restrestrest

Monday I made it to the gym for my leg workout. I'm pretty clueless and don't know a whole hell of a lot of exercises to do, so I just did three sets each of squats, lunges, leg extensions, and I threw a few little ab things in between. I'm going to look up more exercises so I can have a better variety and longer workout. Even so, though, I am sore from what I did! After I lifted I did 10 minutes of pretty intense intervals on the stationary bike, followed by a three minute cool down.

Yesterday I was absolutely, 100% exhausted. I planned on going to the gym right after work but I left work a little early and headed home for a quick nap. Well, that quick nap turned into 15 hours. I woke up a few times here and there to go to the bathroom and let the dog in and what not, but for the most part it was a good solid sleep. I needed it, I guess. So yesterday there was no upper body strength training and no 2.5 mile run.

My back is still hurting. It is more uncomfortable today than it was yesterday. It's weird but I really think that going to the gym helps it rather than aggravates it. So I'm going to try to fit the gym in at some point today. I'm working an after hours event so we'll see when, but it's nice having a gym that's open 24 hours. I'll do full body since I missed upper body yesterday, but I think I am going to pass on the run for now. My left ankle kind of hurts, as well. I'm falling apartttttt.

oww.

So for the past two weeks or so I've had a twinge in my lower back. I thought I just slept on it wrong, but then with the move I think it got aggravated even more. It's been hurting every now and then, usually just went I bend over at a certain angle, but it's been really sucking today and I can feel it when I sit, stand, and walk. It's not unbearably painful but it does hurt. So I'm taking today as a rest day instead of going to the gym. Hopefully this goes away soon.

Monday I ended up taking as a rest day because my ankle was feeling a little sore. I'm not going to worry about it because it's only the second rest day I've had since last Sunday. I don't think I'm overdoing it, either, because the mileage is still fairly low.

It was right back on the bandwagon yesterday, though. Boyfriend & I ran 2.57 miles around the neighborhood, it took us about 28 minutes. We sat at around a 10:56 pace, much better than last week's 11:27. It feels good to run with him.

Today is week 2 of 7MM. We'll see how it goes. I think this week may be completed on a treadmill. A pal of mine is bringing me to her gym, I'm thinking about joining. I'll check back in with a recap.

working my way back up.

So I finally got a run in on Friday, my first since the race. I decided to stick with the easy, short 5K neighborhood route that I frequented during training. It was strange running it, knowing that the half marathon had already come and gone. But I was glad to be getting back out there after almost two weeks of resting my foot.

It is insane how much fitness can be lost so quickly. This run was quite hard. It doesn't help that I've been smoking more lately (blech). I wanted to quit a few times during the run. I couldn't believe that I was having such a hard time when just two weeks ago I ran 13.1 miles fairly easily. Oh well, I'll just have to get back to that point. I can't imagine it'll take that long since I'm not really starting from scratch.

But the positive note to the run was that I had no foot pain, during or after. So I'll be sticking with 3-4 mile runs mostly for now, just to make sure nothing pops up.

Next scheduled race: Beach to Bay marathon relay in May. I'm in the process of organizing my team.

Over a week has passed since the race and my foot STILL hurts. I'm going to try to get to the doctor this weekend to get it looked at. It sucks. I want to run. I have been walking, though. But it's just not the same.

I want to be comfortable again!

an off week, trying to adapt.

Want to know how many runs I did last week? ZERO. NONE. Ugh. I know I needed to cut back a bit because of the knee issues that I had after last week's 9.5 miles, but seriously, Nina? No runs at all? I could have at least done one three or four miler. Buuuuut I didn't, and while I don't think it was totally necessary to have taken the whole week off, I feel that I kind of needed it mentally. I'm on the verge of getting burnt out and I am so looking forward to this half marathon being over so that running becomes something enjoyable again, and not something that I have to do, with all my runs planned out months in advance. I want to be able to lace up and just go, without any set distance, route, or time in mind.

But I will not let my lazy week get me down, I've come too far to give up now. I'm going to pick myself back up and move on. Only three more weeks 'till NOLA and this is what it's going to look like in running:

This week: Mon - 4 miles, Thurs - 3 miles, Saturday - 10 miles (last long run of training)

Next week: Tues - 3 miles, Thurs - 3.5 miles, Saturday - 4 miles

Last week of training (!!): Tues - eeeeaaaassy 3 miles, Fri - travel to NOLA, Sun - 13.1 miles, baby.

And then I will sleep for a week straight.

stuffy nose, stuffy weather.

I woke up Tuesday with congestion from hell and an irritated throat. I stayed home from work and, obviously, opted out of my three mile run. I've got my 10K on Saturday, anyways, so I know it's not going to hurt to taper a little bit, even if it is a shorter race. Hopefully I'll be feeling up to running tomorrow. It does suck, though, because I had set a goal for myself to not miss any training runs this month and now I have missed one.

I've armed myself for battle today, though. Yesterday I spent all day resting on the couch. Today I brought healthy food to work (soup, carrots, apple slices, an orange, strawberries, and oatmeal for breakfast), I'm staying hydrated with lots of water and hot tea, and I've got cough drops and Emergen-C, along with Mucinex and Excedrin already in my system. Hopefully with another good night's sleep I'll have kicked whatever this is.

keeping momentum.

I switched my Tuesday run to yesterday since I had the offer of company! A pal of mine rode a bike with me while I did my four miles. It was nice to have someone there to chat with and definitely made the run more bearable. I only checked my time once as I was in the home stretch, just to see where I was sitting with my time. Right on schedule - I was at a 10:40 min/mile pace and finished the run in 43:19.

I'm glad I have a few days off before my next run, my legs are tired today!

This week will also mark the longest run I have for sure ever done in my entire life - seven miles. I feel 100% confident. From here on out, every week will be a new record for me. I am entering unknown territory and it feels awesome.