Running Chick

Well, some thing sure never change. Like how much I hate the treadmill. And gyms. Seeing has how they are necessary evils, I shall suck it up and quit bitching.

I headed to said gym Tuesday after work to start the first of many treadmill sessions using my assigned new stride rate. I was armed with my Josh-made training mp3 which is 5 minutes of music (for my warm-up) followed by 3 minutes of 174 bpm tickity-tick-ticks, followed by 2 minutes of music. It goes on for 45 minutes and then there’s a final 5 minute cool down. He made it really fancy so that the last 5 seconds of each segment fades so that I know what’s coming up. It’s very cool and totally useful.

I ran 3 miles and, hoooodoggie it was hard!  My turnover rate at 174 is way higher which means my legs are going a lot faster and I’m working with a much greater effort. I had to take two walk breaks between 1.5 & 2.5 miles because I thought I was going to either throw a lung or burst a spleen.  The PT warned me about this, and that the new stride was going to feel choppy. She was right on both accounts, fo sho. My legs and arms felt like they were going a million miles per hour and at times I felt like I couldn’t keep up with them. I can see why she told me that it could take 5-6 months to feel confortable.  When I finished, I was dripping sweat, my gray shirt was totally soaked and my face was beet red. I only know this because Josh was nice enough to inform me when I walked in the door. Then he laughed at me. I believe he also told me to stand at least 10’ away from him for the rest of the night. Funny guy.

The good news is that I noticed little to no shin pain during my run, or the next day (that was always the big indicator for me). My left hip, however, felt like it was a bit overworked. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but guess I’ll just assume it’s something to do with using muscles that weren’t completely being engaged using my old stride. Or something.

My second session today went much better. I felt like I had more control, my stride was smoother and my breathing was pretty steady. I didn’t take any walk breaks and added an extra quarter-mile to my session just cuz. My left hip bothered me, but much less than Tuesday and I again had very little to no shin pain.

This weekend is my free run where I just get to go out and run without having to worry about stride or pace. It’s my sanity check run, I suppose, to keep me from going crazy from being confined to a treadmill for the rest of the summer.  I haven’t decided whether I’ll hit the roads or trails yet, but I’m looking forward to just getting off the belt.

I keep on forgetting to upload the pictures I took from our Madison trip so blag about the Farmer’s Market and local food restaurant we went to. We had some great food and beer down there. In the meantime, this picture of Miss Scout will have to suffice.