A little walking

Last week I began to get back to walking a bit. I still haven't ventured to run again. I am having a lot of congestion and trouble breathing as well as very stuffed up ears. I'm considering going to visit the Nurse Practitioner at work tomorrow about my ears.


Let's suppose that my walking last week was worthwhile (I'm a believer that any activity is worthwhile so I'll suppose that).

Monday - 2.23 miles. 40 minutes. I walked over to the Municipal Courthouse at lunch time to (sweat and) pay my traffic ticket. It was my second such trip since I forgot my drivers license when I went the week before.
Friday - I walked to meet my brother for lunch. MapMyRun/GPS said it was 1.49 miles. It took me about 18 minutes.
Friday - I walked the baby in the stroller to get her to sleep. 49 minutes. 3.00 miles.
Saturday - 4.2 miles. 59 minutes. I would guess that the calibration was high and it should be about 4.0 or 3.8 miles. I need to calibrate my Nike+ against my GPS again.

My intention this week is to get more exercise whether it's walking, running, or riding the bike trainer. Hey, speaking of a bike trainer... We went to meet my brother's and sister's families to celebrate my brother's upcoming 40th birthday with a dinner this weekend. My sister brought the trainer she had borrowed from him and I now have it on permanent loan. I need to figure out where to set it up (temporarily - each day that I use it) and see if I can find any good spin podcasts but I plan to diversify my in-the-dark workouts without a gym membership (I've cancelled and it ends this month).

Running to a Scratchy Halt

My week started out pretty good in terms of running. I wasn't burning up the sidewalks but I was keeping pace.

Sunday - 2.04 miles - balance bike walk with the kids.

Monday - 4.0 miles, 53 minutes. W10 (R5 W1)x6, Walk rest.

Wednesday - 4.59 miles, 1 hour. W5, (R5 W1)x5, Walk 5.

Friday - 3.95 miles, 1 hour. A walk.

Ok, so Friday I walked so that I could run on Saturday except that Friday afternoon my throat started getting sore. It was sore all weekend and has continued although now it's not so much sore as I just have a nagging cough. Blech. I want to stop getting sick so I can run consistently. I also think this puts my goal of covering 100 miles in May out of reach.

Do over

I spent a few weeks working on a baby blanket. I was planning to do filet crochet which is the technique I used on this afghan for my niece. I was going to do a row of 4 squares with a puppy, cat, rabbit, and fish (I originally planned duck rather than fish but the duck was too hard). After a few weeks of this and not even finishing the first row of squares and realizing that I would always have to be consulting the 4 patterns at all times, I decided to make a different pattern. Yesterday I tore it all out (always a painful process) and wound the yarn (or most of it - some was so knotted that I cut it off and threw it away). I started a blanket pattern that I have done 4-5 times and which I love. I'm not sure how it will look because usually I use a lightly variegated yarn and this color is completely solid.

Blue, Baby!

This is really a "last week's runs" post but I'm just so excited to be Blue in Nike Running. It's not just that blue is my favorite color because green is my next favorite but I am so goal oriented that it felt great to make that level. I did my run Saturday morning and then came home and the entire family came over to the computer to see the screen change colors and see my "ataboy" message from Nike Running. I also had a verbal "ataboy" from Tiger Woods when I stopped my workout.

I did a lot of walks this week because I was worried about reopening my thumb and bleeding profusely.

My runs/walks:

Sunday - 5.41 miles. 1:38. A nice walk. I walked over to the park and then back.

Sunday - 1.87 miles. 33:00. We took the kids/dogs for a family balance bike ride/walk after dinner because the weather was just lovely.

Monday - 3.67 miles 56 minutes. Lunch time walk at work.

Tuesday - 4.06 miles. 59:50 minutes. Walk.

Wednesday - 2.66 miles. 51:33. Balance bike ride to the school playground and then walking in circles while the kids played.

Thursday - 3.97 miles. 1:00:11. Walked .5 miles, Ran 2 miles, Walked the rest. My first day to run with my thumb and it felt fine and didn't bleed. It was also my first time to try to run 2 miles since I transitioned over to the run/walk technique.

Thursday - 1.47 miles. 24 minutes. Lunch time walk.

Friday - 3.47 miles. 54 minutes. Walk.

Saturday - 4.57 miles. 1:03 minutes. Walk .5 miles, Run 2, Walk the rest. It was a beautiful run at the park.

My weekly totals were 31.2 miles so I'm pretty happy with that.

Last Green Day

This is the last time I'll post a Nike Running graphic in green. That's right. If you look at the top, I have a mile (or less) to go until I hit the blue level. That's 620 miles (1000 kilometers). The next level is Purple at 1552 miles so I'll be blue for a long time. I walked this morning but the graphic said I was 5 miles from the next level and I didn't know if that meant 4.1 or 4.9 or 5.93 miles...

Also, I usually sign up for a challenge called the Stay Strong 75 each month. Some months I also sign up for the Stay Strong 50. This month I signed up for the Stay Strong 100 which means I'm challenged to run/walk 100 miles this month. My previous high was 80 miles back in September. I'm on target so far but it's only the 6th of the month.

Last Week Running

Last Week's Runs/Walks:
Sunday - 5.2 miles (really 5.5). 1:23. W10, R 1 mile, W5, R1 mile, W40. A good and fun run/walk.
Monday - 74 degrees and humid. 3.01 miles. 43:28. 10 minute walk. R1.5 miles. 15 minute walk.
Monday - 2.91 mile lunch time walk, 47:57.
Wednesday - 3.72 miles. 57:59. W10 R 1.5 miles W5 R.5 miles Walk the rest.
Thursday - 3.81 miles, 56:00. Walking.
Saturday - 3.12 mile stroller walk. 50:58.

My total mileage for the week was >20 miles. I was doing much more back in the half-marathon and 10K training plans. Right now I'm in a bit of a demoralized place about my running. I'm doing this training plan to bring myself up to running with no walk breaks but so far, I'm not running any faster without the walk breaks than I was with the walk breaks. And I'm doing a long walking warm up and down. So my average pace is very slow. In fact, my average pace is only slightly faster on the workouts with some running than on the intentional walking workouts. Ergghh.

I keep telling myself to stick with this program and then do the Chi Running clinic but I've missed the past two and there won't be one in May and I just found out the dates in June and I'll miss the first one. Hopefully I can make the 2nd one in June but that's still 6 weeks away...

As I said... Erggghhh.