the good and the bad

Well, I ran twice this week. That should mean something.

Thursday I headed up to Uptown Park to run the Turkey Trot 5k. It was great! But, it was annoying to have to dodge so many walkers who obviously started up near the front where the fast pacers are supposed to be. Now, I have nothing against people who walk a 5k - but please, PLEASE start near the end of the pack and don't walk like 6 abreast - it makes things really difficult for the people trying to run the event.

Other than that, the run was great. I struggled a bit to breathe, but I felt pretty strong and finished with a personal best of a bit over 38 minutes. The weather and the people I got to run with made it pretty perfect. Yay!

Saturday's run, unfortunately, was not nearly as good. Our route was the same 10 miles from a couple of weeks ago - Memorial to the convention center downtown and back. I started hurting early in the run (I think I killed my lower back wrapping Christmas presents on Friday) and ended up having to walk over half of the distance. My inner thighs were screaming, too. By the time we limped in to the finish, I wasn't so sure about even walking. Ugh.

I guess there will always be bad runs. Here's hoping things get better soon!

cold rain

You guys, seriously, I'm neglecting this, and I don't see that ending right now. Even so, I figured an update was in order.

2 weeks ago we did our first 10 miler. We ran from Memorial Park to the convention center downtown. That's a seriously long way. I ended up having to run alone since none of the people I run with were at practice.

Honestly, it was a pretty good run for me. I felt strong. I walked bits, but I felt good. It was weird running downtown, but interesting.

So, yeah, long but good run full of interesting smells and sights. I then promptly failed to run at all for 2 weeks (busy busy busy plus a long weekend in Napa - not conducive to running). Which brings us to yesterday.

Yesterday was another 10 miler (which actually clocked at 10.8 miles) in the cold rain. It was gross and ugly, but we somehow made it through it. More walking than I would have liked, but still respectable, I think.

Today I hurt all over. Seriously, ow.

I'm a sick-y

Well, I would like to say that I'm getting better about getting my workouts in, but the rest of my life appears to be conspiring against me.

Last week I didn't get any weekly workouts in. There were good reasons though, including an ugly stomach ache brought on by the lunch a vendor brought and my trainer being sick. See, it's not like I skipped them because I was lazy.

Saturday's 8 miles really wasn't too bad. I am feeling stronger, even if I am missing too many runs. And I really don't enjoy the running, still, but I love the feeling I have afterwards. I'm still slow, but I think I've pretty much accepted that.

The neighborhood we ran through on Saturday is one of the nicer ones in Houston, and it was nice and quiet early on a Saturday morning. It was fun to see all of the Halloween decorations. I'm hoping that we'll run through the same area once Christmas decorations start going up.

In health news, I finally got the testing done and the verdict is in - I have asthma. I guess it's really a bit of a relief. I mean, it's nice to know that there's a reason I can't breathe when I run. I no longer have to chalk it up to being out of shape (now, the aches and pains, those are maybe because my body isn't used to the running =)). He put me on a couple of meds, including an inhaler to use before I run. He said I should start feeling a difference in 3 months. I'm pretty excited about that, honestly. I wish the effects would start sooner, but at least I know it's not always going to be this bad.

So far this week I've been better about my workouts. I did a treadmill run on Monday, followed by my Pilates class. Yesterday, I was supposed to have a workout with my trainer, but she managed to forget, so I ended up on the treadmill waiting for her, and I just decided to finish out my workout on the treadmill since I had places to be. I'll miss tonight's track practive because we're taking Kevin to a knife skills class (the kitchen kind, not the throwing kind =)) for his birthday, but I'm planning on running with my lovely running buddy on Thursday since we've missed so many runs together and there's gossip to be shared =). So, yeah, 3 out of 4 weekly workouts isn't bad...

I can't say I'm looking forward to 10 miles on Saturday.