Ok you guys. I have a confession to make:

My body hurts like hell.

It’s week three of half-marathon training, and as a pretty novice runner, I’m starting to understand why this sport is no joke. Never again will I make fun of people who do this competitively. I bow down to your strength, endurance, speed and general awesomeness, ‘cause man—it’s not as easy as it looks.

In positive news, I’m shedding weight. One of my main goals in doing this was to ditch those stubborn pounds that never seemed to come off with other exercises. It’s working! I’m torching about 100 calories for every mile I run, so you do the math.

And while fitting better into my clothes is great (a pair of gym shorts that I’ve had since high school are now loose on me), I’m running into other, less-fun realities about running. Mainly, the pain. Ohhh, the pain.

Oddly enough, I feel pretty great both before and after my runs. No complaints. But when I hit my yoga mat or do a strength-training session, that’s when I realize just how tight running has made my body. I’ve had a few problems with my knees before I even started to run, so I know that I have to be super cautious about preventing injuries while I’m on the trail. So I did a little research, talked to some experienced friends and made a mental list of things in my head that I should and shouldn’t be doing.

Here’s the scoop: