Taken on my run in San Francisco
Honestly, if someone had told me at the beginning of this “9 week” program that at 14 weeks later I would only be at the 6 week mark then I’m not sure I would have done it. Nine weeks alone seemed pretty long to commit to something. I’d just come off the back of the 30 day meditation challenge where I meditated every day for 30 days and I was feeling the pinch of committing to something on an ongoing basis.
So, it’s lucky that I didn’t know how long it would take me as what I also didn’t know at the time is that it wouldn’t matter. One of the things I love about the Couch to 5k app is that it’s totally within my control. I can repeat weeks or days if I feel I need it and I can stop and taking a break with no negative effect (to the app; my fitness level, however, sure does suffer). All that really matters is that I keep on going. Yes the meditation thing was a pinch but I was also doing it every single day. Running happens 3 times per week which I find much easier to commit to. Although you wouldn’t know it with how long this whole thing is taking.
I’ve had time off for illness mostly but this time bombed at keeping it up on holiday. I was overseas for 2 weeks and managed one whole run in San Francisco which I came off feeling really stoked about. I also felt a wee bit smug. I was all (in my head of course) ‘look at me running on my holiday’, ‘I’m so awesome’, ‘who says you can’t do it’, blah blah blah. Well that was day 3 of my holiday. And the rest of the time I just carried my sweat pants and runners around with me for funsies.
Not running while I was away was pretty much a combination of time and location issues but even the good opportunities were hindered by my ability to get moving. Probably because I decided to resurrect party girl Rach for the holiday which involved copious amount of drinking and even some smoking. Those of you shaking your head at me in disgust right now can chill out. I got a nice little reality check about my choices on my run this morning.
I arrived back in AUS yesterday and decided that I should get straight back into my routine today. Monkey was off at daycare and I needed to do some work. Normally those days I will run so today I ran. I decided to repeat Week 6, Day 2 of the C25K program which is the same run I did in San Fran. I was keen to compare the stats after having the time off and killing my lungs with cigarettes. Well. Didn’t I get a nice little surprise.
The run is supposed to be two intervals of 10 mins with a 3 min walk in between. I made the first 10 mins but felt like I was going to vomit by the end of it. The 3 min walk sped past like a baby free Sunday and by the time I started the last 10 min interval I was killing myself in my head. I was cursing the cigarettes and pretty much telling myself that I couldn’t do it and we all know where it leaves a runner when the head packs it in.
I stopped within 2mins of that interval. I walked for aaages. I ran another minute or so but probably not two. And then I canned the app with a min still left on the clock.
Another San Fran run snap. We’ll just call it the smirk creator
And I wiped that San Francisco smirk right off my little face.
So the plan now is to keep doing that same set – 10/3/10 – until I can complete it. Hopefully that will be the next run. Lung capacity can greatly improve within even just a few days so I’m almost there already. It should be rockin’ by the weekend when I can run again.
Party girl Rach is fun but she isn’t that productive so I’m going to put her back in the box. Besides mummying doesn’t really allow for partying and mummying is way more fun.
Who else is doing some running out there? How are your runs treating you?