Do the Couch-to-5k running plan at half speed

I’m not saying it was easy easy, but I kind of expected it to be, y’know, longer and horribler?

Thought I didn’t have as much work stress to work out this week, but start of the run it was all going through my head. End of run I was thinking about cooking and cinemas and running. Left the gym to twilight fog and drizzle, and a feeling of such peace :)

Apparently, impotent rage is an excellent motivator for pushing yourself – was determined to knacker myself (didn’t quite) and drive out bad thoughts (didn’t quite)! Started at week 1, at a faster pace, but found I was forgetting to look at the clock and doing a little over the run – so just went for the week 2 program and managed it just fine!

[aside: I was rather of a mind to push for week 3, but thankfully I’m just angry – not self-destructive!]

It’s another lesson that motivation drives everything. Or as someone wisely put it: “As with everything in life: if you do things half-heartedly, not with 100% dedication, passion, or you’re just not convinced of yourself, it’s gonna show in what you do.” Isn’t it odd when one unconnected goal starts reinforcing what you’re thinking about another? Or perhaps, that my brain is a bit single track for now!

Again.

It’s all good. Really.

Weekday run – wooo! :)

I went in thinking I’d go easy on myself – slower, and not necessarily pushing for a full week 3 run – since post-work is generally more rubbish.

However, it went fine! I’ve even started pushing myself a little, ‘cos otherwise week 4 remains about a month away!

I wish every day was Sunday, so I could go to the gym and not have to fight for a treadmill, and not have to squeeze it in to the same few hours after work with everything else.

Anyway. Telling myself that once a week is better than no times a week, although I’ll keep trying for mid-week.

Today was good for two reasons: one, I didn’t need my knee supports (you’ll notice the ‘dance to one song every day’ goal has disappeared, as it was probably causing more harm!); and two, I challenged myself (always!) and managed to do four three-minute runs, instead of wimping back to 1½ ;)

I also realised that somewhere along the way I upped the speed again – still a walking pace, but not quite so docile. So between that and the once-a-week rate I’m not beating myself up that lasting anything over 3 minutes is too tough right now!

It feels good to be active. It’s not that I forget that, just… Hmm. And heck, I dripped of several pounds in sweat, surely??!!

But sigh… I’m saying nothing. I’ll check back in in another fortnight.

Oh – and I’m postive running has nothing to do with the sick-making sore head I now have. Right, motivation??

Better. Much. And surprising – apparently my body is remembering quicker than I would have expected. And best of all, my knees (although strapped up for the run) are fine. I suspect there’s a great deal of difference from a relaxed weekend run, and a stressed, busy weekday evening.

It was not over quickly. I did not enjoy it.

What a difference from my last pre-backwards-bendy-knee-incident run.

I need to stop stopping, obviously. I mean, if I’d stuck with it from January, I’d be finished by now. And today my knees hurt :(

It’s been a year since I first tried C25K, and I don’t remember if this is my third or fourth attempt at it. Today I finally progressed to week 3! :)

And… it was kinda easy. So easy, in fact, that after the first ‘circuit’, I upped the speed and still managed the second half without too much difficulty (sweating like a piglet, fair enough, but I started that before I left the vastly overheated changing room!). Woah. And… cool :) I never thought I’d be saying things like ‘it was easy’!

90/90

Urm. Yeah. I realise that I’ve come to like the gym, and still detest the busyness and having to scrabble for a treadmill.

Think I may have ‘twigged’ the cross trainer thingy, too, which might help my knee/front of thigh muscles.