I'll Take It

Summer officially started a few days ago, and these past couple of days were humid, cool and rainy, but I'll take it! I will take it over hot, humid, voggy days....

I managed to squeeze in a 5K run before the rain rolled in, but that meant having to get up at 6:00 a.m. but luckily the sun was already up. While my family is fast asleep, I pieced myself together and got out of the door. The smell of damp roads, mist in the air and seeing other runners besides myself out there, it's something I thrive on.

Yesterday was what I considered a "rest" day. I skipped the running, but mostly due to the high possibility of rain. Yes, I do run in the rain, but yesterday I wasn't in the mood. My calf hurt and I suspect it's due to the changing of the shoes. Husband tried to massage it out with The Stick, but it was still bothering me. I woke up this morning with residual pains, but it was much more bearable and I pushed on. If it had been bothering me though, I probably would have sat today out and KT Taped it.

On a side note... #2 had her first day of Keiki Steps, it's a three week Kinder class to help the transition to Kinder. Although she's been in pre-school for the past 2 years and 1 month, we thought it would be good for her to make new friends prior to starting. It broke my heart though because once we walked her in to her class, she already wanted to say see you later! There are no plans for #3, so this was pretty sad!

It's time to go pick up #1 so, it's off for now....

"You either ran, or you didn't."

1/2 of My Intentions

Sadly, today I only logged a 5K run, I was aiming for the 10K length, but not so.. I did on the other hand get to run with the husband. He gives me entertainment (other than my music) and it's nice to have him run with me, so that was nice compensation.

Today is another busy Saturday, #2 was supposed to have her track meet, but once again, we are skipping it, as we will again, next week too. We are seriously bad track parents, but this is her first season and it was supposed to be just for fun, especially since she is the smallest one on the track!

Breaking Bad In

Due to pain running in my arches in the midst of every run, I returned to Running Room Hawaii to see what my options were. I ended up replacing my Rapunzel purple Asics purple shoes that I bought for the Disneyland 10K with a pair of minimalists from Saucony. I am still a little leary about the transition to minimalist shoes from stability shoes.

I took them out for a run this morning and so far so good. I am not sure if it's because I KT taped my left arch, but my right arch seemed to hold up for the typical 5K run. We shall see how my calves hold up come tomorrow morning. According to other online articles and from the guy at the Running Room, they all concur that one should only break in the shoes 10% at a time. Sadly, that seems like a big setback in terms of training for my 10K. I don't want injury so I am hoping that that will pay off.

The shoes though did stand true to the weather though, it poured pretty hard, and they didn't get sloshy like the other shoes I have, so that was a plus! Will keep that part updated too as that was another worry about those shoes.

At the Start Line

Returning to the blogging world, but this time on the focus of running.

This is the "run down":

I started exercising in Spring of 2012, after realizing I had all this time on my hands since my youngest (of 2), started pre-school. I figured it was time to do something productive with myself, so this journey started in a local cemetery with a bunch of retirees.

It started with just walking, but the more walking I did, the more I felt like I could run. The music I was listening to I think struck something inside of me. The tempos were much faster than a typical walking speed, so I figured why not start running. I remembered hearing about my friend doing a 5k and she trained using the Couch to 5K (C25K), so I figured if she could do it, I could do it too! I used the Coolrunning.com's program, plugged it into the RunKeeper app and went from there. Low and behold, it was a true test of my athletic ability; there were days I felt like I was going to pass out, especially at the 5 minute intervals! In short, it's now over a year later and I am still running.

In the midst of the running routine, a healthier diet ensued, and I started a food diary with MyFitnessPal then lost almost 30 pounds! I have battled weight all of my life; always feeling like the "fat friend" and never feeling great about myself, but after all this panned out, I managed to find myself and actually love my body! I am healthier and smaller now, then I was in high school and I owe it all to the big man upstairs for helping me find running!

Like all runners though, I had my share of issues/injuries. The first was the shin splints, the culprit for that was downhill running, so I changed my route, then.... Hip flexor twinges. I think that was the most annoying. It was not painful, but it was weird sensations in my hip flexor in the midst of a run that irritated me; having to jab my thumb into the region through out the run got old. Now, I am battling plantar fasciitis! Thank goodness I have a supportive staff at the local running store, so they have been awesome by providing me with lots of help along the way.

Well, that's all for now, I hope to keep this updated more frequently than my previous blogs!