Who's Your Daddy?

I'm feeling pretty much like a bada** right now. Yes, I went for a kick butt run-session again! WOOT!

So, as you'll see in my sweaty vlog below, I had an even better session than yesterday. I have SO many questions about running y'all, so chime in! Lurkers! Come out of the shadows and make yourself heard! Comment away!! 

Today I drove to the high school track area. (I wish I could find someone that had the key to the track, but oh well, the parking lot seems to work fine.) I measured one lap of the parking lot and it's about 1/3 of a mile. So, today, I walked 2 laps, then ran 2 laps! (Yesterday I walked 2 and ran 1), then I did that again. Then I did 25 walking lunges and a 1/2 "court" sprint. Then I walked 1 lap, ran 2 laps. Then I hit these bad boys:

Do these look hard to you? Let me tell you. Running up these stairs gets my heart rate up to 178 every time. I had to remember the 2nd time to bring my water bottle with me because I was gasping. I did this running workout at around 11am and it was already getting up to about 87 degrees. There was a small part of me worried that I was pushing it too hard with the heat and being that out of breath.....so after 3 times up and down the stairs (the last time I did power steps, every other step), I came down, did 25 more walking lunges, stretched, and headed home. Once I got home, I did some bicep work and stretched some more and I ended up at 850 calories burned. I always take pictures of my Polar HRM readout on my Posterous feed if you want to subscribe to that. 

So, here is my feedback after 2 days:

• I love it. Not sure why, but conquering running for me (even though I'm just starting) is a huge deal. 
• Today I am definitely feeling my GLUTES, followed by my calves and lastly my quads. I feel areas of my legs/glutes that I don't normally feel as far as DOMS so that's a good thing, it tells me that running is using muscles that I don't normally use or normally push that hard.
• The Saucony shoes are the ones I ran in today. Definitely great shoes, although the ASICs are far more "airy" and comfortable feeling. They both are wonderful but I'm loving the ASICs a bit more. 

Here are my questions so far:

• If it is a really hot day out like today at close to 90 degrees, should I try to run in the mornings, is heat "exhaustion" a threat?
• I have no idea how to pace myself, how fast I'm running. I THINK that I am tending to try to run too fast. Is it better as I'm just starting to run to focus on going LONGER amounts of time vs. going FASTER? It just feels slower when you aren't on a treadmill, and yet I think when I am going really too fast is when I cramp up easier. The cramping was less today than yesterday for sure, because when I felt it coming on I went slower. 
• Do you stretch before you run or only after?
• Do you eat before you run?
• Do you run every day?
• How long do you run each time? 1/2 hour? 1 hour?

Would love your tips. It was a help to me today to have my water bottle with me. And I have to get an arm band for my iPod for sure. Also the Under Armour bras KICK BUTT. Big time. Totally. 

Enjoy the sweaty goodness below: