Rain Delay

C25k W9D1 will have to wait one more day: this morning featured little rain but heavy and frequent lightning. I decided not to run in it. The storm reached its height at about 3 AM. By 5 AM, when I'd be heading out, it had almost fully passed - just very occasional flashes in the distance - but I still decided not to chance it. Good thing, too: a quick search on Google this morning pulled up lots of news stories about ipod-wearing joggers being struck by lightning while running. This quote, in particular, stood out to me:

His eardrums were ruptured, his jaw fractured and he suffered first- and second-degree burns from his chest — where the device was strapped — up into his ear channels, along the trail of the iPod’s trademark white earphones. He also had burns down his left leg and on the foot, where the electricity exited his body, blowing his sneaker to smithereens in the process.

The decision not to run gave me a little bit of extra time this morning. As it turns out, I needed that time to deal with a flat tire on my car. So all is well, and Week 9 will begin tomorrow.

No Sleep for the Weary

No C25k run for me this morning. David had a rough night. He's teething, and on top of that he has a cold and is congested. He was up every hour or so. Poor little guy! He's getting six new teeth at once. It has left him out of sorts, and the cold isn't helping him feel any better. Stacy took the brunt of it last night but it left me exhausted, as well. I decided getting an extra hour of sleep was preferable to waking up at 4:30 for a run. On the bright side, it means that when I finish C25k it'll be with a weekend park run this Saturday.

Rest Day

I didn't run today, intentionally. I wanted to give my left leg an extra day of rest, since it is the one that was starting to bother me in my last run, and it is also my left ankle that fractured (sprained?), last time around right after C25k graduation. As I get closer to graduation again, and the same amount of intensity and mileage that caused the problem the first time around, I find myself becoming increasingly paranoid that the same thing will happen again. Of course, this time through I've been wearing the right type of running shoes for my feet instead of off-the-shelf "these look nice" sneakers. Hopefully that will make a difference. The other benefit to not running today is that tomorrow I am off work and so will be able to do a sunrise park run.

Overslept

No run for me this morning. I overslept. I heard the first alarm, at 4:30, but slept right through the "real" one at 4:45. I awoke, bleary-eyed, at 5:30. Still early for a non-running day (when I sleep in 'till 6:00 -- ooh), but too late to begin. I don't feel too broken up about it since I've been doing my C25k running every-other-day instead of three times a week. Looks like tomorrow will be a running day, instead.

Rest Day

For this go-round of C25k, I've been on the fence as to deciding on a schedule to follow. The first time, I ran every other day. That was a slight deviation from the "official" C25k schedule, which suggests you run 3 days a week (in other words, have two days off in a row each week, plus/including a day off between each run). So, in other words, I pushed it the first time. Maybe too hard, since I wound up injured at the end. This time out, I'm not sure whether I'm going to follow the official schedule or do every-other-day again, like last time. I'd prefer to do the latter but I am worried about getting sidelined with an injury once again.

Ironically enough, if I went every-other-day then today would have been my first run of Week 2. I wound up not running this morning, but not because I decided to follow the "official" schedule. Rather, I took a day of rest because yesterday I tripped while trying to avoid falling over David, who was underfoot. I threw myself into a bookcase so as to not have my weight land on him, and I wound up jamming my toe real good. It still hurts a day later, but it's nothing major. I figured a day of rest might be a good thing. Somebody call a toe truck!

Rest Day

Today is a rest day, but I can't wait for my run tomorrow - it's the 20 minute straight run, and I'm going to be able to go the park route, since it falls on a Sunday.

I'm starting to see a little muscle definition in my calves, now - pretty exciting. Here's a picture of what it doesn't look like:

At least not yet...

On the Blocks

Today is a resting day, and amazingly enough (considering W5D1) I feel great! Very little soreness, if any, yesterday. And none today! I wonder if this can be attributed to my longer-than-normal cooldown walk (10 minutes instead of 5), or if my body is just finally adjusting to a running routine. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's run, especially because it marks the start of my virtual journey down Route 66.

Roadtrip!

I have created a "Cool Running League" on RoadTripLog.com - we will be leaving Chicago on January 5, and following Route 66 all the way to Santa Monica, CA. At the rate of 3 miles a day, it is going to take about 2 years. So far, one other person has joined, but hopefully we'll have a whole crew together by the time we set out on Friday.

From the site:

"The Roadtrip web-site offers groups the opportunity to form an on-line league where participants can track their daily running/walking/biking mileage in a virtual way along various journeys. Each runner logs his/her miles on the site and can then view the progress of other runners in their league as everyone works their way to the finish. Roadtrip’s mission is to help people begin or continue their exercise program in a motivational way."

I've created a League, and set the course for I-66 (Chicago to Santa Monica). If anyone is interested, why not join up? We "leave" on January 5. Here's the invitation info:

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Welcome,
You've been invited to join a Roadtrip League. Roadtrip provides groups an opportunity to form an on-line league that tracks their daily walking/running miles and applies those miles to various city-to-city journeys.

The Course: U.S. Route 66 - Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA
The Distance: 2,381 Miles
Start Date: 01/05/2007

You can accept this invitation from Daniel Terner by completing the individual application (include the League ID: 1480) in order to receive your log-on ID. Begin tracking your mileage on the Roadtrip web site 01/05/2007.

http://www.roadtriplog.com/cgi/rtdbnewindiv.cgi?leagueid=1480

Day of Rest

Today is a rest day. My left knee is aching a little bit, but not too bad. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's run, but a little apprehensive as I'll be entering week 4 of c25k. I'm now thoroughly confused about when/whether to stretch.

Gosh - what a dismal step total this turned out to be for the day - I know it was supposed to be a rest day, but even so, I left work with only about 2,700 steps. 4,000 is the average for a sedentary office drone.