I didn’t want to write a bunch of bragging posts about my running advancement.  Then I thought; ummm…do you really think it is bragging to say you are able to run now?

Since I made the Official Race Announcement I figured I could everyone updated on how I am doing.

First: running is hard.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but it is hard to maintain.  I am not at that place yet, where skipping some days doesn’t affect me.

So here is how week 7 went:

Week six starts out with intervals and the third day you have to run for two miles or 22 minutes.  With no walking (except the warm-up and cool-down).  Then on week 7 you run for 2.5 miles or 25 minutes.  Each day.  No more intervals.

I run Sun, Mon, Wed & Thr.  I completed the third day of week six on a Thurs.  I timed it so I wouldn’t have to add three more running minutes to my time with out a break.  So come Sunday I was ready to run for 25 minutes.

Since I don’t run 10 minute miles yet, I knew I wasn’t going to reach the 2.5 mile goal.

I was nervous about running 25 minutes and wasn’t sure I could do it.  So I decided that I would run for at least 22 minutes before inserting a walking interval.  So come the 22 minute mark and I was so close to the 2 mile mark.  I told myself, just reach two miles then you can walk.  Well after I went past two miles my app told me I had one minute left!  I figured I could run for one more minute.  And I did.

I ran the whole 25 minutes.  No walking.

I did the same thing on Monday.  And Wednesday.  I just kept giving myself small goals that I knew I could do.

On Thursday I was supposed to start Week 8.  Which is 28 minutes or 2.75 miles of running, with out walking intervals.  But I had gotten this horrendous headache and knew I couldn’t do any running, and thought I would go on Friday.  Turns out the headache stayed with me till Sunday.

I just knew adding those three minutes was going to be torture.  I hadn’t run in four days and wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it.  I went to the gym making my list of small goals.

Who do I see on the treadmill?  An old coworker from my gym-rat days! (we used to work at a gym together)  I haven’t seen him in over a dozen years!

While I ran we kept talking, which is a bit difficult for me as my lungs are not that in shape yet.  But I was able to maintain fairly good speech.  And you know what happened… I ran the whole 28 minutes with out even realizing I had done so.

OK, so that is not really true.  I realized it.  Boy oh boy was I aware of it.  But I didn’t have to keep telling myself, only one more minute, or only 3/10 of a mile to go.  I was distracted so I wasn’t focusing on the time or distance.

The second day of week 8 is another 28 min/2.75 mile, but the third day is 30 minutes or 3 miles.  I don’t run a 10 min mile, I am more like 12 min miles.

But this pace allows me to run the whole time.  Technically I should be able to run a 5K by Wednesday, but that is not really going to happen, but I will be running 30 minutes, and that is awesome.

C25K interval information can be found here

Happy Running