I guess I run now

Day 6:
Same Week, Different Shoe. After my run on Sunday I bought some Saucony running shoes that were recommended by one of the members of the C25K yahoo group I’m running with. They’re really quite lovely. Picked up two more sports bras and two more short sweats as well…not even my old workout clothes fit. Didn’t run til 9:00 tonight & it was starting to look like I wouldn’t run at all: stomac ache since about 4:00 today & it’s still with me. Now, the run didn’t make me feel better, but it did make me feel good. Was running with the group that made me get on that treadmill instead of curling up in bed and skipping it for tonight, so the group is clearly good for motivating me to get beyond my own excuses for not running & even though I’m only in week 2, I know I wouldn’t have come this far without their support.

Day 5:
Kicked my ass. I’m trying to up my speed for both the walking and running portions, so kept it at 3.2 for the walk & 3.6-3.7 for the runs. Not exactly a 10-minute mile here folks, but I’m trying anyway. By the fifth run I was beat, so I ended up walking (at 3.4) the last 20 seconds of that run. Then when the sixth run came around, I ended up stepping off the treadmill for a couple of seconds & dropped the speed down to 3.5, still running, though. To make up for it, I did the cool down at 3.4, then an additional 5 mins at 3.2, and an additional 8 mins at 3.0. I’m looking forward to having the next 2 days off from the couch to 5k program, but I think I need to maintain my off-day walks at about 3.4 to start improving my stamina.

Day 4:
Moved on to week 2 of the program. I had thought I’d stay at week 1, mostly because I was scared to face the next challenge & figured I could use the time to get stronger. But since I have a race in 2 months, I figured I’d move ahead & see what I was so afraid of. It worked out pretty well. The 30 minutes seems to go by faster, I sweat a lot more, and was panting some, but not out of control panting. The difference between the first & second week is in the second week you do 90 seconds of running with a 2 minute walk in between. The 90 seconds liked to have killed me, but it’s only the first day, so I’m sure it’ll get easier. And if I’m still struggling with those 90 seconds, still praying for them to end, I’ll stick with this week for an additional day or two. I managed to do the whole program & even cooled down an additional 10 minutes since the endorphins kicked in earlier and a little stronger & I was feeling pretty good.

Day 3:
Wednesday, March 12th–first time running in the morning & I like getting it over with early. Did an extra 5 minutes of cool down, so a total of 35 minutes, but that still put me only a little over a mile and a half. I think I’m going to record my calories burned, time on treadmill, and miles walked/run each week to see if there’s any progress in that area. I know I could easily walk a 5K since I do it almost every day in the summer from hubby’s house to his office at Mich Tech, but now the goal is to run that far & that’s a very different story.

Day 2:
Sunday, March 9th–sweating a lot & it’s clearly a workout, but I can do it, which is nice & I can see myself doing it again. I know I’ll get stronger too. At the moment, my resting walk is a 2.8 mph and run is 3.6 mph, but this will improve with time once I’ve got the hang of running for more than 60-second intervals.

Day 1:
Friday, March 7th–it went pretty well, which was surprising. I even added an additional 5 minutes at the end (after the endorphins kicked in).