Woo!

I am proud of myself today. I like that feeling.

I guess I should start with a quick summary of Thursday's run. I decided to run from my apartment again, but I took a slightly different route. I basically ran down Allen Parkway on the non-bayou side. It was actually a nice run.

I did the run first thing in the morning, so it was nice and chilly (I am going to miss the chilly mornings as the cold front weather passes). Houston was still a bit eerie post-hurricane, and I found myself dodging lots of debris and branches. It was actually fairly pleasant, though, and my run went really well. I did my 25 minutes fairly easily (and at a faster pace than I have been).

I spent a lot of time trying to concentrate on changing the foot that I breathe on in order to help with the side cramps. I can definitely tell the difference, but it is hard to train myself to breathe differently. As long as I am concentrating, it goes really well, but as soon as I turn my attention to something else, I'm back to the "wrong" way. Of course, as soon as the side cramps start, I can concentrate on breathing better, and it tends to go away. Good thing, for sure. I am hoping that I can eventually train myself to breathe the better way naturally, but we will see.

Anyway, on to me being proud of myself.

We had a long run this morning. We are now meeting at the park before the sun comes up - 6:30am. Today's run was around 5.5 miles, and we had to do it mostly out of the park since the lights in the park don't have power yet.

The run was actually similar to the run that I did myself last week, but it was from the other direction. We ran out of the park, all the way to Waugh, and then back. It was a little hard to be so close to home at halfway through the run =). The weather was still nice and cool, but we still have plenty of icky humidity. Oh, Houston.

I kept the side cramps at bay with the method described above, and I was thrilled to be running with Kelli again. It really is amazing how much a little company helps.

We made it to the water stop at the halfway point with no problems, and our pace has increased a little bit. We took a quick break, got some water, and talked a bit with some other runners, then we headed back. I'm not really sure how I managed it, but I made it all the way back without walking.

That's right! I ran 5.5 miles this morning with no walking, and just one water stop! And I didn't feel like I wanted to die afterward. It was awesome, and I rode that high for a good bit of the morning.

I am still slow, and I still spend most of the run wanting it to be over, but I actually think I can finish this thing.

Yay for tomorrow's off day!