It's Tuesday so we had our morning run today. Bill and I met Kristin, Melissa was a no show. We did Johnson Park---a hilly route. So it ended up with 4.7 miles with an average 8:47 pace (the first 2 were in 8:37 pace!). Fast for how many hills there are!

Then we also had Anna tonight. Since my knee is nearly healed, I told her we could work the legs a bit. We did some core/abs, lots of arms, and some weighted squats. Bill was having a bad day today and whined the whole time and with every exercise. I felt pretty good.

Decided to take Monday off this week. Tomorrow's goint to be a busy day.

Sunday--intervals today! Did our 1 mile warmup, then did 8 quarter-mile intervals, then a 1 mile cooldown. Did 1:42-1:49 for most of the 8, with a few of them over 1:50. Did a sub-9 warmup, and a 9:23 cooldown. Knee felt pretty OK, but I chose to stay on the outer loops of the track the whole time so the turns weren't so tight.

Back to try a run today, it's Saturday. We're running Colonial, so it's a nice out and back where I could stop at any time and just come back.

Got to running with Melissa, Amy, and Lori and it was an enjoyable run. Ran the 3 miles out, took a brief break, then back. Knee really didn't bother me, so it was a good run overall. 6 miles at a 9:22 average pace (9:16 average for the first 4 miles, then slowed to a 9:34 average for the last 2).

Another nothing day. Really could have/should have done something, but didn't.

Just couldn't get up this morning after the drive and late softball. Therefore went for a walk after work---just a nice easy walk around the neighborhood. Weather is really nice so it was good to be out. Didn't push it, but tried to run a bit and felt a twinge, so stopped running and just kept it a nice walk---concentrating on not locking the leg and keeping the knee soft.

Had the drive home today (vacation was awesome) so we got going right away this morning. Drove home, then made it to the softball game. We finally won!!!! Hit like crap, but at least had some good fielding plays.

Knee's a little better, but still worried as we are still on vacation and plan to do a bunch of walking so I wanted to keep taking it easy. Did 20 minutes on the bike again and stretching.

We're in Niagara Falls and the knee is still an issue. Knowing we'd have lots of walking today, I just decided to bike again in the fitness center. Did 20 minutes on the bike and good stretching.

We left yesterday afternoon for our drive to vacation in Niagara Falls. Knowing we'd be leaving later due to the Lighthouse, we planned to only drive through Michigan and stay overnight just inside Canada. Got up this morning and the leg is stiff, knee sore. It was fine for the run, but it's tired and sore today. Just did 20 minutes on the recumbent bike in the Holiday Inn fitness room, plus stretching.

Lighthouse Run today, and of course--it's a swelter. It's really hot, pushing 80 degrees, with 85%+ humidity. I got going with Melissa and Kristin and by mile 2-3 I was really struggling. Knee felt fine, but mentally I was struggling with the heat and my body just felt like it couldn't move. I really debated turning south at the 4-mile turn, but they told me know. Then as we approached 3 mile Rd and I realized we were only at 4 miles, I was convinced I needed to quit. I just couldn't imagine doing that for 6 more miles. Kristin's foot was really bothering her so she wanted to walk a bit. I decided to walk with her, then see how I felt. We walked, ran, walked, ran for the next 2 or so miles. She was really struggling, and the walk breaks helped me. By just before 6 miles, there was nothing to do but finish as that's by Shoop and the shortest way back is to just finish. Kristin said she just couldn't run anymore and told me to go on. I started running and actually felt OK. Ended up running the whole thing with a few walk breaks here and there, particularly at water stops. Needed lots of water, to drink and to dump down my back.

It wasn't pretty, but I finished in 1:39:24....10 minutes slower than I wanted to. About a minute a mile slower, due to the unbearable heat. I probably could have been 1-3 minutes faster as I walked more with Kristin than I needed to, but that's about all I could have cut off. And if it wasn't for her, I probably would have quit completely so I needed her.

