Aug 20-26 Miles and Miles (or km!)

[tattiefritter]

The sun, that's what!

The weather has been miserable here for all of July and August, I finished my trail run on Sunday afternoon and wished I had a hat to put on, it was 13C, in August! The sun has made a reappearance in the last couple of days to remind us all what summer is so it was a very warm 4 easy miles yesterday - glad I remembered to blow the cobwebs off my sunglasses. Rest day today then a trail run and some biking over the weekend, no firm plans as its a public holiday on Monday that I completely forgot about so an extra day to do stuff and the weather may stay good, but this is the UK so best not get too hopeful

[teigyr]

On tuesday I did 1/2 mile on the treadmill - sounds like nothing but I did that after swimming and after the brief run, I went to a spin class. I was killing time but it counts I think!

On wednesday, I increased my run by a mile. I walked as I needed to and was sluggish. I'm to about 3.5 miles now on an average day.

This morning I did the increased 3.5 route and ran just about everything! I had to walk on one of the hills but I finished feeling really great! My average is about an 11 minute mile (counting the walking) which isn't great but I think it's getting better. My max heart rate was 175, my average was 145.

What I'm loving is I can now breathe well/slowly even when my heart rate gets up there. I can get in a comfy pace and not feel so tired or like I'm working. I can also speed up then slow down and recover while running instead of walking. These are probably common things for people but it's a huge thing for me!

The run in my tri is 4 miles. Being that it's in almost two weeks, I know I will do some walking. But it's getting better!

[michelem]

Last night (August 23) I did my first treadmill run. Hubby got me a two week pass to the local gym to see if I like it enough to join. With the 100 degree temps, it has been too difficult to get outside to run during daylight hours.

Anyway, either I've been miscalculating my speed when I go out on the roads/trails, or the treadmill is just way to easy! I had been estimating that I was doing 5.75 to 6 miles in approximately 75 minutes. This is on very, very, very gently rolling hills with a couple stoplights thrown in, which I estimate may slow me down by about 2 minutes or so (not a big deal).

Well, last night on the tread I did 6.0 miles in a little less than 1 hour. I used the manual programming and varied my pace from a low of 6.0 to a high of 6.6mph and percent grade from a low of 0 to a high of 3%. It was pretty fun pushing myself to do the 3% grade at 6.6mph for about 3 minutes at a time.

Anyway, I know I need new shoes. My feet slip and slide in the ones I have. Anyone have good suggestions for small, narrow feet? The ones I have are Adidas Supernovas, size 6, regular width and they are too big! They are okay for everday wear when I have on thicker socks, but not for running.

Next run I need to add mileage. I didn't get there 'til after 9pm and it took me a good 15 minutes to figure out how to operate the treadmill . . . since I had to get up for work this morning, I figured staying 'til after 10pm was late enough!