Week 2 Day 3 -- Happy Easter, and happy no injuries!

Happy Easter!

Whew, I was sooooo tired today (Easter is a big, big deal in this house), but I am glad I made myself run, not the least reason being the tremendous amount of calories I'm sure I ate. Between "helping" the kids with their candy, and the Easter brunch, it was just ... too much. So, even though I was ready to fall down and sleep, a run ultimately felt pretty decent.

(Yes, I am keeping up with my calorie restriction diet and continuous, gradual weight loss, but very very occasionally I allow myself to splurge for one day or one meal. If I didn't, I'd never keep up with the program. You have to like something to stick with it that much.)

And hooray for no injuries! This was the point, when I first started the c25k program, where everything from the knee down started to ache, starting after a run (which I knew wasn't a good sign). By the middle of W3 D3 I knew I had to stop because I had injured myself. It looks like it really was my starting pace which did it to me.

Today's run wasn't too hard, even with the new switch to a toe-strike. I think in a couple of weeks I may attempt to pick up the pace veeeeeery slowly. I think maybe by the end of week 4 or week 5, my body should be more or less acclimated to regular running -- but that's just a guess, I'll have to check with someone else who would know.

Very much looking forward to next week's running. Week 3, here I come! Rar!

Addendum: I hadn't been *great* about stretching before now, but I decided to youtube something and get on that ball in a more disciplined way rather than half-assing it. This guy is funny, so I've been doing what he said. Minus that lunge thing, which I cannot seem to get to work.

W2 D1 Redux - Toe-striking

Today I completed the week 2 day 1 run (running intervals pictured above). At last, a place where I can break a bit of a sweat. Today's run wasn't yet a challenge, but it still felt like an accomplishment to finish. And not a single twinge from the knee, although it did feel a little odd, but it quickly dissipated.

I like to think this is because, on the advice of a friend, I've actually switched up my running style a little bit. Rather than a heavy heel-strike (with a strong pronation due to horrendous arches), I've tried to switch to a toe/forefoot strike. The anecdotal advice of M said that all her problems (ankle, knee) cleared up when she did this. What the heck, I thought. When I re-started the program, I was a bit bored, so to make it interesting I figured I'd try it.

It seems to pair well with toe-raises that I do on off-days (and whenever I remember). If you don't know what running with this kind of strike would feel like, picture this: you're outside, on a sidewalk in your bare feet, and you have to run to something. You sort of naturally run toe-heel when you're being ginger with your feet.

Note: I have done ZERO real research about this, I just figured I try it out, because eh, why not. I do switch back and forth between my heel-strike and the toe-strike because 1) toe-striking isn't what I'm used to and it takes some concentration, 2) switching back when calves (say) get tired appears to buy some extra running energy, as I'm working different muscles. It's probably not good practice to change something up without investigating pros and cons.

WHATEVER THO LOL

I also had a biggish calorie deficit prior to the run that I indulged in a smoothie! :D

Overall, encouraged. Still running slowly, and I'm a little concerned about that, but I will work on that once my endurance is up-to-snuff. Right now, my mini-goal is to make it to the end of this week (w2d3) without any pain or injury setting in. At that point, given that I had run for 2-3 weeks before I had to stop, I think I may be acclimated enough to running that I shouldn't expect any major new runner's soreness.

I think I may have mentioned in my "why I run" post about the weight loss I'm trying for. I was at my max post-pregnancy weight when I actively started to try to lose weight (first, by eating normally but cutting out sugar, then by calorie deficit, then by deficit plus running, even though the running is less for weight loss and more for the goals I outlined previously). My goal is to lose 30lbs (at least). So far, I've lost 13lbs. I started measuring inches only a couple weeks ago, but I've already lost one inch off my hips and 2.5 inches off my waist. I'm so encouraged by this, SO encouraged!

Looking forward to Thursday's run!!

Once more, with feeling

Okay. Well. So.

In fact I did take some time off. I went to see an orthopedist, because the pain in my ankles and in my knee was darn persistent. He took some x-rays to check for stress fractures. Nothing showed up, but he said it's possible I could still have a stress fracture in my knee, but it wouldn't show up for 6 weeks, and then on an MRI. I was ordered to take two weeks off. If I was better, good. If not, MRI later. Well, I'm better. And the pain in my ankles was tendonitis, so two weeks off cleared that up completely. The pain in my knee turned out to be the pes bursa ... or something ... whatever muscle means "goose foot" in Latin.

Two weeks later, I"ve done week 1 day 1 again. Knee was a tiny bit twingey, but it didn't hurt. I felt nothing the following day. In my off-day, I did some toe-raises and squats.

Today I ran w1 d2. Again, fine. Easy.

This is partially because, due to the recommendation of some marathon-runner friends and a very athletic husband, I should run a LOT slower than I think I even need to. Previously I was running around 6.3 - 6.5mph (I'm on a treadmill and can measure), and that felt slow. Since, I've slowed down to no more than 5mph. It's almost painfully slow, and a tad boring. It's not all that challenging -- I don't really get winded, and I barely break a sweat. But evidently, it's what my joints and bones need to get used to the repeated impact of running.

So I'll be doing this painfully slow pace for a while. I keep seeing on the c25k subreddit that the program was designed solely for endurance and not for speed. Once one's endurance is up to snuff, you can work on speed. I still have almost a year, so I will definitely be doing that. I'll be running a 10k in October to have proof of time for the Disney Princess half-marathon, and I'm hoping by then I can have some kind of decent speed so that I can start in an OK corral (haha... the OK Corral ...). Maybe. we'll see.

So, there's that. Sometimes you fall down and have to start all over again. I'm starting again from the top just to be very careful, to keep up with that incremental building. Two weeks off is too long just to pick up where I left off.

So -- once more, with feeling!