Friday, September 26, 2008

Running for 4 minutes

Today was the first day that running for 4 minutes continuously did not bother me. I'm right in the middle of my training to get up to 30 minutes of consectutive running and today is really the first day that I thought I might make it! Tomorrow, I'm walk/running 3 minutes, and 5 minutes. That will be the first time that I will be hitting 5 minutes especially after having the 4 minutes run feel like nothing!

I'm not seeing much improvement in the weight department. But, I can see physical changes in my body and I always feel so energized after a run, even if I'm exhausted!

I signed up for two races. They are both 8k's which is close to 5 miles. I know that's a long time, but there weren't any races that I could sign up for that would be shorter than that coming up anytime soon. So, I decided to do the 8K even though I may not be physically ready for it, just to get an estimate on my time. Once I'm running at 30 minutes, I'm going to start working on the 8K training guide and begin working up to a half-marathon and marathon training program. I might be in the 8K training guide for a while. I'm thinking I'm going to sign up for either the 8K or half-marathon race in March for St. Louis.

Friday, September 19, 2008

10 Minutes

I've slowly worked up to running for 10 minutes. I am not yet running for the full 10 minutes as I would be completely out of breath, but I am running for 10 minutes. The next couple of days is where the big transition happens. I'm supposed to be changing to more running and reducing the amount of walking that I'm doing. These are done in sets of walk/run minutes.
I made an excel spreadsheet and chart to show my progress so far. And, so far I've enjoyed running and getting out of the house, especially when I come home from school. But, today, I had fallen asleep before going to run and it was extremely difficult to get moving again, but I did it! And then, I made dinner! One of my recent new faves: spaghetti squash topped with spinach, tomatoes and garlic.

Monday, September 1, 2008

It wasn't as bad as I thought!

Today was my first day running for 1 minute. I got up early to get outside on a day off. Walked for 9 (really 12 minutes) and then ran for a minute. I thought it was going to be harder to do the run, but one of my friends had explained that a run does not have to be moving fast. Just as long as you're doing the motion, you're running. So I kept those words in mind. I probably ran a little over a block before I looked at my time. I felt so accomplished this morning! So, the next time I run it's going to be a five minute walk then a 1 minute run done in a cycle of 2. My thought is to bring up my endurance first before I start thinking about longer distances.

Shamrock Shuffle- I may want to do something else, since my friend told me it's very popular. I'll look around on the internet to find something else around that time that will be equally as long.