This running journey of mine seems to be taking over my life a little bit. I am still finding it hard to believe that I'm actually enjoying it, or that I can actually run. But I am, and I can. I have accelerated the program sightly as I need to be finished week 4 by the time we go off on hols, so between now and then I'm running every other day. I'm still getting the rest day between runs, but some weeks I might run 4 times and some I might run 3. No biggie - just a tweak to make it work with my schedule. Once we are back from hols I will be back to work and also back to 3 runs a week - Mon, Wed after work and Fri mornings.
Today was week 3 session 1. I said I was dreading and I was - not dreading running but dreading failing. I really didn't want to find that I couldn't run the 3 mins. I was more than up for the run, really looking forward to getting out there, the rest days are good and there for a reason but I spend the whole day wishing I could go out and run! That's NOT normal I'm sure. Well its certainly not normal for this couch potato. I even went out yesterday and bought a second pair of cropped joggers and a T-shirt so I have 2 sets to run in - I'm finding it a bit stressful making sure my kit is washed, dry and ready to go with all this rain!! No worries now - one to wear and one to be drying..... Anyway - back to W3.1....
Week 3 sessions consist of 5 min walking warm up - then 2 reps of 90 secs running - 90 secs walking recover - 3 mins running - 3 mins walking recovery.
The session didn't start well. The weather was ok as I was getting ready to go but I was out and walking when the rain started - not quite to the end of the street, but still into my warm up - so I nipped back for my hat. Then as I was on my way for the second time a van stopped me and asked for directions - arggh! so that was another 30 seconds I hadn't walked and the clock was ticking and the voice was going to tell me to run quite soon and I was no where near my track and still in the streets. So I jogged to the start of the track where I run up and down. Probably not the best thing to do considering I was going to be running for longer during the session but I was determined to get back on track - no pun intended. I got about 30 seconds walking recovery before the voice was telling me to do my first 90 secs. I managed that fine, and noticed during the recovery that I was ready to run again way before the 90 secs was up. Then it was time to run for 3 mins..... Off I went, keeping to a steady pace, not too fast not too slow, and trying not to think too hard about how much time had passed. The voice told me when I was at 1.30 secs and I thought - great - I'm ok - but was waiting for the fire in the lungs or the burn in the legs. Neither came and as I completed the 3 mins I had the biggest smile on my face - delight at having done it when I was so sure I would fail. That smile lasted the rest of the session through another 90 sec run and recovery and the second 3min run (I must have looked completely manic to the dog walkers out there!). I even felt I maybe could have ran a bit more - I'm not saying it was EASY!! but it didn't feel like it was a struggle. I was concentrating on managing my breathing, keeping my rise and fall to a minimum and keeping my pace steady, and it does all help to keep you going. And I felt fantastic coming home and being able to report I had done it!
Today has been a bit of a turning point for me. While I was not lacking in enthusiasm or determination - I was a bit sceptical about the program and also my own ability. It's not that I wanted to fail, I desperately didn't! but I thought I was going to no matter how hard I tried today. I am so glad I was wrong.
I now have a little more faith in the program and a little more self belief. It's all good.
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