Sunday, October 17, 2010

THE 5K!

Today was our 1 year anniversary and we ran a 5K!!!!! We skipped the week 9 sessions of 30 minutes and just went straight for the 5K today. We ran it up at our alma mater (the college we met at 5.5 years ago). This was our first time not running on the trails in our current town and I think it went well. We didn't run in an official race because there weren't any going on this weekend; we just ran it on our own using Husband S's iphone nike plus app.

The weather was in the 50's and pretty sunny when we ran around noon. But it was cool and I still wore my Nike running jacket for part of the run. The run wasn't so bad but at times it felt pretty long just because we didn't know the route. I knew the route would hit up with another trail eventually but it took longer than I thought it would to get to that trail. The scariest part was running over the foot bridge that goes over the Interstate (with cars and trucks going 75mph below you). I kind of have a fear of open bridges like that so it was almost harder for me to run over that bridge each way than it was to run the whole 5K. I just held onto Husband S's arm and didn't look down at the cars going below me, praying to God the whole time that the wooden bridge didn't fall down or something like that. It was pretty hard on the second half of the run because there were more uphill segments on the way back. Husband S kept telling me our distance and I felt like we were stuck around 3.6 km forever. It just took forever to get to 4km. The last 0.5km went by pretty fast. I actually thought we were going to have to run a bit further at the end but then the iphone said "Congratulations you have finished your 5K". And then Lance Armstrong came on and said something about it being a new personal best (that's because it's our only personal best at this time)!

I bet you want to know our time? I'm pretty proud of it. It was my goal to run our first 5K in under 35 minutes and we did just that. We ran it in 34:48. Pretty impressive for a first time 5K. We were both proud of what we've accomplished. I asked Husband S what he would have thought if a year ago on our wedding day I had told him we'd be running a 5K in a year. He said he wouldn't have believed me back then. I don't think I would have believed myself back then either!

We took a picture of ourselves just after we finished our race. We felt very accomplished but probably look tired since we are all red in the face. I'll upload it tomorrow if I get a chance. It's too late at night to pull out all the camera cords right now.

This just goes to show that anyone can become a runner! Even two lazy grad students who always hated running and couldn't even run a mile back in gym class in middle school or high school!

This RUNNER is going to bed now after a long but successful day! Goodnight all and good luck to everyone else still in the program! Keep on running!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

W8D3

We ran W8D3 (28 minutes with the usual 5 minute warmup and cooldown) early this morning around 7:50. It was so cold outside. Maybe 50 degrees or less. I should have worn my running jacket but I didn't since I thought it was going to be warmer. It took about 13 minutes for my arms and hands to finally warm up. Next time I'll check the temp before I go out for a morning run!

I also made the mistake of eating some dark chocolate before the run. I had just woken up and I wanted to get that morning taste out of my mouth. The dark chocolate did not go over well while running. I ate too much and I felt like I had a stomach ache. So overall, today's run was slower and we ran a little less than normal distance-wise. The stomach ache and the cold temps really slowed me down!

One nice thing about running in the morning is that it really wakes you up and there are less people on the trail. However, I still think I prefer running in the afternoon better - around 4pm or 5pm.

Do you prefer to run at a specific time? Any reason why?

Looking forward to the full 30 minutes on Thursday or Friday! I'm excited to see how far we actually can run in 30 minutes. I am not sure if it will be a full 5K but I'm hoping it's close!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

W8D2

We ran W8D2 this evening: 5 minute warmup, 28 minute run, & a 5 minute cool-down. It was unusually warm this weekend for our state. In the mid 80's! Usually it's like 50 degrees this time of year.

Because of the nice weather we spent much of the weekend outside and were very active. We dog-sat for a friend and walked the dog a lot (2x/day). We went to an apple orchard and picked up some pumpkins and mum flowers. We went to a state park and climbed up about 500+ steps to get to the top of a cliff/bluff and take photos. So, we were very tired by the time our run came around on Sunday night.

It was a very hard run for me. I just felt physically exhausted by the end. Like a 10 on those exhaustion scales they have up on posters in the gym. Husband S said I could have ran more but I am not so sure. I kept having him reassure me throughout the run because I wasn't sure I would finish strong. I just wanted a walking break. Even a 30 second walking break would have helped!

I'm sorry if I haven't been writing lately. I feel like there isn't much to update on here now because it's clear to me that I can run for 25 or 28 minutes at a time. It wasn't a hard transition at all for me to go from 25 to 28 minutes. There isn't much difference day to day now besides the fact that some days I have more energy than others. Anyone else feel the same?

This weekend is our wedding anniversary. The goal when I started this program was to be able to run a 5K by our 1st anniversary. I got a little off track in the program and instead of finishing W9 by our anniversary I will now be finishing it a few days later. But I think it is safe to say that I could run the full 30 minutes by our anniversary. Whether the full 3o minutes is enough for me to finish a 5K remains to be seen. Husband S has the Nike GPS app (I'm not sure what it's called). It tracks our distance and speed. I think we are running a 5K at about a 33 minute pace. Or somewhere around there. So we are pretty close to running a full 5K by this weekend if we can run a full 30 minutes. Yay for us. Happy Anniversary Husband S. I'm glad we did this program together!