5k. Woot! Woot!

So if I'd been in a 5k race today, I probably would have been the last to cross the finish line, but I would have crossed!

5k 38.5min (maybe 39 hard to tell, but I like 38.5 cause it keeps me further from a 13 minute mile). Either way, today was a bit slower, but I'm fine with that. I got up, left the house, jogged for 3.1 miles without stopping.

Then I stretched some and now I'm icing my lower back right side (which I've decided is a good thing to do after runs to help keep the inflamation at bay).

Tomorrow will be a short day--2 miles. (Two weeks ago I would not have called 2 miles a short day!)

Downward Facing Dog

So, my appointment with the chiropodist yesterday was really interesting and I won't repeat the details because the two people who currently follow this blog have already heard all about it.

But basically, I really need to stretch. And doing so will help all sorts of things including (but not limited to) my running. (A couple posts ago I mentioned that I don't actually run heels to toes. Well apparently that is largely due to the fact the back of my legs are so tight that I can't comfortably flex my foot enough to run heels to toes. Also, apparently this has something to do with why I trip up stairs--my toes aren't flexed so they catch on the stair . . .)

Anyway! I am going to go to yoga once a week with my roommate Sarah and then also do my calf and hamstring stretches at least twice a day.

Today was the first yoga day. So tomorrow is now my 5k day, which could be interesting given that I'll probably be sore from yoga today . . .

Also, my buddy reese told me today about this thing called google pedometer that I'm excited to try out for planning my runs.

2.9 miles

I did it! It wasn't fast, but I went for 2.9 miles. 35 minutes. Yay!

Tomorrow I go to the chiropodist and should get fitted for orthodics and I also go to the chiropractor.

Thursday I'm going to go for 3.1 miles. A 5k. I think I can do it. Of course, that's a lot easier to say after a run. Running seems like so much better of an idea after it's over than it does in the middle of a run . . .

working out the kinks

This morning's jog actually felt pretty good. It still takes me the first half of the run to really loosen up, but once I did loosen today, it felt good.

I took it slow and steady and so there were no side stitches and my legs didn't feel like they were going to burn up or quit in protest. By the end, with the sweat starting to drip down my neck and my windbreaker tied around my waist, I almost felt like a runner!

I did 2.4 miles again today. Again in about 29 minutes (I need a digital watch. I could be off my about a minute in either direction, since I don't pay enough attention to the second hand placement on my watch.)

I think I can go farther. The hardest part of my run is the first 1-1.5miles. Now, I'm sure when I do go farther, it will be the last bit that's the hardest, but I might as well make that happen.

Tomorrow: 2.9 miles. (That way I add .5 which is a nice even amount to add and then my next increment can be 3.1 miles, which is a 5k.)

Brooks, Bleach, and Books

The good news: I bought new running shoes today that I love (at least so far). They're Brooks, which is not an endorsement of Brooks so much as it is an excuse for putting another 'b' word in this post's title.

The bad news: Cleaning mold off your bathroom's paint with a bleach-based product does not mix well with going for a run 10 minutes later. Or, at least that's part of my excuse for today's less-than-fantastic outing.

Our bathroom doesn't have an exhaust fan and it is too cold to have the window open all the time and apparently the paint in the bathroom is not the mold-resistant variety, so every couple of months I have to clean the mold off the walls and ceiling with this bleach-based bathroom cleaner. (I have to do it because I'm the only one who can reach the ceiling when standing on a chair). Even with the window and door open, the fumes still are a bit noxious and it takes me a while to feel bleach free.

I should have known better than to try to go for my run after the bathroom cleaning, but I had put off the run all day, so I had to get it in before it got dark . . .

Well, I let the bleachy feeling I had act as an excuse for only running one mile (and walking the mile back) instead of running the two. I probably could have done the two miles and just pushed through, but I didn't. And now I'm fessing up (while making excuses). This blog is, afterall, in part my public accountability forum so that I will actually run often and far enough to get up to a half marathon.

My first mile was 11 min. My second (walking) was about 17.5. I do like my new running shoes, though!

More bad news: I am way behind on reading for my comprehensive exams. I have to 50 books (on two lists of 25 books each) and then write exams on those two lists. It's part of the PhD process. Well, between planning for the conference, TAing, working at SLF, and doing other things that are not reading, I am way behind (as in I've only just started reading the first book!).

