Week 7, Day 3

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).


Tonight we took it easy and decided to walk our 25 minutes instead of run. I was still feeling pretty 'blah' about running for some reason and didn't object to walking tonight at all. Plus, my knees are starting to get a little bit of a 'twinge' in them again. I'm probably going to have to start wearing the brace on them again to see if it helps, but I'm pretty sure alot of it has to do with the fact that we are running on the pavement again.

Maybe I can convince everyone to head back to the track for a few days to see if that helps.

Only 3 more weeks of training before 'the big race.' I've been really obsessed with watching the weather lately...dreading those hots days making a comeback. Today the temp is supposed to be around 95 degrees...with is normal July weather here, but it will actually be the first time this month it has gotten that warm and it's expected to cool down again tomorrow already.

We have been so spoiled! I'm not sure if this is going to me a very mild August as well, or if Mother Nature is going to make up for all the cool July days with super hot August ones. :( I just hope she waits until after the 15th to do that! The hot weather and humidity will make me think twice about running...I hate being hot! :(

This weekend Linda is in town so I told her she and I needed a morning to run together...but I don't think I'm going to talk her into running my Week 8 schedule! She should be starting Week 4, so I can handle that!

An easier run might get me motivated again!

Week 5, Day 3

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.

I'm not even gonna lie...I was no where close to being able to do this yet and decided well before last Thursday that I would do what I could and go from there.

My knees had started bothering me again last Tuesday night, so I switched up what knee I wore the brace on to see if that helped and it did a bit, but I still could have used one on each knee.

I think I probably ran only a total of 13 minutes altogether. One 5 minute run, followed by a walk and then another short run/walk a few more times. After the first run/walk, I would try and run half a lap or a bit more, walk the other half, run the next half, etc. Repeated that until we hit the 20 minute mark. So I really didn't keep good track of it and the three of us were pretty much doing our own thing/running our own pace so we were not together at all and for me that was really 'unmotivating'.

I run much better and stay on task much better when I have people next to me that I'm trying to keep up with...when they aren't there I know I give in to stopping too easily and get too lazy about running. :) I need that motivation!!

Last night the girls started Week 6 while I was out having a nice steak dinner with the husband for our anniversary...I thought about joining them once dinner was done but didn't want to chance throwing up my nice dinner by running. :)

This week the weather is supposed to stay in the mid-80's everyday and next week as well! I'm looking forward to that! That should guarentee us some nice, cool evenings to run and I need that to make it to the end. It's usually pushing 100 degrees by now, so this is a bonus!

I may try to run Day 1 on my own tonight, otherwise I'll either skip it and go straight to Day 2 on Tuesday or run Day 1 on Tuesday...I don't know..haven't decided yet. We'll see what happens...

Week 4, Day 3

So I'm not sure what the heck happened between Tuesday Night and Last Night, but we ran day 3 of this week last night and.....

I DID IT!!!!!


I did it, I did it, I did it, I did It!!!!! :)

I can not believe that I actually ran the entire 'workout' start to finish...every run for the correct amount of time...no cramping, no stopping, no falling behind, no having to walk when I should have been running. I ran THE ENTIRE THING!

I'm so pumped!!!

But still have no clue why I had no problem with it last night.

I did pay a lot more attention to the speed/pace I was going and also a lot more attention to my breathing...especially when I started to feel like my side was going to cramp up. Plus, having the Garmin on my wrist has really helped...it makes me want to watch the time a lot more, which probably isn't good, but last night It really helped me encourage myself to keep going...only 1 minute left...only 30 seconds left...and when the 5 minute run came along and I made it past the 3 minute mark, I was really telling myself:

'you're gonna do this...you made it to 3 minutes..only 2 left...keep going...you're really doing this!"

I think I tend to start out wanting to run too fast and then my legs/knees give out on me..so I started slower and kept the pace.

When I started to feel the pain in my side, I made sure to take longer, slower breathes until it went away, but kept the running at the same pace.

My right knee had a bit of a twinge to it, but I had the brace on that knee last night and it held up. Not too sore last night, but I did ice both knees when I got home (since I've been doing that anyway each night) and this morning they are pretty good. Right one is a bit stiff, but not too much pain.

Overall, it was a really good run! We all had a great night, and I think it's safe to say that this was probably my best night yet!

Next week will be the true test though.

I'm hoping for a repeat of last night on Sunday since the first day of week 5 has us doing the same run/times we did this week (except in the opposite order). Okay, so I read that wrong...it's run 5, WALK 3...then repeat...I got all excited about it being the same for nothing! :)

Week 5 also has you doing something different every night...instead of the same run each day for the week, there is a different goal for each day...and by the end of the week our expected goal is to be able to run 20 minutes straight..no walking in between...and this pattern continues for the remainder of the 9 week program.

If I continue to have days like last night, I think I should do pretty well for the rest of the program...but I am nervous about those 20 and 30 minute runs...I know everything we've been doing has been working up to that...but it's a pretty big jump to go from 5 minutes to 8 minutes to 20 minutes all in the same week!

I'm anxious to see how it goes. :)

Day 3

Okay, so technically I should have been running for Week 1, Day 3 of the C25K..but since Mandy and our other friend Lisa are a couple of days ahead of me and already on week 2, I ran that schedule with them. That consisted of the five minute vigorous walking warm up then 90 seconds of running, followed by 2 minutes of walking, repeated six times. (or however many times it takes for you to get to 20 minutes overall)

90 seconds of running doesn't sound like much.

Does a minute and a half sound better?

I think so.

We ran for 1 minute and a half, then walked for 2 minutes, 6 times.

Much better!

Again I was surprised that I was able to keep up the whole time. All together, including the walk back to the car, it took us about 25 minutes. I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the car, but was fine by the time I drove home. No sweat!

Well, lots of actual sweat...but you know what I mean.

I do have to say that my left knee is hurting a bit today...and wearing heels doesn't help that much at all.

Our plan is to run again on Thursday (tomorrow) so hopefully it will feel better with a 'day off'. Our goal is to run Sun., Tues., & Thurs. nights.

The 5k we are running is actually on Aug. 15th...I think I may have said it was July 15th before...which I was wrong...which is a good thing...and extra month to train! :)

Mandy and Lisa are also going to do a 2 mile run next weekend! I wish I could do it with them, but I have a prior commitment. :( Boo! But I think I might try and talk them into another 5K at the end of this month...I don't think we'll be ready to run the whole thing, but its on a Sunday and that could count as one of our training days..we'll could do the scheduled Day One training for that week at the race. I think I *might* try and convince them! :) We'll see.