Week 5

Week 5 calls for walking 3 minutes, running 12 minutes, then repeating to start the week.  By the end of the week you are supposed to walk 3 minutes, run 15, walk 3, then run the rest of the session.  Today I walked 3, ran 13, walked 3, then ran 11.  I made it 2.37 miles.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the start of Week 6, but I'm not quite up to where I'm supposed to be so I'm going to continue Week 5 until I feel good and ready for Week 6.  Especially since Week 6 is the last one of this program and I want to make sure I've taken full advantage of this program before I move on to more strenuous training.

Week 4

This week I actually started and finished Week 4.  Week 4 called for walking a few minutes to warm up, run X number of minutes, walk until rested, run X number of minutes again, then walk the remainder of the half hour.  To begin the week, the running portions were 7 minutes, and by the end of the week the running portions were 10 minutes.  By today I was up to 10 minutes of running, then I walked 3 minutes to recover, then ran another 10 minutes.  I felt pretty good and I made it 2.42 miles.  My weekly total was 8.83 miles in 2:07:10.  Tomorrow I'll be ready to move on to week 5.  I'm so ready to be back to continuous running!!

Taking It Slow

Well, I stayed on week 3 all week this week.  I did 3 workouts, Tuesday, Friday, and today.  On each one I alternated 6 minutes running with 1 minute walking, plus the 5 minute warmup and cooldown.  I just really felt like I was struggling with 6 minutes of running at a time so I wanted to keep working on it until it felt better.  I am trying to build up slowly after all. 

Finally today it seemed to come together, so tomorrow I'll start week 4 of the training plan (even though it has actually been 6 weeks!).  I'm proud of me for taking it slowly!

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.