Went for a short, once around the park yesterday alone. Kristina’s mom was cooking dinner (lamb chops…mmmm) so I had to hurry. I don’t know how long it took, I didn’t have my stopwatch with me, but I’m pretty sure I went out faster than usual. It’s hard for me to pace myself without Kristina, and the effort was definitely greater. That’s okay, though. I didn’t run all the way around the park, I did have to walk a few times, but considering my speed (tee hee – maybe 11 minute miles – lightning!) I’m not disappointed or surprised. I also got a new pedometer and wanted to try it out. Apparently I had the stride length set waaaay too long because it said I went 3.5 miles, when it was really only 1.77. I wish!

Today Kristina’s coming with me. I want to go for 30 minutes straight. Want to make sure I can do it again, not just during a race. I’m excited about it.

I’m still a little discouraged about my lack of weight loss. I’ve lost about 7 lbs in 6 months which is practically nothing. I know a lot of it has to be muscle, I’ve definitely lost inches. But still. I want to lose at least 35 more pounds before the marathon. I think once my training runs start getting longer, it won’t be difficult. Once I start my real marathon training, I’ll be far more careful about what I eat. Or before that. I promise!

Went for a walk last night. It was nice, just a stroll. I stretched before and after. Today, I have no pain. So maybe I was overreacting a little. I hope. We’ll see how I feel after the race tomorrow.

I’m tired. Didn’t sleep for long enough last night. I have a problem with books. I had maybe 50-75 pages left of a book and there was no way I was going to sleep with that few pages left. So of course I finished it, and missed out on some much-needed sleep. I’m hoping I can leave work a little early today to get some rest. Maybe I’ll nap at lunchtime.

Don’t know why I’m writing anything today. I didn’t run yesterday because I’m paranoid about my hip pain. Apparently, it’s a groin muscle and I may have strained it, which according to everything I’ve read, is about the worst injury you can have. Naturally. It doesn’t hurt that bad, though. I stretched it a lot last night, and so maybe if I just take it easy, it’ll be okay. I mean, the books were all talking about possible pelvic stress fractures and years of recovery. Ack! It doesn’t even hurt that bad! Just a little achy! So today, maybe we can just go for a walk and perhaps jog a teeny bit, just to see how it feels. And we’re definitely going the other way around the path if we go to the park. I’m now really convinced that the camber of the path is what’s causing this problem.

Kristina’s mom is coming in tonight, so we’re definitely not running tomorrow (going to some Oktoberfest thing, I think) which I think is good – rest before Saturday! I’m excited about this race. Not as nervous as I was for the first 5K. Yay!

Yesterday, we went around the fly, 1.5 miles, and then around the park, 1.77. Supposedly, we did about a 5K. Not bad, except that it took us like 50 minutes. Ha ha! Of course, we were stopped for several minutes by a train, so maybe it was more like 45? Still bad. But we ran more of it than ever, so I think we did okay. My goal for the 5K on Saturday is not to have a faster time than the last one (39:05) but just to feel better afterwards. I think we’re better at pacing ourselves now, so it should be better.

Some muscle in my right hip was hurting yesterday during the run. During the forced train break, I stretched it, so it felt better afterwards, but it’s sore today. I need to figure out what that is so I can fix it. It’s still sore this morning. Also, my lower back gets a little achy too, only on the right side. I think I need to work on core strengthening. It feels like my back muscles are just too weak.

Good news – apparently the new Runner’s World has Baton Rouge as it’s “On the Road” article. Cool! Hopefully I’ll get it today.

This is beginning to be more than just a running journal. I hope that’s okay. I like to have records of my life, but I can only seem to keep track sporadically. For instance, my time in London is quite well documented, with a journal and long letters to my friend Ren, who gave them back to me when I got home. It was enough that I was able to recreate almost every day of the six months we lived there when I made a “book” for Kristina and Anne about it. So by the time I run the marathon, I should be able to recreate about 8 months of my life. Isn’t that weird?

