The End of Week 3?

Today I hit my 6 minute run intervals that I needed to hit by the end of week 3.  I alternated running 6 minutes and walking 1 minute during the middle of the workout.  I went 2.17 miles in 30:50.

I really didn't feel good during today's workout.  It was a struggle to run 6 minutes at a time.  I felt like I was really struggling to keep going for that long.  I felt tired and extremely unfit.  The hills really killed me today.  I think I'll stay at week 3 a little longer before I move on to week 4.

My weekly total was 8.71 miles in 2:01:35.

Week 3

Today I started week 3 of training.  The Complete Book of Women's Running prescribes walking the first 5 minutes, run/walking the middle 20 minutes, and walking the last 5 minutes.  The beginning of the week is 4 minute run intervals and by the end of the week you work up to 6 minute run intervals.  Today I ran 4 minute intervals alternated with 1:20 of walking.  I went 2.14 miles in 29:50.

Milestones

Today I did two good things: I ran my first 4 minute run interval and I crossed 2 miles!  I went 31:55 instead of 30 minutes and went 2.2 miles.  I alternated my 4 minute run intervals with just 1 minute of walking.  I felt pretty good, even with less recovery time than I've been giving myself.  Even better, I am still injury free!

Week 2

Today I began the Week 2 training plan from the book (even though it's actually been 1.5 weeks since I started training).  Week 2 prescribes walking the first 8 minutes, run/walk for the middle 14 minutes, and walking the last 8 minutes.  During the run/walk you start with 2 minute running intervals and work up to 4 minute run intervals.

Today I did 2:30 run intervals and felt pretty good.  I made it a total of 1.9 miles in 30:10.

One Week Down

Today was my last running workout of the week.  I managed to run 1 minute run intervals.  It was my second time running 1 minute intervals this week.  The first time I moved up to 1 minute was on the treadmill, so I decided to do it again outside.  Next week I will continue working on Week 1 training goals.  So far no knee pain!

I ran/walked 7.1 miles this week for a total of 2:02:06.  It felt good to be running again even if it has been a little hard.  I am not going to lose my base next year after the mini, because I don't want to make this struggle again!

Feels Like the First Time

Today I went for my first run in a LONG time.  The main goal this training cycle is to build up slowly so that I do not get injured.  I decided to start over completely and build up slowly, like a brand new runner.  I'm using the training plan in The Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running.  Today was day one.

In six weeks the authors take you from sedentary, to running for 30 minutes straight.  Each workout is 30 minutes.  As prescribed in the book, I started with a 10 minute walk.  For the middle 10 minutes I alternated 30 seconds of running with walking until rested.  Then I walked the remaining 10 minutes.  I went 1.73 miles in 30 minutes, and only actually ran about 2 minutes of the 30.  It was humbling, because I actually felt like a newbie during my 30 second run intervals.  I don't know if I could have run more than that at one time!

The goal by the end of this training week (from the book) is to work up to an interval of 2 minutes of straight running.  In the interest of taking it slow and not getting injured, I have decided to listen to my body.  If I'm not ready at the end of week 1 to move up to the week 2 workouts, then I'll stay at week 1 for a while longer.  If it takes me longer than 6 weeks to get up to running 30 minutes at a time, that's okay.  I'll get there eventually, and hopefully pain free.

I Heart Star Wars

I only managed to run a couple times on the treadmill during my two weeks in BAMA. I did manage, however, to visit the Star Wars exhibit at the space museum. There was lots of cool exhibitage including C3PO who was nice enough to pose for a picture!