RUN TODD RUN, Week 27

SATURDAY, 10/30/10
When my schedule will allow it, I love exercising on Saturday night. Saturday nights are exciting for folks who work at churches. There's a thousand things going on in your head - some practical and some ridiculous - and it makes for a lot of nervous energy on Saturday nights.

Exercising (of any kind) on Saturday nights does two things. First, it help to relieve some of that stress and over-thinking; and second, you go to be feeling confident and strong.

Even though, I'm supposed to take a day off in-between running, the more practical schedule requires that I run on Friday AND Saturday. Saturday night, I got out to kick off "Week 5" in the Couch 2 5k plan.

RUN: 5 min.
WALK: 3 min.
RUN: 5 min.
WALK: 3 min.
RUN: 5 min.

As you can imagine, this one felt great! Three minutes in between each run feels like years and it's just about the perfect rest time for my legs. I've mentioned before that the hardest part of interval training is that I typically start off too fast every time a running interval comes back around. For Saturday night, my main focus was on starting each new running segment at a nice, peaceful pace. I didn't do any blasting on this run...just nice and slow...and consistent!

I'm also trying to rework my thought process a bit, too. I know it's dumb, but with the interval training program, there are lots of times I finish a run thinking, "Dang it. I'm gonna' have to run 20 minutes on Friday and I am not ready. I'm not ready. I'm not going to be able to do this."

It may sound dumb, but right now, I have to tell myself...just run this one, Todd. All you have to worry about is RIGHT. NOW.

MONDAY, 11/1/10
Monday's run (according to C25k) was this: 8 MINUTE RUN / 5 MINUTE WALK / 8 MINUTE RUN. It went okay. Little stiff right at first, but it overall, felt good. The five minute walk break was nice and it also put me at a new place in my route. I'm so used to starting "at the stop sign" and using that marker the whole time. The walk in the middle put me starting the second run on the back part of my route which made it a little less boring. (But more hilly....)

WEDNESDAY, 11/3/10
The 20 minute run. The one I feared.

Wednesday wasn't typical. First off, Kristen's mom was in town for Christmas shopping and Finley was sick, so I stayed at home and tried to work from my couch. I would have liked to run earlier in the day, but the shoppers had to get going!

Got out that evening and set out on my 20 minute run! Breathing and attitude were great, but my legs were protesting a little bit. Tried to walk a good bit after to prevent stiffness.

The program only calls for three runs a week, but I technically could run on Friday. Do I do a repeat of something from this week or move on to next week's program?

FRIDAY, 11/5/10
Decided just to move on up to the next week instead of duplicating one of the previous runs. Here's what I did:

5 min. run
3 min. walk
8 min. run
3 min. walk
5 min. run

The three minute walk felt WAY too short on this run. I wasn't ready to start running again! Strangely, the middle leg (8 min.) was the hardest. My five minute ending one wasn't so bad.

Felt it the rest of the day...legs were sore and a little stiff. Not sure if I can do the quick week turnaround again and try a Saturday run. May wait until Monday and just continue then.