Journey from 238.5 lbs to 2:38:30

I went out early 5:30am on the Jordan River Trail.  I got to test out my new Petzel head lamp.  I discovered I need something better to cover the bottom half of my face, due to it being in the teens.  The run was an okay pace (8:15).  I am still recovering from a SI joint injury from the last couple of months. Will take some time to get my weight and speed back down.  Really enjoyed the early morning solitude.   

This morning 5:30 am, I decided to give my five finger KSO's my first long run, ever, on pavement.  As it turns out, probably not a good mileage to start with.  I also used the socks with them. I went north on the Jordan River trail to the turnaround, and about a half mile before the turn around I noticed, what first felt like the socks bunching up, but I soon realized it was a nice blister forming on the balls of both my feet right behind my toes.  Ended up still running back and got 4 very nice blisters which will take a few days to recover before I can run again.  Ended up with 8:17 pace. 

Did hill work at the Orem water tank hill. Ran up and down the hill 3 times.  The blisters form earlier in the week are still bothering me, so I ended up moleskinning them and then putting duct tape over that which made the running bearable.  Was a good work out.  I plan on adding one trip up the hill each week for awhile and see how that goes.  900+ feet ascent and 900+ feet descent in 3 miles.  Still not feeling comfortable going fast down the hill, finding myself slowing myself down, which puts extra stress on my heels, hips etc. 

Slept in until 7, but woke up more tired than I have been feeling getting up at 5.  My feet are still a little sore, so I moleskined and duct taped them up before I went out around 9.  I decided to run north on the Jordan River parkway until the turn around, then head back south until Willow Park, which I figured would be around 12 miles.  I ended up just having to run to the underpass under main street.  This was my first, time running and actually trying to maintain a certain heart rate, mostly due to the fact I spent 2 minutes looking at the garmin manual and figured out how to get the microscopic heart rate into one of the larger fields so I could actually see it while I ran.  I tried to maintain a 160 bpm pace over the 12 miles, which I ended up averaging 162 over the 12, with an average speed of 8 min pace, which was a bit faster than my earlier runs this week, but still far slower than what I was doing before the hip injury.  Very exhausted pushing to 12 for the frist time since October 3rd, when my IT band and back/hip issues really started up. Well, so far, no IT band problems, which I'm pretty sure were caused by my Si joint and back being out of alignment.