Masochistic Mondays: Week 9

The Stats (September 28, 2009)
Starting Weight: 188 lbs
Current Weight: 183.0 lbs

Holy crap! I finally broke out of the 185s and blew right past the 184s. I'd been monitoring the scale since the middle of the week and I'm happy to report that it's not even a fluke. I've been steadily hitting 183.4 since about Wednesday, what a nice change of pace. Usually my Wednesday weight is low and then it goes back up some Monday morning official weigh-in time.

Perhaps my NEW running shoes are just what I needed to kick myself into high fitness gear. Tuesday before craft group I headed to the running store (yes, the running store, geared towards those who run for fun) to get help finding real running shoes for my style of running. I forget the technical word for it that Mike told me several times, it was strange and hard to remember and was forgotten before I even pulled into the parking lot of store. Luckily the woman knew what I was talking about in my layman's terms. After rolling up my pant legs and standing on one foot, the woman brought out several pairs that offered arch support - my feet tilt in when I stand on one leg. I was able to find a pair that didn't feel too clunky and didn't feel like I had a bunched up sock under my arch.

I took them for a test run Wednesday (week 7 - 25 minute runs), and though my feet didn't hurt, it was one of the toughest runs I've had since starting. Right after work, I decided to drive my route to get accurate mileage and it turns out my new, farther route is only 2.25 miles. My Nike+ was nearly .25 miles off! So when I thought I broke my 2.25 mile hump, I really only broke 2 miles. Ugh. Needless to say, I was really bummed out. I almost didn't go for a run – it took myself a long time to drag my butt outside. I went and it was hard. I felt like quitting almost immediately, but I pushed myself to finish and I was so slow. I ended up hitting cool down close to 2 blocks behind where I did Monday. Talk about sucky.

I ended up using weather as an excuse not go out on Friday. The rain hand actually stopped, but our town has horrible drainage and I didn't want to risk busting my Nike+ sensor with too much water contact…that and I was still really bummed by Wednesday.

Tonight will be a different story. I will be going out and attempting to tackle 28 minutes of continuous running. It'll be tough…not only the time, but the weather. Ack! It is super windy out, and this will be my first run in adverse conditions, so I expect not to get much further than on a 25 minute run. Monday is usually my best day, so this week may be my most disheartening week of training yet, if I can't even get one good run in, but we shall see. I'm still shooting for my first 5k to be November 21. That's nine weeks away…I really hope I can get up to the 3.1 mile mark before then. I'm a bit apprehensive.