Gettin' it done.

Today was my first 28-minute run. I'm still going a bit slow, but the speed will come with time. It was a pretty good one, as far as my runs go. At the halfway mark, I stopped for 5 seconds to stretch out my calves, but otherwise it was a good, solid run. The rest of this week will also be 28-minute runs, then next week will be 30-minute runs. And then that's it! Back to being a couch potato!

Not really. ;)

My 5K is 3 months from today. Maybe I should I have found one sooner, but I want to be able to run it comfortably and with a good time. I'm pretty excited about it. :)

Epic Success!!!

This was Week 7 of the 9 week program. Days 1 and 2 were both hard on me - I couldn't find a good rhythm and I was tired or I don't know what. Today was amazingly awesome. I'm glad that every few bad runs I have a great one - it keeps me motivated. Today was another 25 minute run, and at the end, I felt so good that I ran an extra couple of minutes. Next week is 28 min runs. I have been concerned that I'd have to repeat this week, but after today, I am confident that I can tackle next week.

My body is doing some strange things. For reasons I don't understand, I have been craving granola. I HATE granola. But, my favorite grocery store has about 15 different granolas in their bulk food section, so I bought 2 of them to try out as a topping to my low-fat strawberry yogurt. One is cherry almond and the other is peanut butter. I also bought Larabars and fruit leathers. And flaming hot cheetos, because I am to total addict.

Feelin' good, folks. Feelin' good.

Epic fail.

Week 6 Day 3 went SO well. It was 25 minutes of straight jogging. Today was the same. And it was an epic failure. I wasn't even worried about it since I did so well on Saturday. However, due to circumstances outside of my control, I didn't sleep much last night. I slept well from 11 to 2. And then there was a visitor in my house. Not my visitor. And the dogs started barking. And barking. And growling. And barking. And they wouldn't fucking stop. So that was pretty much it for me and sleep last night, and I'm pretty fucking pissed about it. And so this morning when I went out to jog, it was a failure. My first real failure. My whole body was so tired. I think I managed 20 of the 25 minutes. My body kept revolting and ultimately I just couldn't do it. I'm so mad and so tired.

More Adventures.

Week 6 Day 2 today - my last day of interval training. From here on out, it is all jogging, no walking. My run today was fine. Not great, but better than the last two I've had, which have been quite rough. I read online that weeks 1-5 are about beating your body and weeks 6-9 are about beating your mind. I believe it. There wasn't any good reason for today to have been hard. I was properly bundles, I wasn't running on snow or ice, and I've totally already done it before. 10 minutes? Of COURSE I can jog for 10 minutes. During my second 10 minute jog, the podcast guy said I had 5 mins left when I really thought I had two minutes left. I was not so happy. Still, I did it, and that is reason to smile. Friday is 25 minutes nonstop. It should be fine. Mind over matter. In my case, lots of matter. ;)

Hey, I've already come so far. 5 weeks ago, jogging for a minute was hard. Now, I don't even think about how long I've been going until 5 minutes or more have passed. I'm not getting uncomfortable until 8 minutes have passed. I'm hitting at least 2 miles each day, and it's going to keep getting better and easier.

I know you're all dying to know....

I did it! It was a rough day, but I did it! I hurt my knee a bit during cross training, so I really wasn't sure if I could make it through. Still, I strapped on a knee band and decided to give it a go. My knee was aching during the warm-up walk, and so I was envisioning turning around or re-doing an easier day. Once I got going, my knee pretty much stopped hurting, but I was having a really hard time finding a good rhythm. Grr. I made it past the first 5 minutes and didn't feel ready to stop, and then 8 minutes... and then, I thought, I'll go 10 minutes, walk for 1, and then pick it up again. Instead, I kept going. Hey, I said to myself, you're halfway through doing this for real. By the time I was tired enough to consider stopping, I had 7 minutes left. What's 7 minutes, I asked myself? I've just done 13! I can TOTALLY keep going! At some point, I started to give myself pep talks out loud in order to stay motivated. You can do this. You are NOT going to stop with 3 minutes left. Do you want to be that person? GO! And I did it. It was really slow-going because of my knee and bad rhythm issues. I didn't make it farther than I did on Days 1 or 2, but I kept myself going.

When I got to 15 minutes, I started smiling. I'm really doing this, I said to myself. Oh my lord, I'm really doing it!

And I did. :D

Next stop, Week 6! Only three more weeks until I graduate from the program! Now I shall go ice my knee.

Note to Self: Do not eat before running. Seriously.

It's freakin' cold right now. FREAKIN COLD. I waited until 10am to run. It was still only 2 degrees, after factoring in windchill. I couldn't feel my legs by the time I got home. Also, since I went out so late, I made the mistake of eating breakfast before I left. I ended up voiding said breakfast in front of someone's house. Ooops.

This is a big week in my schedule. The plan is very slow and methodical, and it's really working for me. We've gone from running 60 seconds to 90 seconds to 3 minutes to 5 minutes to 8 minutes. In two days, I'm to run for 20 consecutive minutes. It's a big jump. I'm nervous. But each step up to this point has made me nervous, and I haven't failed yet. I have succeeded. And each step has been a huge victory for me.

So wish me luck for my next run. Mind over matter, right?