Zee Write Stuff

TRAINING


I'm officially "in training" for the 5K Race on July 17th.  That means I've moved from the treadmill to the.... omg.... open road.  Okay, the open cul de sac in front of our house.  I'm not venturing out of the vicinity while plugged into my iPod.  But...Yes, I'm running on pavement, taking inclines, and trotting downhill.  Twenty four hours after that first session on the road, I could barely move.  Everything ached and twinged and basically hurt, especially my shins which to this point had never given me a bit of alert that they were experiencing a stretch or deviation from the norm.    Of course my mind zipped right over to 'shin splints' and I fretted a bit but then waited out the next days and figured I was okay when everything seemed to return to the regular aches and pains of age.  Not that I have many of those -- I don't.  But you know, sometimes I creak and pop when I'm bounding down the stairs in the morning.  Doesn't everyone?


Today something very nice happened.  Steve asked if he could run along with me.  Now he has signed up for the 5K Race but he hasn't been sure if he'll do the run or the walk.  I'm IN for the run, and I thought he was, too.  But I guess he's still weighing his options.  He kept up fine today.


I've returned to the "Couch to 5K in 9 Weeks" program.  I wasn't too far in the 10K program, but I was still  running around 2 minutes and walking equally.  I thought even though the 10K program was longer in duration (it runs for about 50 minutes) I wasn't going to get to 30 minutes for awhile.  I need to bring myself up to running 30 minutes or more at a time with no walking breaks.  I began the 5K program at Week 4 and I'm into Week 5 now.  Because Steve ran with me, I decided to repeat the 5 minutes run/3 minutes walk session.  Next is run 8 minutes and walk 5 minutes.  That would have been a hefty shift for him because he hasn't been running at all.  The last two times on pavement I've been fine, feeling much better in fact.  Thank goodness.  I was beginning to think I couldn't get off the treadmill.


In the interest of product placement, I'll tell you that I am reading/listening an interesting, if not odd, book. This author is new to me and the book is very popular this summer.  It's building slowly with lots of characters to keep straight and story threads that are sure to intersect soon.  The Passage, by Justin Cronin.  My copy is from Audible.com and is being read by Scott Brick who I've come to admire as a vocalizer of thrillers.  I can also recommend Kill the Messenger, by Tami Hoag which is also read by Scott Brick.  He has a great voice for edgy male characters.


Back to the studio!  It's a beautiful, cool (75 degrees) day with muggy undertones that whisper "thunderstorm."  Perfect for creating new ZeeStuff.