there was progress... and then not so much.

On Wednesday I went to the gym and got one of my favorite treadmills. I forget the brand or type, but I'll find out next time I go. Also, my knee was hurting me most of the day but then it stopped when I started walking. So already I was set up for success. I was supposed to run 2 miles straight without walking. And I. Did. It. In fact, I actually ran 2.25 miles at 6.0 mph the whole time. I was feeling super good! I did the first mile at 1.0 incline, the second mile at 2.0 incline, and then the last 1/4 mile at 0.0 incline. I've been training the whole time at at least a 1.0 incline and I find that when I run on no incline I get side cramps more quickly. I need to start waiting for treadmills that have negative inclines so I can do some real hills. Right now, I'm all uphill, no downhill!

So yesterday I was pumped to get back on a treadmill and do 1 mile run, 1/4 mile walk, etc. But the second I started running, my ankle started to hurt. I think maybe I overdid it on Wednesday? Or I just took a weird step? It's unclear. I stuck to my plan though (which probably wasn't the best idea) and did 3 miles in 35 minutes. I started out at 1.0 incline. Then after my warm-up walk, I ran one mile at 6 mph. Then I moved it up to a 2.0 incline for a quarter-mile walk and another mile run at 6 mph. Then I did a 1/4 mile walk at 3.0 incline and 1/2 mile walk back at 1.0 incline before cooling down.

Even though my ankle was hurting me, I found a way to run that wasn't as high-impact on my knees/ankles (it's just a less bouncy run, more flat). When I start to get out of breath or feel the asthma a little bit, I start running that way and usually whatever I'm feeling goes away. I probably shouldn't have run as much though because my legs were definitely hurting last night when I got off the treadmill. Today they feel fine though, not even stiff.

Also, I've been running without music and I'm finding it way easier. The buds in my ears were distracting in an annoying way and they always got sweaty and would start to slip out. Also, I didn't like the feel of the cord against my sweaty skin. And it's easier now to wipe the sweat off since I don't have to worry about anything in the way (I'm also wearing contacts now when I run so I don't have to worry about sweaty, slippy glasses either). I always get some funny looks when people see me step on a treadmill without earbuds, but that's okay. The sound from the treadmills easily turns into white noise and I can then think about other things or nothing at all. Last night I just counted seconds (one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three ...) since I should travel 1/10 of a mile in a minute. I was fairly off though. I thought I was counting at the right pace but somehow I got to what I thought was 2 minutes and I had done .25 miles. Not that that's a bad thing. It's better than getting to what I thought was 2 minutes and realizing I ran less than I thought.

Anyway, lunch break over, back to work!
-J