Long weekend

We had a long, enjoyable weekend. On Saturday, Mikayla set up a lemonade stand at a friend's house (by request no less) as part of National Lemonade day. She didn't make much, but had a bunch of fun. Then on Sunday, she had her stand set up at HEB for two hours. She made a considerable amount of money there. Mikayla has decided to donate a portion of her proceeds to her Girl Scout troop and part to her school.

I'll be picking out new running shoes today so that I can start back running again. I've been out for a week, and I really miss it. I just hope the shoes solve the problem. You'd think a week with no running and sore knees would be feeling better. If shoes don't fix it, I'll have to make a doctor appointment and that's just no fun.

Running on hold

It seems my knees do not agree with my shoes. So, I've had to take a break to allow my knees to recover and to pick my new shoes. I go shopping tomorrow! I can't wait to get back to running. I was really enjoying that energy surge after the run.

Couch to 5k

It's been a very long time since I posted. I guess I need to be more on the ball with these things. Oh well, such is life. You can only keep trying.

My sister challenged me to run a 5k with her. If you know me, you know how funny it is to think of me running. Previously, I only ran if someone was chasing me with a knife or if my children were about to be run over/bitten/hurt. Very short sprints and then I thought I would die afterwards.

The Couch to 5k program is a wonderful thing for a person like me. You start very slow. You make slow improvements in stamina and speed along with distance. And at the end of 8 weeks, you're running a solid 30 minutes and building your way to a full 5k (that's 3 miles folks).

When Mikayla (now 8) heard me discussing the program with Brad, she decided she wanted to run as well. So, I have a local running partner. Someone to encourage me and help me through the tough parts. Or so I thought. The first two weeks were full of complaining and more complaining from her. After a quick chat about how staying positive makes it easier, she has turned the corner and is now a good little running partner.

I do have to be flexible with child care for the boys. They're too young to run the program with me, and I can't trust David (2.5) to stay on the playground while I run circles around the park. Thank goodness for neighbors, in-laws, and nephews! With Brad's night schedule, there is at least 1 day a week where Mikayla and I need to run, but Brad isn't here and available to watch the boys.

So far, thanks to wonderful neighbors and an encouraging sister and daughter, I've been able to keep up my every other day pace and work my way through the program. We completed Week 3 day 1 today. The workout is as follows: brisk walk 5 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes. The last 30 seconds of the final 3 minute run were difficult, but I could have done another 30 seconds without dying. And I wasn't huffing and puffing for breath.

With the heat of summer upon us - even though it's only late April- I'm going to have to start getting more creative on my running times. Previously, it's worked out best to run right after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner. However, that's not much fun if it's 90+ outside. I think during the hottest parts of the summer, I'll be running either very early or very late to avoid the worst of the heat and I think I'll time my run so I end at the community pool and can jump in to cool off before walking home to shower!

The stats from today's run: 3,393 steps. 1.5 miles. 28:34 minutes. Average speed of 3.2 mph. Burned 113.3 calories.