The run

Well, Lisa gets her wish. I'm posting about my run today.

I had wasted enough time this week not running...or going outside at all. Today was finally nice enough and I had the excitement of it being the start of winter break at school. No more teaching or getting up early for 3 weeks! I suited Bentley up and we got started.

I immediately regretted not putting on my windbreaker. Talk about wind burn! Three blocks later I decided to turn for home and drop Bentley off. He wasn't cooperating very well, and his ears were flapping in the wind. But he isn't going to get any exercise this weekend because I'm going out of town again. I changed my mind and kept him with me. We took a new route and I really enjoyed it. It involved us sprinting across a busy road! Haven't done that in a while. As we got closer to home it started getting colder and windier so I made sure we ran past the house so I could drop Bentley off. I finished the rest of the workout without him. All-in-all, if you count both the walking and the running I did, it came out to be just over 3 miles. Wah hoo! I stopped mapping at the bottom of the last hill because that was where all the effort stopped. I only counted 2.79 miles of the run as an actual workout. I'm still pretty impressed.

I did two things different on this run today:

#1: I dropped Bentley off at home and finished the run without him. His feet aren't handling the cold and the snow very well. The pads are getting scraped up on the ice and he's bleeding around his toe nails. I've only noticed the bleeding on super cold days and when he's been running through the snow. Today wasn't super cold and he wasn't in the snow, but I didn't want to push him any more than I already had. We did buy him those little bootie things, but he ate one tonight :( so he only has 3 left. Running without him felt weird...and great! Since I started my training and blogging, he has gone with me on every run. Without him I felt balanced and focused. I could swing my arms and focus on the road instead of yanking on the leash every 10 feet. It's too cold out to walk him and run so I like to kill two birds with one stone by having him run with me. I do need to start running without him though so I can do some serious runs.

#2: After reading a post by Lauren on her blog Reading and Running about KT Tape, I remembered that we had some samples that we got when my husband ran the Rock-N-Roll Chicago half this summer. I dug it out of the bathroom cabinet and taped up my shins. I made sure I read the directions to avoid some of the problems that she posted about. I must say that my shins didn't bother me a bit!!!!! The first time ever! Because this was my first time using it, I tore one of the sample strips in half so that I had a 1/2 inch width on each shin. I do think I need to use the full width of the strip on each shin because I did feel some pain where the tape didn't cover. Even now, a few hours after the run when my muscles are tightening up, my shins are relaxed and feeling great. I totally recommend this stuff! Now if they only made body suits.....

I told my husband about the KT tape and said that it would be a great stocking stuffer. That was the first running related item I've asked for for Christmas.....ever. No wait...I take that back...I told my sister that I wanted a windbreaker running jacket for cold weather this year. Because she currently lives in Minneapolis, MN I figured she'd be able to find a good one :) I've gone back and forth about asking for a Garmin. After reading Rachel's post about her new "baby" on her Beginning Runner's Blog, I've been wanting one. Even Lauren posted about her's. I've decided that I need to prove to myself that I'm a serious runner before I invest in hundreds of dollars worth of running technology. I will however, be buying a new pair of running shoes after Christmas...finally!!!

Wow. I feel like a real running blogger tonight. Kinda cool.