I'm back baby!

Man it has been a long week. I haven't had a full C25K run in over a week, until today. I won't bore you with the details of what has been going on as you know already but here is a quick run down of my runs since last Monday:

This is where I locked my keys in the car and had to literally run home from the track, not fun. Then took Amanda to the ER and our week of happy fun times in the hospital began.

This was my first run after Amanda was out of the hospital. Wasn't really into it but felt like I needed to do something to stay with it or running might have fallen by the wayside.

This is where I knew I needed to step it up but still ease back into the full 3 miles. A good run overall.

And finally Week 8 Day 3 is in the books! It took longer than I would have liked but I got it done. I would have liked to have blown straight through C25k bus as you all know, life happens.

So its on to week 9! I'm very excited and I hope to see you on the other side of C25K!

Matt

*insert title HERE*

Um yeah, so I've run three times since my last update. Oops. So here's a quick recap:

Wed: 3.44 miles in 49:09

Sat: 2.04 miles in 28:03

Today: 3:47 miles in 40:11

I didn't run on Friday because Thursday night's yoga kicked me in the FACE. I was definitely sore on Friday morning and just knew there would be no way I could make it haha. So I ran on Saturday. I had every intention of going the whole 3 miles, but I realized that I probably didn't have time since I had to be in Carrollton so early for class. That's why it's only 2 miles instead of 3.

I'm still having to walk a little bit, but today I walked a lot less today than I did last week. Hopefully by the end of this week or next I'll be up to all running again. On a side note, I couldn't find my headphones this morning so I ran without music. I thought it would be pretty miserable, but time still seemed to fly by. Okay so moving on.....I've been trying different strides to help out my foot and I think I've found a stride that helps keep the pain away. There is a bit of an issue with the new stride though haha. I've been getting pretty winded when I'm running a lot quicker than normal. I finally figured it out that it's because my stride is longer, therefore I'm running a little bit faster than I'm used to. I'm totally okay with the switch out of more labored breathing than my foot filling with pain haha. It just means that with more time I'll get used to the new stride and my breathing will get better. The cool part about the faster pace is that I'm only a minute and a half away from a 10 minute mile! Today I did a mile in 11:34. :) I'm happy about that - a 10 minute mile is my short term goal for the moment haha.

On another note, I still love yoga. It makes me happy. :) And it kinda hit me when I was talking to my neighbor last week about my running and yoga and he goes "you're working out 5 days a week?! Wow! That's awesome, Liz." I never really thought about the whole 5 days a week thing - it's kinda funny! haha! Just think where we were just a few months ago - incredibly sore, thankful that we made it through the first few rotations of 60/90, and overall pretty proud of ourselves. Well, I'd have to say we're still pretty proud of ourselves, and if we're not we stinkin' should be, and there's still some hard parts of our runs, but I think we've done a pretty good darn-tootin' job. :)

And on one more note, I bought more running shoes haha. I didn't really have to, but I did. The whole reasoning (I keep justifying myself for a reason other than the fact that I just wanted them haha) is to switch out the shoes so that each pair will last longer. They're the new Lunar Glides by Nike (go figure). Here they are! :)

Oh! And I've been meaning to thank Laura E for suggesting orthotics for my shoes - I really think they've helped. :)

Till next time friends! HONK!

This train is bound for glory

Todays run was good. Almost great actually. :) But first I must update about last week.



So last week was the horrible pain in the foot, which didn't make me happy. But I ran on Thursday and was really glad about it. Granted, I did walk some, but I was still glad I made it the whole way through. I started walking each time when I started to feel that my tendon was getting all painful. That way I wasn't pushing myself so hard that it was crazy pain and I wouldn't be able to get through the whole distance. I end up running the last little leg back to my house that I normally use as my warm up and cool down run just because I was so dern happy that I made it haha. And it wasn't the old man shuffle, either. I BOOKED it. And then right when I got up to the corner to turn into my neighborhood, I SPRINTED. It was like someone was chasing me and I needed to run for my life. Yeah, totally couldn't breathe when I stopped, but I was happy. :) So Thursday I ran for 3.06 miles in 47:59 minutes.

