If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

Week Seven:

3/1/11 - Day one: 3 miles in 33 minutes Scheduled: 3 miles
3/2/11 - Day two: 5 miles in 56 minutes Scheduled: 5 miles
3/3/11 - Day three: 3 miles in 34 minutes Scheduled: 3 miles

I am not sure I ever posted the cure to my side aches so here it is:

For my Saturday long runs which I run outside versus during the week that I run on a treadmill, I never had side aches. I thought this to be strange since I run so much further. I realized that while outside, if I start to get a stitch, I automatically slow down until it goes away. While running on a treadmill, you have to physically raise your hand and adjust the MPH to lower it. This is tough to do, mentally, because it makes you feel like you're not doing as well. So you just gotta get rid of your PRIDE and do it. It makes the rest of the run much better if you sacrifice five minutes of going slower to adjust to the run.

I usually start out my run around 4.5 MPH and if I start to cramp a bit, I'll slow it down and walk. This is my warm up. Eventually I will stay pretty consistent around 6 MPH for the rest of the run. About half way through or just past, I adjust it in 30 second increments up to around 7.5 and back down to 6 to work my heart and challenge myself so I can get stronger. It also seems to help the time go by faster.

Saturday will be my longest run ever: 10 miles! Getting into the DOUBLE DIGITS!!! Yah!!!!!