Routes and Changing Towns

Mom's usual route

This past week I've been in my hometown, for one of my best friends wedding and I knew that I needed to keep my running, and since my mom is doing the running with her, I decided to continue my training, because I worried about having a week break.  I had managed to start my first day of the week here in the desert, so I was sure that I would be able to handle the running in the mountains.  

So my mom took me on her route and man was it brutal.  So my mom's house is surrounded by hills and the elevation is higher then it is here in the desert, so I was sure that I was going to die throughout the entire run. The first day we ran her normal route, which has up-hill, down-hill, and most of all, no sidewalks...I managed to make it through the new week, but it wasn't without issues.  

Mom's and mine second day route

The second day my calf (on my right leg) started tightening up, and I couldn't figure out why it would do that.  By the end of the run, I was sure that the calf was going to give out on me, it was so tight and burning.  And my mom even shortened the route for me, because of the pain I was going through.  I literally hurt to walk (even though I was fine when I was running).  So I figured the day break would help my calf loosen, as well as a walk in my Aunt's pool.  

My usual route

Today I took my mom on my normal route, which isn't as curved nor does it have any hills as mom's route.  So we started and it was the first day of Week three, which includes - 

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

• Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 400 yards (or 3 minutes)

 Now I haven't figured out how I'm going to know when I've gone the required miles to run a 5k, but I figured as I go along I'd figure it out.  But the route I've mapped out is currently only about a mile long.  In a couple weeks, I'll need to upgrade to a longer route, but I'm not going to worry about that yet.  But I've found this great little website that helps map out routes and gives you miles and whatever else you need to figure out your runs! 

Route Builder - check it out, and make your own running route!  I'm pretty sure that using this will help me figure out my miles and running routes as I get further along in this training program.  And hopefully I won't have this calf issue for long!