You guys are all doing so well! I’m very impressed.
I got the OK to do a gentle return to running, using my common sense from the orthopedist last week. :dubious:
So, I’ve been doing many of my runs at the gym, so that I can hop onto an elliptical if I start feeling any pain. If I’m out and about running, I’m kind of screwed if I have to stop. Yesterday I had to do just that, whereas today, running didn’t bother me at all. I suspect that today’s shoes are good, and yesterday’s shoes not so much. Why, why, why must companies “upgrade” their models all the time?
I’m going to get even further behind this week. I did Week 5, Day 1 yesterday, and then proceeded to go get my hair permed.
The thought didn’t occur to me when skipping my running days early in the week that I would not be able to wash or otherwise get my hair wet for two days after the perm.
Not being able to wash my hair, for me=no running.
Shit. I can’t run on Monday–I have to work at 0530. Mondays are MY days–all for me. Not for the next 2 weeks they’re not. I work M, T, Th, Fr next week. Guess I’ll run Wed. I don’t foresee a lot of running next week–which deters my progress, which feeds my lack of initiative and plummets my attitude.
But, money doesn’t earn itself…
Knee is much better, thank god. It was my old orthotics, I think. New ones feel great.
We can do this. We just have to hang on. In December, when I’m scrambling to get any time at all, I’ll be glad I did all this now, right? And I’ll have time to run (away from bill collectors).
That’s not lame. I was make sure I exercise early in the day on days when I’m getting my hair colored, because I had an unfortunate incident once where I exercised after and the heat of my exertion turned my roots a lighter color than the rest of my hair. My current hairdresser tells me that the dye she uses will not do that, but why chance it?
I did week 6 day 2 yesterday, just running straight through, and I was doing really well - got farther at the midpoint than ever before (didn’t know it was a hill after the street I normally turn around at!) but then ran into a coworker and had no choice but to stop and talk for a minute (and hear an inappropriate yet complimentary comment on my runnings tights and my ass therein, urgh) and then it was all screwed up, but I saw I was running faster after I stopped so I said, what the hell, let’s just sprint for the rest and see how far we can go - which was fun and I really went pretty far, maybe two blocks.
Of course, when I went online to see how fast I’d gotten my GPS program thingey told me my max speed was 39 miles per hour. Whee! And also that I’d evidently teleported four blocks.
omgomgomgomgIranfortwentyminutesstraight! I did it ya’ll! I think that was the hump. I know I can do 20 minutes now, so I don’t think the mental jump to 25 and 30 will be as hard. Getting past the 8 minute mark and resisting the urge to walk and just do Day 2 again was the hard part. Then I had ran 10 minutes and was halfway done. Then before I knew it, I only had 3 minutes left to go and there was no way I was stopping at that point! I am seriously in awe of myself right now. I have 700 calories remaining to eat for the day, so I’m going to go have a slice of cheesecake. With cherries. Maybe two slices. I think I earned it!
I am so excited for you, Hockey Monkey! Seriously, when my brain realized we had gone more than two minutes longer than we’d ever gone before, it started to think of reasons to quit. The mental game is shockingly important, isn’t it? When I think that I tried to do this several times before and never ran a mile, and now I know for sure I can run a mile and a half… damn, it feels like a fun-sized version of a hackneyed sports movie, doesn’t it?
So, you’re running that marathon with me, right? October 25. You have almost a year.
Uh, lemme get the 5K out of the way before I try to wrap my brain around a marathon.
I almost started crying when Robert said we were done. Seriously, it was a profound moment for me. The mental aspect is huge, but as encouragement to those folks who started later, if I can do this, ANYONE can. I am fat. I have not excercised for at least 15 years previous to this thread. I ran for 20 minutes tonight. If anyone is contemplating giving up, just remember that my fat ass did it. I think if you make it through Week 5, you will be able to go all the way. Please don’t give up. I’m rooting for you.
Any idea how far you ran in 20 minutes? I’m trying to find out if I’m exceptionally slow for a beginner or if “2 miles or 20 minutes” is always going to be easier on the time than the distance.
Depends, Zsofia. I know when I started, and when I still counted laps on the track (I realized it demoralized me more than anything), I would do the 2 miles in slightly less than 20 mins. Now that I do 30 mins, I probably do more of 10mins/mile. But I haven’t checked, and I know, based on how I feel, that some days I run more/faster than others.
Not very far, the whole workout including the warmup and cooldown was only 1.8 miles (according to the treadmill). I plan to get to being able to run for 30 minutes at 3.5 mph, then work on my pacing until I can do 6 mph.
Wooooh! Congratulations! Believe me, it’s going to get easier from here on out. Probably. Week 5 is just 5 more minutes, and then week 6 is just 3 more minutes, and then Week 7 is just 2 more minutes. It’s totally doable!
The pain always goes away after a couple days, but starts back up when I run again. The stretches helped, and this week I’ve been concentrating on my quads to try to build some stabilizing muscle. I’m going to try another 30 minutes on Sunday.
I’m not running today because my ankle hurts. I know what happened to it - on Thursday a car forced me into a gutter and I turned my ankle a bit on the lip between asphalt road and concrete gutter. But it was fine for the rest of the run and all day yesterday - last night when I turn my ankle the wrong way it starts hurting, and there’s a bit of swelling. I’ll rest and ice it. But that doesn’t even make sense - why didn’t it hurt at work yesterday?
Week 5, Day 2: finished. I kept my 3.5 mph walking and my 5.0 mph jogging speeds the whole way. Whoop! I was self-talking the last few minutes of running, and was glad the gym wasn’t crowded. I covered up the time display with my towel on the second 8-minute run, as well, but then I just kept peeking at my cell phone! I feel good.
