Finally back at it

I took a week and a half off from running and have been building back up gradually again. The knee issue seems to be gone. I started back with 4k runs and have done several 6k runs. I'm not going too fast, I just want to make sure I don't end up with the same problem again. I think I am going to stay at shorter distances for a bit (add some frequency) and work on speeding up and then start adding on to the distance of my runs. This is what I did last year and it worked well. I hate running less kms but I found it very difficult to go faster this time around when I had only focused on building my distance. Last year I did my first 5k, 10k and half marathon at the exact same pace, so if I can get my speed improved over the lower distances I'm confident I can easily maintain it over longer distances with some practice.

In other news, I bought a bike last weekend. I rode it yesterday for the first time. It was my first time riding a bike in about 15 years! It's purple and has pink flowers on it. I love it.

Hey! I was thinking about you yesterday when I was writing in Hayley's blog about her running progress. I'm glad to see you're taking the slow and steady approach. I find it hard to give my body time to rest when I just want to pick up where I left off. I think you've got the right attitude.

From where did you get your bike? I've been looking for one all summer! I'm trying to buy a used one but I might cave and get a new one....

Thanks. I am so frustrated with doing such piddly mileage, but if it means I can stay consistent and uninjured. I guess it's worth it.

I got my bike at Canadian Tire. We looked at the Bike Dump downtown but they were actually quite pricey. I got my new bike for cheaper than 95% of the bikes at the used place. Todd got a bike too, he got his at Bushtukah. I don't know where you can even find used bikes!

I thought about going to the bike dump but got mixed reviews. Most of the used bikes I found on Craig's list were really pricey. The reason I wanted to get a used bike was because I didn't want to buy something new, when I perfectly good used model would do... My friend was telling me to go to CT and check out their selection. I might just do so I don't spend the whole summer without a bike.

Last October when I was visiting Berlin, I did a 4.5 hour bike tour of the city. It was the first time I had been on a bike in over 14 years. It made me want to start riding again....

I'm not sure what I can say that will make you feel better about running shorter distances other than it's good for you. I know it sucks but it will be worth it in the end! I had to stop running, my knees were suffering in a big way... maybe I'll try again when I've lost more weight. We'll see.

In the meantime, happy trails regardless of whether you're on bike or foot!

Also, have you thought of swimming as a way to boost training? It's really low impact but will help with endurance and stamina.... I used to love "running" in the water.

I was thinking of checking out this for a used bike this summer.

There are probably some good finds there. Good luck! But I'm impatient.

So I've been doing my usual stretching and stuff daily. I watch an episode of Friends (I have all 10 seasons) while I do it so it helps me find the motivation. I did upper body weights yesterday morning, and was going to go for a bike ride last night but ran out of time before it got dark. I am going for one tonight though, probably 45 minutes to an hour while someone views my house, and then I plan to run afterwards.

I'm really boring these days as far as this stuff goes.

I'm so terrible these days I probably don't deserve to have one of these, or even post here on the forum.

We have been in the process of trying to sell our house for the past few weeks, and it finally seems to have happened. So since we listed it, we've been kicked out of our house many evenings so it can be shown, have had to keep it in perfect condition, and since we've fielded five offers, have spent a number of long nights in the real estate office. This means I've been pretty inconsistent and have found it difficult to maintain any sort of training schedule. Also, the stress of selling a house is pretty big, and while it hasn't affected me outwardly, I can feel it sapping my energy.

Anyway, I'm hoping now that it's sold, and now that I've spent a few weeks slowly building building my runs back up, that I can be a little more consistent and start working towards some tangible goals!

Tonight I am planning to go for a run later in the evening. I will either do 6k at a decent pace, or 8k at a slower pace. It will depend on how I'm feeling. I also need to stretch this evening, I missed the past two days. Tomorrow morning I'd like to do my little upper body work out. I'd like to run Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, but haven't planned it beyond that. We're being kicked out of our house on Saturday afternoon so the buyers can do a home inspection.

I skipped my planned run for last night because I was really sleepy, but I went to bed a bit early and got up early and did it this morning. I did 5k at a faster pace than I've been doing lately (5:15/km) and then a cool down kilometre after.

I was planning to do a bike ride or something tonight, but I am just too sleepy. Maybe we'll go for a walk. Maybe not. We're definitely going to stretch. Either way I hope to go to bed early tonight and get a bit of extra sleep.

I plan to run tomorrow morning, and then sunday evening, taking Monday off. I haven't decided on the distances yet, but I'd like to work on speed a bit. We'll see. I feel like there are so many different kinds of runs I want to do right now, but I am not able to put in enough mileage to do everything i want to do.

