A GOOD Run

Sometimes when I start to blog about my running, I ask myself, "Does anyone read this?" Not that it matters, since I'm writing this blog as a collection of thoughts for me. I am introspective and like to go back and re-read entries to see how far I've come. I learn a lot about myself through the words that I type, but it just crossed my mind and made me wonder.

Anywho-- yesterday was Day 1 Week 2 of Couch to 5K. The description of W2D1 is: Brisk 5-minute warmup walk. Alternate 1.5 minutes of jogging with 2 minutes of walking for a total of 21 minutes. 5-minute cool-down. Workout time 31 minutes.

I wasn't sure how this would go since it's an additional 30 seconds of running on top of the minute that I was struggling with last week. However, it was the allure of the two-minutes of walking that drew me in. :-)

The 5K Crew met at 8pm and Stacey joined us as well. I think I was the only one that ran on Friday, but no one else is really following the C25K app, except for Lesley, so she and Jo and Stacey set off to do W1D3, and Ann and I did W2D1. We all finished at roughly the same time.

I don't know what it was about last night, but I felt really good while running. I felt hot, sweaty, and a little tired at the end, but I didn't have pain with every step. My muscles weren't hurting as I ran, and I didn't have an inner voice telling me to stop.

According to my app, I ran 1.70 miles total. 1.16 was walking and 0.54 was running. My average pace for walking was 19:15 and my average pace for running was 16:42.

I think it also helped that this weekend I went through my music and made a running playlist to listen to. I was eager to hear which song would be next, and I think it helped push me.

I wore my Polar (finally got batteries) and it said I was in the zone 45 minutes (which is awesome) and I burned 600+ calories over the course of putting my watch on and taking it off. Not too shabby!

I'm so glad I spent the money on my Polar. I love that it keeps me safe (by telling me if my heart rate is too high) and it accurately calculates the number of calories I've burned. :-)

When I had finished my run, my body was on fire from being really hot, but I felt really GOOD. I felt accomplished, and happy, and really glad that I had successfully completed W2D1. I think I may double W2, we'll see. Week 3 involves running 1.5 minutes, walking 1.5 minutes and then running 3 minutes and walking 3 minutes. We'll see how I'm feeling on Friday.

I got home around 9pm last night (we finished our cool-down and still had 1/2 a lap to complete). I got in the shower and stretched and then I crashed into bed. I don't think I woke at all last night. 

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't as sore as I had anticipated (which is a great thing) and I feel good. Overall, I say that yesterday was a great run and I've learned from doing this before, you've got to really enjoy the great days when they happen, because the bad runs are a bitch.