I wanted to catch up with Day 2 & 3 over the weekend, but it just didn't happen haha. I was so tired and busy that it would have been a pretty pointless effort haha. So I ran this morning with the goal of just starting on schedule with Week 9. I've come to find that I need this schedule thing. I'm not really good at planning runs on days that I don't normally run haha. That may sound weird, but I've come to like my schedule and how it all fits together haha. But I digress.....

Today's goal was to make it the whole 3 miles, but if not, then just do the 2.75. I did walk a couple of times, but not nearly as much as I did on Thursday (yay!) and I changed up my route a little bit. I wanted the change just because I felt slightly unmotivated to run the normal way back, so I ran on the sidewalk on the main road. Originally I wanted to avoid the main road b/c I didn't want to look all crazy trying to run while people drove by (not really sure why this mattered since I wouldn't know 99.99% of those people), but I did it this morning. :) I liked the change - I think it helped me pump up the end. But yeah so I ran down this last stretch to my house and then a little ways into the neighborhood to get the whole 3 miles and a cool down walk. I was really excited. It also helped that the last song playing was "This Train" by the Indigo Girls where one line is "This train is bound for glory" - I felt that I was on that track. So that was helpful. Plus it was sprinkling for about half of my run and it felt really good haha. Okay so here's the facts: ran 3.33 miles in 53:28. Hopefully next week I'll be able to start shaving off time. :)

Dang this was long! haha! But I really enjoyed today's run with a dash of walking. :) I'm so proud of us!! :) Yay!

HONK!

makin it rain!

Well I didn't make it rain, God did. But I did run in the rain today! I have to say it was awesome. I made it though with out any major problems, no having to pee, not bolts of lightning. I did have a side stitch every now and then, and I guess what could only be called a shoulder stitch....? (idk) I was so happy to run in the rain though. It wasn't too heavy but it was stronger than a mist. The only really negative i see is I worry about my shoes and how they handle the getting wet and drying off again. but I'm sure it will be fine. Here are the stats from my run:

Pretty good I thought. I do have a problem sometimes with my iPod when it gets wet. The controls get a little messed up but its fine when it dries so there. Week 8 Day 3 here i come!

Matt

rain out

So i get home and start to get ready for my run, then i hear it. The rain. I literally grabbed all my stuff and ran out the door. I was so pumped. Running in the rain was just what I needed this week. It was kind of down hill from there. First my iPod started messing up, which could only be attributed to the rain, then my shorts were getting heavy and kind of sliding down so kept pulling them up. Then the one other runner at the track took a hard left turn and cut across the football field because of the MASSIVE BOLT OF LIGHTNING! At that point I thought to myself "Self, you probably won't get hit by lightning, but why risk it?" Thus ended my run. Here are the stats:

Was going for week 8 day 2 today but that is now pushed back tomorrow.

Matt

i had to pee again, just sayin

So i had to run to the bathroom again in the middle of my run, really? I feel like those old guys in the prostate medicine commercial "Matt doesn't have a going problem, he has a growing problem..." But all in all the run went well. Pretty steady i felt. The little graphic I get from Nike+ seems to be a little "heart monitor-esque" in its sporadic up and downness:

Wow, the run really didn't feel that up and down. I guess steady for me is not stopping. Which is pretty good.

And in closing, Week 8, I am going to kick your ass! so look the eff out!