Ok, I SCREWED UP today. I didn't get up to exercise and thought I'd do it tonight. Then after work we had to get ready for Lighthouse Run and pack for vacation. I woke up Saturday morning and realized I never exercised Friday at all. I was soooooo mad at myself, I didn't even think of it. It never even crossed my mind....which I think that was more upsetting to me than the lack of actually exercising. It totally is not habit or a "feeling of necessity" and I so easily forgot. Arrrrrghghghghgh! So close, almost 6 full months and I mess up just 11 days before the end. Pisssssssed off!

Needed to get back to running to make sure I'd be OK for this Saturday's Lighthouse run, so I got up and met the girls. I decided I'd just do 4 miles, though, so that it would be a good run but not too straining. Ran the 4 in a 9:18 average pace.

We had a bye for softball, but we did a practice. Did that, then went to tennis. It was warm and we played three sets so it was a good little workout.

Didn't get up with the group as I didn't really want to walk/run today. Decided to exercise at night, but didn't really want to do a DVD. Therefore I wanted to do ExerciseTV, but it was down--again. Luckily I remembered you could get it on the internet. I searched a bit and found an 18 minutes Pilates routine that looked good so I did that--low impact, but still moving and getting some benefits. It was a little hard to do with the computer as the screen only faces on direction and is smaller so if I had to position differently I couldn't see the screen....but I did OK.

Have Anna tonight. Since my knee's bothering me, I wanted to take it easy on the legs again. Therefore I had Anna do some IT bad stretches and exercises when Bill did leg exercises, and I just did the arms and core stuff.

Went to do intervals again with the group, but noticed that my knee was not liking running today. Between just the overexertion yesterday, and running on a track (so you had the slight lean to the inside), it wasn't feeling too good. I decided after the mile warmup that I shouldn't push it. Bill, Melissa, and Kristin, were going to do 800 intervals, and I just didn't think that would be a good idea. I was frustrated! I decided that since I had at least about 30 minutes while they did their workout, I took the car up to work and got on the recumbent bike for 15 minutes. That felt OK on the knee so it felt good to just do at least something. I'm really bummed about not being able to run and do the speed workout, but this knee needs to heal as I need it better.

Relay for Life run/walk today, so the group is meeting at the Oakes Road location so that those that want to go over to Case can, those that don't can do the Panera 2 trail. I got there at 6am to try to get 5-6 in before the group. Ran the first 2.2 OK, I felt a little slow and sluggish. It was way more humid that I thought and stopped at the car then to take the sleeves off my coat. Then headed out again and ran another 1.5 or so before I stopped to stretch the leg good. Ended up with 5.1 when I met the group at 7am. Then we headed to Case and I did 7 laps around their track, most of them jogging. I think I walked about 1.5 of those or so. The softer ground of that track was noticeably different than running on concrete. Then I headed back to the group, finishing with 9.18 miles total. Did this in 1:31:08, an average of a 9:55 pace. With the walking I know I did at the track and even at the end (last .25 miles or so), I was surprised at this time. The first 6 miles were at about a 9:20-9:25 pace. Then I got slower to about 9:43 pace (that had a bit of walking, then the last mile was mostly walking. Knee bothering me a bit, but good to know I could still do 9 at a 'reasonable' pace. I think I'm going to have to really take it easy for another week to try to heal this knee before Lighthouse.

Got up this morning and decided now to do the Ab workout. Only feeling a little tight from the Monday workout and this is low impact on the legs with just some slight squats and a few leg lifts. Going to try to run tomorrow, so wanted another day of rest.

Up this morning again to meet the group. Still want to take it easy on the knee as it was tweaked a bit during tennis. I think that doesn't help it as it's a lot of starting and stopping and leaning different ways. Kristin convinced me to run with her to Melissa's, which is a 0.9 mile run. Actually the knee felt pretty good then. After we met up with her, I walked the rest of the way. A few times I tried to run a bit and my knee hurt quite a bit--it seems that after I walk a while and have that whole 'heel-striking, knee-locking' motion, running isn't good. I can run without walking, but not after. Ended up running/walking 3.35 miles total in 45:36 for a 13:35 average. The first 2 miles were at a 12:39 average (which had that mile or so of running), and the second 1.35 miles were mostly walking with an average of 14:58 pace.

Well, I kind of cheated today on my "20 minutes of exercise rule". Knee's still tender so I was going to get up and do an Ab workout today. As I got up from bed, I realized how sore my abs and obliques still were from Monday night....nope, another ab workout wouldn't be a good idea.

