Nerves and accomplishments!

Hey there - I'm here with my week 5 update. First off, Michelle found us a new set of podcasts that feature more modern music. I put week 5 on my ipod and off I went today for my day 2 run:

Warm up walk 5 minutes
Run 8 minutes
Walk 8 minutes
Run 8 minutes
Walk 5 minutes

I set off to an upbeat version of Rihanna's Umbrella and walked up the hill getting ready for my longest run yet. When Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" came on it was time to run and off I went.

A lady pulled into a driveway and was about to back out but then decided to wait until I was past. I giggled as she was watching me and told her she could have backed out 4 times before I ever got near her. The music switched into "Shake it" and I boogied my way through. Another song came on that I didn't know and finished up the 8 minute run without much trouble. 

I have to say I was pretty surprised at how far I had run during the eight minutes. When I started this program 4 weeks ago I "thought" I had been running a fair amount during my outing but I learned the hard way in week 2 that running for 90 seconds was challenging! And now, here I am, running all the way from the top of Lacy Anne Avenue to nearly the corner of Boyd and Wilson Road without stopping. I just checked on mapmyrun.com and that's about 1km during the 8 minutes of running.

The recovery walk of 5 minutes was plenty of time to catch my breath and get ready to do another 8 minute run. I learned something new tonight...when you run longer you sweat more. And you can feel it dripping...in places you would rather not feel it.

My second run started to 'Girlfriend' by Avril Lavigne and to be honest I felt like I needed a little attitude. Another nice driver let me pass (while likely thinking I would never get by her). This run was not without a few aches and pains but with 3 minutes left to go I knew I couldn't quit. So I kept on running into Survivor by Destiny's Child. Before I knew it there was only a minute left and I pumped it through the last minute to finish strong.

Carli came on and said "week 2 you can stop running now" and Wanda said "Thank F**k." (sorry mom)This was also about 1km of running during the 8 minutes.

If you want a more upbeat podcast, try Carli's podcasts at http://runningintoshape.com/5k-training-downloads/

So...that's 2km of running tonight. On Friday I have to run 20 minutes straight. And yes, I'm nervous about that. I might clear 2.5 to 3km during that time. Apparently I am going to have to work on covering more distance if I'm going to get to run 5k anytime in the near future.

"They" say to run slow to conserve your energy so you are able to get through the runs. I am thinking that I will continue to run slow Friday since I have to run for 20 minutes. But then next week when I start running 25 minutes regularly I might start doing some intervals of faster running to try to cover off a little more distance during my run.

I will be the only woman running in this race who looks like she's running and acts like she's running, but really takes longer to finish the 5k than the walkers in front of her. What race? Stay tuned...I have something picked out but I am trying to get all of the ducks lined up to make it work.