I had sort of a crappy run today. I decided to do the first 2.5 km lap fairly quickly (about 4:55/km) but was annoyed by an ear popping problem and then it started to rain and I didn't have a hat on so my glasses got all wet and fogged up. I did the second 2.5 km lap at a much slower pace. I'm trying to make myself go a bit faster than I've been going, and I know it will take some time to be able to do it over longer distances. But I am also missing long runs. Tomorrow I'm going to do 8km at a more relaxed pace.

Keep your spirit up. A little patience will take you far. Posting daily has really helped me.

Thanks John. I used to be very consistent with posting every day, but that's because I was doing stuff every day. I'm hoping I'm finally back on track.

I just got back from a good run. I covered about 11 km in one hour, so about 5:30/km for 11 km. I am really pleased with that. I wore my MP3 player for the first time in months, and I'm a bit angsty right now, so I'm not sure if one or the other or both was a factor. I felt stronger than I have in quite a while.

I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I woke up at 8 this morning (after 8.5 hours of sleep), ate breakfast, and then promptly fell asleep again for two hours. I need to run this morning. It's a beautiful day out so I know I'll find the motivation somehow, but at the moment I want to escape to sleepdom again.

well, I did 9k in about 54 minutes. I wasn't trying to go fast at all. It still felt like a lot of effort because it's quite hot and sunny out there, and my legs felt a bit like lead. At least I looked cute, even though I felt kind of crappy.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c78/pamelaswitzer/pamelaskirtandcroptop.jpg

ok so I decided to go downtown to check out the canada day festivities to see what all the hype is about. I used to love going to the canada day stuff back when I was a kid, but it was a lot smaller scale so I've always been intimidated by the crowds that are attracted to what we have here in Canada's capital. I took photographic evidence of my foray down there.

Here's me and Todd:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c78/pamelaswitzer/pamelaandtoddcanadaday.jpg

Me at the corner of Rideau and Sussex (I think):

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c78/pamelaswitzer/pamelaonstreet.jpg

Back view because my shorts are just so awesome:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c78/pamelaswitzer/pamelatastebetter.jpg

After a lot of searching. we found a cotton candy machine on Sparks street! Of course I had to have some. That used to be my favorite part of canada day as a kid. Even better, it was my favorite colour: pink.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c78/pamelaswitzer/pamelacottoncandy.jpg

So yeah, that's quite enough photos of me for one day! Oh, we also bought some maple sugar candy, and a lot of local raspberries and strawberries.

How does this relate to training? I walked a LOT. Probably at least 10k.

This morning I ran 5k. I did the first 4k at 5 mins/km and then I did a cool down kilometer.

Hey, this is my 1,000th post!

This morning I did my "maintenance" upper body weight routine. Despite being pretty irregular I don't seem to be losing much strength, although my arms are not excessively strong to begin with so maybe that's not saying much.

I was going to run in the morning but I didn't feel like waking up early so I ran tonight instead. We did 6K, starting at 6 min/km and gradually getting faster so that our last km was about 4:45.

I just got in from doing 10.5k. It is really hot out there, and the sun is shining full force. We took it pretty slow, about 6 minutes/km. I felt strong in my legs and heart, but found the sun really draining. But, it's a beautiful day out and it was good to be out there.

After my run I did a half hour stretching session and 100 bicycle crunches. I'm going to try to go for a bike ride after dinner, probably about 10k.

This afternoon I bought a totally hot pair of running shorts. I'm really excited about wearing them. They're black, tight. and have only a two inch inseam.

I just ran 6k. It's so freakin' hot out there. I did the first 5k at 5:30/km and then picked it up to 5:00/km for the last one. I'm going to stretch for half an hour before I go to bed. I have a weird feeling in my right butt.

This morning I did my maintenance arm/shoulder weight routine. At one point my little cat mooey climbed up and sat on my lap while I was using the machine. It was cute.

Yesterday all I did was stretch for half an hour. This morning I went for a run, but it didn't go so well. Even though it was completely fine for a day leading up to my run, my butt started to hurt about 500 metres in. It got progressively worse. I stopped at about 3.5k, walked a while, ran another half km (because I was cold) and then walked the last half km home. It feels absolutely fine now. I'm going away this weekend and won't be running for a few days so hopefully it will sort itself out in that time off.

I took a few days off because I was traveling, and because of the sore butt issue. I did 6k tonight at an easy pace. I could feel tension and a bit of soreness in my butt, but there was no searing pain at any point like there was the last time I ran. I don't feel anything wrong when I'm NOT running. I'm going to proceed with caution.