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That is all.

No walking breaks. Slow AF, but I ran the whole time!

Run for 40 minutes in hot muggy weather and it was really hard. I had to take a 30 second stretching break at 20 min and then a quick water break when I saw a fountain. Kind of feels like failure. And I’m exhausted today.

So I’m pretty sure I’ve lost a bit of weight. I know there are easy ways to check these things (It’s called a scale. Duh), but I don’t want to weigh myself and get hung up on numbers since ultimately this is supposed to be about me just finding a way back into running again.

But I’m noticing small changes in my body.

1) Some of my bras are now too big. Gee thanks. Wasn’t really my number one “trouble area.”

2) I think running is slowly chiseling away at my midsection—but from the outside in! In other words, if I stand in profile, no difference, but three quarters, I think I can see it.

6.11km this morning: 20 min run/2 min walk x2

It didn’t feel great but it wasn’t terrible either. My ankles are kind of sore and the back of my right knee hurts.

I think I need to do some yoga or something today and some strength training tomorrow.

I was getting blisters on the arch of my left foot so after some research I bought some KT tape but the thought of putting tape on my foot before a run seemed like a bad idea this morning. Then I considered diaper cream but I couldn’t get the container open and finally I remembered that “body glide” felt a lot like deodorant and I had deodorant so I gave that a try. I also switched to my pristine white and rose gold running shoes which I had been saving for fashion purposes but they’re really comfy. And I think I have achieved success! No blisters! At least I can’t feel any.

20 min run/5 minute walk x 2

I started out in the dark because I read on Twitter there was anwater blessing ceremony at the forks of the Thames at 5:30. I actually had to turn on my flashlight in places. Then I ran past a line of police cruisers at the bottom of Wortley which was ominous.

I could hear a few voices at the river but it was really quiet and I didn’t want to tromp down to the river’s edge like a scary asshole so I doubled back and went down the other branch of the trail which was lit better.

On the way back I saw a small group of people standing at the river’s edge with the mist rising off the water. It was pretty cool.

Police still at Wortley. I think someone drowned in the river. Yikes.

As I was heading past Black Walnut, the personal trainer guy from the village ran past me and was very cheerful. He thanked me for motivating him to run faster.

Now I’m sitting on my porch because I don’t want to wake anyone up. It’s nice out here.

I did something today I don’t think I’ve ever done before: I went running even though I was sick!

Normally, having ancold would have been an excellent excuse for me to skip a run but today I thought, “Sure but what if you go anyway and just see what happens?” Luckily this week is an “easy” week so my run today was just 15 minutes running/5 minute walk/10 minutes running. It was fine!

One more run this week and then next week gets a lot harder:

Monday: run 20 walk 2x2

Wednesday: run 25

Today was supposed to be an easy run. Maybw that was part of the problem: I expected it to be easy but it wasn’t. My shoe laces were giving me trouble at first and so were my socks. It was also very humid and pretty hot. I was passed by a very pretty, tall, young woman. She was friendly but I made it awkward.

Early morning run

I almost talked myself out of my long run today. Calling it a “long run” is a bit silly because it was 40 minutes with 3 3-minute walking breaks but it’s hot and it felt daunting. But I did it! And it was ok! I got hit in the mouth by a bug and if kind of hurt for a bit and my right toe was kind of bugging me but I’m definitely improving.

And hungry.

Soooooo hungry!

I ran this morning and it felt good. My legs and feet felt light. I didn’t feel like every step was slamming my feet into the pavement and crushing my joints. I’m still doing the walk/run program and it’s definitely working for me. I was even able to tack on an extra running interval at the end. I’m not sure why it almost pains me to lose my #runningsucks hashtag. 

The next challenge is diet. I know exactly what I need to do. I just have a hard time convincing myself to do it. For example, this morning I ran almost 6km and wasn’t hungry as soon as I got back but I was starving after dropping off the kids at daycare. But to lose 2 pounds a week I have to eat no more than 1200 calories a day. So I had a piece of rye toast with a little butter and a poached egg and coffee which comes in at 260 calories. Luckily, because I ran this morning, I burned 303 calories so I can still eat 1243. The problem is, I’m still really hungry. I know I just need to get through it--that if you’re in a caloric deficit, you’re going to be hungry no matter what fad diet “experts” tell you. You just have to recognize the difference between “Huh, I’m still kind of hungry.” and “OMG if I don’t eat something I’ll feel sick.” I’m definitely not the latter so I’ll suck it until lunch time.