Stephanie's Training - Week 10

Training Day #29 - July 26, 2010

Running outside…….in the country…….on the gravel……sounds OK, right?

Well, let’s weigh the pros and cons of today’s walk/jog:

PROS:
1. Early to rise means a decent morning…..somewhat cool..ER, less humid.
2. Bonding with nature. Getting to enjoy the sounds and smells of the country.
3. Time to reflect on my inner self.
4. Change of scenery.
5. Challenging my physical endurance.

CONS:
1. Early to rise doesn’t mean it is necessarily less humid or cooler! My shirt was soaked by the time I returned to the house.
2. Bonding with nature. Oh….my….heavens! What is that awful smell? I quickly found out a poor raccoon (I think that was a raccoon!) didn’t survive a nightly jaunt across the road. Talk about trying to breathe through your mouth! Blaahhhhh! :(
3. Flies. Flies. And more flies! Not only did the “house” flies decide I was a target in their sights, but the horse flies decided I was to be a tasty morning treat. Thank goodness none got a bite!
4. GRAVEL. Enough said! At least on the route I took this morning. Note to self: Take a right out of the driveway next time.
5. My physical endurance wasn’t much today. I had a hip not wanting to wake up and a side cramping. Is it just that it’s Monday or is that an indicator of getting old!

2.6 miles in 40 minutes. Not too great. I’m going to chalk it up to being Monday!

Training Day #30 - July 28, 2010

With three girls in tow, I headed to the rec center to meet Megan today. My niece is in town spending some time with us and knew the three little ones could keep busy shooting baskets and watching TV in the lounge while I used the treadmill.

We did our usual weight training and after, we set forth to the illustrious treadmills to program in my first full 5K.

The treadmills have a program setting for a “5K Loop”. We decided we’d run/walk what each of us could until we completed the 3.1 miles. Talk about setting your psyche up for a challenge!
We turned on the good ‘ol “Price is Right” and strapped on our music players and off we went.

I’m noticing my first minutes of jogging are a struggle, but the positive part is knowing I settle into a good groove thereafter. After about 10 minutes, my body AND my lungs found their niche and I was feeling good! I set the speed at 5.0 which is a little faster than my Stephanie Shuffle on the streets.

I jogged real smooth to about the 15 minute mark and took a quick 2 minute walk and then was back at it. I did my best to not watch the computer screen.

I was feeling really good!

I did notice about 2/3 of the way through; fatigue was knocking on my door. I had to slow my speed down to 4.8 to sweat through the last mile to the finish.

And there it was……..the finish! 3.12 miles (that’s what the machine declares as a 5K) in 40:22 minutes with only a total of 9 minutes of walking….the rest was jogging, Baby!

What an accomplishment…..for ME!!

Training Day #31 - July 30, 2010

My intentions were super today. My children and niece (who had been visiting for the past couple of days) were picked up early by my parents. They were whisked away for a fun-filled day with Grandma and Grandpa at their work, then off to spend the night and have some quality time with their grandparents. Great! That worked in my favor, because I knew I could start my workout pretty early to beat the heat.

I had to run to the neighboring town of Centralia to go run errands at the pharmacy. I already had decided I would “map” out a route approx. 3 miles to run in town. Well, this morning turned out great as far as the weather goes. I loaded up all the kids, kissed them good-bye and soon set out for Centralia. All was going well.

I took care of my errands at the pharmacy and asked the clerk if the school track was open to the public. She nodded to a local patron behind me and they both agreed that “yes” it is open for public use. Great! I could track my distance better than running around town. So I headed down the road to the High School with hopes of circling the track numerous times. I was a little concerned that the redundancy would get to me, though. Is a 1600m a ½ mile or a mile? My thoughts, were that I’d be running around that track about 24 times. :(

As I approached the parking lot, my gaze shifted to the clouds rolling in from the west. I had heard the weather forecast for today and the chance of “pop up, severe storms” was a good possibility. Are you kidding me?! Again!!!!!!!

I got out of the van, stared at the clouds and decided it was not worth it. So I hopped back in my van and drove back to Sturgeon, headed towards the rec center. I was glad of my decision because in the 10 minute drive it started to sprinkle and was a steady rain when I reached the rec center. (And by the time I was done with my workout, it was flat pouring!!!)

I skipped weights today, since I knew my run would take approx. 40 minutes. I had things to do at home. I plugged the “5K Loop” program into the treadmill and set forth. It was a really rough start, but I knew from Wednesday’s run, I would be OK after a set amount of minutes. But, MAN, my knees ached and my breath was pretty catchy.

I warmed up with about a 2 minute walk and then increased my speed to the 5.0 I’ve been used to. I listened to my MP3 player with its one-working ear piece (what’s up with that!) and tried to settle into my pace. It took about 10 minutes to find my groove. I settled in and was feeling pretty good. I took a couple “one-minute” walk breaks after about the 16 minute mark. Not bad! At 26 minutes, IT hit! I started to get blurry eyed, and light-headed. Ummmm….what is going on? I slowed down to a brisk walk hoping to catch my breath and set things right, so I could keep going. Then at 28 minutes I was feeling worse for wear and quickly slowed my pace to 3.2. I was thinking that all I needed was to steady my breathing and slow things down.

Nope!

I quickly lowered my speed to 2.5 and was at the 30 minute mark when I decided I had no idea what was going on but if I kept pushing myself something terrible might happen. I decreased speed to “cool down” and pressed the “stop” button at 31:22. I had gone 2.2 miles and really needed to sit down!

It took me a few minutes to get over the “motion” of still moving and catch my breath. I quickly recovered to normal and left the gym miffed!