Today was my “long run.” I set out with a goal of running 1.5 miles with no walk breaks. I didn’t have any time goals, I wanted to go slow enough to make it through the whole 1.5 miles of running. Since it was hotter than usual and I was doing my run in the middle of the afternoon, I opted to do this run at the YMCA on the indoor track.
I started out with a quarter mile of walking to warm up. The track is pretty small, so it was 12 laps to a mile. Since my walk/run pace has been averaging about 12:00, I aimed to take a little longer than a minute to complete each lap once I started running. Everything started out fine, my legs were a little sore but that wasn’t unusual. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that I wasn’t getting winded at all. I seemed very cardiovascular-ly prepared to run this distance at this pace. After about the first half mile, though, I started noticing that my legs were not hitting the ground evenly. The track had such a severe angle that my right leg was always lower than my left leg. I pushed through the run, determined to get my 1.5 miles of constant running in, because the pain wasn’t unmanageable. My right leg just felt sore all the way from my ankle to my butt, but it was the dull pain I always seem to get on longer runs. My left leg, however, only hurt right at the ankle.
I made it to the end of my 18 laps in 19:30, which I was pleased with. I started walking to cool down, and felt like I was going to fall over because of the weird soreness in my legs! It was horrible! I made it through about 10 seconds of walking around the track when I realized I couldn’t do it anymore. But I knew I needed to walk to work out the tightness in my muscles that came from the track. So I jumped on a treadmill and started walking at a 20:00 pace. The improvement in the feeling in my legs came very fast. I walked half a mile, felt considerably better, and decided to do a little more running. Here is the breakdown of my treadmill workout:
.50 miles – 00:00-10:00 – walk at 20:00 pace
.50 miles – 10:00-17:00 – run at 14:00 pace
.25 miles – 17:00-22:00 – walk at 20:00 pace
.50 miles – 22:00-29:00 – run at 14:00 pace
.25 miles – 29:00-34:00 – walk at 20:00 pace
.50 miles – 34:00-40:00 – run at 12:00 pace
.25 miles – 40:00-45:00 – walk at 20:00 pace
Total: 2.75 miles
I still didn’t feel winded through the whole treadmill workout, which I was really happy about. When I got home I was flat out exhausted, though. I got on the couch with a big bottle of water and iced each shin in three different parts (15 minutes on the bottom, middle, and top of my shins). I was ready to pass out, but I rested, ate some cereal, and I felt a lot better.
If it weren’t for the evil track (which I can’t understand how anyone walks or runs on ever), I think the workout would have been a lot more successful, but I’m still really pleased with my results. I can’t wait for next week, actually…week 4 of C25K!
Miles logged: 4.5
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