Matt

Not the best ever

Well, my running days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So I get up all crazy early like normal and get my run started. I do my warm up walk and start running. It didn't take very long for me to stop running and start walking. My knee was fine, but it was that stinking tendon that was on FIRE through my whole foot. Not really happy about it. So I decide that I'll just have to walk for a while instead of running. So I walked 2.04 miles in 34:32 minutes. I wanted to keep moving, but I was not happy about walking and not running. My main thinking is/was "I've gone 7 whole weeks and NOW it decides to hurt? TOTALLY not fair! I'm almost to Week 9! UGH!" Plus another special explicative when my mom asked me how it went right when I got back haha. But I understand that it was the right decision so that I wouldn't seriously hurt my foot. I'm definitely not counting Monday as my W8D1, so I think I'll try to give it another go tomorrow. We'll just have to see how I feel in the morning hah.

Speaking of how I feel tomorrow, I had my first yoga class tonight! I really liked it. It was sorta challenging and kinda not all at the same time - I guess the perfect mix of both really. I really like the teacher and I feel like this will definitely be beneficial for me. I have a different teacher on Thursday, so I'm excited about learning more from someone else and whatnot. I was so relaxed at the end, when we were doing the end relaxing poses, I bout fell asleep haha. But overall I'm glad about it. :)

The main determining factor with running tomorrow or not is if I'm sore from tonight or not. So tomorrow could be my W8D1 or it might be Friday (more healing/resting time for the tendon in my foot). I'm hoping that it's tomorrow and that I just rock it out. But we'll see.

The random picture of the day is from my good friend's wedding this past weekend. This is me with some pretty awesome friends from college. And I love weddings! :)

Till next time friends! HONK!

like a Russian race horse

Week 7 is done! It's crazy how close we are to being done. 9 weeks seemed so far away when we started. This weekend has been crazy for us. Friday night we went to a fund raiser dinner for my old campus ministry and the speaker was the first double amputee to complete the Ironman Hawaii triathlon. So i felt like a total slacker after that, kidding. He was great. Then we went to Adel and spent the night so we could be up there early for the garage sale, then there was the garage sale then we went to the FSU game where we got rained on, I mean like raining buckets for the entire first half. But all in all it was a good weekend.

I tell you all that though so you know where my body and mind were as I ran today: exhausted. I feel like I cheated again today cuz I had to stop about a mile and a half in this time to pee. Which i know is a valid excuse but I feel like I wouldn't have been able to make it through the whole thing if I hadn't stopped, regardless of having to pee. I guess it isn't a big deal but I feel like I'm falling short somehow. I hold myself to a pretty high standard with certain things. Things I care about and am passionate about. Which is good, as long as its not an unreachable standard I guess. Anyway, here is my run:

Till next time

Matt

a little edgy

Well to report on my last two runs. I ran with Matt on Saturday around Lauren's neighborhood. It was a solid run with some terrible hills and... terrain. Most of it had sidewalks. But then there was the section that did not. And it instead had pinecones and roots that had to be watched for. Anyway. I loved getting to run with someone, and I wasn't expecting that. I was nervous that it would be too tough to chat at all, or that our paces wouldn't work out. But all of that turned out to be fine. My next run was yesterday. I actually loved it. By the time I got home my right hip flexor and my left ileotibial band were both in pain, but not terribly so. Unfortunately after walking around all afternoon, they did hurt pretty badly, but today they are on the mend. Because I didn't want to further injure them, I didn't run today.

Ok. I know I am about a solid week behind. It isn't so much that this is being pushed to a back burner, its just that my job is such an important and terrifying burner, that 90% of my focus has to be there. I can't risk injury, or lack of sleep, or anything that makes my mind feel any lack of control. I am sorry that I'm not as involved as I want to be. I can't even put to words how incredibly and constantly overwhelmed I am right now. And it seems the things that seem to help don't include running. Not because of the actual running, but because if I run at the gym it takes a disproportionate chunk of time from my day, and regardless of location then it messes with my showering routine and meals schedule (since I have to wait a weirdly long time after eating to run), and makes more laundry for me to do, and just generally feels irresponsible when my house is a wreck, and my mind is the same. Things that calm my mind include cleaning and organizing. And sleeping.

