Second Week of YMCA Training Done

I’ve finished up the second week of the YMCA Mini Marathon training program.

All I have to say is UGH!

Monday’s run was a quick two miles.  Not bad.  Wednesday was use being timed and put in to pace groups.  I was, somehow, one of the first dozen or so to finish.  Since I’ve run before, I get to join the “advanced” group that will start doing “speed” work.  Speed in quotes because I’m slow!  The coach is a Kenyan that used to be a cross country coach for a small nearby University.  I’m scared.  He’s already given us extra assignments – a mile to run on Tuesdays to keep our legs fresh after the speedwork on Mondays, and he ordered us to find a hill to run on Fridays.  No easy feat – we’re in Indiana, remember!

Saturday.  That was a painful run for some reason.  It was around 30 degrees, so it wasn’t too cold.  But my thighs were freezing the whole time.  At about 2.5 miles, my left foot started going numb.  I have no idea why!  I’m wearing SmartWool cycling socks that I wore last year.  My shoes weren’t tight – I had the problem on Wednesday, so I made sure to loose them.  They weren’t cold or wet.  I stopped running for about 1/4 mile to loosen it up, then sorta limped on in.  And both shins felt sore after, like shin splint stuff.  And my thighs are sore still, the next evening.  Just an all around bad run.  Oh well!  I’ll be back out there on Monday!