No Earbuds Required

Today's stats: 53 minutes, 3.6 miles, avg HR 162. My first 5K on the road since high school! Average pace was 15:25, fastest pace was 7:50. The Mio GO app says I burned 643 calories. Whoo! The ladies I was running with were quick but I managed to keep up. The only thing that concerned me was that toward the end of the run the outside of my knee started to tighten up a little bit. Nobody's got time for injuries! I have spent the better part of the morning stretching out various surrounding muscles and read an interesting article online that said gluteal weakness is responsible for many IT band issues because other muscles compensate and get overworked. So maybe I literally need to get my rear in gear. LOL

I am the proud owner of a new pair of these beauties pictured above! The awesome folks over at Wild Pear Running  helped me determine that I need neutral shoes, not stability shoes, and I tried on Brooks, New Balance, and Saucony before the Asics Gel Cumulus blew me away with how they felt perfectly nestled around my foot. Like wearing a perfect little cloud. How fast am I ditching the old Nikes? So fast. But I know I'm not really supposed to wear my running shoes for everyday, so I will restrain myself and wear my old kicks if I feel like I need to wear athletic shoes someplace like HEB. I cannot. wait. to get up at 4:30 tomorrow for my 5 am run. I am mentally ill. What is happening to me?

I'm building up my distance, not necessarily my speed, right now. Which is okay. Tonight was 2.79 miles, 48 minutes, average HR 145, pace varied between a 9 minute pace at times to a 23 minute pace. Average was just over 17. I am working out some kinks with my Mio app. I had to delete Fitbit because the Bluetooth was getting confused. I'm running again Friday am with the early morning Liberty Drive crew, and then doing hills on Saturday am, up and down the Bailey Rd train track bridge. Funny that the bridge over the train tracks is the only "hill" to be found for miles and miles. Maybe someday I will go run over some real hills!!

So last night Angie and Lisa from PARR messaged me and said hey, there's someone in your pace group who wants to come in the morning. Great, I thought. I set my phone alarm, passed out and jolted awake at 4:45 am, fifteen minutes after they got started. I was so mad! I had everything set out and ready to go and I missed it. I knew I couldn't go back to sleep so I put on all my running clothes and remembered I had a guest pass to the rec center. They have an indoor track! It's really short and you end up taking these tiny loops around and around, but I knew running is running. So I worked out with my Mio Alpha 2 for the first time. It's nice because the colored LED lights let me know what heart rate zone I am in. Here are the stats: 2.52 miles, 44:41, pace for the first 30 min was 18:05, the last 15 minutes pace was 16:57. Good "easy" run to build up my miles and my endurance. My ankles, feet, shins, all hurt at the beginning but the longer I went the bet...

I walked 12000+ steps every day, had salad three times, Mexican food once, and only two expensive cocktails. Most importantly, I am still excited about running this week. I'll be there at Turner Stadium at 7:30 pm on Tuesday for my next workout, Mio on my wrist and ready to go! Let's dooo this!

My athletic activities for the next four days will consist of walking, lots and lots of walking, around downtown San Antonio. I plan to continue logging food and my goal is to eat at least two vegetables per day, not counting salsa. Ha! I am bummed that I probably won't be able to sync my fitbit while I'm gone because I don't have the software on my school laptop. But I will keep charging it, so when I get back, I can see just how many steps I walked each day. Confession: the run last night didn't seem very difficult and I felt like I could have run for a LONGER TIME if I had wanted to. Who would have known that the secret to not being miserable is to just go slower? WOW!

Scratch that, no hill work.  2.74 miles from Turner down to Magnolia and back, 40:47 min, average HR 145. According to fitbit, I spent more time in "cardio" zone this time than "peak" zone like I did Monday. I've found some great ladies to run with but I don't know if I'll always be able to train with them at this time once school starts. I may have to go back to the treadmill occasionally. Boo treadmill!