School's out-Now What?

I was dreading today... well, not dreading so much as wondering how I would manage to run when Beautiful Daughter would just as soon not come along, but doesn't want to be home on her own. Solution; a sleepover! I take 2 girls on the trail, on their bikes, they can pick berries for me as I run, and I don't have to worry about anyone's happiness but my own. 4K run today, taking 28 minutes. I am encouraged by the fact that I spoke with a fellow yesterday who was doing 4K in 50 minutes (that is slooooowwww!)
Great run today-although I wore the wrong socks and have a sore foot now. Part of it might have been this ChiRunning thing I was so enthused about. I think I was probably running just fine without worrying about my chi. Too much focus on posture, pronation and leaning. I do those things (or not) automatically as I get into my run. Thinking about it too much just hurts. Poof! It's outta here. As is W8. Now I'll be running 30 minutes at a time. Just 2 minutes more. I can do this, easy.

Running with a Coach

By the time I'm finished W9 I'll probably have run with ALL my kids, if the Ottawa boy comes to visit! Today I ran alongside Beautiful Daughter, who has a speedometer on her bike (fancy) and a water bottle holder that is adjustable (also fancy) so that we could cart along the Gatorade. I was running 7 kph, which is not too shabby, I think. 11 kph at some points, when the fartlek urge kicked in and I sped up. Lots of people on the trail today, and we made it all the way to the 2km marker and beyond, before turning around and heading back. 28 minutes today. The last minute was a beggar. I am encouraged to do this now, as my Scout shirt fits! I am losing weight, I am! I still see some flab, but as God is my witness (as well as the blackflies and rabbits), I will be fit by the Fall! I am a runner!

Never Listen to the Guy on IronBoomer.com....

Cardio works better when you push yourself harder than you think you can, he says. Jeez, he's 75 or sometbing. No pressure on the young boomer here, no, none at all. So I'm up for the challenge, and I push myself harder. For 28 minutes I do this, while I pass, yes, the dog walkers again, and some creepy fellow with a husky. I don't know who scares me more....Yeah, back to the running. It is as humid as it can be out there. I think I've sweat off one of my bosoms. I have gone from the couch to 4K now, having run to the 2nd km marker. I discovered that it's not a driveway up in the distance (because I have now run that far), but a parking lot for hikers. There's a road there! Who knew? Next time I run, I will cross that road, because, OMG, it's got to be cooler than it was today! Now we know what it's like to run in a sauna. And next time I run, when Katie Perry is singing "someone call a doctor" I won't find it quite so ironic. I hope.

I have hitchhikers

Week 7 is officially done. I find it interesting to stand back and watch the way I handle glitches in the program. If I can't run on a day, for one reason or another (and there have been no "excuses" days yet, just "reasons" days) then I have to be sure I complete the whole thing in some other configuration. Take today, for instance. It's Monday, and I should be starting W8, but nope, I had to do the last day of W7. However, my body has other ideas about what day this is. I came to the end of the 25 minutes and just kept on running. Part of it had to do with the dog walkers, who practically know me by name now. They showed up just at the halfway point coming toward me. I hate running if someone's walking behind me so I ran a little farther than I needed to. Of course, once I turned around, I couldn't run as fast as I may have liked to, because, yeah, there they were! So I took a detour down a gravel road and added a bit more space between us. Anyway, there's week 7, all done now and instead of the 26 minutes I ran today, I will be running 28 minutes. I think I can do that.

And after a spluttering start to the week....D2!

Well, I figured out why the rabbit's not showing up on the trail; it's because the mosquitos and blackflies have arrived. Smart bunny.
I started off this second day of the seventh week of running (how many runs IS that, anyway?) at a fair clip. No more of this piddly jogging for me! (I think). A biker dinged by early on and I encountered the nice walking ladies with the tiny dog that just runs ahead of them. Said hi to the dog and his owner said "you go, girl!" So encouraging! I ran farther today than I have yet, waiting for Ms. Carli to tell me that I was halfway done, and that was a nice accomplishment. I'm going to have to suck it up next week and run all the way to the 2nd KM marker. That will mean, yes! that I have run 4 K. Unbelievable. I think there's, like, a driveway farther up the trail.
Anyhow, by the last minute of the 25 minute run, I've run right out of steam and what I end up doing for the last 60 seconds is something akin to a spastic skip in an attempt to keep launching myself off the ground. By the time I'm done, I"m really done. One more day of this week and then off to some fresh hell. :-)

Old People littering the trail

Sigh. I'm pretty pumped that I've made it to Week 7 and haven't stopped running in the middle of the allotted time. Yet. It was a near thing, though, when I caught myself sort of highstepping to the music instead of actually jogging.
I blame the elderly people having a chat in the middle of the trail. They were bitter. Did not even say hello back to me! Their dog was friendlier than they were! Jeez. And I've taken so much time from my life looking after them. Ingrates.
Yeah, I ran 25 whole minutes today, and that was an accomplishment and a half, after being off for 3 days. My schedule's right off. But I did it!