I am hoping to cancel my gym membership and only focus on running outside for a couple months. Running outside is easier mentally and doesn't require me to pack yet another back when I leave for work in the mornings. The fact that there are no scheduled walking breaks in the runs seems to help me zone out while I run now, so I am hopeful that soon I'll see running as a way to decompress, not as an inconvenience. That all being said, thank you for bearing with me during this really rough transition in my life.

Even the Avett Brothers couldn't help me

Ugh. Wednesday and today's run was just not that great. The runs so bad that the Avett Brothers, a great band, couldn't even keep me motivated. I've mentioned the recurring knee thing, and now there's a tendon thing. The tendon on top of my left foot has started to get pretty agitated when I run, and it gets pretty painful. If it were just my calves that were on fire while running, it wouldn't be a big deal. But nooooooo, my leg feels the need to take it a step further and cause me more pain. Ugh. So Wednesday I had to stop a few times and stretch out my calves and the top of my left foot in order to keep going. So Wednesday's run was 3.03 miles, 46:44 minutes, and 435 calories. Today's run was 3 miles, 47:04 minutes, and 431 calories.

Wednesday's run was rough, but today was even worse. I couldn't run the whole time because of all the pain in my foot. :( So freaking sad. So I did my warm up walk, ran for a while, walked for a little bit, ran some more, walked just a little bit, and then ran the rest of the way. I didn't keep track of how much I ran versus walked specifically, but I know that I ran more than walked. I was just not happy about the walking, but I had to in order to keep going. I'm just sad about the whole thing. I mean, Monday wasn't too bad, but it just got progressively worse this week. I'm really hoping that the yoga will help with the running, along with just being repetitive each time. Plus I bought a knee brace and an ankle brace for support while I run, so let's hope that it makes a difference.

Speaking of the knee and ankle brace, here's my leg all braced up:

I also bought the Runner's World Training Journal today. Hopefully it'll be pretty productive. :) But for real, today during the run, one of the ONLY reasons I kept going was because ya'll keep me accountable for my share of the "work" haha. I know that ya'll would make me hold up my end of the bargain, so that definitely kept me going. Yay geese!

Honk!

that's my dog

Today I decided to go for my Week 7 Day 2 run with my dog, Kane. Overall bad idea. In the future Kane and I will stick with walks not runs. He made it about a mile then I had to take him back to the truck. I drove down to the college because I thought it would be neat to run around campus and in theory it was. But with Kane with me and all the students on the sidewalks and such it ended up being a hassle. Since I was near the college I parked at my mother in laws church and was able to drop Kane off there. Unfortunately that came around the one mile marker so I had to pause my workout on Nike+. I kind of feel like I cheated but it had to be done. Anyway here is the chart of my run:

And here is a picture of Kane:

Yes those are Tigger ears. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing about y'alls runs.

Matt

2 runs 1 post

So first thing is first. Saturday's run with Liz Baykur was great. It was great in the sense that I ran it with Liz, other than that it sucked balls. I told Liz when we got done that next time we were finding a nice flat track somewhere. Seriously, it was very challenging. Lots of hills. We ran near Lauren's house in Sandy Springs. We used Nike+. The link to the run is here. Even though it was really difficult, I'm glad I did it.

Now today's run I decided to set the Nike+ to do a 5k for the distance since Week 7 all the runs are 2.5 with the warm ups making them 3 miles. I figured just go ahead and do a 5k, so that is the plans all this week. Today's run went well. I didn't run around a track but did a big loop cutting through a nearby neighborhood, then through the Big Lots parking lot and making my way back to my house. I felt like the run was really steady but the graphic tells a different story:

Still, nothing too dramtic. The dip there at the end is me walking although I can't really explain the big increase at the very very end cuz I didn't start running again. Oh well. Hope all is well and it was great seeing you guys this weekend. I hope we see each other again very soon.

