Couch To 5K- Week 8 Day 1

It was another beautiful day today, so I was eager to get out running. At least mentally. I knew I'd had 2 days of rest, and I knew the weather was perfect, and I knew I was starting the second-to-last week of the program. Plus, I had a new running tank on- bright pink. Oh la la.

Physically, however, I was not eager for my run. It really felt like a "morning after" work out. I did have a bit of a "night before"; I went out to the Upper Deck Pub with four friends, and had three drinks over three hours. I also ate brunch and supper out last night, which means I didn't consume the healthiest foods. I felt a little sluggish when I hit the path at the sports center at 9am.

Still, I ran my 28 minutes total, and with warm up and cool down I went 3.5 miles. My knees hurt when I started up, but that faded. My Achilles area hurt on both ankles today, for a nice change of pace (pun intended), but that stopped when I stopped running. Overall, I think it was "good crappy day" as Dave V. would say.

I bought a foam roller last night. There are different stretches that this roller facilitates, and Lord knows I might as well put my ample body weight to good use. I tried it briefly this afternoon after my room, and I felt foolish. And it *hurt* a bit. I'm going to keep at it, though. My friends with foam rollers give them rave reviews.

Today's run was the first time I've truly believed that I am capable of running for 30 minutes straight. I ran 28 minutes, so I KNOW I can sustain another 2 minutes of running. A very cool moment for me, because I am certain that 8 weeks ago I could never have run 30 minutes without throwing up or passing out. I was struggling to run 90 seconds. This gives me a very real sense of achievement.

I think once I finish C25K, I will work on improving my distance. So, I'll run for 30 minutes, but work up to being to run a full 5K in that length of time. I average a little over a 12 minute mile pace, so it would stand to reason that I'd finish a 5K in about 36 minutes. I'd like to get that to running a 5K in 30 minutes. We'll see. I'll have a month to improve before the WHBW race. After that, I'll start training up to the 10K distance. I would love to do a 10K in the late summer/very early fall. That will still give me a good 16 weeks to get from there (6 miles) to the 13.1 mile distance I need to be able to run for the half-marathon.

I get my next injection tomorrow, and frankly, I am shitting bricks. It hurt so very much last time, and I felt just terrible for about 15 minutes afterwards. I am going to tell the doctor all this, and hopefully we can find some way to avoid it this time. Blerg.