Running with the Boy

So today I decided that it would be a great idea to do W6D3 right before my trip to Ottawa, with my son. And I should say right from the outset that, yes, I did it, with seconds to spare. I ran out of trail and did a good 10 seconds on the road, which tried to break my ankle by placing a crooked bit of pavement right under my feet.
I discovered that I can run while talking, which is a far cry from W1D1 when I had to hold up my cellphone upon which I was keeping time, when someone asked me partway through the 60 second run how much farther I had to go. It's actually not as long in your mind if someone's running along with you, or sprinting ahead, as was the case.
A lovely run, except for the dude on the bike informing me that he was passing on my left. The whole trail width was free to my left, but he felt he must tell me this in case I broke from tradition and went veering off wildly to the other side of the path....Bikers. Sheesh.

An encounter with a giant lawnmower

So there I am in the midst of my 5 minute warmup walk in the woods, when what should appear but a backhoe with a mowing attachment on the side, slashing away at the verge of MY running trail. He's taking up the whole width of the trail, too, and there is a drop off on one side and his whacking great mower on the other. What to do? So he graciously stops the backhoe just as it's time for me to start my run. Naturally I'm running a bit faster than usual to get away from the roaring and slashing... Otherwise a lovely run, 10 minutes running, 3 minutes walking and 10 more mins run. This was my last day of intervals, I think, but not sure as I follow the advice I give everyone and I do not look ahead.
Of course, mower man is there again, coming back at me with the damned mower on the way back. So there I am, running on the spot waiting for him to get out of MY tree tunnel, when suddenly Carli says Day 2, you're finished your last run! Sigh. Screw this, I think, and I start walking toward the backhoe, which is stuck at a tree. I'M not stopping to help him, but he is rather cute, so instead of walking past the backhoe, I break into an enthusiastic run, which I keep up for an entire minute. Oh yeah, that's right. Now I'm trashed. But W6D2 is in the bag.

I'm past the halfway point!

Already in Week 6. I have been running for 6 weeks. This is a whole new ball game. Back to intervals again and although I didn't believe it, it IS harder to go back to that than to run a distance. This music that Carli's chosen is really a downer too-never run to rap, is my new lesson.
It's harder to run at noon, I have discovered. First thing in the morning's best for me. Less sun overhead, and there are more dog walkers then. I kept myself going for this run by reminding myself that this is what unearthed my previously fat-encased ribs in the first place. God knows what new treasures will appear as I keep on going. I figure, do the run now and in 2 days I will reap the benefits!

I can see my ribs.

That's it. I just had to share that somewhere. I have ribs and they are actually visible again. I can't believe it. More later, after I've actually gone for the run.

Ok, that's it, I'm legit.

I have just run 20 minutes without stopping. Unbe-freakin'-lievable. I am a runner. (Real runners would probably scoff at this, but, hey, I'm happy.) Met a walker with a baby in a back carrier, a few walkers with tiny dogs and a couple of bikers who showed up while I was doing my cool-down walk. 'How you doin'?' they ask me. 'Tired!' I say, much to their probable disdain as I am walking. How tired can I be, they must be wondering. It was just 18 degrees and mostly cloudy which was perfect for this adventure.
Birds kept flying across my path, a baltimore oriole, a mourning dove building a nest and a goldfinch. Plenty of colour! The rabbit was conspicuously absent but that was likely because of the loud and barking dog in one of the yards I pass to get to the trail.
Still waiting to be skinny, but I plough on.

Wow, this is amazing!

Ok, here's the deal; if I manage to run for 20 minutes straight on Friday, I will officially call myself a runner. (or 'unconscious'). Today I ran for 8 minutes straight, which doesn't seem like a long time, but believe me, it is! The first 8 minute stretch I was distracted by a couple with some dogs. I can say hello without wheezing-and this trail etiquette is very important. The more polite you are to people you meet while running, the more likely someone will be to help you if you happen to collapse or need water or something...
The 2nd 8 minutes I forgot I was running while I was having some sort of odd fantasy. (no, I will not share it with you. ;-p It was a perfectly clean fantasy)
Today for the first time, I felt the 'burn' everyone's talking about. Right in the glutes. Bodes well for future clothing purchases... I have made a discovery as well, and that is that running is just automatic when you're not paying attention. Stubborness is a valuable asset in this game, too. Maybe, maybe, I can do this W5D3 thing. Time will tell.