Minutes to miles!

I'm officially transitioning from minutes to miles!!! We were in Houston last night, so Jake suggested I take advantage of a nearby 3 mile dirt loop while I could. Since all went well, we're going to make the jump from progressing by 2 minutes every other run to doing mileage runs and progressing every two weeks! I am beyond excited!

Before I get to running, I would like to introduce you to my awesome cousins! I grew up with four cousins that were similar in age to me (plus two younger ones) and it was always so fun to get together. Today we are short two (we lost Jordan in Iraq in the war, and JD in a car accident), but we are closer than ever!

L to R: Jacob, Leah, Madison (JD's little girl), Sarah, Breynna, and myself (missing Katie!)

Sunday, April 27th
3 miles at Herman Park. It's a 3 mile dirt loop around the rice campus, and it is PERFECT! I wish we had something like it near us in Dallas! I started extremely slow, really uncomfortable with jumping by over a mile after only adding 2 minutes at a time, but I slowly built confidence over the run. Halfway through I realized everything was going to be okay and I started to really run. The last mile or so was SO fun! I know I can't run hard on every run, but that last mile was fun!

Monday, April 28th
Bodypump strength class. This KILLED me!! I don't know how I used to do it so often! It will DEFINITELY be good for me to keep going two to three days per week!

Tuesday, April 29th
2 miles at the track. I am SO SORE from yesterday!!! I even brought the foam roller to the track to roll on it a couple minutes before I ran because I was so tight! Even walking hurts, haha! But, since I rolled and went through a set of drills before my run, I actually felt really good! I came through the first mile in 7:55 and then finished the two miles at 15:24. Definitely faster than anything I've done so far. Up until this week, all of my continuous runs were 8:40-8:57 pace and all of my run/walk days consisted of 8:00-8:06 pace for the running parts. I know I can't do this every day because it was by no means easy, but I had ZERO knee pain on the run and I know I can go slower the rest of the week. Crazy how 7:42 pace is a "hard" day now!

Wednesday, April 30th
45' cycle in the morning.
3 miles in the afternoon. Kept it easy today and just ran three of the 1 mile loops in our neighborhood. Didn't even start my watch! I had some knee pain on both legs and some pain in the back side of my left groin, but that's it!

Thursday, May 1st
30' cycle, 30' core in the morning.
2 miles in the afternoon. Went to the track with intentions of running 8:40 pace. Kept coming the thru the laps too fast and came thru at 8:23 for the first mile so I tried to keep it there. On the last two laps I threw in one 100m pick-up (not a stride or sprint). It was really windy today! My left knee hurt pretty bad, but I think it's from jumping funny over a puddle while walking to the track. 16:16 for the day. Definitely to slow down for Saturday's run.

Friday, May 2nd
Rest day!

Saturday, May 3rd
60' bodypump (weights).
2M treadmill run. Set it to 8:46 pace and left it there! Still have that bad pain in my left knee from Thursday though! :(
60' spin class.

Still trucking along!

So, before I get to any thrilling updates about my running shenanigans and my crazy aches and pains, check out this cool little chart I got last week! I had a food sensitivity test done by one of my friends who is a nutritionist, and these were my results! Apparently they are pretty clean compared to most, so I'm pretty pumped! Plus, out of everything in the list, there are only a handful I actually eat regularly. I'm excited to see how I feel at the end of three months with these items eliminated or minimized in my diet! (There is actually a lot more detail behind the "minimized" idea, so if you do ever get a test done, make sure you have a qualified person working with you to develop a plan!)

Vanilla, Cinnamon, & Cane Sugar are going to be hardest since they are in several of my health products, but the rest should be pretty easy to clear out. I'll have to watch for pepper when we go out to eat though! :)

Anyways, onto running! I am continuing to recover from runs in a matter of hours (in terms of knee pain), so I have no intentions of changing the plan yet! I also notice that I am making it farther into the runs before I get pain, so I'm taking that as a good sign! Hopefully I can strengthen up those areas while I'm getting back in shape and not miss any time at all for them!

Sunday, April 20th
Off day! Good timing too! I walked/ran about 20,000 steps yesterday because of the team's track meet! I can't believe my husband does that every weekend!!!

Monday, April 21st
Warm-up drills
12' continuous run. No major problems, though my knees did hurt! I'm really excited to have gotten the full 12 minutes in though... I'll be up to normal daily distances in no time! ;) I had the incline at 1% and the pace at 8:40.
Lots of foam rolling, Core X by Jay Johnson, physical therapy exercises.

Tuesday, April 22nd
Foam rolling and warm-up drills
14 x 1' run, 2' walk I covered a total of 3.5 miles today! Woohoo! Running portions were 8:06 pace for the first 7 and 8:00 pace for the last 7. Walking pace was 3.8mph. Knees are still really bothering me... They just feel so clunky and uncoordinated and loose. I can't wait until 8:00 pace doesn't feel like I'm running fast!! :D

Wednesday, April 23rd
45' spin class. I missed these so much!! I really don't know how you sweat and burn so much more by going to one of these classes than you do when you cross train on your own, but it is AWESOME! And I love having a set time and people to meet with! Woohoo!
2 upper body supersets. I chose heavier weights and only did two supersets, so just four exercises. I started with a superset of 15 bent over rows and 15 glute bridge bench press, all of which was done with 15lb dumbbells. I did three rounds of those two exercises. Next was three rounds of 8 bicep curls and 8 shoulder press, both of which were done with 15lb dumbbells as well. I was beat from this quick workout!

Thursday, April 24th
14' run. I did this on the track today right before the team ran! I had a good stretching session last night and have been applying oils religously for the past several days and I think it's helping! My knees were actually okay today, even without warming up or rolling, etc before the run. I literally just got out of the car and started, so I was very pleasantly surprised! Nothing was 100%, but it was definitely better than it has been! I didn't time the whole thing, but my last three laps were just under 8:20 pace, which is good and sad at the same time, haha. Good because I'm making progress and sad because it did NOT feel like 8:20 pace!!! LOL!

Friday, April 25th
16' run. This was supposed to be 16 x 1' run, 2' walk, but I was short on time so I just did 16 minutes continuous on the treadmill! Kept it nice and relaxed. If my knees were okay, I'd be quite happy about everything right now! My left knee hurts on the top and my right knee hurts on the outside and bottom.

Saturday, April 26th
Rest day (family reunion!)