Slimy Saturday Running

Whew ~ made it through a humid and slightly hilly 5 mile run today and boy are we 2 slimy people right now!  This humidity and heat is nasty but I am so proud of myself for making it through the 5 miles and just walking when I need to and not getting ticked off about it ~ a big accomplishment for me physically and mentally. Lukas has seen way too many tantrums in the past during hot/humid runs, and I haven't been able to get through 5 miles in the past 7 months due to IT band issues, so I get an A for the day in both categories lol.

A coworker suggested I try my knee band again to see if that helps my IT Band not rub on my knee so much and he is a genius... it felt a little irritated at the end of our run, but I think that was mostly due to me being super tired and having bad form. Otherwise tho, no pain and I didn't feel like I was bothering it as much as before. I really think strength training is slowly helping, so I will keep at that and hope the band helps me in the meantime as well. I purchased this band in 2011 when I was having major pain and we had to cancel our half marathon plans the first time. I think if I'd known about the foam roller back then, it and this band could have gotten me through the rest of my training but o well... hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Anyway, since then I completely forgot I had this thing until my coworker mentioned using one for his issues and how much it helps if you are doing all the stretching/rolling/strengthening you can and just need something extra while running. Genius man... genius :)

I haven't been able to follow my half marathon schedule exactly in the past 3 weeks, but I've had a lot of good runs, made a lot of good effort, and am still pretty much on target. Hoping to have a successful week of 5ks in the morning and then another 5 miler next Saturday. It is nice to be back to training again, these past 3 weeks have been fun getting more runs in than usual but weird also because I'm exercising less than I was the few weeks before that. I need to get more strength training in and not focus so much on cardio as I have in the past and hopefully that will give my muscles the rest they need from cardio, as well as the strength they need to overcome muscle imbalances and keep me injury free!

I also think I'm going to try and get one run a week in on the treadmill, it helps so much for speed training without making me pass out due to the weather. I ran a new treadmill 5k PR on Friday - 9:16 average at 28:44~ woo hoo! That might be slow for most runners but I'm super happy about it ~ and I didn't have any pain and didn't walk at all which is great. The more I work on speed inside, the faster I will be outside once I get used to the weather and am able to push a bit more, espec. if my knee decides to cooperate.

Happy happy happy... but also tired tired tired haha. Time for a sewing break and then some homework before a nice relaxing nap at the pool. Life is good over at the Fischer's today ~ hope your Saturday is equally as enjoyable and relaxing!