June 9th - Group Run & My Birthday

I was a little worried that my body would be too achy for our group run today after all the physical work I did on Friday. Yesterday morning I went and did 4.80 miles on the elliptical and a couple minutes on the stair climber. Then I went to volunteer with work at the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul. I ended up raking leaves and shoveling dirt for several hours to help them reseed their grass. Luckily I got a good dose of carbs at dinner when I went to Macaroni Grill and ate some of the Chicken Over-Stuffed Ravioli. Yum! I also made sure to get at least 8 hours of sleep so that I was ready for today.

So then what better way to start out my birthday than with a warm bagel with peanut butter and run along the Mississippi? I did two loops around Heritage Trail, which is conveniently only about 4 blocks from my apartment, for a total of about 7 miles -- my farthest run yet! The best part is that even though I did feel some aches at the end, it never felt like I was close to needing to stop. I made sure to stretch a lot after the run and so I'm hoping I don't get too stiff like last weekend.

This next week I will be up in Two Harbors for work and so I will continue training on my own up there and will give you a small recap when I return. Now it's off to celebrate my birthday with some fun times in Stillwater with the nice weather!

June 6th - Group Run

Yesterday was a bit of a rest/stretch day but I still biked to and from work. The best part was that my calf quit hurting and there were about 5 envelopes in my mailbox when I got home with donations in them. I am so thankful for all the contributions people are making and for the notes of encouragement they're sending along as well.

Tonight we went around Lake Calhoun. I was scheduled to do 5 miles but went around twice and so it was more like 6.2 miles. It went a lot better than Saturday's long run and I met even more amazing team members. There are so many great people participating in TNT and I can only imagine what camaraderie there will be by the end of the season. After the run a group of us went out for some dinner at Noodles and it was great to hear my mentor talk about her dating adventures. You can tell that the people who came back to the program as mentors have a friendship from the previous season/s together.

Another great thing was that I found out one of the other participants is a doctor and so he gave me some tips on why my knees and calves have been sore and what kind of exercises I should do. I guess I really need to build up more of my quads and so it looks like I'll be forming a new friendship with stairs :-) I also really need to focus on stretching even more than I already do. The other thing that happened tonight was I realized why the mentors and coach stress the importance of Body Glide. I saw two girls that were bleeding at the end of the run and it hurt just looking at it. Just say no to blisters and chaffing.

June 4th

My right calf area has been tender since my group run on Saturday, so I've emailed my coach to ask for any advice/suggestions. But I was able to get through the 3 miles I was scheduled to run today, so that's good. It was great trying out my new running shoes today and I can definitely feel a difference in the cushioning. So basically today I biked to the Y, ran 3 miles, and then did the BodyPump strength training class. I'm trying to focus on building more upper body strength to even out the training I've been doing with my legs. Also, it's really great to see the donations starting to come in and thank you to everyone for their support!