June 22nd

Wednesday's group run went really well. I've found someone (Melissa) that keeps the same pace as me, so we've been running together. The only sad part is that she's training for the Half Marathon and so she doesn't have to run as far as I do. After our run around Lake Harriet, some of us went to Noodles and it was fun getting to know even more people. I'm surprised at how many names I'm remembering, since usually I'm pretty bad at that. Ha but I did get shamed a little by my coach. He asked how I was doing and stuff and I mentioned how bad my knees had hurt after the last long run. Coach said that my quads are too weak and I need to strengthen them up...which is probably true.

Thursday was a rest/stretch day and a fun day at work. Today and tomorrow I'm switching up my training schedule a bit. I was supposed to run 5 miles today and then do 30 minutes of cross training tomorrow. But since I am scheduled to run a 5K tomorrow morning, I swam for about 30 minutes this afternoon and will try to run tomorrow at a faster pace.

Also it is scary how much my body wants me to eat now that I've started running regularly. Some people say they never lose weight when they're training, others have said they've lost 15 pounds, and some have even gained while training. It'll be interesting to see how my body decides to respond.

June 19th

Sunday was the most difficult run so far. We met at Lake Nokomis and ran to Lake Harriet and back. It was somewhere between 8 and 9 miles. Some people then went around Lake Nokomis (which is about another 3 miles) but my legs were telling me "NO" and so I stretched. It was also interesting because there was a 5K going on at the lake and so we got to cheer people in at the finish line where we were stretching. My knees still hurt today and our next group run is tomorrow...

Monday we were on TV! Kare 11 is doing a 3 part story about Team in Training and so for the second segment they came to talk to us about our training. It was on live so I wasn't able to watch it, but I think it went really well. I didn't speak at all but you might be able to see me in the "group wave" part ha. The rest of the day was basically spent at work, icing my left knee and stretching. I went to a BodyFlow class at the YMCA because it's supposed to help with flexibility. It was actually pretty challenging and today I could feel the work we'd done with the lower back -- but overall it was really relaxing.

Today I ran on the elliptical since my knees were still a little tender. I was supposed to do 4 miles but did almost 6 since the elliptical is easier. Then I made sure to do lots of stretching. I think I'm ready for the run at Lake Harriet tomorrow, but I am a little nervous about the 12 mile run scheduled for Sunday...