In order to finish by mid-June, which is when I would need to finish reading in order do my oral comps defense in early August (there all sorts of things that have to happen between finishing the reading and doing the oral defense), I would have to read 1 book a day, every day (weekend, holiday, work day, etc.) I need to talk to my supervisor about all of this. It kinda seems impossible. I'm meeting with my supervisor Tuesday, so I'm assuming we'll work something out . . .

This running thing is not easy

I think my legs figured out today, at about mile 1.5, what I had in store for them over the next 5.5 months and they decided to protest by pretending that they were too tired to keep going. I made them do it anyway, but I did let them slow down.

2.4 miles (same route as Weds). 28.5 minutes (however, I didn't have to stop at a light and jog in place today, so it may not actually have been any faster than Weds).

Yesterday I did some stretching and a pilates video. I suppose I should come up with a structured cross-training plan, but until then at least I'm doing something.

Tomorrow I'm walking with a couple of people from work in a 5k walk for which Stephen Lewis Foundation is one of the beneficiaries. I think I'll do a two mile jog (and see if I can pick up the pace at all) either before or after that. (And by 'I think I'll do' I mean that I will do it. I can't give myself that way out or I won't do it!)

Side stitch

I went out too fast today on my evening run. It felt good until I was about 1/2 mile in and I got a side stitch that stayed with me for the next 1.5 miles (even as I slowed to what was barely faster than a walk). Luckily either the side stitch eased or I finally got used to it (or probably a little of both). I was able to do that last .4 miles a bit faster and bring my overall average back to a 12 minute mile (I was going really slow in the middle there).

2.4 miles. 29 minutes.

My legs felt pretty lactic acid-y at the end so I did that whole lying on my back on the floor with my legs up against a wall thing we used to do in high school cross country.

Tomorrow is a non-running day. I'll do some core strengthening and stretching stuff. Maybe I'll even do the yoga video that is still in its package . . .

(P.S. while clever, this blog really is a misnomer. I most certainly do not run heels to toes but rather run sort of on the outside balls of my feet. . . . I suppose that's something to work on and to talk to the chiropodist about; I have an appointment for next Weds.)

credit where credit is due

It was pointed out to me by my clever and honest friend Sarah that I should give credit to my clever and creative friend Val for coming up with the name for this blog.

Thanks, Val, for coming up with "Heals to Toes" and, Sarah, for keeping me honest. :)

First run

As promised (and really only because I'd promised), I went out for a run (that's generous--a jog is much more accurate) this morning.

2 miles. I mapped it out ahead of time so I'd know and not be guessing.

Since it had been a couple weeks since I'd gone for a jog, I decided to not try to push the speed too much and rather make sure I'd be able to finish with out stopping/walking. I did the first mile in about 12 minutes and then picked up the pace on the second one (especially the last half mile) and did that one in about 10.5.

I'm a long way from a half-marathon. But I'll do it.

Tomorrow I run again. I think I'll go for 2.5 miles.

The decision to run a half-marathon

I have been thinking for months about what I might do as my Dare for this year's A Dare to Remember campaign. Since I'm working part-time for the Stephen Lewis Foundation on mobilizing for A Dare to Remember, I have been thinking about this even more over the last few weeks.

Well, last Tuesday (my birthday), I decided that my Dare would be to run a half-marathon.

I'm a baseball player, a basketball center, a former shot putter, etc. However, I'm barely a runner.

Since I started going to the gym in January, I have been doing some jogging (anywhere from 1.5-2.5 miles) and way back when in high school I was on the non-varsity cross country team (i.e. they let me run, but since my time was usually almost double that of the winners, I wasn't exactly the team's key member . . .). I would guess that the longest distance I've ever run was 5 miles and that would have been 11 or 12 years ago.

Well, that's all about to change because on October 17, 2010 (during Dare Launch week), I'm going to run the Goodlife Fitness Half-Marathon in Toronto.

I suppose that means, I'd better get training. I gave myself a week to get started because the conference I've been working on planning (Activism and the Academy: Struggles Against Hegemony) was this weekend and my friend Val is in town visiting. But Tuesday I'm starting my pre-training (going for a jog). Then I have to buy good running shoes that are made for the type of feet I have and the way I run, go to the chiropodist to get orthodics since my right leg is almost an inch longer than my left (I would need to do this even if I weren't doing the half-marathon), and buy a training book or find a good one online.

I'm not going to start actually advertising my blog or my plan to run the marathon until the ADTR website for 2010 is up and running (which should be in the next two week) so that I can set up my fundraising page. But since I had a few minutes on my computer today, I decided I'd get my blog set-up.