(Not So) Wordless Wednesday

Pfft. You know me, I can't just post a picture or three without commentary. Not. Possible.

If there's one thing I do and I do it well, it's blather.

But here are some pictures anyway.

These are the geese I keep seeing on my run, along with their six offspring. Quite adorable, except when Dad Gander thinks I'm getting a little too close to his chicks and charges at me, hissing.

So, I did my third C25k today, after four days off because of weekend and weather. Funny thing is, my knees - well, most of my legs actually - hurt ALL DAY yesterday. Every time I shifted to get out of my chair, or stood up, or walked, they ached. This did not make yesterday's walk at all enjoyable. But I did it anyway, because what else am I going to do, at this point?

(Darcy rides in her wagon behind us, most of the time. She got some terrible blisters walking with us, and now she's used to the wagon. Sometimes she walks, but generally she likes to ride. She always wants me to pick her flowers on the way. Thomas calls this "Lynn's yard service: ridding your garden of weeds, one dandelion at a time!")

So, this morning I woke up at 6:45. No rain, although the sky was still overcast. I got up, pulled my workout clothes on, and set out. My knees, particularly the right one, complained a bit. Pfft. I ignored them. What do they know? (Ok, so what they know is that there's four pounds of pressure on them for every 1 pound of me, and they're tired of getting slammed with 780 pounds running around, but hey, they can take it up with the complaint department.)

Now, I discovered a problem with my iPod. I mean, I don't think it's a PROBLEM, exactly, so much as something I just didn't know. If I push the > || key (play/pause) three times, it's supposed to return to the beginning of the playlist. However, it doesn't. Not quite. It returns to the first SONG in the list, but at the point where you skipped ahead of it last time. Since when I ran on Friday, I skipped past the 5 minute cool down walk and walked to my own music, when I pushed > || three times, it went back to the beginning of the cool down walk. I didn't even notice. Partially, I think, because techno/house music isn't my style, so I didn't realize this was a different song. So my routine went more like this: Cool down walk (pre-warm up walk?) for five minutes. Mutter, grumble, piss around with iPod for 2 minutes. Then five minutes of warm up walk, then the run, THEN another 5 minute cool down walk.

So, my knees were complaining a bit, but funny thing is, it seemed to help with the run. I stopped worrying about how much longer I had to run and concentrated more on telling my body to shut up and keep running. And I'm running faster. I went almost a block further than I usually do, before turning around and coming back, so, that was actually 2 blocks, since I turn around and come back.

Rather than walking the entire 5 minutes of my (second) cool down, I walked about 3 and a half minutes, and then stretched for another 3 minutes. Quad stretches (I can actually do these now. A month ago, when I started the Sugar Solutions workout dvd, I couldn't actually REACH the top of my foot to pull it up for the quad stretch. I ended up grabbing the sole of my shoe instead.) and hamstring stretches and lunges...

I got home, showered and dressed. (Yes, I've tried on my size 16 jeans. Yes, I can get them up and closed and zipped. No, they've not very comfortable. Yet.) I took another progress picture. And then Darcy wanted me to take a snapshot of her, so, here it is.