Week 2 Redux - One to Go!

Two down. One to go. Week 2 is almost done.

 

I didn't run back-to-back days as I had initially planned because I had a friend who needed me, so tonight will be the conclusion of Week 2. In two weeks, no less. So far I'm at my fastest completion rate yet!

 

Anyway, I showed up to the Y and found a treadmill. While I was listening to a book on tape on my iPod, I tend to want to turn the TV on while I run just to give me a little visual stimulation since I can't have the normal running down the road stimulation. Unfortunately, at this Y, all of the TVs with remote controls were taken, so I had to find one and hope it was on something I would want to watch...it was on ESPN2 and it was primetime, so I thought I was safe. Not so fast my friend. 3 minutes into the run, we came back from commercial break - professional women's softball. That's right...as I sat there running along, the whole gym saw me watching professional women's softball.

 

Did you even know there was such a thing as professional women's softball?

 

But I digress...the run wasn't hard...as I mentioned earlier, I'm going to try to finish up Week 2 tonight...so we'll see how it goes!

Another Week...Another Run

I hit week two running. Well, mainly because that's the point.

 

I'm too lazy to go back and look, but this may only be the second time that I've actually reached week two. The last time I made it through week five. I know as a fact that I've only made it into week three once.

 

As per week one, last night was on the treadmill...I listened to an audiobook while watching the Reds-Cardinals game.

 

A quick sidebar: I've been asked how I can listen to an audiobook when I run...basically, I just zone out...or I focus on more than one thing at a time. As you've seen from this blog if you've read back at all, I tend to go back and forth between books and music. Right now, I'm on books. I guarantee you that as soon as I run through Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, we'll be right back to Pearl Jamming and DMBing it up. And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

 

Week Two consists of six 1:30 runs and 5 two minute walks. As I did last week, I did all of my walks at 3 MPH and my runs at 4 MPH. We're going on a flat course...my theory being that once I get the distance, then I can start messing with the speed and the terrain. In all honesty, it wasn't that much harder than any of last week's runs...towards the end, I started thinking that maybe I should have had a little bit more water before I came, but other than that...it was smooth sailing.

 

I'm learning quickly that the art is to go slooooow. As in, run as slow as you can while still maintaining a running stride.

 

Finally, again this week, I am running into a Friday night where I won't be able to run, which leaves me with two options - I can run again tonight and then Thursday or I can run tomorrow and then Thursday. I'm thinking that tonight would be my best option, so I will be doing W2D2 this evening and hoping that I recover enough to do W2D3 on Thursday.

Slow Slow Day

I don't really know what happened. Of course, I also don't know about the rowing machine, so there may be a setting that I'm missing. No matter how hard I tried, I could not move my pace under 10 minutes. I would lean forward and row as hard as possible...and I couldn't move under 10 minutes. I was just slow. So so slow.

 

My final time was 10:32.4, which was almost a minute and a half slower than Tuesday...and I don't know why. I should have been much faster, but I couldn't go.

 

The run, however, was decent. It was a little more exhausting than usual (considering I had just been on the rower), but it really didn't take me entirely too much effort to finish. And surprise - I'm done with Week 1! And two days in a row wasn't bad...I feel fine today. I really do think my only problems with soreness and tiredness were related to coming off the rower.

 

Contemplating going ahead and starting Week 2 tomorrow.

A dilemma...

I just realized that I won't be able to make it to the gym tomorrow night.

 

Tonight is my rowing night. Do I dare attempt Week 1 Day 3 the day immediately following Week 1 Day 2? I feel good enough after last night that I feel can do it...so I'm going to try it.

 

I'm just worried about how I'll feel tomorrow...and the day after tomorrow. I hope it doesn't set me back. Hopefully it will leap me forward.

 

There's only one way to find out!

C25K Reprise: Week 1 Day 2

In what I believe is my fifth attempt at the C25K, I think this is only the third time that I've made it to W1D2 and it may actually be only the second time I've made it there within the span of a week.

 

The run was almost the exact same as Monday...I built up to 3 MPH on the treadmill during the warmup...then did every run at 4 MPH. I was able to snag the treadmill in the corner, which meant I wouldn't be running in front of someone on an elliptical. For some reason, I don't want random cute girl on the elliptical to see me huffing and puffing and slowing down to a walk every other minute (or running at a blazing 4 MPH).

 

Also, my TV wouldn't work, so I listened to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo instead. Horrors, I know.

 

It definitely was the easiest W1D2 of the bunch, which I attribute to a) my new pacing rules and b) the fact that this isn't my first rodeo. To be honest, I could probably do all of Week 2 right now, considering that I run an extra 5-10 seconds on each run just to make sure I go all the way through it, but I want to do it correctly, so we'll stick with W1D3 tomorrow.