I have both softball and tennis again tonight. At softball, I had one good hit that had me get most of the way around the bases, and two great fly catches that had me running a bit, plus some other backup runs. Then at tennis we had lots of deuces and a tie-breaking set. Since it's doubles, it's not alot of running, but some. Plus it's a workout of my arms, legs, and core so it's kind of like a strength and flexibility workout. Unfortunately that's all I did so it wasn't a concentrated workout, so I feel like I cheated a bit. Yet, when I started this challenge, the whole goal came from me thinking that I had no excuse not to do at least 20 minutes of activity a day. Ultimately, it was to get me off my butt and not just sit around when I really have at least 20 minutes every day I could do "something". Therefore I guess being on a softball league and tennis summer league does just that---it's something to get me active in at least a little way.

Trying to follow the rule of resting an injury, so I got up with Bill to meet the girls today, but decided I was only going to walk. Jodie came today and she agreed to walk with me. That was nice to have someone to walk with and she enjoyed not being alone (she's about 37 weeks pregnant now and still jogging/running, but since slower she's often alone).

Therefore walked 2.71 miles in 46:13, an average of 17:04 pace. I know I could have walked a bit faster, but was just having a nice walk with Jodie. Surprisingly the walking kind of hurt my knee more at times---just the locking of my knee straight and striking of my heel into the ground.

Back to Anna today....first time in 6 weeks. The knee is really bothering me, so we told her just upper body and core, and that's what she did. Lots of shoulders, abs, and core workout. Good to do a variety of weighttraining again, it's been a while.

As mentioned last week, Bill decided Sunday would be a day of running drills. His original idea was just intervals, but I mentioned doing hill workout (remembering my Chicago St hill workout from several Sundays ago) would be a good combo to training. Today's our first one and we chose Gateway hill. I wanted to mix it up a bit, so I suggested we do the hill, then jog over to the stairs and do stairs. So we started with a 1 mile jog, then started going up the hill. Kristin and I started at our regular running pace, only to be passed quickly by Melissa and Bill teasing us---you're supposed to charge the hill to make it tougher, not just jog up it! So Kristin and I picked it up. Went up and down, jogged over to the stairs, up then down, then back to hill. Did that four times, then took a quick water break. Decided that although it was tough, I could do 2 more. After those two, I was done! Tired, and my knee was starting to bother me. Waited for the rest, then jogged a 1 mile cooldown. Overall it turned out to be 4.5 miles total.

My goal today is 12 miles so Bill and I met Melissa early (Kristin's out of town for Zak's track meet). We did Panera 2, sort of, and got back just before 7am with 8.33 in. I haven't run that long, in a row, in almost a year. I actually felt pretty good and it was nice to run with Melissa the hold time. After a break at the car, we got going again.....right into the wind and also the hills of Newman Rd. Luckily we only were going about 4 miles or so. The loop we did ended up being over 4 miles so I ended up with 12.5 miles. Woo hoo! The average was 9:11 pace---fabulous for that long.

Friday....another rest day in preparation for a long run tomorrow. Had a conference in Chicago so I left early and got home late. It was 70 degrees this afternoon/evening so it was nice to go for a walk when I got home. Bill started dinner while I did a quick 20 minute around the neighborhood.

Up and running early this Thursday. Another 4.25 day today. Kristin had fire in her feet and just ran ahead of us...I worked to just keep up behind her and hope the gap didn't widen (it did, though, she is fast today). Even for not keeping up with her, I averaged an 8:54 pace.

Talk about a cross-training day! I got up early and did the Level I of the 30-day shred. Then after work I had a softball game. Went straight from that to play tennis. I actually felt great and loved doing all these different physical activities.

Tuesday run with the girls. Was very discombobulated this morning and got to Kristin's without my GPS. Ran part of the run with the girls, but fell behind. Ran most by myself, then met up with Bill to finish. Luckily he had is Garmin on, so I learned we did 4.25 miles total.

Monday, monday.....

After running hard both weekend days, I decided Mondays needs to be an off-the-legs day. Therefore I will probably do abs more on Mondays. Did the Turbo Jam Ab workout.