I realize that I'm nowhere near Danielle's level of badassness with her 20 mile runs, but I am trying to make slow and steady progress.
Yesterday, I had planned on running a nice 4 mile loop; the weather was nice, no humidity, no wind, I was looking forward to it. Somewhere about 2/3 of the way through, I started to feel like it was taking a really long time to finish. When I got home, sure enough, I had been running for over 50 minutes. Thinking something went horribly wrong, I hopped online, mapped out my route, and realized that it was actually just over 5 1/3 miles long. So I ran 5 miles at about a 10 minute pace (I walked the last 1/3 mile). Not too bad considering I was only planning on running 4.
So today, I decided to do the same route again and see how I felt. This time I finished the entire loop, at a 9:30 pace. I felt a lot better today than I did yesterday. I think I do better when I can get in a groove at (or at least near) my regular pace. If I slow down too much, I don't do as well for some reason.
Now I need to go downstairs to the gym and lift a little, because I'm starting to get those stupid shoulder cramps when I run, so I need to stop that from happening.
Hooray for progress!
(Note: Post edited to reflect actual distance and recalculate average time; I was under on the mileage a bit; this is not my weekend for judging distance apparently)
Barely Survivable Affection
35 minutes ago
4 comments:
Well, ten miles in a weekend isn't too shabby.
Do you really find that lifting helps the shoulder cramps? I hate it when those happen.
as my mileage increases, i have found that low weight, high rep, lifting helps me. i really only focus on my upper body and trying to do some core (abs) work.
for my shoulders, i do shrugs, and i think they help a lot. just take a dumbell in each hand, with your hands straight down at your sides, shrug your shoulders up toward your ears, hold that for a second, then release. i do about 3 sets of 15 a couple of times a week and it definitely helps. don't use a ton of weight, but i've found that the "right" amount is whatever causes me to feel it by the 11th or 12th of each set.
aright dude, you and me! We'll be the wimp faction of the team.
go wimps! i'd gladly pay you tuesday for a cheeseburger today. oh, wait, that's wimpy. nevermind.
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