started our first run, and to both of our surprise, we felt really good! We finished the first run and were glad for the long walk break, but ready to go again when it was time to run the next 8. It was a little harder the second time, but still we managed to do it feeling pretty good. I carefully watched out pace to make sure we didn't push too fast. We tried to stay around 10:30-11:00 minute mile. We were so proud when we finished it with no walk breaks during both 8's. I think we will repeat it before moving on, the next run is 20 minutes! But I was grateful to feel good.

After Monday's run I was kinda sore. My hips and feet and knee were aching and I got very discouraged. Its so frustrating to not just be able to do exactly what I want to be able to do. But, I stopped wallowing, bought a bunch of cold weather running gear, set up an appointment with my favorite Sports Medicine Chiropractor, and rested. I chose not to run Tuesday even though I wanted to, and went to see the doctor. He worked on my trouble spots and gave me some good advice. I was happy that I felt good to run yesterday and that the run went well. After the run I went to my cycle class to spin out my legs and then came home and got straight in an ice bath. The things crazy things we do to recover well! I know I have to be really careful and listen carefully to my body if I want to be able to keep at this, so I'm trying to do just that. I think I might have to get another pair of running shoes with more cushion for now while I'm building up, so I'm saving my pennies to look into that option.

Sitting in the compression machine at the Doctor's office.

Yep, that's a block of ice in my bathtub.

Week 5: Day 1

Couch to 10k Week 5

Day 1- 5:00 warm-up, 5:00 run, 3:00 walk, 5:00 run, 3:00 walk, 5:00 run, 5:00 cool-down.
Ryan and I dropped the kids off at school and headed to the park for our run. It was a little chilly starting out, but it was actually quite perfect once we got moving. I felt like my cardio system was in great shape during the runs. My legs were less happy today. My ankle and shins always complain a little when I first start running, but they work themselves out once I get into a rhythm. My achilles did pretty good until near the end of the second run. But it wasn't ever terrible, a little more achey on my right than my left. It does tend to scream at me a bit when I switch from running to walking, but I can walk through it. The arch near my heal of my left foot was a little cranky today, I need to figure out what's up with that.  And then during the last run I could feel an inkling of pain in my IT band. NOT COOL. It never got painful, I could just feel the tightness from my hip to my knee that I am all too familiar with. I will repeat day 1 before moving up to day 2 (it has longer run segments), and I think I will visit my IT band doctor from last year and have him help me stretch that out and get his advice on the feet and achilles. Gotta stay healthy!!!! I really want this.

On the Run! Again...

I've been slacking on my fitness blogging! Oh well...life goes on! I've restarted my journey with running. Again. I know, it wasn't long ago I did a post about giving up on running and feeling ok about it. But, for some reason, its just something I can't let go of, it just keeps coming back and nagging me! So I've started again. I've been posting my progress on Facebook, and i'm sure that my friends are getting sick of it, so I thought I would start blogging about it so that only those you care (maybe just me?) can have a place to go read it.

About 5 weeks ago Ryan started doing the Couch to 5k program. I decided that I would attempt to do it with him. Very slowly. And see if I could hold my injuries at bay if I built up very slowly and carefully. I had recently bought some new shoes that helped me to improve my stride, so I thought maybe I would have some luck.

For those of you not familiar with Couch to 5k, its a running program and slowly builds up from mostly walking to mostly running during about a 30 minute period over 8 weeks, running 3 times a week. The app we are using is actually a Couch to 10k app, so I think its a 14 week course to build up to running for an hour, but the first 8 weeks are the same as the 5k program.

We started the program, and at first you run for 60 seconds at a time, with walk long walk breaks in between and that was hard! We took it slow, but it was hard to imagine running more than that. But we made it through and moved on. Week 2 is 90 second jogs. Week 3- 90 seconds, walk break, then 3 minute jog. 3 minutes seemed like forever! We ended up repeating week 3 to make sure we were ready to move on without stressing our bodies. This past week we moved on to week 4 and finished strong. Week 4 including 3 & 5 minute run segments. We weren't sure we were going to be able to handle 5, but we made it through. With those longer segments we crossed the threshold and are now running more than walking during the run part of the workout (there is a warm-up and cool-down built into the workout). It feels good to feel like I'm running again. We watch our pace carefully to make sure we don't push too hard that we can't maintain. Its a little hard for me to think I need to go slower, not faster, but I know that's what my body needs to make sure I don't hurt myself. But, so far its working. Week 5 really steps up the game, its not the same thing 3 times, it gets progressively harder each day of the 3. We are planning to take it one day at a time and repeat as necessary. But, i'm happy to say that I'm looking forward to runs again. I get excited when I know that is what is on my workout plan for the day. I've been lifting weights on my run days, and just walking and doing PiYo on the days between. I like the hard days, and I think the active recovery days have been really helping me. Its a little different from how I was doing things, but so far, so good.

I was still feeling fine, but it was more of a struggle. My IT band is staying at bay, although I am careful to stretch it often and roll when I feel any tightness. My biggest problem has been my calves. I've always had very tight calves and hamstrings, and I can feel how tight they get when I run. I think the discomfort actually comes from my achilles tendon. When I first started running years ago, my calves always hurt, but I never put it together as an achilles problem, but I think it probably was. I think my new stride helps all of my other issues, but actually stressed my achilles a little more. But its not too bad. Its something I can handle. I've been stretching, using my foam roller, and icing my achilles if I experience any significant tightness. I also experience some ankle and feet tiredness, but I think I just need to build up strength there. Doing PiYo on my off days from running, a pilates/yoga mix that is a ton of stretching, I think is helping me stretch my hamstrings and achilles and strengthen my ankles and feet. I think it will be really beneficial for my running in the long run.

So, for now, running is working for me. I'm enjoying it. I can still walk the next day, so that's a bonus! I'm taking it a day at a time, but hopefully I can keep it up. I'm signed up for a 5k on November 1st and hoping to be able to run it strong. The next run i'm signed up for is an indoor run on January 1st, i'm sincerely hoping I can build up to a 10k by then, but if not, that's ok too. I'll do what I can.