Week 2: Every Cell Feels Good

Yesterday (Sunday) was my scheduled long run day. As soon as I woke up from sleep that morning, my lower back and my hammies were a little achy. The night before (Sat), after my 4-mile run I was already feeling that achy, tired feeling coming on and I knew I was going to be in for it the next day. I felt a little uneasy about pushing out another 6 miles, as scheduled.

The thing about me is that I'm pretty adaptable to most things. I like to adapt things so that they work for me. I'm not very structured and when someone gives me a plan to follow, I'll give and take here and there but not by very much. It's kind of like baking. When I was younger, I used to put painstaking effort into measuring perfect cups of flour and teaspoons of salt and vanilla extract when I was baking cookies. I thought every measurement had to be followed to a T or else the whole batch would flop. Now I know better and I usually guesstimate on how much of what ingredient to throw in. If I go a little over or under, oh well. All hope is not lost.

And that's how I feel with my training plans now. I don't follow 'em to a T but just enough so that I can feel the benefits of it. I've learned to listen to what my body is telling me.

Little Girl Carmen would have read the scheduled 6-mile run on my plan as running 6 miles straight, no break, and all at regular pace (5-10k pace). Thank goodness for all the Runners World magazines I've read over the years because now I know that it's okay to break your long runs in half. When I first learned about this, I thought it was a cop-out. Grown up Carmen likes adapting, as I said before. So my 6 miles waited until today. And I'm breaking it into 2 runs right now.

I just ran 2.25 on the treadmill @ 12:15 pace and 1.0 incline. This evening, I will be taking it outdoors, finally! My shoes haven't kissed asphalt in about two or three weeks so it's time to get them acclimated.

Best of all, I feel good. I've noticed improvement in how long I can run non-stop and not feeling like I'm breathing like some 300-lb monster. The aches are not intense nor are they bad type of aches. It's more like the feel good, barely there but noticeable aches.

So today is MLK day. I got the day off from work. The hubby and I did tons of rearranging inside our little apartment. We've lived like 3 years without a kitchen table and chairs. Yesterday, we finally bought a little set from Ikea. Hubby is assembling the last of the 2 chairs. It was funny when he set up the table and 2 chairs because he remarked, "Now we can actually eat in the dining room like normal human beings." haha I'll have to post a picture of my little decorating job this evening.

Today, I'm probably headed over to Target to cash in a gift card I got for my birthday a week ago. I've been thinking about buying a Yoga kit. I'm going to start doing yoga on my off-running days. It's going to be interesting to see how this helps my running.