Feature Friday

Today is the first of a new series of posts I'll be doing! They are called Feature Friday and they are posts where I feature something I love. In them, I'll tell you about the "something", which could be any type of product or other thing, where/when I got it, how it works for me, and why it's a favorite of mine. Hopefully my features will also become your favorites!


For my first feature, I want to tell you about my favorite running shoes.

This is the Nike LunarGlide + shoe. LOVELOVELOVE! And yes, they are this color, maybe even a little bit brighter. ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE! I absolutely love the color of these shoes (if you couldn't already tell that). They also had other bright and great colors, but I just love the bright blue and lime green. These shoes are totally me! I got these shoes as a gift, so I can't tell you exactly where they came from, but I had been looking at them for quite a while.

I love them for several reasons. I have flat feet, so I fall in the "underpronator" category, and these shoes are perfect for helping with this issue. My arches always feel supported. Since I have been using them, my feet never feel sore from pressure. When I start having problems from my underpronation, my knees and hips hurt too from lack of sufficient support. These shoes have great support and reduce that pain as well.

I also tend to get shin splints when I run often, and these shoes greatly reduce the frequency and severity when I do get them. Shin splints are awful, and anything that helps with them is great. When they get really bad, I can hardly walk. And these shoes are an important part of my attempts to avoid shin splints.

The LunarGlide +'s alre also great quality shoes. I have had them for about a year and a half, and they still feel and work just as great as the day I got them. Also, they have great shoelaces. Weird shoelaces get on my nerves (yes, I have weird pet peeves, lol). These shoelaces are not too long, so they don't drag on the ground and trip me (I'm clumsy enough without any extra help :-P). They're also not too short to make them hard to tie. They are just the right length!

So, long story short - these shoes are AWESOME! I would definitely recommend them. I believe that they now sell LunarGlide + 2's that are even better than these. I looked on the Nike website, and the 2's are $100, which is a pretty good price for Nike running shoes! If I didn't love the ones I have so much, I would totally get a pair of the 2's.

Hope you've enjoyed my first Feature! Happy Friday!! :-)

5K = Conquered!

Goal # 8 is finally accomplished! (even if it is a little lot late :-P ) I ran in my first ever 5K yesterday!

I ran with my sister-in-law and our 5 year old neice. Yes, a 5 year old! My main goal (besides finishing) was to just keep up with the 5 year old :-) Since my training didn't really go so well (aka- didn't really happen, haha), the 3.2 miles of this run was the farthest I had run since my early preggo days last July. So, I was expecting it to be super difficult and all I wanted to do was make sure I could keep up with the kid!

We started off strong, and got at least a mile behind us before we had to slow down the pace a little. The neice started getting tired at this point. We were able to keep her (and ourselves) motivated for a little bit longer before we had to stop and walk for a minute. From then on, she stopped and walked a few minutes here and there while my SIL and myself ran slowly beside her. We really wanted to be able to run the whole way, even if it was really slowly. I gave up and walked a time or two with my neice though :-)

Around the halfway point, a group of police cadets passed by us, and they really concerned the 5 year old! Lol!! They were chanting (or whatever you call it that they do), which kind of freaked her out, and they were catching up to us, and then passed us. She didn't like it that they were beating us, haha!! Competitive little chick :-) She wanted them to slow down so we (she) could "win"! But they didn't....so we kept pushing on.

When we had about 3/4 of a mile to go, she started really lagging, and I'll have to say I was getting pretty tired myself! We had to try and keep her motivated, and thankfully a lot of that last little bit was downhill.

Then, we FINALLY came in sight of the finish line! We almost sprinted towards it, and crossed it at an "official" time of 42 minutes and 4 seconds! Not bad for my first ever, and definitely not bad for the 5 year old girl! That averaged out to a 13 mintute 33 second mile! I'm happy with that for sure.

I was pretty beat when I got done, and my knees and hips HURT! I told myself I would feel accomplished once I recovered :-P I was proud, but I was so tired I pretty much didn't care.

I was expecting to be really sore today, but I feel pretty good! My knees have ached a little bit, but other than that I feel fine. I am so glad that I finished it, and it feels good to accomplish a great goal!! I hope I can do another one, but I may wait a month or two, haha!

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the winner had a time of 15 minutes 19 seconds (TOTAL!), which was a 5 minute 3 second mile. WHOA! I have never run that good of a mile, even when I ran all the time. I would like to get that good, but I know that'll take a while. For now though, I'm good :-)

Lastly, a group photo of our "team":

My neice is in bright pink on the front row, my SIL in pink right behind her, and I'm behind my SIL in blue (yep, I was not matching...didn't get my shirt in time, oh well! Lol)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Injury?