So we went running at around 6:20 yesterday, only went once around the park. We ran most of it, but my lower back was hurting a little and I had a bit of a side stitch, so we walked about 1/4 of it. Both pains were on my right side, I think we do need to change direction next time. By the time we were done, it was 6:50 and getting dark. Which means that whenever the time changes in a few weeks (I hope it’s at least that long) it’ll be getting dark at 5:50, right when I’m getting home from work. Don’t know what I’m going to do about that. I don’t really want to run in the mornings, not yet, but I may not have any choice. Maybe if I just get to work a little earlier, then I can leave earlier. That might be better.

So today we’re going around the fly as well as the park, which should add a mile and a half, if we measured correctly. That’s the area of the park that goes by the river. It’s actually the parking lot for the riverfront plus the roads that connect it to the park. (I’m sure someone else could describe that better, but it’s the morning, so I’m not going to try.)

Kristina and I have started to do some weird things. Like last night we went to dinner at Denny’s and had real meals. I’m talking pot roast and chicken. It was weird. We’ve started using coupons a lot. We’re 65 year olds trapped in 26 year old bodies. Strange. Oh well. It was fun. Oh, and also, Kristina’s doing great with the patch, no complaints yesterday. I hope it’s always this easy for her.

Today Kristina quit smoking! I’m so proud of her! We went and bought a couple of boxes of patches for her, and she just called me to tell me how easy it is so far! Yay!

And this Saturday is our second 5K, the Race for the Cure. I’m excited. I don’t think I’ll beat my PR (tee hee) of 39:05, because we went out too fast on that one, and ended up dying at the end. It’s funny how that’s what all the books warn you against – going out too fast because you’ll die at the end – and it’s always the dumb runners who do that. And that was me. Guess going out and buying a ton of running books didn’t help all that much. ha ha. But this time, I know what our pace is, it’s 12:45 or so if we want to go any reasonable distance. And if we manage to do that for 3.1 miles, then great, we might beat our times, but we haven’t been able to run that far yet. Maybe the excitement of the race will do it? If we walk at all, I don’t think we’ll beat our times. Oh well, I’m not worried about it. I’d rather run a smarter race than a faster race.

So we didn’t run on Friday evening, we went out to eat instead (but we walked there! OK, it’s only a block away.) But we went on Saturday, in spite of our busy day, which is usually our excuse not to go on the weekends. We went to a craft fair in Mississippi, which was fun, then when we got home, went for a lap around the park. Ran a lot of it, but didn’t feel too good because our lunch was still sitting heavily in our stomachs.

Saturday night killed any chances for a run on Sunday, just getting out of bed was a feat. Oops. But we went to Anne’s mom’s house for a football party and I won $50 in the pool! Exciting!

Tonight we will go twice around the park. Yay!

Oh – forgot to mention, we went around the neighborhood a bit on Thursday evening, but Friends was on our mind (season premiere) more than running, so it was sort of half-hearted. Plus, Kristina still wasn’t feeling well, so we took it easy for her too.

Update (only 10 minutes after I wrote the above…): I just thought to myself, “wonder if anyone actually has looked at this page, besides Chris?” Yay! There are actually some entries in my guestbook! I forgot I’d even put a guestbook on the site! And so thanks to everyone who signed it (and sorry for the no-mention, Candace!!! When you do run with us, you’ll get a mention! 🙂 ) And also, to David: we do change direction every so often…thanks for the advice!

Yesterday, I went around the park twice. I’m beginning to think that if I could just stick to some sort of program, I’d do a lot better. But since I started running with Kristina, I wasn’t able to really stick to anything like that. But I can’t blame her, because yesterday I tried to do an 8.5 minute running, 1.5 minute walking, and I could only do it twice. I’m just not progressing as quickly as people who stick to a program. I really need to get us back on one. I want to be able to run 4 miles without stopping by the time I start my marathon training in January. Actually, further than that would be fantastic, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

I did okay yesterday, though. I ran probably 1.5 times around total, and walked the equivalent of half a time around, maybe a little more. So I probably ran 2.5 miles total and walked a mile or so. Not too bad, I don’t think.

