Wish Me Well

Alright....I'm almost two weeks into Insanity, and it is pretty crazy.  Having said that though, it's not overwhelming, so today I'm going to add a 5 mile run to the mix (after having done 40 minutes of Cardio Power and Resistance).  This is the first time I'm trying this, so I may not survive...if you don't hear from me, you'll know what happened.

General Fitness

One thing I'm realizing about doing the Insanity workout is that, while it's great for general cardiovascular health, I'm not sure it's going to help me too much with my running.  I think I'll have to build some running into my week on top of the Insanity workouts.  I don't think that will be too difficult, though, since I haven't been overly tired after any of the workouts and there is an extra day built into the schedule for rest.  That should allow me to do a long run on the days where I have Cardio Recovery and on my rest days. 

Insanity: Part II

A couple days into the Insanity workout, and I'm pleasantly surprised.  It doesn't monopolize my time as much as other workout routines are supposed to (mostly because of the intensity of the workouts allowing for shorter workouts).  This makes it much easier to do it in a busy lifestyle.

The other pleasant thing is that I don't feel so wiped out that I can't do other things throughout the rest of my day.  My calves are a little tight from a new type of workout - and I assume that will go away after a while - but the workouts themselves would allow me to go running if I wished to do so.  I think I could probably run 10 miles today if I wanted to.

Insanity

First time doing the Insanity workout this evening.  It's pretty intense.  I'm totally bought in...I can't wait to get up in the morning and do the next day's workout.

Metatarsalgia?!?

So, it appears that I have metatarsalgia, which feels like a very bad bruise on the ball of my left foot.  It seems to have happened during my run on Tuesday in North Carolina, and, if I can say, it is pretty painful.  But only really when I'm walking in my bare feet.  Luckily, it doesn't really impact my workouts if I'm at the gym since my training shoes are different from my running shoes.  That's the thing, apparently this injury doesn't hurt as much with better padding at the ball of the feet. 

It's interesting how much I'm learning about the human body.  I have to admit that I am kind of flying by the seat of my pants here.  I didn't do any research on running beforehand, and I'm attacking these injuries one at a time as they come up.  First I had Achilles Tendinitis, which was pretty painful, then I had a bruise on the top of my left foot from tying my shoes too tight, and now I have this.  The whole thing is a process, and I'm starting to feel like I'll have to get some advice on how to be more proactive about these types of issues before they get too overwhelming. Although, the approach of tackling these problems as they arise may be the best way to go...after all, how many foot problems could there possibly be?  I've gotta reach the end of them sometime, right?

Long Runs

Today I had a run of just under 11 miles, and it really took it out of me.  I actually feel pretty good right now, but my pace was really slow - much slower than I have run other long runs.  I'm trying to figure out if that's because of the length of time since my last run (almost two weeks), the relative high altitude (nearly 3600 feet at it's highest points) or the difficulty of the trail.  I tend to think that it's some combination of all three of these - especially the trail.  The Boone Fork's Trail is a five-mile loop that's much more difficult than other trails that I've run...there are more exposed roots and rocks than can be counted, more cliff climbs than I care to remember, and the general muddy conditions.  This is a much more difficult trail than the Osmanthus Trail that I run in Virginia Beach.  On Osmanthus, I can average between 9 and 9 1/2 minutes per mile.  On Boone Fork, I average between 11 and 11 1/2 minutes per mile.

I must say, I think I need to start working on my speed, but there's got to be something that makes Boone Fork so much more difficult.  I wonder if there's some sort of trail rating system that gauges the relative difficulty of trails on some sort of scale?

Definitions of Exercise

I think my wife and I have different definitions of exercise.  I told her that I wanted to go running this morning, thinking to myself that a 12 mile trail run sounded great on a nice breezy day.  My wife says "Great...you should take our son".  It's not that I don't want to play with my kids, it's just that I didn't really think that he would be up for a 12 mile walk let alone a 12 mile run.  He may not even be up for a 12 mile drive....

Anyway, we negotiated so that I went to a local park with my son and daughter and challenged them to races.  My daughter was much more interested in picking flowers and chasing butterflies (but somehow she still always seemed to win!).  My son was game for the races - at least at first.  But he faded really fast. 

The result is that I only ran about a mile (if that), but I still feel good about it if it leads to my son and daughter getting a better appreciation for running and exercise.