Registered! And back to training..

Today Claire and I registered for the half!!!!!!! SO there is absolutely no backing out now because they don't offer refunds! I'm excited all over again for it.

BUT. I have not run more than 2 miles in the past 2.5 weeks. Several reasons:
1. I was sick and in the hospital with a colon infection.
2. Family tragedy had me all depressed and in my hometown for a few days.
3. Then I had to try to catch up what I missed from #1 and 2.
4. Thanksgiving

Soo...it might be kind of a struggle to get back to where I was before all of this happened. But I've got over a month off of school for Christmas break so hopefully I will get lots of good training in then!

Love,
Emme

Yesterday-ok...today-not so much

Yesterday I ran 31 minutes again, but without the stroller. It was an ok run. Not great.

Today, my child decided to start bawling around 9 minutes, so I finally just turned around to go home. I ran 20 minutes. He pretty much cried the whole way home, too. Great. At least I ran some, though, and now I have tomorrow off and then 5k Saturday!!

Emme has all kinds of problems right now, and we spent a good portion of yesterday in the ER...so I hope she is ok soon so she can run the 5k! Poor Emme!!

I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow, even though I really will just have to get up early in order to work all day. Oh well!

~Claire

50min/strength+speed training/blisters

So, during my last 45 min run, I felt some rubbing on my arch. So I looked and my foot when I got done and sure enough, BLISTERs. I had a blister in the same exact spot on my other foot from my old shoes. So i researched it a bit and found these suggestions:
1. Get non-cotton socks for better moisture wicking
2. Use vaseline on the sore spot before running
3. Tape the inside of your shoe with duct tape or packing tape so that it won't rub
4. Use foot powder in your socks
5. Get some arch support
6. Make sure your shoes are laced tight enough

So today, I went out for my first 50-min run equipped with new socks, vaseline underneath a bandaid on my blister, and my shoes laced up pretty tight. And it felt fine, until I hit about 28 minutes or so, then it was rub, rub, rub, ow, ow, ow, with every step on my right foot. :( In high school when I ran track, they would tape my arches for support because my arches are really low. Maybe I should try that. And if that doesn't work, I guess I will just suck it up and wait for it to calus :(

Besides that, my run today was really good! Fifty minutes was not so bad at all. I do hate the wind though. It makes it harder to keep a good pace.

Yesterday, I didn't have a whole lot of time so I ran for twenty minutes and did some strength/speed training. I emailed my brother (aka personal trainer) to ask him some more questions. He said it is a good thing to incorporate stride-outs into a shorter run in order to strengthen your legs and start working on speed. So, I did 3 sets of stride-outs on my run yesterday and it felt pretty good, but I'm feeling them today! I think I'll try to do that once a week or so.

I'm going to run 50 again tomorrow, rest thursday, short and easy run friday, then 5k on saturday!!

Love,
Emme

31 minutes

Today was not as good as yesterday, but I did keep running for 31 minutes (the last minute was only because I wanted to get home faster than walking would have allowed). It wasn't bad, but it was a lot harder than running yesterday.

I'm still planning to go 30 tomorrow and 35 Thursday, and I am getting more and more excited for the 5k! I feel like it'll be the first thing I've accomplished in a long time!

30 minutes!!

I ran 30 minutes today! :) It was really good-I felt like turning around at 12.5 minutes and running 25, but I decided to keep on going. I'm so glad I finally got to 30...and I didn't die of exhaustion after! haha

I am so excited for the 5k Saturday. I have decided that I am gonna bring my kid because I am so used to running with the stroller now anyway. AND I now think that it is possible for me to actually run the entire thing without taking walking breaks!!

I am really proud of myself. I really enjoy running and I like knowing that I am doing something good for myself.

Plan for this week:
Tuesday and Wednesday-30 minutes
Thursday-35 minutes (i think maybe)
Friday-rest
Saturday-5K!!!!

~Claire

much better

This morning I ran around the neighborhood since I was still not at home. It was soooo much better than yesterday! I ran for 20 minutes and walked for a bit. I cannot believe how nice it was today and I am so excited to run tomorrow and Sunday! Both days are supposed to be super nice!

well MY run was fine. :)

Today was BEAUTIFUL! Light breeze, sun shining, birds chirping. I ran my 45 min no sweat. (Well, not literally. I always sweat. I'm just gross that way) So tomorrow I'm going to run it once more, break on saturday, then 50 min on sunday.

Last night I was naughty and had 2 of those microwave brownie bowls. OH MY GOODNESS THEY'RE SOO GOOD! So today I made sure to do some situps and squats and stuff to try to work some of that chocolate-y goodness off.

Dear Claire,
I'm sorry you fell on your butt. That must have hurt. But it is so not my fault you aren't coordinated. I hope that the race next Saturday is not gravel.

Love,
Emme

i. hate. gravel.

So I am out of town and I attempted to run a gravel trail. MISTAKE. First of all, it sucked. There were many potholes and a lot of them were disguised with leaves.

Good things about gravel: I learn that maybe I shuffle my feet a bit, and I need to take cleaner steps. Also, the ground is less level so I felt like I was working harder.

Bad things about gravel: I fell twice. The first time I fell I landed on my knee and held on to the stroller, which my kid did not like. The second time I landed on my knee and I didnt hold on to the stroller, and I lost my balance on my knee and fell on my butt.

It was a bit painful. Luckily it was early enough that the only person that saw was a super old guy.

I only ran for 10 minutes and 30 seconds, and then I walked 10.

Dear Emme,

Please never make me run on gravel again. Deep down I blame you for this a little bit. haha not really ;)

Love,

Claire

Hm.

Yesterday I didn't run because I had to wake up early. Today, I had a test so I wanted to run but not for very long. So I went for half an hour but went in spurts of fast and slow paces. It was a pretty good workout!! Tomorrow I'll be back on track for running 45 minutes again. Hopefully I'll be able to run the next couple days so that I can up myself to 50 minutes next week!

I've got to get me a watch. For real. Looking at my iPod gets annoying!

Love,
Emme

45 minutes? Maybe?

So, after 4 long, fattening days of not running due to weather, church, and halloween festivities, I put on my running shoes and iPod this morning to get out there for 45 minutes. And as I was on my way out, I realized my iPod had absolutely no charge! Arg. So I decided to ditch the iPod today and just run. It was interesting. I ran a little past where I ran on my last 40 minute run, so I think it probably turned out to be about 45 minutes, but I can't be sure since my ipod is my timer. I really need a watch!

So, my run was good. The weather was beautiful. The only thing was, on my way back there was this couple that was running at a pretty slow pace, but I was running pretty slow too. But I suppose they thought I was running fast enough to pass them, so they were on the left for like, ever, waiting for me to pass. Sooo i zoomed ahead of them and tried to make some distance between us before I slowed back down to my nice pace. And BOY did i feel that! Pretty much the rest of my run I was trying to catch my breath from that one speedy stretch. Sometimes trail running can get awkward. But all in all, after not moving for 4 days, it was not too shabby!

Tonight I'm making a yummy treat: berry dump cake! Not too healthy, but I figure the berries have to count for something right?? Right. :)

Love,
Emme