My mother has had a sore throat and general sick feeling for a week or so now.  It seems it has been passed on to me.  I woke up at 3 AM with a sore throat.  I laid around until me alarm went off at 4 AM and my throat was still sore.  I made myself some tea out of the last tea pod and my throat was no longer sore, but I was running late.

I warmed up for 5 minutes on the treadmill, then did the abbreviated stretch routine (+ITB stretch), exercises 3, 4, 7, 9 for strength training (number 9 went much better today; maybe one day I'll get the hang of 7), walked for a quarter mile on the treadmill, ran 1.5 miles, and cooled down with a quarter mile walk.

My pace is really horrendous, but I have to remind myself that I'm taking things really slow, so that I won't get injured and so, I'll be able to accomplish my running goal for this year and the next.  My time at the Shamrock Shuffle will probably suck big time, so I might want to throw in another race, so it can be eliminated from my standings in the Circuit.

I did manage to gain back 2 pounds, so I'm less worried about not meeting the weight requirements.

This week, I'm starting weight training exercises for just my upper body on my off running days.  Today, I did 2 exercises each for chest, shoulders, and biceps.  I've gotten really weak, but that's what happens when you take over a year off.  I'm not at all sore, but maybe I will be tomorrow or maybe the circuit training I was doing previously has helped out some.

I finally made myself "real" breakfast: oatmeal w/sugar-free syrup and 4 boiled egg whites.  I need to buy some milk tonight, maybe some lunch meat, but we'll see if I actually feel like going to a grocery store after my commute.

Chicago got hit with about 8 inches of snow last night and I needed to get to the post office today since it's the only day I have time to go.  My mother didn't want me to drive because it might be dangerous.  Since I needed to run anyway, I got a bookbag to carry the package in and I had another package in my arm and I headed out the door to defy the snow.  Unfortunately, 8 inches is alot of snow.  Running isn't really an option.  It's more of a high stepping walk.  Fortunately, the City of Chicago/Park District is very kind and keeps the lakefront path clear, so it was smooth sailing when I got there, then I had to resort to running in and out of the street when I had to get off of the path.

Did 1.5 miles on treadmill after warming up before and after my abbreviated stretching session.  My quads were tight though; I guess from the strength training yesterday.  The inside of my knees were also feeling a lil' strained.  I'm going to stretch when I get home tonight.  I am sooo happy it's the weekend!

Just bought some daily vitamins and glucosamine chondritin (which is quite expensive all on it's on, plus you're supposed to take it 3 times, so you'll run through a bottle in no time).

Hopefully, I'll feel more alert towards the end of the day now that I have a multivitamin to take.  I'm sure I must be missing something.

Last night, I stretched for 45 minutes.  I noticed that whenever I do an exercise/stretch routine that I get off of the internet and it specifies some time it oughta take, I always take much longer.  Much of the time, I don't see how getting it done that fast is even possible.  Anyhow all of my stretching should have taken 15 minutes, but it didn't (see above).  I had an ITBS stretch included and after I was done, it didn't seem to make any difference in the twinge in my knee.  I had gone through a few ITBS links I got on a thread at coolrunning.com and it suggested an inner thigh exercise (the inner thighs apparently don't get worked much, if at all, during running, so it causes a muscle imbalance).  I did 16 of them and the twinge was gone...GONE!  I know it makes no sense, but it's true.  Perhaps it was all just coincidental.  Whatever it was, I as happy.  Although, I'm still waiting for it to reappear during my run tomorrow.

Today, I tried to do this strength program I got off Runner's World's site.  It was going well at first, but there were two exercises that I'm not certain I'm doing right, plus I ran out of time.  It was supposed to take 25 minutes max, but took me (without even doing all of the sets) about 50 minutes.  I'm hoping that now that I am familiar with it, it will go faster because you're supposed to do these exercises before running.  But with that and stretching (a must), I will definitely have to wake up at 4 AM sharp.  Sigh.

The left side of me is rebelling!  First it was the foot, today it's the knee.  My knee felt fine while doing my 1.5 mile run today, but while I was driving to work I started to feel that twinge in my knee that is usually the precursor to ITBS!  It's not fair!  I will be stretching tonight and Thursdays are my days off of running, so it'll get to rest a bit.

I stretched this morning.  It was a nice, calming experience, so I have no reason to not do it anymore.  I laced up my new shoes, New Balance 765, and got on the treadmill and did my 1.5 miles with no pain.  I was estatic.  I just knew my foot would start giving me trouble; it still is a little strained feeling, but not so much as yesterday, so let's hope.

In addition to stretching, I'm going to start doing these strengthening exercises I got off of runnersworld.com.  I'm supposed to do them before a run and they take 20 to 25 minutes to do, so I'll have to get up and moving earlier in the morning.  Mondays and Thursdays are non-running days for me, so I'm going to get in some weight training on those days for my upper body which means I need to finish putting together this piece of equipment I bought in December.  I seem to be missing some of the necessary parts (bolts and such) and that's what's keeping me from doing it.

My feet are have a weird ache in a weird place after yesterday's treadmill run.  When I flex my foot (mostly my big toe actually) I get this weird tugging sensation between my big toe and my ankle (on top of my foot, not the bottom).  I post a topic about it at coolrunning.com, but nobody has responded.

I am hoping that my shoes were just too old.  I had been thinking about getting a new pair of shoes for a month or so, but I'm low on expendable cash.  Anyhow, Sunday was the impetus, so today I bought some shoes from a place close to my job.  It's Running Ambitions in Lake Zurich.  Unfortunately, the didn't have my usual Grid Omni's in the ultimate stability version, but I was curious about trying out something different, so I ended up with some New Balance's.  I'll have to edit the model in after I get home as the shoes are in the trunk of my car.  They seem to be stiffer and heavier than my Saucony's, but it's possible that I could use more motion control.

Hopefully, I can get on the treadmill tomorrow morning and test them out.  Hopefully referring to my mysterious foot thing.

I just did 3 miles on the treadmill and it was rather hard.  I guess it's on and off like that.  I even did it super slow.

Glad it's done though.  Time to shower; I'm stinky.

Oh, but part of the name of this blog was referring to my wish to compete in the CARA Circuit for Clydesdales.  The lowest weight for women is 135 and last time I checked my weight I was 145, so I wasn't worried about it, but today, I weighed myself and it said 140!  Did I really drop 5 pounds?  Damn.

I mean, I'd be happy at 135, but then I'd have to constantly worry about not losing a pound even.  I guess if I do go below that I can just eat more in the period before weigh-in.