Feb 6-11 The week's training...and some other stuff...

I've decided that at least once a week I'm going to do a post about the week's training and how I'm feeling about it at that time. It may be the *only* post I wind up doing that week but it's going to be there every week.

As of now I am running 3 times a week. Tuesday - which tends to be about 3-4 miles, Thursday - which is however far I can go in the time I have since that is our crazy, busy morning, and Saturday - which is my "long run," the one that will help me build my endurance and increase the number of miles that I am able to go at a time. My current training is for a 10K that will be on March 24th.

Tuesday - I ran around town on a route I tend to take quite a bit since I know the mileage and I also know how the sidewalks and crosswalks are on this route. I went 3.61 miles in 52 minutes which gave me a 14:15 pace.

Wednesday - I bought some new running shoes! I went on my own and picked them out (I know, I know, you're supposed to be fitted) because, well, honestly I cringe at the thought of spending $100 or more on one item. Also because whenever I've had someone helping me with shoes I haven't been happy with them. I had done quite a bit of research. I have low arches and overpronate. I know some people say overpronating isn't a problem but it hurts when I do it. A few years ago I could barely walk due to the pain so I had some orthotics made by the podiatrist. I knew that I needed stability shoes to help with this. I wound up buying the ASICS Phoenix.

Thursday - I went to the Y and ran on the track. I go to the Y on Thursdays because my younger son doesn't have school that day and I need the child care. I ran 2.51 miles in 34 minutes which gave me a 13:23 pace. This was the first time that I had worn my new shoes and I did have some pain in my right arch. I was worried that I had made a mistake. I did some calf stretches about 10 minutes into my run and that seemed to help.

Saturday - Long run day!!! This one is my favorite. My husband is home with the children so I don't need to worry about them. It's all my time to run and clear my head. Once again I went on a familiar route. My total for Saturday:

4 miles! Oh, I've also decided that every Saturday (or Sunday if I need to change long run day that week) I will be having my husband take a picture of me immediately after my run with the number of miles that I ran. I also have to add that my older son wrote "miles" on the paper - he seemed pretty impressed by his old mom that day, lol.

So I went for a total of 4.15 miles (which I had only done once before) in 59 minutes (faster than last time!) which gave me a pace of 14:19.

Saturday was a very enjoyable run and it was also a very COLD run. The temperature was in the low 20's with a wind chill factor of around 5. I had bought a balaclava but had not worn it on that day. My face was freezing - especially when the wind blew. At one point I unzipped my fleece jacket part way and lifted it up to cover my face. Lest you think that the cold chapped my cheeks and is the reason for my red face in the picture let me assure that my face looks like that all the time, especially after exercising or when it is hot out. To protect my skin from drying out in the cold air I put a layer of Vasaline on before I run in the winter.

I wore my new shoes on this run and had a bit of foot pain as well. I was really starting to worry about having bought the wrong shoes. I'll have to wait until the training post for this week to tell you how that situation turned out. ;-)

Now on to the "other stuff." Sunday was my older son's 8th birthday. This is the cake that I made for him:

He decided that for his birthday he wanted to go ice skating. He had gone once before and had taken to it really quickly. Unfortunately with all the chaos and trying to tag-team track our 3-year-old neither my husband nor I were able to get a picture of the birthday boy on the ice.

We did manage to get one of our 3-year-old leaving the ice:

And here's one of me on the ice:

It was a lot of fun. I have to say, though, that ice skating is really hard on my feet. I was tempted to put my orthotics in the skates but ewwwwww...putting them in rented skates? No thank you!

One of his favorite gifts was a hula hoop that lights up. Here's a picture of me showing off my "abilities." I think I got the hoop around maybe 5 or 6 times.

My husband was, unfortunately, not at a very good angle to get the picture (he had to be quick, lol) so you get treated to a bit of tummy in this shot. :-P

I'm making another cake this week because family is coming this weekend. I have to say that between the cake, cookies taken to school for a birthday treat, and all the Valentine's candy that my son brought home I'm having a lot of trouble resisting. I was actually up one pound this week! I can resist on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas but when birthday/Valentine's time rolls around I'm just not as strong. I'm just glad that I'm doing WW and have set running goals that require me to eat right in order to reach my goals.