Why am I hurting so much?!?!

I know that yesterday was a break day and I really don't have much of a reason to blog, but I really feel led to write... and complain.

Good grief, I'm hurting. All I did was run on Wednesday and two days later my feet are driving me crazy. It feels like the bottom of my feet are bruised. I think I may spend so little time on my feet now that they're actually not used to me using them as feet. I really gotta fix that.

Anyways, we got another run today on the treadmill again. Hopefully, this run won't hurt me nearly as bad. It's just a normal old run; no speed, no hills.

Another complaint I have right now is that I have been properly hydrating this week and I've done all my running so far and I've gained weight. I'm pretty sure that it is just because I'm holding on to some of the water, but I just want to see that scale drop.

Speedwork success

Okay, so I finally did some work on improving my pace and it went really good.

I took to the treadmill yesterday at the YMCA to see if I could beat 45 minutes for 3 miles. I know that in the last couple of 5k races, Evan and I set 45 minutes as the time to beat. Since we have yet to best that time, I decided that 45 minutes would be just right for 3 miles. It would at least push me to run faster. Anyways, I was able to finish with a time of 42:55. So I was able to shave over 2 minutes off of what I was expecting. That's not too bad.

My running speed for those 3 miles was 4.5 mph. Next time I'll just bump it up to 4.6 and see if I can walk less.

Another thing that happened to me was that I had intense knee pain last night. I felt fine after the run, but my left knee decided that it was going to hurt too much for me to sleep around 11:00 last night. I got up and took some Ibuprofen and placed an ice pack on it. Around midnight I was able to go back to bed. I'm not sure why my leg wanted to hurt so bad, but that was really miserable. Hopefully, a little more weight loss will make those pains go away.

Trying not to die

We learned a valuable lesson yesterday: Do not do hill repeats in 98 degree heat.

I had decided that we needed to get our running out of the way early yesterday and that became a mistake. We ran at 4:00 and it was so blisteringly hot. I didn't think it would really be that bad, but we learned better.

After we had run 2 of our repeats, Evan said he needed to take a breather so we sat in the shade for just a second before trying one more. Halfway up the hill, I felt like we might be making a huge mistake and decided that maybe we should just head back.

As the sun beat down on us, I realized that I was really starting to feel the effects of the heat and told Evan that we should take the shortcut home. A little while later, we made it back into the house, but I felt a little nauseous for about a half hour. I'm pretty sure Evan was feeling the same.

So maybe we'll watch out for those really hot days and try to push those runs back a little. Today, we're planning to do our fast pace runs inside on a treadmill.

How about that hill work?

Evan and I ran our first session of hill repeats yesterday and I felt it was a success.

We ran a mile out to where a nice size hill is behind my neighborhood and we were able to get up it 3 times in the 15 minutes that I allotted for our hill repeats. I did expect us to do more, but I guess maybe the hill was bigger than I expected. We definitely got a good workout and we cooled down on the mile run home.

I'm feeling really good about the amount of running that we're accomplishing now. I don't know many people who can just take off and run 3 miles. I'm still really heavy at 283 lbs, but I'm sure that more weight loss is just around the corner.

Today, Evan and I are going to hit the YMCA and get on the treadmills for speed day. Our pace is somewhere between worthless and non-existent. Hopefully running on the treadmill will help us increase our pace while recovering from running on the pavement.

Lazy, but not lazy

Yeah, it's been almost a month. I know.

I really just haven't felt like blogging about running. I've still been doing the running, just not the blogging. I guess I really just haven't had much to brag about as far as the running goes, until now.

On Sunday, my buddy Josh and I ran my first instance of four miles. Of course, I didn't run the whole thing, but the distance is a new record in itself. I might have run four miles before I got to be a fat guy, but I wasn't aware of that distance. Now I know that I have gotten out and gone four miles on my feet in one fell swoop. It's a big deal for me, okay?

I'm trying something new with our training schedule. I find that after our Sunday long run, we're usually beat up for more than just a day and in need of some rest. So I think I'm going to change our Tuesday run into a day for hill work. I'm thinking that might go a little easier on our joints while still letting us get in our running. I was also thinking of making Wednesday into speed day and working on our pace on Friday. It seems like a good plan to me so far. I guess we'll see how it works in practice.

Phase 2 begins

We finally made it to the second phase of this marathon training.

Today was the first chance to run for distance instead of time. My time for a two mile run this afternoon was 29:50. So, I guess I trimmed 10 seconds off of my pace for the 5k. I guess we'll just have to see how I do tomorrow(Wednesday).

Tomorrow is another 2 mile run, but we're supposed to run it at a faster pace. Maybe this time I'll actually see some real time shaved off.

Also, we've registered for a 5k on Saturday. I'm really hoping to have a new PR for it. I've really come a long way since the last one we ran, but it just doesn't seem like I'm moving any faster. Am I really walking just as fast as I jog?

It was a big jump...

Owwww. I'm hurting.

I think I overdid it on Tuesday. After running, I decided it was time to mow the lawn and that might have been a little too much for me. My legs and knees were so tired and today I'm sore. I haven't been sore from running in a long time.

Regardless of the pain, I'm running today. I'm really worried about Evan and I falling behind. I really plan to be in marathon shape by February and I don't want to see my procrastinations piling up on me.

I guess Evan and I will just shift the running for this week a day over.