Matt

I hate the end of vacation. Boo.

This weekend I was down at Lake Blackshear in Cordele and I was definitely sad to leave. :( I was supposed to run on Monday morning before I left, but I ended up running Sunday night because I wanted to get it over with haha. But before that I walked 2 miles with my stepmom on Saturday. And on Friday was my Week 6 Day 3 run. So run on Friday, walk on Saturday, run Week 7 Day 1 on Sunday. Oy vey. My legs were not very happy about the walking and then the running hah. But I, once again, employed the old man shuffle to get through the 2.5 miles. So Sunday night I went 2.82 miles in 42:36 minutes (eh, could be better), and burned 406 calories. It was cool to run near the lake because while I was running down the road, you got glimpses of the lake every now and then. The only downer about the run is that the road wasn't always even (which is a given), but especially around the curves in the road it was a bit crazy. So yeah, my left leg from the knee down was on FIRE from just about the beginning. Ugh. But other than that I was happy that I finished. Gotta love the endorphins.

Other than running and walking during the weekend, I went kayaking both Saturday and Sunday, and rode/drove the boat around the lake. My brother is the skier and tuber of the two of us kids, so he did that while I watched. It was fun. :) I also took a hammock down there, so both Saturday and Sunday mornings I was outside on the hammock reading for a while. :) It was quite enjoyable. :) But here are a few pictures of the sunset Friday and Saturday night.

We're almost done! Yay! Then it's just working on time and building up for the 10k! (whenever that may be, of course. :) )

Honk!

Do the shuffle! The old man shuffle, that is.

Soooo yeah...in order to make it through the whole run, I employed the use of the old man shuffle. It was a good idea since lately I have been running out if steam halfway through the run. But I made it haha. I'm not sure of my time and everything because I haven't really looked or been able to upload it. I'm down at Lake Blackshear for the weekend with the fam with no Internet access so yeah. I am excited about running here at the lake on Monday though. :)

Oh! So Thursday I calibrated my Nike+ at the gym's track. It wasn't off too bad so that's a bonus. I was definitely feeling the exercise though. I walked a mile and then ran a mile. Goodness gracious I'm glad I don't have to run every day! My legs were not happy. Hence another reason for the old man shuffle on Friday.

But anyway I'll write in more detail on Monday when I'm back in town. :)

Honk!

i passed the eff out

Yesterday I talked myself out of running in the blazing heat at about 5pm and talked myself into some pizza for dinner with Amanda. Overall a good choice. So I set off for my run at the track around dusk. The run itself was really great. It was one of those runs where you just kept going not really noticing that you were tired or in pain. I ended up finishing around 8:30. The link to my stats is HERE.

The dips at the beginning and the end are my walking laps. And like I said before I didn't notice much of anything as I ran so having that many peaks and valley's in the run kind of surprised me.

Something else that surprised me was that I passed the eff out when I laid down at about 9:30 last night. Next thing I know it is 2:30 am and I've missed 2 texts and 2 IM's from Liz W cuz I missed our Compline via Skype (again, my bad B). Needless to say while Week 6 Day 3 was good, it wore me the heck out.

Today Amanda and I head to Atlanta to visit for the weekend. Hopefully the weekend will include at least one run with Liz Baykur and at least one meal with both Liz Baykur and Liz W. I love you guys and can't wait to see you!

Here is a funny picture I found on the Texts from last night photo roll on flickr.

ugh.

Today was hard for me for some reason. I got really winded pretty quickly, which didn't make me very happy. It was slightly discouraging because I thought I'd be better off since there was walking involved and last week we ran 2 miles without walking. So yeah, I was wrong. Again haha. I wanted to use the walking part to just refuel, shall we say, so that the last half wouldn't be bad. Yeah, it was. I just don't get why I'm so winded! Maybe I should slow my pace back down a bit, but the stubborn side of me doesn't want to because I want to get faster. Such a dilemma. Any suggestions?

