just running, no cooking.

Today was stressful, and my officemate gave me leftover pizza - so I did not make any food.  However, in order to de-stress and burn calories from the pizza, I did go running! M  made another playlist, and now we are up to 1 minute walking / 4:30 running.  In order to make sure I stretch and don't injure myself, in the middle I took a break to stretch and walk a few extra minutes, and then at the end I had about 7 minutes of walking to do before I got back to my building.  So, I was walking/running for a total of 53 minutes: 36 minutes running, 17 walking, and a total of 4.24 miles!  Depending on how fast I was walking (15-20 min miles walking? Who really knows!), my run pace was somewhere between 10:30 and 11:30, which is a bit faster than I've been going - woohoo!  It's kind of funny how my energy comes and goes throughout the run - I could feel myself get bursts of energy and pick up the pace for a few minutes, and then suddenly I would hit a wall and barely be able to put one foot in front of the other!

Mentally and aerobically, I actually really wanted to run more when I was done.  I almost decided to find a way to lengthen my run a little bit, but I was in some pain.  I think I have trouble deciphering the difference between pain and soreness - or whether I should push through the pain or stop to avoid injury.  My Achilles' get really tight while I run, and the past few runs my left heel in particularly starts hurting.  I have been icing every night, and I think that helps... but it still seems like some muscle or tendon is always sore/hurting.  Now that I'm not running, my left Achilles' and heel are both fine, but my right ankle hurts, as does my right quad.  When I stretch, my arches and Achilles feel really tight... it's like I can never get enough of stretching my calf, but it kind of hurts to stretch it too! Oh and.. my shins have kind of been hurting this week again.  Sigh.

Any bloggers out there have thoughts or suggestions?  I'm hoping to run again on Saturday or Sunday, depending on how I feel and the weather... we'll see!