The Enemy is Mine

I finally conquered Enemy Hill on Wednesday. It was tough but I stuck it out and made it to the top. My legs were burning fierce and I felt like I was on autopilot for a while afterward. To make it up the hill, I set little goals along the way. Each telephone pole and street sign became a target and I would tell myself, "If I can only make it to that stop sign, I'll be almost done."

After the run was over, I felt pretty good but the Achilles tendon area on each leg was sore. I think they're ok today. I'll have to see how they feel when I start running.

Tonight I'm going to do the same route I did Wednesday to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

I forgot to start the 100 pushup challenge yesterday. Hopefully I remember tomorrow.

100 Pushups - Initial Test

I took the 100 pushups initial test late last night and boy was I shocked. I'm weak! The last time I did pushups, I was able to squeak out 15 before it started to get tough. Last night was a completely different story. I could only do 4 comfortably and then could only manage to do a couple more after that. Because of my sorry performance, I'm going to start at level 1, the bottom, and work my way up.

I am really looking forward to tonight's run. Since my Monday run was done in the morning, It seems like it's been forever since I last ran. I'm even starting to feel guilty about not running. Is that normal?

Switching to Distance

Over the past 7 weeks of the plan, I've always measured my running activity using time. Starting on Wednesday I'm going to start measuring by distance AND time to make sure that I'm making progress in both areas. As I'm running for longer periods of time, I'm don't want to be slowing my pace.

Wednesday calls for 28 minutes/2.75 miles. I've got the run mapped already and it includes Enemy Hill. Should be a blast.

Two In A Row

So I got up early again to go run. This time I actually woke up at 6:00am! I was able to get the full 25 minutes done but I was feeling a little dehydrated near the end. I ended up choosing a flatter course since the Enemy Hill course isn't well lit and doesn't have sidewalks in places. Not a good idea when it's dark out and you don't own any reflective clothing.

Wednesday begins week 8 of the Couch to 5k plan, which means I'm going to be bumping my time up to 28 minutes.

Tomorrow I begin two new routines to balance my running. One is the 100 Push ups Training Program and the second is a series of stretching exercises. I haven't come up with a list of the stretches I need to do yet, so if you have any ideas let me know. Eventually I'll be replacing the stretches with yoga. The community center in my neighborhood offers yoga classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which fits in nicely with my Monday Wednesday Friday/Saturday running schedule.

First Morning Run

I'm not a morning person, never have been and likely never will be, but somehow I was able to wake up at the crack of dawn (ok maybe it was 8:30am) and go for a run. Following the Couch-to-5k plan, this was technically day two of week 7, so I had to run for at least 25 minutes. I plotted a 3 mile route using mapmyrun.com that put he Enemy Hill (see previous post) right at the beginning of mile 2. As I approached the hill, I was feeling pretty good, my legs were loose and my breathing was relatively controlled. By the time I got up half-way, however, my legs were screaming and I was panting like a dog in heat. I tried to motor through it but I had to give up at the 3/4 mark. I only had to walk for about a minute or so and then began slowly running again. One good part about the Enemy Hill is that afterward is a slight decline for the next half mile or so. That gave my hamstrings a little bit of time to recover as my quads took most of the load. I finished my time ok, even tacking on an extra minute at the end to make up for the minute I had to walk. After the run I was thinking only one thing: the Hill is mine on Monday.

Challenging AND Fun

Wednesday's run showed me how fun running can actually be. I experienced a sense of exhilaration as we were maneuvering through the nature preserve. You have to be more mindful of your running on trails so as to not break an ankle or get whipped in the face by a low-hanging branch. I definitely need to incorporate more trail runs into my routine to mix things up a bit.

The hill at the end of Wednesday's run was a different kind of fun,the punishing kind. That hill is my new enemy and I'm vowing to beat it within the next couple of runs.

Yesterday's Run

Dave and I met up again at our normal spot. We then ran to and through a nature preserve that's in our neighborhood. It was my first time there and I was surprised how big it was and how many hills it had. There some spots on the trail that were kind of tricky, requiring us to slow down to a crawl. We also had to hop a couple of fallen trees. Once we exited the preserve we decided to tackle a street know for its long, painful hill. Dave did fine on it but I died about a quarter of the way up. All in all we ran about 30 minutes (which included about 3 minutes of walking) and probably did about 5k.