Okay, so I'm gonna have to make a small confession here...it has been over a week since my last run. .....ummmmmm, oops?.....

I finally got back out on the road Tuesday (yesterday), and my last run was the Sunday a week ago. And let's just say it was not pretty.

Immediately upon starting, both my knees and hips were hurting. I have no idea why! My hips have hurt on previous post-pregnancy runs, but not until after a run. And my knees have not hurt at all until now. I dunno what's going on! I figured that maybe I was just tight and everything would loosen up if I just kept going. I. was. wrong. (mostly). My hips did get a little less painful - until I slowed down to a walk. Then they hurt worse. My knees, however, had no such luck. They hurt continuously throughout the run and subsequent walking.

I did at least get about 1.5 miles of running in, and about .15 of walking.

This is just really not good considering my first 5K is in oh, let's see....THREE DAYS!  AH!! Yikesyikesyikesyikesyikes!

What a perfect time to get a freaking injury! And I have no idea how to deal with it. It's not good to just push through it, but I can't really do too much resting either, seeing as how the big event is in only 3 days. And I can't take a bunch of pain meds because of the whole (***Possible TMI Alert***) breastfeeding thing. I also don't want to make it worse, either, by pushing through the pain.

How do you deal with a sports- or exercise-related injury?

Training Progress

My first 5K is now 12 days away! I have been trying to run as often as possible in order to be ready, but as I said in my last post, it is hard to find enough time. Today though, I got in a really good run. I was so proud of myself! I ran for a total of 2.15 miles and walked for a total of .83 miles for a grand total of 2.98 miles! I alternated a lot in order to make it the whole way, but hopefully I can increase my running mileage so that I can be ready to run 3.2 miles all at once in the race.

Here are the stats from the times I have run:
4/24: 1.91 miles total in 25:08, a 13:09 min/mile. I estimate 1.3 mi running and .61 mi walking
4/28: 1.89 miles total in 27:17, a 14:25 min/mile. I estimate 1.5 mi running and .49 mi walking
4/29: 1.16 miles total in 14:19, a 12:20 min/mile. I estimate .7 running and .46 walking
5/1: 2.98 miles total in 36:53, a 12:23 min/mile. 2.15 mi running and .83 mi walking

On the days between, I have tried to at least get a walk in. I usually end up walking with Andrew because he won't let me have enough time to get on the elliptical or I don't have someone to watch him for me. And that's okay too -- walking helps almost as much as running. At least it's movement, which is the main goal! :-)

I say estimate on the first 3 days because I wasn't counting exactly, but today I was because I wanted to know exactly how much I could run. In case anyone is wondering, here are my intervals:
0-.25 walking (.25 mile)
.25-1.25 running (1 mile)
1.25-1.50 walking (.25 mile)
1.50-2.00 running (.50 mile)
2.00-2.10 walking (.10 mile)
2.10-2.65 running (.55 mile)
2.65-2.85 walking (.20 mile)
2.85-2.95 running (.10 mile)
2.95-2.98 walking (.03 mile)
Total 2.98 miles, with 2.15 running and .83 walking

The intervals were not in any way planned, I just ran until I felt like I needed a break, and walked until I felt strong enough to run again. I am going to try and keep up with my runs like this in the future, because I always like to know exact counts on how much I do of everything.

More training will come this week, but it may be a little bit difficult to fit it in....I start back full-time to work this week. :-/ This is a mixed blessing. I have been back part-time for a few weeks now, but this week starts full-time. So, I will keep updating on how the training is going as I can get to it!!

Where do I find the time??

It is way crazy-super-difficult to find the time to get some exercise with a baby in the house. So far, the only times I have been able to exercise is when someone keeps the baby for me. I obviously can't leave him at the house by himself when I go run, and I don't have a jogging stroller yet so I can't take him with me easily. I have tried just using my elliptical at the house, but I can't lay him down long enough to be able to use it. The only time I can use it is in the afternoon, which is his fussy time. So exercising requires that I either take him to my mother-in-law's house or I get my mom to stay at my house with him when she is there. Either way, I am taking up someone else's time. But I have to do it, seeing as how I have my first 5K coming up soon!! I am really excited for it, and I hope that I can be ready for it because I really don't want to have to give up and walk part of it. It's just hard to find the time....

Case in point - I am writing this post at 4 am. Lol! It's the only time I have to myself when he is sleeping, not fussing, or not needing my attention. Of course, this probably significantly decreases the quality of my posts considering the sleep deprivation and lack of coherent thoughts at this time of day :-) Not that I would trade it for the world!

If you're a mom, or even just busy, how do you find the time to exercise?