Monday Mileage

Holy soreness, Batman.

I forgot how much my muscles hate me after strength training. Most of it is self induced. By nature, I am not a competitive person, but when it comes to strength training and lifting weights, I want to lift ALL THE WEIGHT. And apparently do all the squats. I may have over done it, hence the lower mileage this week, but I'm cool with that. My ankle has been a bit tender so backing off has been a good move.

As was the purchase of some new shoes! Here's the deal....I love my Merrells. LOVE THEM. But the nagging "ache" in my ankle wasn't going away and after looking back at my training log, I noticed my first mention of it when I started running in my new shoes. Crap. So, I took myself to Running Fit, our local running store, to see about some new shoes and to get fitted for a pair based on my foot type. What I learned is that I tend to roll my feet out when I walk and run and while the shoes I have were great, they weren't great for me. So after running laps around the store (in my little black dress/business attire because I did this on my lunch break) in various running shoes, I ended up with a new (and least fun) pair of Brooks Ghost 7 running shoes. Friday was my first real run in them and I totally dig these shoes. They felt great on my feet, didn't feel heavy and I was able to "feel" my right foot roll to the outside as I ran. The best thing though is because I could feel my foot roll out, I was able to correct it by consciously leveling out my foot. The result.....no pain in my ankle! So excited. It's going to take some getting used to and adding some additional strength in my feet and ankles (while keeping those calves loose) but I am hoping we're on the right track.


Mileage.....
Monday: 2 mile walk with Bandit
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: Personal training session, 1.6 mile walk with Bandit
Thursday: 2.5 mile run, 1.75 mile walk with Bandit
Friday: 3 mile run
Saturday: 2.2 mile walk with Bandit
Sunday:  1.3 miles on the elliptical, yoga class, personal training session, 1.7 mile walk with Bandit

Weekly Total: 18.75 miles (9.25 miles walking, 9.5 miles running)

Monday Mileage

Again, yoga took a bit of a backseat this week. I've been working in a few yoga flows after each run but none of them "felt" long enough to be noteworthy.

I started back with a trainer this week. I'm still trying to get my thoughts together about it, so that'll be a post later this week.

As for the running, I felt mostly great this week. Tuesday and Thursday were a bit of a struggle--Tuesday I was just plain exhausted and Thursday I wasn't feeling so hot, but I powered through. And felt better for doing so. I do need to figure out how to pace myself better. As I said last week, the faster I run the more comfortable I feel, it's just that I can't keep it up for the whole run. I had planned on running 4 miles on Friday, but by the 3rd I was spent and I know it's because I ran the first 2 miles too fast.

The highlight of the week though was Monday. When I started my run I figured if I could finish 4 miles in 48 minutes that would be great. I'm still taking walk breaks so I feel pretty good about a 12 minute mile, especially at that distance (especially for this newbie runner). But after the first mile I was feeling pretty good and decided to set a goal of finishing in 45 minutes. It took a ridiculous "sprint" at the end but I finished my 4 miles in 44:37. I was pretty excited. There may have been some no-so-subtle fistpumping on the treadmill.

My week:
Monday: 4 mile run (whoop! whoop!), 1.25 walk with Bandit
Tuesday: 2.33 mile run
Wednesday: 1.6 mile walk with Bandit
Thursday: 3.5 mile run, 1.35 walk with Bandit
Friday: 3.1 mile run
Saturday: 1.5 mile walk with Bandit
Sunday: 1.8 mile walk with Bandit

Weekly Totals: 20 miles (12.93 miles running, 7.5 walking)

Monday Mileage

One of the drawbacks to the gym membership I have is that there are certain "blackout dates" which means I'm on my own to figure out how to workout. It can be a bit frustrating, but since the membership is actually free, I don't like to complain about it.

Having said that, after being away for a week and a half, it felt GOOD to get back and get some good workouts in. One of the challenges I have while running on the treadmill is not trusting my legs. I tend to worry too much about not being able to adjust my pace as easily as I can while running outside. But I'm learning to push myself by running "just 30 more seconds" or "just 0.10 further" before slowing down or taking a walk break.

I'm also finding that I'm more comfortable running a faster pace than I am slower one. I just need to work on being able to run at that pace for longer periods of time, but I know that will come over time. With each run I can feel myself getting strong and stronger which is pretty awesome.

My week.......
Monday: 3.31 mile run
Tuesday: 3.1 mile run
Wednesday: 20 minutes of yoga
Thursday : 20 minutes of yoga
Friday: 3.25 mile run
Saturday: 1 mile walk, 30 minutes of yoga
Sunday: 3.2 mile run, 1.5 mile walk, 60 minutes of yoga
Weekly Totals: 15.36 miles

I've been tracking my miles and workouts on Daily Mile. It's pretty awesome to see them rack up! How or where do you keep track of your workouts or miles?