I used my adidas shoes today and it wasn’t that bad although I do feel the pounding of the pavement since the shoes are a lot thinner than my Brooks shoes which have so much more cushioning.  I’ll try to go shoe shopping to find something nice since my Brooks are really old and have more than a few tears.  My second 5 minute run was a little tough since it just felt so long.  My knees at the beginning always feel shaky and like I will be turning in early. Week 5 is coming up and it looks tough, day 1 not so much since it is running three times for 5 minutes but than 2intervals for 8 minutes and than 20 minutes straight on Day 3 do look daunting.  So far what this program has determined as natural progression hasn’t been too far off the mark, at the very most I have been off one week for the most part so in a little over 2 weeks time I’ll probably be running for 20 minutes straight.  I wonder how pathetic I will look.  I need to get into my music more or something since instead of forgetting about the time left to run I just think I have to make it through this song and about 2 minutes of the next one, I am never just running until I hear the ring saying time to walk.

Been busy lately, not enough time to get things done around the home like remove some weeds or do some shopping.  Looking forward to going to wonderland, I hope I am thin enough to fit on Behemoth and Leviathan.  Last time it was a little bit of a struggle to get the harness to close all the way, which then becomes a bit freakier when it feels looser while on the ride before the big hills.

Very slow but my god I did it somehow.  I mostly felt it in my knees and calves, I was going slow enough that I wasn’t breathing hard at any point.  I think I will pick up something for my knees, hope it helps.  I wore my old shoes again instead of my adidas ones that have a much thinner sole.  Sitting now I can feel my knees vibrating still, I kind of like that feeling, it is neat to feel. My feet feel fine though which is good, I hope my knees feel ok tomorrow.  I am surprised that I did the first 5 minute interval and that I was well enough to do the 2nd 3 minute interval.  Last time during that interval I had to push my self and check my phone every 30 seconds hoping it ended after 90 seconds, this time the 3 minute interval wasn’t that bad, I think I checked during the last 30 seconds but didn’t have to push myself that hard.  The last five minute run when I started it I wasn’t sure how far I would get through it, I was expecting 2 minutes, I guess it helped that it was downhill although I did start it off uphill so it evened out.  The last 90 seconds I did have to push myself and check every 30 seconds but it wasn’t nearly as bad as last time.

Went to the vet with Buster, he had a dark spot show up on his eye, it is probably feline iris melanoma.  The vet pretty much just said take pictures to see if it gets bigger over time.  Since he is older he will probably outlive it if it is cancer.  In other news the Habs lost and are out of the playoffs, that was pretty surprising since they were able to beat Boston.  In gross news I carried the garbage can out to the curb and didn’t realize until I got to the street light that it was full of maggots…and I had it pressed against my body, glad I ended up picking it up from the clean side in the dark.

Well I stupidly went ahead with week 4 and I surprisingly didn’t do too horribly.  I did run the first 5 minute interval in its entirely, albeit slowly and I did the whole 3 minute interval afterwards as well.  What was holding me back the most this time was my calves, they didn’t feel loose enough and up for it.  I didn’t attempt the last 5 minute session, instead I got some milk.  It is amazing how often I think I went for a while but only 30 seconds have passed on by, again and again.  I ran for 2 minutes more than last week and I covered the same ground, that is a little disappointing but at least I can move upwards.

I went to toastmasters today and did a table topics which is nice, I hate how they always seem to get cut short, I need to work on my quick on my feet thinking.

Barely, the last 3 minute segment I looked at my phone with 40 seconds to go again and had to really push myself to finish it.  It was through a combination of legs being tired and running out of breath, my legs was more about my knees feeling sore, I am wondering if a compression thing on my knees will help any.  I think my distance and pace were a bit better than last time, so I have that going for me, for what it’s worth.  Now the question I guess is do I go ahead to the next week or do a few more days of week 3.  2 sessions of week 5 minutes mixed in with 3 minutes seems like too much when I can barely handle 90 seconds between 3 minutes. I guess I’ll find out on Tuesday what I choose.

Too many weeds in the back yard, I tried clearing out some ground ivy by manually picking it like I did with crabgrass, it left behind so many vines/roots that connect back into the area I cleared.  No matter how clear it looks, there is still some of the old weed hanging about somewhere in it.  I saw Chris’s pond and it is simply amazing to look at and be by, the sound of it and how the water goes over the fall.

I did day 2 of week 3 today and it seemed to go way too smoothly.  Compared to every other day that I have run I have only broken out half the sweat that I normally do, the distance I covered was about the same as I have covered in my last attempts for week 3 but it seemed so much easier.  It was a bit shorter but nothing too substantial.  Maybe it was shorter than before and I reigned in my pace, even during the last 3 minute interval I wasn’t breathing hard at all or dieing hoping that my 3 minutes was up.  I wonder if it is due to how my knee was feeling, I was thinking during my inital 5 minute warm up walk that I should look into getting a knee brace of some kind since I am still a fatty slamming down a lot of weight on my knees every other day.  Maybe the soreness in my knees slowed my pace enough that I wasn’t pushing myself enough, either that or I  can actually do week 3 fine now without too much difficulty.  I am sure it helped that the temperature was 7 and there was no humidity, still seems odd since I didn’t even think about getting a sip of water.  Actually during my 90 second jogging interval I noticed it seemed like I was running for too long and saw that I was 45 seconds into my 90 second walking interval.  I guess I will find out on Sunday by how well I run that week.  I am still worried about next week since it requires two 5 minute running intervals and I have been having difficulty in just covering the 3 minute ones I have now.  Here is hoping.

