Week 6, Day 1

But I ran Day 2's workout. Because I skipped Day 1's workout. Because I wanted to catch up to Lisa and Mandy. Understand? Good. :)

This is Day 1's Workout:

Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then:
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

And this is what I actually ran...sorta. :)

Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then:
Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)

It was hella hot last night. Probably the hottest, most humid night we've ever ran, or can remember running. It was still close to 90 degrees when we started at 9:00 p.m. And that sucked.

I was prepared to totally crap out fast since A - it was hot, and B - I skipped Sundays run so I hadn't ran since last Thursday...and I was feeling pretty lazy about that.

BUT, much to my surprise, option B above might have actually helped me this time around. I'll chalk it up to being well rested and no knee pain, but those first 10 minutes running seemed to go by pretty fast. I tried not to look at my watch too much, mostly because it was too dark out to see it, plus I had the iPod charged up this time so it didn't die on me after the first song. I think the music helped keep my mind off of the time.

The second 10 minute run was considerably harder and that had everything to do with the heat. After about 4 minutes I just felt like I could not control my breathing or catch my breath so I stopped right there. Had the weather been cooler, I think I might have been able to make it. But I'm not positive.

We're actually having a 'cold wave' this week. I don't' think it's even going to get up to 80 on Thursday, so that will be a bonus. Our plan (Mandy and I...Lisa is a running queen right now) is to try and just do the same run Thursday as we did last night. Break it up into two 10 minute runs with a small break in between instead of 25 straight minutes.

We figure we have the time to work up to the long runs. We have exactly 1 month from today until our race, and will be done with this program by then. It will give us another week or so to try and attempt the longer runs. Plus this week is the last week of any type of runs with breaks in them. Week 7 - 9 has you running the same work out each day, 25, 28 & 30 minute runs for the last three weeks.

At this point, that will be a challenge. But one I'm looking forward too

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 5, Day 2

The Workout:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)


Eight Is Enough.

Last night was a hard one. Those first eight minutes seemed to drag on and on and on, and the five minute walks flew by.

I wouldn't say last night was a complete failure, but I didn't make it through the second eight minute run. After five minutes It was hard to keep up the pace and my knees were starting to complain, so I decided not to push it.

I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to run for a straight 20 minutes on Thursday night.

That will be a challenge....

We did decide to start a bit later last night, which helped with the heat. It was quite cool by 9:00 p.m., but it was really windy! I think that might of contributed to me pooping out at the end. It was hard to run against the wind, even if it was only for 1/2 a lap each time. It's much better having that wind at your back.

I'm hoping for another cool night Tomorrow and that the knees hold up and how many of those 20 minutes I can stick it out for.

Inspired

So apparently someone has been "inspired" by my running....

Okay, so maybe she doesn't count because she is my best friend and I'm sure she probably thought "Hell, if she can run, then I can run!" but she did actually use the word INSPIRED..so It counts damn it! So it counts, okay? :)

And since Linda has decided to run and blog about it, I've decided that I'm going to hold her accountable to that..and even told her I was going to make sure I had a link on this blog to her blog and that I was going to make sure that all my thousand of readers....um, hundreds of readers..., that all 5 of my readers new about her new adventure so that they could also hold her to it!

Good Luck Linda! And remember, I'm WATCHING YOU AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO!! :)

Week 5, Day 1

This week we start to mix it up a bit and every day will be a challenge:

Today's 'Workout':

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

It was hot this morning...not as hot as I'm sure it will be at night this week for Day 2 & 3's workout, but we were pretty spoiled this last week with the temps around a cool 70 degrees all week.

Not sure of the exact temp, but at 9 a.m. with the bright sun beating down on you, and stupid me wearing black, it felt like at least 90 degrees.

I was a bit nervous about the jump up to full 5 minute runs today, but I hung in there, gave it my best and was able to complete the entire workout..but it was hard...hot...and exhausting!

Paying more attention to my running pace and breathing, and less attention to how much time it's been since I started running, has really helped.

We aren't quite hitting the distance that the workout states we should be at (at 5 minutes we should have gone 1/2 mile, or two laps around the track and we are just getting over 1 1/2 laps), but we are hitting 1 full lap (1/4 mile) at 3 minutes so I try and hold off looking at the time until I've made that first full lap..then it feels like I'm at least half way there...at least for today. :)

I feel like the last few runs have gotten easier for me, even with the times getting longer, but I'm trying not to give myself a false sense of confidence. Especially when each day the times get longer, instead of each week. I don't have three days to build up to the next jump in time.

And with the temps climbing back up this week, it's going to prove challenging for me. I am NOT a fan of hot weather at all.

Plus I'm still worried about the knees. They are still giving me some grief, but not nearly the amount they were for the past two weeks. I'm chalking that up to the cooler weather, so we'll have to see what happens now that the heat is back on. But in the back of my head I'm very aware that at any minute they can decide to poop out on me again.

So for today, I'm very happy with my run. On Tuesday we are jumping up to 8 minute runs and I'm going to have to give myself a little pep talk to remind me that I can do this! What's 3 more minutes when you've already done 5? :)

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. :)

Week 4, Day 2

This Post pretty much sums up my run last night...minus the hot weather and the trip to Target afterwards.

Ran on the track again last night and I still perfer that over the hard cement, but it didn't seem to matter last night.

Part of the problem I'm sure is that I also went out Monday night and tried to run a bit. Hoping for a repeat of the great run I had on Sunday, but that didn't happen. I pretty much had the same luck on Monday as I did last night...pain.

So I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised that running sucked last night.

My best days of running seem to be when I have at least 2 days inbetween runs. I'm starting to think that maybe I should just cut back to Sunday's and Thursday's only for awhile and see if that helps. Skip the Tuesday night run so get a few extra days rest in for the knees.

At the rate I'm going I'm never going to make it through a 5K...maybe not even TO a 5K. :(

Props to Lisa (who made a come back last night) and Mandy who were both able to complete the entire plan last night!

You Go Girl(s)!