Still going strong.

No, I haven't fallen off the horse. I am still running 3 or 4 times per week, and it's still the best part of each day. I have started "tapering" in preparation for my very first 5k, which is where you run fewer miles in order to give your body rest, etc before the race day. My race day will be the day after my 29th birthday. I'm really excited about it. :) The 5k. Not the birthday.

Woah. 29. When the heck did that happen? For as much sticker shock as that number incites, I'm in a good place in my life. I can run longer and faster and farther than I've ever been able to run in my life. I'm making progress on a thesis I'm really excited about. And I'm beginning to gain perspective into the many trials I had last year. Last year, life felt like a matter of survival. Bad crap kept happening and I was depressed and it was not good. This year, though, feels good and I feel hopeful. I feel like I'm back to being me. I still have stresses and I still worry too much, but there are also things to hope for and look forward to.

And I have running. I love running. Every day I want to run when I wake up, and I have to talk myself into resting. While it may not be changing my body much, it is certainly changing my life, and that's way more important. I also have amazing friends who make me laugh and make me feel loved and appreciated. AND my bestie from college will be driving through in about 2 weeks, and is going to crash here. I can't wait to see her. :)

Oh yeah!

I graduated from the Couch-to-5k running plan today.

That is all. :D

Ups and Downs.

Week 8 went really well. For the most part. All of my runs felt really good. I was comfortable, not wheezing... I even think I could chat while I do it. Unfortunately on Day 3 (Saturday), I had eaten before I ran. I waited over an hour after eating to go out, but I kept getting waves of nausea. And...then I decorated a gutter. Oh well. Lesson learned. I also missed my footing and fell down, twisting my ankle. :( I got up, took a few tentative steps, and then finished my run. I've been wearing a brace and icing it and stuff.

I gave my ankle an extra day off, so today was the first day back on the schedule. Week 9. 30 minute runs. :) 2 more runs and I'm done with the program! At which point I will start over and work on increasing my speed. The goal is to do a 5k in the 30 minutes. I'm not. I'm not jogging at 6 mph. I'm jogging at about 5 mph. I would like to complete the 5k in under 30 minutes. 27 would be awesome... So I'm going to start over and build up speed. My race is about a week after I will finish the program the second time, so it's perfect. I think I'll keep running 30 minutes 3x/week, and do the C25k Speed Version another 3 days per week.

I mean, the goal isn't to be able to finish the race. The goal is to do it well and comfortably.

2.5 miles today. :)

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.