Tonight there is possibly a big meteor shower tonight, I am on the fence as to weather I should go out and see what I can capture.  The sky seems clear enough and it is on a weekend so I have that going for me.  I don’t like getting up at 3 though and I get nervous hanging out by myself out in the middle of nothing, I don’t know what it is exactly but it is a little nerve wracking to me.  Even when I did it at Kathy’s grandma’s house where I know that I am perfectly safe it is just weird and foreign to me.  I don’t know if it is the silence or the feeling that I am so alone out there and left to my own devices in case something happens.  Maybe it is more meta than that and I don’t believe that I can depend on myself.  Or coyotes.

I was able to do all the running sessions, I had to slow my pace down a whole lot to do it, I think I was walking faster than running.My calves felt tight today and slowed me down as well, but the biggest problem was just being tired.  Again I looked at my phone and still had a minute more to run, my god 3 minutes feels like forever.  I installed the Nike ad, it says I do an 11 minnute km which is sad but it dows include my 5 minute warmup walk.

And afterwards I got sweat in my eyes.

And the same results, but different.  A lot of huffing and puffing during the first 3 minute session and my calves were a little soar, during the second 3 minute session I again gave up with 30 seconds left, I just couldn’t push myself through it.  I actually started it around 1 minute left with pushing myself.  It would be so much worse without music since 3 minutes seems like such a long time while running.  During the first 3 minute session today and last time at about the 90 second mark I checked my phone to see how much longer this would be going on for.  This time at least for the last 30 seconds I paused the timer and did the last 30 seconds as soon as I caught my breath.

I was a little worried about this session since I had some hot chocolate in me and had sex a couple of hours earlier, I still felt a little exhausted.  I read that people who work out there legs a lot can’t do their full amount of lifts with their arms.  Something floats around in the bloodstream from the legs that says the muscles are tired so the arms can’t do as much.  Same thing happens in reverse, ie if lifting weights and then go for a run.  I was also a little tired from trying to clean up weeds in the backyard, too many dandelions, and I’m still not sure how to clear out the ground ivy.  I was considering giving a weedman like service a call so I don’t have to deal with it.  I should have spent some time digging a hole for a pond.  I visited Grand Valley Garden Centre today and they had an impressive pond set up, actually a couple.  One was less of a waterfall and more of a stream with some rapids in it.

So I decided to go ahead and do week 3 instead of retrying week 2.  The timing in week 3 was run 90 seconds, then run 3 minutes then 90 seconds, then 3 minutes.  It is the same amount of running as the six 90 seconds of running from week 2.  It was about 7C today and the first 3 minutes went surprisingly well, I wasn’t gasping too badly, not sure if it is because I stretched a little bit or that the cold air expanded my lungs enough.  Actually now that I think about it my calf didn’t feel cramped up.  I didn’t finish the day though, during the last 3 minute run I gave up about 40 seconds short, I just couldn’t keep going even at my snail’s pace.  I did run for 45 seconds a little bit later on my way home.  Hopefully it goes better on Monday and isn’t hampered by warmer weather.

I spent a lot of time in my afternoon disposing of styrofoam, and I have a lot of it, I filled about 10 bags, would probably be about 5 garbage bags.  The lesson here is dispose of styrofoam and boxes as you get them.   I was suppose to go to a gaming study today which would have earned me 15 whole dollars.  Unfortunately I wrote down the time incorrectly and missed out on it, on the bright side I was able to reschedule with Kathy for Monday.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get through the weeds in the yard, there is a lot more ground ivy than I initially thought there was. sigh.

Just backwards in terms of my performance, near the end I was sucking air hard, didn’t feel like I could recover.  My calves still feel right as well.  The first day of the week seemed better than the third, so did the second.  Next week if I proceeded would require 2 sessions running for 3 minutes.  I think I will be doing week 2 again since I can barely do 90 seconds.

Had wing night tonight so I ran with 20 wings. The wings seemed smaller than before, that was disappointing. I really need to get out and see people more often.

Barely. My god it was a struggle to finish each session. My legs were a little tired and my lungs were having a little trouble keeping up. The temperature was 20 and very humid which made it difficult to breathe properly.  I’m not sure how I will be able to handle running next week since it has 2 sessions for 3 minutes when I can barely do 90 seconds. 

I went to a toastmaster meeting today, it was not the usual meeting since it had elections which took away table topics which I enjoyed since it was my weakest area.  I left before because my CMA took up my time and I disliked writing speeches to perform, I would have preferred to just give speeches.