Day 16

Today is Day 16 - we're past the 2 week mark!!!!  And luckily it's a rest day.  My hamstrings are so tight today, even though I stretched like crazy yesterday.

Weekend Recap:

Saturday (Day 14) - We were supposed to run, but given that Alyssa's softball team was in the championship, we decided to swap running and cross training days this weekend.  Alyssa got her cross-training in with the two softball games she played (her team won the championship!!!) and I headed to the gym.  Andrea and I agreed to meet at 10 to do some weight training, I arrived a few minutes early and while I waited for her I did a quick 5 minute warm-up on the elliptical and did 3 sets of 15 crunches - nothing too crazy.  When Andrea arrived we began with legs: squats, calf raises, leg presses, etc... Next up was arms, neither of us being aficionados on the machines we pretty much just stuck with the cable machines and followed the instructions, which let me tell you was plenty.  My shoulders were quite sore the next morning, and Andrea reported that her arms were killing her!

Saturday evening I paid a visit to one of my favorite stores: REI.  I love it; walking in there just makes me want to be outdoorsy and go camping and hiking and biking and kayaking all at once!  I spent a good 45 minutes just slowly walking through looking at everything - REI is right up there with the LL Bean factory store in Freeport Maine in my book (maybe not quite on par with but darn tootin' close and only being 2 miles from my house as opposed to 702 miles, I suppose it is a good stand in).  I found the main thing that I had gone there for: Body Glide - it looks like deodorant and feels like a slightly slimy sticky version of that, but is used for anti-chaffing (one of my 3 main concerns along with black toenails and needing to pee mid-race).  I also picked up the recent edition of Runners World magazine - very interesting and informative!  I'm actually thinking about getting a subscription.  The last and possibly most frightening thing I got there was a product called GU.  GU is a gooey substance that's supposed to give you lots of energy and stuff.  It comes in all sorts of flavors some that sound appetizing and some that don't, REI carried these flavors:  Jet Blackberry, Orange Burst, Mint Chocolate, Chocolate, Tri-Berry, and Vanilla.  I bought blackberry for myself and orange for Alyssa.

Sunday (Day 15):
I picked Alyssa up a little after 9:30 and we were off to South Park for our run/walk.  This was a very important one too, this was the first session where the running time was more than the walking time.  It was run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes, repeat 5 times.  The first 3 minutes of running wasn't bad at all, the second 3 minutes was a little harder, but still doable, the third 3 minutes caused my calves to start burning, the fourth 3 minutes was pretty torturous, and the fifth 3 minutes made me want to die.  That being said, it went great!  I was surprised at how easy the first set was - yay!!!  Alyssa had a bit of a rougher time than me, but we're going to chock it up to the 2 softball games the day before. 

Soreness Report:

Me:  My hamstrings are so tight today - and I stretched!  My knee is still bugging me, but I'm learning to live with it.

Alyssa: Just an all over soreness.

At the end of our last run session we decided to try the GU as we were walking to the car - it was nasty. A similar consistency to rubber cement, just without the strong odor and with artificial fruit flavoring. Alyssa took hers in one big gulp, but I couldn't do it. It took me about 4 or 5 gag inducing swallows to finish the whole packet. Gross, gross, gross!!! I think I'll wait until we're in the higher mileage rage to try it again I think.