Week 6 Side B

WOW what a run! The first half was like my best run ever. My breathing was absolute tops and my legs weren't sluggish AT ALL! I was super excited!!! ...sooooo I overdid it. BOO!!! I just felt like going fast because I was just gliding along! But I ALSO mixed in a TON of hills and I think that THIS isn't the point where I can mix fast AND hills. So then the second half of my run was completely brutal. My breathing has never been so labored!! I felt like I was either going to trip from exhaustion, pass out, or throw up!! GUH!!! But I just slowed it waaaaay down and kept pushing on. I couldn't help but smile to myself every so often because the pain was so bad...like "jeez this is a nightmare!"...funny huh? ;) But then the FUNNIER part is that ever since the run ended, I've felt like a half million dollars! My recovery time is seriously like 30 seconds for legs and maybe a minute and a half or so for lungs...then I'm golden. I feel totally great right now like that was the best run of my life! WEIRD!!! I don't know what's up, but I'll take it!

What is kinda bumming me out is my mile time. It's pretty much right under 12 minute miles and I feel like I'm never going to knock that down. I know I probably will though...it'll just take time. I can't let it psyche me into running too fast though. I know I keep saying that ;) I just have to keep it slow at the beginning, even if I feel like going faster. If I keep it slow, it'll give me more juice for the end of the run...rather than huffing and puffing and dragging my ass that whole last mile! I just need to SEE it to believe it, that's all. So I promise, my next run I will seriously slow it way down at the beginning and see where that gets me. Maybe it'll help to take a break from the hills too.

PS Run is star'd twice due to the drastic difference between first and second half!

Week 6 Side A

First of all, I was only able to do two runs this week as my good pal Casey was in town visiting (and I was too lazy and wanted to sleep in all three days I was off work!) Both runs were really tough. The first was Thursday afternoon...my breathing was actually very good, but my legs were pretty sluggish. I had also walked three miles that day, so that might've had something to do with it. The second run was Saturday through the streets of Hoffman Estates, IL visiting my good pals Monica and Tim! I took the run right away immediately after getting up...which I've done before of course...but it was also the first "warm" run at 75 and humid. Again, my breathing was good, no stitches or anything, but my legs were even MORE sluggish than usual and I felt like I was running through mud every single step I took the whole 28 minutes :\ Halfway through the run I decided the following: I failed Week 6 and I definitely need to repeat it. While I got plenty of exercise throughout the week (the aforementioned 3 mi walk Thurs, another probably 6mi walk on Wed, and an hour of ice skating with 2-3 hours walking around a library and the Public Museum Tues), running was just rough. And I realize it's getting harder now, but still...I gotta get back on track. Especially now that my knee isn't bothering me...it's just sluggish leg feeling where I feel like I can't pick up my feet. Don't like it!

So starting tomorrow, I'm going to actually try for four runs this next week! AND I'm going to try to eat better too because that's definitely fallen by the wayside.