Stephanie's Training - Week 3

Training Day #7—June 7, 2010

DEFEATED. That’s how I felt today. With the weather a wonderful 70’s, we decided to run outside today. Great! I wanted to get a feel for the streets. We completed our 30 minutes of weights and headed out the door to run around town. Megan mentioned that she found it easier to run outside and I thought to myself that there would be more to hold my attention OFF RUNNING. Well, let’s just say I was wrong. We took off from the rec center, each of us carrying our water bottles, keys, and Megan—her IPod. It didn’t take long to realize we couldn’t carry everything and since we were running right by Megan’s apartment, we decided to drop off our water bottles. That helped……or did it?! I quickly found that my running stride on a treadmill is VERY different from that of hitting the pavement. I struggled from the get-go! We made it half way through our training regiment (repeating last week’s run 90/walk 2 min---THANK GOD!), and I was huffing and puffing. I mean my lungs wanted to beat me up! We continued on through the streets of downtown to reach our 2nd to last running segment, when I just couldn’t run any more. I had to stop and walk. Thanks to Megan for being patient and looking back to make sure I hadn’t collapsed on the sidewalk. :) At the last leg, rec center in sight, I kicked it in and “baby jogged” my way to the “finish line”, tears starting to form in the corner’s of my eyes. DEFEATED. (Please, let me wallow in self pity for awhile)

Don’t worry there is a “funny” to the end of today’s training. Not only does Heather have a creepy guy at her gym, but so do we. He seems to almost always be at the rec center when we are. He’s a middle-aged man addicted to weight lifting, we believe. He likes to wear the way-too-short biker’s shorts and does a lot of standing and “pondering” between his weight lifting. He also likes to abuse the weight sets…..BANGING AND CLANGING THE WEIGHTS during reps; loud enough we can hear it outside! So our nickname for this gem: “Shorty Bangs A lot”

Training Day #8—June 8, 2010


Today was not my scheduled run with Megan. How I came about running today was to satisfy my husband. After I told him that Megan downloaded our “Couch to 5K” training on her IPod, he began his search to download it onto his IPod (He’s just a TAD BIT of a TECHNO GEEK!). He called me sometime mid-morning and said he found one by “DJ Beatsmith”. The name alone makes me chuckle! Anyways, he was really excited to share it with me and because of the weather, he needed to go to the rec center to ride the bike (He normally rides his bike back and forth from home to school each day—weather permitting.) He wanted me to come with him, so I agreed and off to the gym I went. We agreed I’d pick up the girls from summer school and I’d meet him over at the gym around 3:15. Well, I know my husband and he tends to get held up at school and doesn’t make most things on time. :) About 15 minutes of waiting went by when I finally gave up and started my running. I thought I’d listen to my MP3 player and get started. Well, my running shorts did not have a pocket so I ran my headphone cord up my arm sleeve up through the back of my shirt to keep the cord from getting in my way. Then I tucked that little MP3 player in the waistband of my shorts. They were snug enough, I thought, and should hold it. Once I began my run, and jamming to Cypress Hill, “Insane in the Membrane”, (Yes, old school rap!), I started to notice (as I was jogging) that my MP3 player was shifting! Right. Down. My. Leg. So I’m jogging and trying to pull the cord back up through my shorts to keep my music player from banging against my shin as I’m trying to focus on running! And let me just say, I’m not so graceful on the treadmill when I’m doing anything else but focusing on jogging. I’m lucky I didn’t have a skid mark on my face from falling!

Needless to say, Shawn showed up and joined me. He began and continued with his elliptical bike. I, on the other hand, was really wishing I hadn’t come to the gym. Not having a day of rest really kicked my butt and my “run” was more like a 20 minute walk.


Home to find the Icy Hot!


Training Day 9—June 9, 2010


Today’s training was pretty routine. No falling MP3 player’s, no code blue resuscitation needed, no overly achy joints and muscles. Just a routine day……..which means no big blog drama for today.

Training Day 10—June 11, 2010


Today’s “training day” was up in the air due to some commitments on my part in the AM and Megan’s commitments in the PM. So we didn’t train together today. Megan needed to rest a sore knee and participate in the Relay for Life and I had my aunt’s funeral. So, Shawn and I returned mid-afternoon, in time to pick up our girls from summer school. As we were driving towards the school the illustrious security company called to notify Shawn that the fire alarms were going off at his building (a short FYI: there is MAJOR construction going on over at that building and the fire alarms have been “misfiring” MANY times, so we weren’t surprised or alarmed at this call). Shawn dropped me off at the High School where summer school is being held so the girls and I could walk the mile or so to the Elem/MS building where he needed to go.

The girls and I headed that way, a great warm up walk for me, as we were all headed to the rec center for my run and Shawn’s “bike” ride. We all converged and when we arrived at the rec center, we found the facility rented and unable to work out. OK, well now what……on home we went. In the short drive home, Shawn mentioned it would be a great time for Remi (our youngest, and new to the bike riding world) to try out her hand at her new multi-speed bike (new as in hand-me-down). He suggested we load up the bikes and head back to the HS to the large concrete parking lot. And so, we did, minus my bike. I decided to use that time to run.


I finally got to listen to DJ Beatsmith, although, I should have listened to it before running/warming up to know the “tone” in which to notify me of the switch. But, I managed to figure it out quickly and round and round I went, where I landed nobody knows….Oh, sorry! Yes, it was round and round I ran/walked….ON CONCRETE. That sure does a number on the shins and joints! 30 minutes later and sucking wind, I was glad to be done.


Now I paid close attention to my strides and have to say, it’s going to take me at least an hour to run 3.1 miles! My strides at jogging, most likely are a child’s walking speed!