25 Minutes Straight

We met last night at Ocee to run. It was cold. Like, 54 degrees (not cold to most of my northern friends, but it's pretty chilly for Georgia). I wore pants and had my hoodie with me, but I decided to ditch it before we started running.

Since we ran the Color Run on Saturday, I wanted to give myself several days of rest before starting back on the C25K plan. By the time yesterday rolled around, I was feeling pretty good about running.

I'm on week 7 day 1. 

Can you believe that? I've been running for 7 weeks already. It's quite spectacular to look back and see how far I've come in just seven weeks. I was hardly able to run 1.5 minutes before, and now look at me!

Last night, I did the 5 minute warm up and then it was a straight 25 minute run. Yes. I ran for 25 minutes without stopping!!

I'm  not going to lie. I am quite impressed with myself. That's a LONG time to run and to not stop once. Granted, I was running slowly, but I didn't stop. When I finished and had to do my five minute cool down, my legs felt like Jell-O.

I've decided that I am going to run twice a week. My days will be Monday and Thursday. Since all the runs from here to the end of C25K are all 25+ minutes straight, I want to give myself enough time between to have the energy, determination, and motivation to complete them.

Here's my C25K progress so far:

 Last night, I walked the shortest distance and ran the furthest so far. I am really pleased with my progress and I can't believe that I'm only 8 runs away from finishing the C25K program.

Lesley and I decided that after we finish the program, we're going to do it again from scratch, and see if we can beat our pace (we should be able to). I plan on keeping up with my running into the winter and spring. Not sure how summer will go... but with the night runs, it's been much easier mentally and physically.

I still don't consider myself a runner. I'm still not losing any weight from the effort, but I feel healthier. I know that I'm exercising and I'm eating better than I have in years. I've got thyroid issues that don't help with weight loss, but I'm doing what I can and I'm moving my body.

I'm still not sure how I feel about 5k races. I would much rather run with a few people at night and do what I like, than to deal with the nonsense and stress of a race. It's not like I'm being timed... but I just felt really defeated both times that I've done a 5k. Maybe it's because I am slow and not comfortable with that? I don't know. I am excited about the Turkey Trot next month (November 28th). I'm more excited to run with Jessica, my dad and Dave, but I think it's going to be awesome. And I get a medal after this one, and I intend on wearing it all day on Thanksgiving.

I'll be back next week to post about week 7 day 2.