27/30: Jogging... More Hills

On Saturday my intent was to go a nice five miles at a steady pace with maybe one or two walking breaks.  I got dressed all nice and cute and was ready to tackle the day!  It didn't go the way I planned.  At all.

Looking cute for my run. (Yes I did my makeup!)

My downfall was that I wanted to try a new route.  Usually I walk 4 blocks uphill and then I have several blocks that are decently flat at the very top of Nob Hill and about three weird laps makes a 2 miles.

I wanted variety!
I wanted to run by the bay!
I wanted something pretty!
I wanted to kill myself apparently!

It was awful.  Truly a dumb decision.  The hills were so steep on the way down I was afraid of running them too fast because tripping and falling would have meant serious injuries.  Plus I had to go up hills to get to the bay.  Then I was at Fisherman's Wharf.  The fried food smell was gross.  I had a full half mile of trying not to gag and run.  Then there were the tourists.  Everywhere.  I don't dislike tourists, but I also don't usually try to run though a crowd of them.  Not their fault that I have ill thought out ideas.

It wasn't all bad.  I had some great views.  The hills are good for building character. (Yeah right!)  I got to pet a pretty dog. I got to see Alcatraz Island.  I got to watch the last of the fog lift off the Golden Gate Bridge.  I got to see other attractive people jogging. ^_~

I got 5 miles of jogging in.  In fact I got a lot more than that in.  I did a total of 6.5 miles.  I walked the steepest hills.  I did get tired and walk some other parts too, but at least 5 of those miles were at a jogging pace.  I would go all giddy about the mileage, but I didn't feel as good doing those miles as I did last weeks 5.  So I do have a new record for how far I've jogged.

Unfortunately there were a couple of other problems that plagued my run.  I had a stitch in my side for at least half a mile that happened earlier in the week as well.  I also felt really slow.  So many other people kept passing me.  Sometimes I feel like I'm doing really well, and then I see how good other people are and I get discouraged.  Plus I had a really hard time keeping a steady pace and it was driving me nuts.

Me- "I need more mini skirts"

Boyfriend- "For running?"

Me- "Of Course!"

After the fact, which involved walking back UP the insanely steep hills, I was thinking about how I feel like I'm not that great at running, but I have to give myself a break.  I've only been running for 27 days and I can't expect to be great at something I am so new at.  Simply being competent, not hurting myself, as well as being able to enjoy something I previously hated, is darn good progress in 4 weeks.

25/30: Jogging Hills!

So I realized my count is off.  Not sure when it happened, but I checked and I started on the first, so with today being the 26th it would be my 26th day of jogging.  So since I'm blogging about yesterdays jog, it would be the 25th day out of my 30.  That's what happens when I am crazy busy and have no time to update at the end of the day. And when I have no internet.

Yesterday I ran around the city running errands but still didn't get everything I wanted to done.  Managed to go to the banks though.  Since Ada came with me she got tons of exercise.  Lots of places don't want her, but at Sports Basement she was able to get all her loving adoration from her fans.

I was so tired from all the walking that I didn't even want to go and run, but I told myself that I would be fine and that I could keep the distance short but that I still needed to push myself.  This meant hills!!

I ran around my own block 8 times.  This means the hill on one side of the block? Yeah, up it 8 times.  *grins* I also got to fly down it 8 times on the opposite side of the block, which was very fun.  I was counting every side of the block as a foe that I was defeating.  That's 8 times around, times 4 sides of the block, which is 32 blocks.  The last block just had to be the hill side.  Didn't matter how I did it, since I live at the top of the hill I have to climb it to get home!

Why can't we live at the bottom of a hill? Or maybe where there are no hills? I miss New Orleans.  No hills there. There are tons of hills in San Francisco.  Tons! I guess it's kinda a thing around here.  They suck so bad for running though.  Why the hills? Why? Can't they just maybe be flat? Okay! This is how I feel about hills.  Sorry.

There is a running group that meets at the Nike Store every Wednesday.  They go 2-6 miles.  I would have never guessed that I would have been able to run 6 miles, but at this point it wouldn't surprise me! Now the other problem is that they run hills...  I now know that I don't like hills, but I can do them.  I might reward myself for finishing my 30 day of jogging by going on the group run on day 31! It is Halloween though, so maybe I'll actually be a lazy pants and trick or treat.