My Love-Hate Relationship with Running....and my 100th Post!

Today's post is my 100th post here at Run Lindsay, Run, which is pretty exciting! That means I've run over 100 days - something I never thought I'd do, much less enjoy.

I did do five runs last week, taking Tuesday and Sunday off.  I'm ramping up my length of time running as well this coming week, because I'm trying to get in a few 30 minute runs before the 5k on the 7th.  As I was running this week, I realized I have a love-hate relationship with running.

I start running after my warm up, and immediately the thoughts of "I hate this, why am I doing this?" set in.  My knees hurt, a pain shoots up my right shin, I'm tired already and I cannot, for the life of me, remember why I force myself to do this.  This feeling continues for at least half of the run, especially if there's no walking break (actually, it's worse when there IS a walking break, because I don't want to start up again!).

But eventually, I settle into it and find my pace.  I'm still tired and sore, and often way out of breath lately because of the residual coughing after the beginnings of bronchitis.  But I believe that I can make it the rest of the way, and once I do and I start my cool down walk, I feel great!  My legs HURT, but I feel like I accomplished something and I think "I love running!"

I'm hoping one day I'll just love it, without the hating it part.  I do find that it helps me relax, it gets rid of a lot of stress, and the endorphins are great too.  But some days, I'm tired just thinking about heading out there.

But anyway. The plan for this week is another five days - I don't think my knees could take more than that! I've got plans this weekend, so I'm going to run all five weekdays this week, and take two recovery days.  I really needed yesterday's recovery day - my legs feel far better today than when I woke up yesterday.  I'm up to 25 minutes running, which I'll do today and tomorrow, and then Wednesday-Friday I'm ramping up to 28 minutes.  Hopefully the weather cooperates!

Also, does anyone have any advice for sore knees? I know it's because I'm running on the road, but there isn't a soft track nearby, and I really prefer running by the water (the beach itself is too small to run there).  So any suggestions for how to take care of my knees a bit better?