Making my way back

I am going to attempt a very short jog/walk today for the first time in a couple of weeks. I have been laid up from training more or less for 3 weeks. I am extremely nervous, but I have to start sometime, or I will never know if I am healed or not. Wish me luck!

Trying to see the light

but the tunnel seems awefully long. I didn't get to really train last week because of my knee. I walked the 8 miles on Sunday and my knee felt great. I paid for it later. I couldn't train at all this week and have to call the dr. again today to see what the next part of the plan is for recovery and training. I am not allowed to do much of anything right now, no running, walking, swimming, biking, yoga, nothing. It's a bit frustrating not knowing what is going to happen next, but I'm hanging in.

Knee injury

I went on my long run this weekend and foolishly wore my new orthotics. I injured my knee (or more correctly it's probably my IT band) pretty significantly. I could barely walk on Sunday. I did, however, hobble the whole 8 miles. When I woke up on Monday, I felt much better so decided that I would go that evening for my "recovery run." I ran for a little while, but then my knee started to hurt, so I walked the rest of the 2 miles. Today I have off, tomorrow I will walk 4 miles and I am going to skip Friday's run. Hopefully that will put me in good shape for Sunday, but we will see.

I need to go to a professional running store and get new sneakers that I can wear with my orthotics. This is turning out to be a very challenging journey. I must admit that I am a bit frustrated, but am hoping that, because it is still early, everything will come together for me.

The Pose Method of Running

I got a new book and DVD the other day to try to improve my running. It's called the Pose Method. I read some really good reviews about it and figured it couldn't hurt, right? It is supposed to improve your running technique which in turn will help prevent injury, improve your speed, and enhance your endurance (among other things). So, we will see how it works.

Thanks, Amy, for joining me running last night. I hope you will run regularly with me/us!

I wear my sneakers at night

so I can, so I can...Amanda and I went running last night with my newly calibrated Nike+. I still don't know how accurate it is. I will attempt a run tomorrow night that I have measured (via my car odometer) for the first mile. Then I can start to make adjustments. Maybe I'll just calibrate it to that mile run. Hm. Anywho, we did well, but if the Nike+ is accurate, we ran fast compared to how I usually run. Great for training, but I couldn't keep that pace over the 26.2 miles. Well, not at this stage in the game anyway.

But, I'm actually having fun and looking forward to the runs, for the most part, even though they are tough. 4 miles tomorrow...

The good, the bad, and the...ok, well there isn't any bad

I went on my long run today and ran the entire 6 miles. During that time, I found out that my Nike + is not accurate for me and I need to recalibrate it to my specifications. I think the main reason is that I take small strides because I am just starting. So, kiss that 10:42 pace goodbye! But, the good news is that I did run the whole 6 miles, and I did it in a 13:20 pace, which is over 2 1/2 minutes faster per minute than last weeks long run. Yeah!

Running w/ Nub

For all of the thorns Nub puts in my side, he is a great running companion. I took our little black lab mix out with me last night for my 4 mile run and he did very well. He doesn't spend much time on leash (that makes 3 times in the past year and a half) so I couldn't have asked for more. He was quite a trooper, and great motivation. Just as I thought I needed to walk, he would give me a little tug, encouraging me to go on. (OK, I realize that it was not his intention to do that, but that's what it did!) So, instead of my 16 minute pace that I kept on my long run last Sunday, I kept an average of 10:42 minute miles (thanks Nike+ and iPod, which I loved by the way!) Holy schmoly! If I can keep or improve that time over the long haul, I will finish in less than 5 hours. Though I am making no predictions, I will just try my best to finish under the prescribed time. The long runs will be the test, towards the end when I'm doing 18-20 miles on Sundays.