Week 6 was hard, hang in there. I couldn’t finish my run today. 
I had really sharp cramps (1. I’m not in my period 2. I don’t even GET cramps on my period). I did go to the aerobics class offered that morning at the gym, though.
I hope that I can go back to run tomorrow with no weird cramps.
Thanks- I will try this and get back to it on Monday. Here’s hoping!
Finished week 2. I’m trying a different route every day, but today I misjudged things a bit and ended up with a long walk home. Still, I’m finding lots of streets that I never knew existed.
Nutty Bunny, do you think you might be having a little “post-marathon let-down”? I’ve built up this “run 20 minutes no walking” thing in my head to the point where I’m a little bit afraid I might lose my motivation once I’ve done it - like, I took that hill, everything else seems more like little increments, what more do ya want? And since I’m about to go out and do it… anyway, do you think that might be a factor?
I definitely felt that way–proud of myself but a little weird about it at the same time. “Yay! Um, now what?”
Week 6 day 1 was pretty easy after last week.
I’m up to running 30 minutes at a time! It is awesome. Yeah, I skipped ahead a bit in the program, but I have no pain to speak of. My knees feel great, calves, thighs, hips, everything is okay. I’ve been very closely monitoring how I feel and basically I couldn’t feel better if I tried. I really love my regimen, 4 times a week running 30 minutes. It makes me feel strong and free and happy. Yay!
Today feels like winter and it’s just getting worse. I’m glad I already did my run today. The wind is really strong and it’s raining, no- it’s sleeting. It reminds me that I need cold weather running stuff.
Oh, and my legs look H-O-T. I bought a pair of black heels at Payless yesterday on a whim and I put on a short skirt and the heels and walked out into the living room to see what my boyfriend thought. His reaction was very, very positive. Now I just need a place to go where I don’t feel overdressed in heels. I’m not really a heels kinda girl. Or… am I?
Hey, if you’ve got it, you should most certainly flaunt it. I’ve been seeing muscles in my calves that I’m quite sure were not there previously. Perhaps I should try on some aggressive heels too. 
Well, I did it. I got kind of confused with my playlist and my TrailGuru app and stuff, so I wasn’t absolutely sure I’d done it until I got home and checked my track, but I did in fact run for 20 minutes. Unfortunately, it was only 1.4 miles - there was definitely a bit in there where I had to keep looking down to make sure my legs were still moving in a running gait. On the other hand, I was surprised when it was 20 minutes - I could have staggered on longer, because of the expectations of my playlist which I accidentally screwed up and made too long. That mental thing again - my brain hadn’t heard my “this always means you can walk” song, so it was fine with continuing.
I’m going to keep running the time and not worrying about the distance. I’ll have about a month extra between the end of the program and my 5K, which should be plenty of time to increase my distance. (When I finish the program I mean to get one of those sexy Forerunner things, which should make it easier to figure all this out on the fly, and then I can run with my Shuffle again, which is a lot more convenient.)
I have tentatively (we’ll see how the training goes) planned to run the Georgia Half Marathon at the end of March. It may be too ambitious - the timing is a little tighter than I’d prefer - but I want to try it. Then I’ll have until June before I start training for the real thing. Today I was slow, but I think I could feel that it’s in fact possible to run a lot longer and a lot farther.
I finished my fourth day of week four today without a hitch. I was really impressed, since my first and third day went kind of …bad.
It was the first time I fell into the “zone” though, which was sort of a relief. On the last five minute run, I lost all concept of time and was really surprised when my podcast told me to stop. So that’s good! Hopefully this is good news for week five.
Good going everyone!
goddess–should we start a new thread? I found this on page 2.
I ran today. It was ok–not great, like last time. Running on gravel is hard. I did a 7:1 and a 6:1, but then ended up doing 2’s, 3’s and 4’s. I got a bit lost in the woods! But I did run for a total of 20 minutes–which was my goal. Sure, not straight, but whatever. I have no idea how far I ran. The irritating too close .01 mile markers aren’t on every trail where I run.
I’ve never been sore after running, which tells me it’s not my muscles but my lungs and general level of fitness that suck. I’m not asthmatic or anything; haven’t smoked in 25 years, and even then it was less than 1/2 pack a day. No clue as to why I struggle as much as I do. It’s not any particular body part that says to me, “stop!”, it’s overall, overwhelming fatigue that does it. Oh, well.
I find running on the trails more work, which is good for my muscles, but harder for me to do. So perhaps I’ll work on increasing my speed on my “easy” runs (the ones here in the neighborhood) and work on my endurance on the trails? I’d like to be able to run an 8 minute mile at some point. Hell, I’d like to be able to run continually for 30 minutes, eventually. I’ll get there…
It was fun to watch the ducks as I ran. The trails were a bit muddy, though. And it was cold!
I’ve started up a new thread so that newcomers might feel less daunted by this massive thing.