The great fall

one minute I was looking at my watch and the next, wondering how did that sidewalk get so close? LOL.

Only 3 more weeks of the couch to 5k and looking at my pace, I am not seeing much improvement to be honest. Ah but that is not all the story. My feet are not as sore they have been. I have been doing the stretching recommended for Plantar fasciitis which I have suffered on and off for years but after Toronto, it was really bad. I have also been doing the foot drills the running club recommends. So I still have some pain but no where near as bad as it has been.

As to the running, yes, my pace is not really improving but I am managing small hills better than I did 5 weeks ago.  Yesterday I ran around my block which exactly 1/2 mile in distance.  On the 2nd turn from my house, it is all uphill, not a big incline but enough for me to struggle just walking, let alone running. I have never been good on inclines, my legs get heavy and my breathing ragged. A doctor a few years back though I might have undiagnosed asthma but I never really follow it up. I will see how the Cedar Fever season hits this year, as one year I had to use an inhaler.  I am hoping all this running is making my lungs stronger and they do seem to be getting stronger.

I realise that I am going to have to repeat this course but not sure I will do it for the next session as winter is promising to be bad here in Central Texas and I do not want to do 30 mile return trip to run 1.5 miles twice a week with the threat of snow and ice in the forecast. Rain is bad enough as we get so little of it here but add ice or snow and it is carnage on the roads, especially in the dark.  So I will probably continue the running on my own for those months and restart at the end of Feb. Hoping that when I do the Pflugerville Pfun run in May, I will be able to run it, rather than walking it as I did this year.

Too Cold!

So I was a little reluctant to go and train today but out I went, all bundled up with hat, gloves and a fleecy jacket. Hat and gloves came off about mid way around.  I probably lost a few secs fiddling with the hat before I decided it would be better to run with it in my hands. The temp was about 37f with a wind chill factor making it feel more like 30f. Way too early for it to be this cold in central Texas.

The set given by Jen our coach at Rogue Running – Cedar Park was – 5 mins walk, 3 min run +2 mins walk X 5, finish with 5 min walk. By the last run/walk segment, I was exhausted and had to stop at about the 26.38 mark. However, at 27.30 I ran again until the 29.00 mark so I completed the running. My pace was not that great 17.20 which is a lot slower than my Toronto 5k time.

Hopefully it was just the weather as I notice that I tend to wheeze if the weather is cold or damp.  However, it could also be because ever since Toronto I have been slacking on my steps completed each day. I have it set on my fitbit flex at 11,000 but I think I am averaging about 8200 at the moment, so I need to push myself to get back out there and just walk!

This is going to be tough week with all this cooler weather but at least its not snowing or even colder like the rest of the USA. I would just snuggle up and forget about the 5K in that case.

Toronto done and gone

Well, I managed to do the Toronto run in 51min 19secs  which was marginally better than my walk time in May for the Pflugerville 5K. I was disappointed with the time, that is true but at least it was slightly faster plus it was a PB. Anyhow, I have now decided to join a local running club for a program called couch to 5K. I am hoping that at the end of the 8 weeks I will be able to jog the whole distance and then work on getting it down to about 30 mins.  I have no intentions of joining Gordon with his long distance running, 3 miles is more than enough for this old lady.

As to the actual Toronto 5K, I hated it.  Up to the day of the race the weather had been quite mild for that part of the world. We did a tremendous amount of walking as it was so easy to walk when the weather is fine plus there is an excellent transit system, once your feet are too tired to go further.  On the day of the race though, the weather was down to 3c which with a wind chill factor added, actually felt like -3c. 😦   As I was doing the 5k I had to leave Gordon at the Half marathon site and the sun was just rising as we stood in our corals.

A not so happy me before I got the shuttle bus to the 5K starting point.

As you can see I was wearing a fleece and  (not see) gloves for the start by which time the fleece was zipped up.  So the run started OK. I am never very good at the beginning as I have trouble controlling my breathing so it strictly a run for about 45 secs and then walk/run until I have warmed up.  About 20 mins into the run, I decided I was warm enough to take off the fleece and wrap it around my waist. Big mistake, the zip got stuck and I was struggling with it for a good few mins before giving up and just pulling it over my head.  Then I had tuck it into the running belt I was wearing. At first it began to slip down, so I had to re-tuck it in. However, I found the thing flapping around my legs just plain annoying and distracting. Just had to get on with it.

At about the 25-30 min mark, I decided to take the gel pack Gordon gave me as I could feel my light breakfast was not there anymore and I was walking/running on reserves. Just one problem the gel pack was in my fleece pocket and I just couldn’t get to it!

Throughout the race, I kept coming across these two slightly older ladies who were speed walking.  Turned out they were good pacers for me as they would catch up with me whilst I was walking and as they came up, I would run.  If only I had seen them at the end I might have achieved the 50 min mark I was aiming for. Looking at the video on race site , I spotted one of them just speeding pass me at the finishing line. LOL.

I was so glad to get over that finish line as I had hated almost every minute of this run. It started down at the lake shore but rapidly move onto the downtown area. It was not a pretty run by a long shot. Along the way there were a few bands of cheerers but on whole it was just a grey long slog along a very unattractive route.

Obviously much as I had run/walked trained for this race, I was not ready for it which is the reason I have finally given into my reluctance and joined the running group called Rogue Running in Cedar Park. As there are no pictures of any bigger runners on their blog site or Facebook page, I can only assume they don’t normally get people like me or simply don’t acknowledge them. However, can’t let this put me off as I really would like to be able to jog non stop for 5k, even if I am not fast.  Never thought this would be me but it is. Somehow, all these other people running around me as brought out the slight competitive streak I have deep within me.

To training starts on Tuesday. I will be updating the blog more regularly during this time. I will also working on managing my type II diabetes as it seems after 20 odds yrs of having this disease it is beginning to get slightly worse. I will be interested to see what my A1c level is when I visit the doctor in a few weeks time,