Today I ran 2.89 miles, 13:39 pace, and 416 calories. It took about 40 minutes (as of now my wristband thingy doesn't feel like uploading....boo), which is okay, but not the best. I'm really hoping that Friday goes well. I'm gonna need a run that I feel glad about haha. But I wasn't bummed for too long, because as Elle Woods says, "Endorphins make you happy!" Which is true. I was in a good mood when I was done, which I attributed to being glad to being done and still breathing as well as the endorphins.

I've decided that I'm going to start doing yoga. There's a place near Rita's (yay!) that isn't too expensive and it's a 12 week program. I'd go twice a week (my off days), so I think that would help with my muscles not being so sore and just being able to really stretch out a couple times a week. So I'll let you know when that's all official. I've always wanted to do yoga, so I'm pretty excited about it haha.

Here's another picture from Antigua. This was a church that was pretty run down that was near where the marching band was performing for some kids from the elementary school. I thought it was pretty. :)

Honk!

Calibration station

I went to the track today to calibrate my Nike+. After walking a lap and running a lap it seemed a little off still but close enough. The walking was dead on but when I ran a lap it said I did .27 instead of .25. I'm not all that worried.

After I did my calibration I went home and ran around the neighborhood. I'm going to post a mile or 2 mile route on the Nike+ map thing on the website soon. If you haven't gone yet its really cool, other Nike+ users post routes so if you you're looking for a specific distance and don't want to use the track then there they are! Oh I also bought some sunscreen and one of those little pouch things to go on my shoe so it doesn't feel like I'm running on a rock with the Nike+ sensor.

Here is another picture of me from the gorge. It was really awesome and I think would make a fun trip for us to do one day.

Peace

Matt

Nike+ and me

Today was my first day running with Nike+. First off I have to say that I like Nike+ a lot. Or I will once I get it calibrated. I did week 6 day 2 at the track today, so with the warm up lap and cool down lap equaled 11 laps or 2.75 miles. Well Nike+ said I ran 2.93 miles so i think its fair to say it needs to be calibrated.

As for the run itself, not at all bad. I did notice a lot more random pains in the legs and side but they never lasted long. I'll go ahead and give my Nike+ stats but understand that they are a little off: 41:10 mins, 2.93 miles, 14:01 mile pace and 653 calories burned. Now again, not sure about the accuracy. I plan on doing a light run at the track to calibrate tomorrow.

And now a funny dog picture:

OM NOM NOM!

Matt

clever title.

I had a good run!!!! (W6D1) I was really starting to get run down, in all honesty, and a little discouraged. I felt like running was just one more thing I had to do, on top of my scary, time consuming, and exhausting new job. Not only that, but adding an activity that makes me feel like I'm dying because I can't breathe and I have side stitches... well its just not a great motivator. Today though, most of the time, I didn't really notice that I was running. I kinda had to estimate a little bit on my timing, but according to GoogleMaps, I completed 2.6 miles, in 29 or 30 minutes. My iPod did a good job of giving me good running songs, and I didn't really hurt too much today. My right hip does give me a little trouble towards the end, but I'm getting better at stretching so I'm doin ok. ALSO! I ran a little extra so that I could get to run down the big hill, and then not have to run up it again. So that helped the motivation for sure. In the sidewalk, besides the place that says "YOUR MOMM" there is a place that says "LOVE" which just seemed nice and positive for today. I thought it might rain while I was out there, but it didn't.

Anyway, thanks so much for being so continually encouraging. I'm pretty sure I would have given up before today without yall. And obviously I am so so glad I didn't :) Here's to being runners! Cheers!

Tomorrow I work on the floor (and I get to stay on my medsurg floor, which I'm happy about), Thursday I have class (then I will move on to W6 D2), Friday I have to work on the floor again (ack!), and then I should be free for Sat and Sunday, and back to work on the new floor on Monday (scary!!). And that's my life.