A synopsis of the week.

Monday–I finished up my training plan with a 5K run, which went a little beyond what the plan actually called for. Yay!

Tuesday–I wanted to go running since I felt “freed” from my plan and there wasn’t anything to tell me that I couldn’t run on consecutive days, but my knee ached a little, so I decided to hold off.

Wednesday–A nice, slow run. My knee still felt a bit funny so I didn’t want to do anything that I would regret.

Friday–Unfortunately, my wisdom on Wednesday somehow left me on Friday. I ran 5K at a moderate pace despite constant “discomfort.” I won’t call it pain, because is was bearable, but it hurt. I really thought it would eventually go away mid-run like it had in the past. Well… I got home, stretched, ate breakfast, gave up on school work for the day, and took two ibuprofen which knocked me out for three hours. Yes, that last part is a little scary as I look back on it. The drowsy side effect could have been intensified my a slight lack of sleep, or maybe I now know why I usually take only one tablet (200 mg) for headaches during the day and save two tablets for nighttime.

Saturday through Sunday–I took off. I really wanted to start running four times a week this week, but I figured that recovery is more important at this point. Tomorrow, Monday, I’m going to hit the bike. And maybe the next day, and the next day… but we’ll see. Although I’m not noticing any apparent swelling, ice sure feels good.

The cause of my problem? Yes, it’s my shoes. No one needs to tell me. But, if I were to wait to start running again until after I bought new, proper shoes, I would be waiting until the end of July. (Shoes are cheaper in the US at this point, there is more variety to choose from in the US, and I don’t know enough about shoes to just order some. I need a running store.) Sorry, I just can’t wait that long. However, now I’m starting to think I might need to limit my weekly mileage until then.

Water Fun.

My family and I went to Prague for the first time Thursday and Friday. Living in Europe for nine years, you would think that we would have been there by now. Anyway, it was fun–I’m glad I can say I’ve been there now–but it’s tremendously overrated. I didn’t run on Friday while I was there (I probably should have just so I could say “I ran in Prague.”), but I’m going to count all of the walking as cross-training. : )

We arrived home around 9 p.m. Friday night to discover that a pipe under the kitchen sink had burst, and 3 inches of water now covered half of our downstairs. After calling up some friends to help us, we started moving out affected items and cleaning out the water. Besides soaked walls, wooden floor, some furniture, and some other insignificant items (like a board game and The Confidence Man, ), our greatest concern was for some photos stored in a cardboard box in the living room. So… my sister and I were awake until 2 a.m. pulling apart photos and negatives (from the pre-digital era) and spreading them out upstairs to dry. Meanwhile, my dad and friends pulled up part of our buckled wooden floor in order to save a connecting staircase (after taking pictures of the damage for insurance purposes, of course). I was rather annoyed and scared at first, but after thinking about all of the worse things that could have happened, it doesn’t seem so bad now.

Needless to say, I didn’t run Saturday morning as planned. I still felt like running later, so I decided to go in the evening instead. It wasn’t as excruciatingly hot as previous evening runs, but I felt like a windshield. Every so often I had to brush off little flying insects from my clothes, spit them out of my mouth, or wipe them from my eyes. Not only did the bugs irritate me, but some rather rude teenagers sitting right on the path didn’t want to move out of my way when they saw me coming. Have I mentioned how I don’t like running at that time of day?

Tomorrow is my last day of my training plan. I got a little behind schedule because I purposefully cut Saturday short, but I’m still pleased with myself.

A Week of 5K Run and a Rainy Day

I’m well again. The whole sore throat ordeal was rather peculiar. Usually two or three days after I come down with a sore throat the sore throat goes away and sniffles, and maybe a cough, takes its place. But not this time. Each morning I woke up expecting to need tissues throughout the day, but I never did. Weird, but I’m glad I’m better now. Those head colds sometimes last forever…

My initial goal for Monday was to run at an easy pace for 30 minutes. By the time 30 minutes rolled around, however, I felt great and decided to make it 5 km instead. This would happen to be the very first time in my life that I’ve accomplished running that distance without walk breaks.  Yay for me!

Today, on the other hand, was not so fun. I woke up to rain. I probably would have still run, since it was only drizzle at that point, but today I wanted to run with my dad, which I regularly do. Well, Daddy is not a fan of rain. We waited until 4 p.m., and by that time the rain had long stopped and the roads had mostly drained as well. Our goal was to run to a certain point–somewhere around 2.5 to 3 miles. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but around the 1.5 mile mark things started to hurt. First my calf felt “funny”, and then the funny feeling pain gradually made its way up to the spot around my knee that it loves to hang out at. Besides that, both my dad and I overdressed for the weather. Sure, the thermometer said 15C/60F, but it sure felt cold when we stepped outside because it was cloudy and damp. We should have went by the temperature. Whether it was a faster pace, the unusual time of day, a little less sleep, or the pinto beans I ate for lunch yesterday, I didn’t feel like I had much energy. We finally made it though, but I’m sure glad it’s over. It’s interesting how two similar runs can feel completely different.

I’ll be trying to add a bit of cross-training to my schedule in the near future. I eventually want to increase the number of days that I run. I don’t think I’m ready to do that quite yet, so I figured that if I go ahead and do something on the extra days I plan to run I will already have a habit for that time of day.