I have a very eventful but also relaxing weekend in Vancouver. I spent some time with my brothers, met up with some friends, checked out the Canucks, and even managed to get enough walking in to not feel to guilty about the lack of actual exercise. I had brought along my workout gear in the hopes of getting in a good walk on Sunday morning, but a good Saturday night with the brothers pretty much ensure that wouldn't happen... that I forgot my t-shirt. I'm not in good enough shape to go out in only my sports bra and I'm not about to wear my nice shirts so the late sleep/hangover was really a blessing in disguise. At least, that's how I choose to look at it.
I returned to Victoria ready to take on the six week running plan I had roped THR into joining me on. We met at her place on Monday and headed out. Due to my miscalculation on how far our running/walking would actually take us, we ended up a bit further away from her house when we were supposed to be 'finished' and so tacked on an extra run/walk cycle. It has been a long time since I actually ran for anything other than a bus, but I have to say that it was much easier than I expected. The key words there being 'than I expected'. It was still difficult and I was very aware of how out of shape I am for the entire time, but I didn't find myself dying so quickly on the run parts as I had anticipated. When THR suggested an extra run/walk to make up the ground we needed, I was more than willing to agree.
We completed run number two last night (a repeat of Monday's schedule) and I struggled much more with it. In defense of myself, I was coming into this run only an hour after I finished an hour long dance class. The struggle was that by the end of the fourth 'run part', my calves were killing me. I tried to keep running but finally gave up and started speed walking mere seconds before my alarm signalled the end of the run. At first I felt a bit dejected with myself that I left a sore right calf muscle stop me, but then I realised that this time last year I would have stopped the moment I felt a slight ache halfway through the third run. I've reached a point where I am willing to push that little bit further to really make sure I hit muscle fatigue and than let me run much further than 'oldCC' would have. I'd like to think that this shows I am maturing as an athlete or at least maturing as someone who aspires to be somewhat athletic. I had been missing that drive to do what it takes to reach my goal and now I've got it back. It's a great feeling.
The only downside is that by the time I finished walking to and from work, jumping around in bare feet for an hour, walking to and from that dance class and then running/walking for 30 minutes I woke up feeling very sore this morning. I did a lot of stretching but my lower back and the bottom of my feet were a bit tender. With new shoes I'm not surprised about the bottom of my feet, but I really hope the back is because I didn't stretch it out after the run as I concentrated mostly on the legs. I'll make sure to do more back stretches on Friday and hopefully that will rectify the situation. If not, well, shoes would be the next time to look at. As much as I hate to think I spent money on bad shoes, it's better than the alternative of having to see a doctor to figure out what's wrong. One step at a time, I'll get the pain sorted out.
Apologies if there are any 'p' letters missing. That key is having some difficulties as of this morning (wrong time of the month perhaps), I have gone back and tried to catch any missing ones I may have missed while typing but if I haven't, lease accet my aology :)
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