I had planned on going to the Reily Center with Ren tonight, but I think I need to take a break. My hip started hurting again yesterday. On the other hand, I really want to cross train. And strength train on my legs! Actually, the reason I don’t want to do anything tonight is so I can sleep. Lately I’ve been unable to sleep, and I’m wondering if it’s the exercise at night. Don’t see why it would be, but if I go with Ren, it’ll be late – after 7, and that’s really too late for me, I think. We’ll see how I feel later.

Kristina’s not feeling well, so I went running by myself yesterday. It wasn’t so bad – it’s been a while since I’ve run alone that I wasn’t sure if it was going to be totally boring or what. I suppose it’s a good thing it wasn’t bad because I’ll certainly be doing those 12, 15, and 18 mile runs alone. Oh yeah, and Kristina’s ruled out a 10K, so that means anything over 5 miles will probably be just me. Fun! And since Daylight Savings Time will be ending soon, (or is it starting? I never understood that) I’ll have to do all my running during the week in the mornings. On the plus side, though, it’ll be cool enough to do my weekend runs in the afternoon instead of waiting until the sun goes down.

Anyway, about my run yesterday – I had a bit of a tough time pacing myself. It’s easier to slow down when you have someone next to you telling you to. I may have run too fast, which hopefully is why I could only run a mile at a time yesterday. I don’t want to think I’m backtracking, especially when the weather’s cooling down. However, when I went for my run yesterday, it wasn’t cool yet, so today might be the day!

One thing that sucked about yesterday’s run – my radio was broken, and I didn’t notice until I had gone too far to turn back, so I had to carry it the whole way. That was annoying. If I’m going to run alone, I need something to listen to. I feel like it’s okay to do that in the park, since it’s pretty safe there.

So in all, I ran around the park once plus about another half mile. Not too bad, and I ran most of it. Took about 27 minutes. The mile I ran was 12:30 or so. Tonight, if I can get out earlier than yesterday, I’m going to go around twice. And Wednesday, I might go to the gym with Ren. What to do, what to do – treadmill? Stationary bike? Strength training? Cross training? Too many choices!

Kristina and I went running on Friday afternoon, since Kettie wasn’t supposed to come in until 7:30. We did the usual neighborhood route, but we walked a lot of it. At least we did it, though. But then Kettie came in, and we all went to dinner, including Ren. It was a fun night – Kristina and I ended up at the Mayfair, but unfortunately, that ruined any plans of running on Saturday I may have harbored. But it was a fun weekend – we went to a shrimp festival in a town near Chalmette (we had a hard time finding it and drove through many bad neighborhoods on the way) which was at least different.

Best news of all – a cold front’s coming through tonight! Supposed to last for the rest of the week. Yay!

Didn’t go running on Wednesday as planned above, as I didn’t get off work until 6, and I was still sore from Tuesday. But we went yesterday, around the neighborhood since Kristina had a meeting at school at 6, and Friends was at 7. We went for the half hour between 6:30 and 7. Ran most of the way, certainly further than we ever have on this route. Kristina was feeling nauseous about 2/3 of the way through, so we walked the rest of the way home. We were out for just about half an hour. Not bad, but I’m feeling the need to go more than 30 minutes. Hopefully this weekend. It’s doubtful that I’ll be able to go today, as Kettie’s coming in too early to go. We’re going to Semolina’s for dinner. They’re donating their tips and salaries and part of the sales tonight to the Red Cross, I think, so that’ll be good. If I don’t run today, I’m definitely going tomorrow. And Sunday.

We did it again! We ran around the park without stopping. Woo! 1.77 miles this time, since we didn’t run up the parking lot to the car. Not bad at all, but my right hip was hurting a little bit for a lot of the time. Hmm. My knees are a little sore too. My muscles are definitely sore. Today we’re planning on going around twice, but walking one of those. Don’t want to overdo it!