C25K: Week 6

Day 1:

I now understand why there is a 20 minute run in the middle of the program. The fact that I accomplished that and felt so empowered is what got me through today. I kept thinking, "You ran for 20 minutes! You can get through this. It's hard, but you ran for 20 minutes! You can do this!" Mr. Negative Poopy Pants was gone!

The workout was, as always, begin with a brisk 5 minute walk. Then run for five minutes, walk for three minutes, run for eight minutes, walk for three minutes and finally run one more time for five minutes.

When I began the first five minute run I thought, "It's only five minutes. That's easy!" And you know what? It was! Can you believe that? I had a thought like that! There has never been a time in my entire life where I thought any amount of running was EASY. Ha! So I got to the eight minute interval and I thought, "This is hard, but it is manageable. You can do this because you ran for 20 minutes!" So I did it. Finally, I made it to the last five minute interval and it was really hard the second time around. That's where I definitely had to draw on the fact that I ran 20 minutes on Friday.

Bad news: my knee hurt me really bad yesterday after I ran. I mean, really bad. Here's why. I left all my shoes in my trunk except for my bad tennis shoes. I wore those down to my car yesterday morning and pulled out what I thought were my new running shoes. When I got to the gym, I saw that I had two different shoes! That wasn't going to work. So I ran in my bad shoes. Big mistake and I am paying for it dearly. Hopefully running in some supportive running shoes will help my knee in no time because I do NOT want to quit this. I just started! And I am just now starting to like it.

Day 2:

Today's assignment was to jog 10 minutes, walk 3 minutes, and jog 10 minutes. This morning I walked to the gym, and when I arrived there was someone else using the treadmill. Ugh! Our apartment complex gym only has two treadmills: one that works and one that doesn't work. Naturally I like to use the one that works. So did this person.

Now I am all for people using the gym. It just aggravated me because this guy NEVER goes there at that time, so it threw me off. In the two months that I have been jogging in the early morning hours, no one, and I mean no one, has ever been in there. I've gone later in the day, and people show up. However, I've grown accustomed to my solitude in the mornings.

I decided to take my chances on the other treadmill to no avail. Then I tried to sit on the bike and wait a minute to see if he was almost done. Then I realized I did not have time to sit and wait so I hit the road. I ran outside today. The advantage of that is that I do not have a speedometer in my face measuring how fast I am going and I can maintain a pace that is comfortable. Because of that, I was able to do it. And it wasn't horrible! The disadvantage is that I know I slowed down. I jogged at a snail's pace and I do not feel as if I accomplished anything today. Did I burn a single calorie? I feel like I didn't. I feel like I worked, but at the same time I feel like I didn't. At least I kind of enjoyed myself today. I like running outside because of the breeze in my face and the sound of the wind rushing past my ears. Very nice feeling.

Day 3:

Yesterday I decided to jog in the park behind our apartment. If you would have told me 6 weeks ago that I would jog that ENTIRE trail without stopping and then jog a little more I would have laughed in your face. Looking at how far the trail goes is very intimidating, but it was so much fun for me to run outside. I can't imagine doing my longer runs on a treadmill now that I have experienced the outside. However, yesterday morning the sun was out and there were other joggers out there. Usually I go way too early for me to feel safe going to the park to run. Tomorrow I will have to try my long run on the treadmill because, for the rest of the program, I no longer run intervals! For the next three weeks it's all one straight run. Woohoo! I'm going to make it, y'all!