Third time's a charm...

Well...here we are again...the third try. This one, however, is the one.

Life has changed a lot for me over the past few months...I moved out of my old apartment and moved back home with my family...I'm planning on going to grad school for the next year or so and now I will have the chance to focus on my studies and save my money.

Also, I wrote a little blog that inspired a lot of people. I did the media circuit for a while...and now I'm almost all the way back to earth.

My life has finally started to settle back down and so now, it's time for me to start it back up.

It's Memorial Day today, so I don't have work...thus, I figured, today is a great day to get back into the swing of things. The temperature is in the 70s, the weather is sunny for the most part, pools are open, birds are out...it's a good day to start a running program.

I've been here before. Hopefully, today was my last Week 1 Day 1 and I won't be back here again in a few months explaining how I'm starting over again and I promise that this time will be the time. I do have a few things going for me now...my support system is a little bigger...my family lives in the house with me now, so they're going to be pushing me out that door...it's easy to make excuses on the phone and on the internet...not so easy when they're staring right at you telling you to go run.

This afternoon, I moseyed on over to Granny White Park...the sight of several of my runs earlier this year with my friend Mandi, including the infamous snow run.

To put it lightly, today was not a snow run. Today was hell.

Week 1 Day 1 is easy. I knew that. The first time sucks a little, but altogether, by the end of Week 1, it's practically a cakewalk.

So why did today suck so hard?

If you've ever been to the South in the summer, you know about the humidity. It's stifling. Yeah, the temperature was in the 70s, but the humidity was simply suffocating. My first few one minute intervals were fine, but the longer I went, the hotter I got...and the hotter I got, the dryer I felt.

At one point, a city truck drove up behind me and started blasting his horn...mind you, this is on a pedestrian trail in a park that isn't even wide enough for a truck...

I completed two full laps around the 0.8 mile trail before I hit the cooldown.

However, because I was so hot and since I was fairly close to dehydration, I skipped the cooldown, walked to my car and turned the air conditioning on high.

Which means there are three things I learned today for summer running: a) run in the morning before the sun gets up high in the sky and heats everything up, b) drink tons of water and c) bring water with me. I didn't have any with me because I've never felt the need after a thirty minute run to drink all that much water...today was entirely different.

And it's not even summer yet.

An Unexpected Setback

Did you know that you can injure parts of yourself that are not in your legs while running?

 

I sure didn't...but all day Wednesday and Thursday, my left shoulder was killing me to the point that I was absolutely convinced I had torn my rotator cuff. I had to beg off my first softball practice last night and haven't been able to get any crosstraining in because even slightly moving it hurt a ton.

 

Luckily, this morning, all the pain is gone...so I'm guessing whatever it was worked its way out during the night.

 

Okay, it's not really a setback...I just missed one night of running that I can easily make up tonight...but it was still kind of bizarre to hurt my shoulder running.

 

What are some of the more unconventional running/workout injuries that you have had?

Reboot: Week 1 Day 2

As I mentioned yesterday, last night I felt fit enough from my run on Monday to head out for my second straight day.

 

After about 10 minutes, however, I didn't feel so fit. My legs felt heavy and my whole body felt like it was trying to wade through mud, but I kept on and finished just a little further back from where I did on Monday. The main difference between the two runs was that I felt like I had to expend a lot more effort during this run than the last.

 

The good news is that I finally figured out my Nike SportBand and was able to get my run uploaded onto the internet.

 

The bad news is that for some reason, my left shoulder is absolutely killing me right now. It woke me up at around 4:30 and I wasn't able to get back to sleep. Icy Hot and Advil have helped a little, but I'm not sure what's going on with it.

 

Tonight, so I won't be swinging my arms back-and-forth and so I won't feel like I'm running through mud, I'm just going to ride the exercise bike for a little bit and then get back out on the road tomorrow.

The Before Pics

Surprised I haven't posted these yet...here are pictures of me from last September when I went to Japan...I'll start posting weekly "after" pictures each week after Weight Watchers

Reboot: Week 1 Day 1

Last night I restarted the C25K. It's been almost 6 months since I began my attempt to become a runner...something's not quite right here. I feel that after about December, I started to half-ass my way through it...and that's not exactly something I planned to do.

 

So last night, I began again.

 

Right now, per Weight Watchers, I weigh approximately 295 pounds. I started at 314.8. While I've been under the 300 pound barrier for a few weeks now, I want to break the 290 pound barrier at some point while I'm young, so I'm going to dig deeper and push farther.

 

I took out on a route that I've become a little more accustomed to lately. It's a 4 mile loop that's an extension of the Marriott Route that I was so fond of. I start at my trusty old fire hydrant and instead of turning around just past the hotel, I keep running all the way down to the end of the street. The route is hilly, but scenic and filled with all sorts of landmarks so I can mark my progress. Admittedly, I'll be running it in the daytime come summer due to my deathly fear of snakes.

 

It was a decent first run back...I ran it late at night as is my general M.O. I like to be on the road alone when I run, although I feel that I should invest in a reflective vest of some sort. I did see three deer, which also made me realize that it will probably be snake territory come summer. In all honesty, I've run the route two other times "off the grid" recently, but this time made it much further than I had. My first goal is to make it to the turn around point before my time runs out. That would give me approximately a 15 minute average mile.

 

My next step might be mildly controversial to C25K adherents...while I plan to add some cross training and weight training into my plan, I feel fantastic today...so I'm going to run again tonight. With the C25K plan, you're supposed to rest every other day, but I'm ignoring that. I know my body needs rest, but my last attempt showed me that the C25K may provide a little too much rest. It was next to impossible for me to complete some of the later runs, so I'm going to add more to build my endurance. I don't necessarily have a set "plan" for how this is going to work each week. Right now, the only plan is that if I feel I can run, I will run. I'm not going to push myself to the point of injury. If at some point tonight I feel that I've hit my breaking point, I'll stop it and walk.

 

If I don't, I'll just keep running.