Day 45 (Week 7, Day 3) - Mrs. F

Despite feeling down and tired earlier, I was ready to run this afternoon. It was a bit challenging trying to figure out how to cook dinner and workout and all the fun that accompanies all that. I started cutting potatoes, not knowing exactly what time Mr. F would get home. I figured that even if I didnt have time to cook before our workout, at least the prepwork would be done.

When I checked the temp earlier in the day, it said 41 degrees with 34 degree windchill temp. I was expecting it to feel much colder than it did. Mondays workout, I almost felt too hot with my layering, so I went with one less layer today. I elected to ditch the 3/4 quarter sleeve cotton shirt. That worked out great, I was plenty warm and not too chilled in the beginning.

I tend to walk slower than Mr. F for our warmup walk. I figure its okay, since I speed up my pace when I run. So I trailed behind him a bit as we started. I started out with a stocking cap and leather gloves. It wasnt more than 3 or 4 minutes that I ditched the gloves. The hat quickly followed.

The beginning and middle of the run felt great! I had a little pain going down my right leg. It disapeared about as quickly as it appeared. At points I could just feel the difference in my stride. My feet hit the ground lighter as I was able to speed up the pace. Other times I definitely felt the slog of the run. My feet felt heavy and like I was shuffling the leaves along the trail. I reached the end of the trail, turned around and met mr F again. I then reran the way to the end of the trail and took the street to a side path and ran back to our orginal trail. This allowed Mr. F to get further along on the trail before I caught up to him again.

I had attempted to borrow a watch from my son and promptly left it in the car. I wanted it with to give me a better idea of how to pace myself. Its hard when you hit that wall, not knowing then how much time you have left.I suppose it could be worse too, if you check the watch and find you have 24 of the 25 minutes left -- lol!

The end of the run, roughly about the last 8 or 10 minutes were hard. I started developing a minor sideache in the right, thus my pace slowed. And as I slowed, it increased my desire to walk. I did keep plugging away but the mental battle was much harder at that point. I tried to concentrate on taking slow deep breaths( kinda impossible when you are already breathing hard). The side ache would come and go as I tried to work my way thru the trail. As I neared a corner in our trail, I heard Mr. F whistle. So I turned around and ran back to him at that point. So we were running together for a little while. I pulled ahead and tried to find my stride again. Once I reached our beginning point of the trail and turned around and headed back to Mr. F .

I should know by this point that I cant do things as Mr. F does. Today reminded me of the time in college when I tried to study as Mr. F does. He can just go to class and listen and get A's on the tests. Well to make a long story short, it didnt work and I majorly failed. I learned the hard way, that I need to actually study! Well today I tried to sprint with Mr. F during the last minute. He has a wicked fast sprint!!! I may run faster during the workout but I cannot keep up with him during the last minute sprint. I did try today and kept pace with him for 20 seconds and then I thought I might just die right there on the trail. I forced myself to keep running but my side was killing me and I could barely breathe! I can speed up at the end. I tend to be more strong and steady and slowly increasing my pace rather than a major jump in speed to a sprint. This is good to know about oneself.

No problems with shin splints as I thought might be starting last time. Leg muscles are sore as are my shoulders and arms. They are sore like I just had a good workout, kind of sore.

I am still amazed that I can run for 25 minutes and that I made it thru 7 weeks of this!

Keep on running
Mrs. F