Felt lousy...did run anyway...

...and now I feel just fine!  I had a sore throat all day today, and was kind of weary.  I decided to do my run anyway, because it was going to be short (25 min) as part of the pre-training.  My sore throat felt better afterward, and I had a lot more energy!  Wow!

My running friend Joe told me that he runs when he is sick, as long as it is from the neck up.  Anything from the neck down (i.e. respiratory, digestive, etc...) he doesn't run.  Sounds like reasonable advice.  Tomorrow I hope to do my 25 min run outside (Sunny, with a high near 25. Wind chill values as low as -5. cold!).

27 degrees and dark - a nice run!

So I got a head lamp, which seems to work fine for letting me run in the dark (yay!).  Now I just have to figure out what to do with the cold.  I ran 17 minutes, walked 3, then ran 16 minutes again.   This was the first run outside since the half-marathon in October.  I feel a little wheezy, but that is probably due to the cold.

However, with the head lamp, I felt a bit like Locutus of Borg...

Another run down, tomorrow is rest day

I really feel it in my legs, the lack of running for several weeks.  However, one of the things that I haven't lost is the knowledge that I can do it.  It is a good thing to sustain me through the tough parts of the run.  I'm taking this by the numbers, in the hope that I won't get injured.  So far so good!  Tonight, 15 minutes run, 5 minutes walk, repeat.  Two more days of this (Saturday and Sunday), and then I notch it up a little next week.

After a long break, I'm back

So I haven't run for weeks, and it has started to get to me.   But I needed a goal too.   So I decided to run another half marathon, because I really didn't want to take the time to train for a marathon, and I thought that a shorter run would not be worth the registration fees, etc...   Then I had to find a race with a reasonable date, so I chose this one:  http://www.rhoderaces.com/ which is on May 2.  It's a tall order to train for a half marathon during the winter, but I didn't know what my summer schedule was, and I didn't want to run in the middle of the summer, and October seemed too far off for a goal, and on and on.  :)

I received the book "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer", and it has been very good.  I am going to  take things slowly, and will ramp up to running a half by around May 2, about half of the listed marathon training schedule.   I ran my first night tonight, which is part of the pre-training weeks.  15 minutes run, 5 minutes walk, 15 minutes run, 5 minutes walk.  The schedule requires 4 days a week running.  Here is the schedule:

Let the running commence!

Post race blues

(posted on my other blog accidentally a couple weeks ago)

So I ran for the first time tonight since the marathon. At first I was taking a week or so off to rest my knees, but then life got crazy, and then I got my lousy cholesterol numbers back. It's been hard to get back into it. I haven't been eating as well as I should these past couple of weeks, and started to feel it today. Tonight I ran 30 minutes, and it was a workout...but no pain, which is good. Now I have to find a race for the spring. Perhaps a 10k would be nice.

Annoying cholesterol

So my cholesterol is back up to the pre-medication levels (230 total) which is discouraging. I really thought that the running would overcome the issues I've been having with it over the years. Back on the statins... :(

Yes, a week later

Now that I am finally dry, I think I might be able to start again. :)

Actually, I ran 3 miles on Sunday, which was gorgeous (why couldn't the half had been on *that* day?), but my left knee is still bothering me quite a bit. I have to plan what to do for the winter. I'm thinking about trying to finally learn how to swim, which might complement my running well (low impact). I also have to figure out this knee thing...

I'm really glad I have this blog for training. There were several things that helped me train for the half, directly related to this blog. It was nice to see someone else struggling with injuries, and overcoming them, so that I didn't feel quite so alone. I also liked Becky's comment that the first couple miles of a run are often the worst, which helped me on more than one occasion to keep going. I also like looking back at the beginning to see how far I've come.

Now I have to find a race in the spring to train for! If I learn to swim, perhaps I'll look into triathalons. :)