Holy crap, I can’t believe I will be a C25K graduate after Saturday (when I have my final 30-min run of this week planned)! I also can’t believe I’ve now twice ran for 30 minutes straight without wanting to die.
Yesterday after work I completed run 2 of this week – it was the first time I’d run 2 days in a row in awhile so I was a little worried about fatiguing/overstressing myself, but went ahead and started off the run at 5mph, which is still a challenging speed for me to keep up, but comfortable enough starting out that I don’t feel like I’m hauling arse. Again, I tried to focus on short, quick strides and keeping my arms relaxed but in motion to assist my legs.
I started feeling tired a little quicker than last time but made myself run to the halfway point of the workout before lowering the speed on the treadmill to 4.8mph. I kept up that speed until the final 5 minutes, when I lowered it again to 4.6 (I blame the 2 runs 2 days in a row :P). I was feeling pretty tired by that point and had to keep concentrating on one foot in front of the other and reminding myself that my legs felt ok, my breathing was under control, and that I could DO this! haha. When the podcast called out the final minute I went back up to 5mph and tried to pick up my feet and finish strong.
I walked over to the stretching area drenched in sweat (doesn’t help that it’s abnormally hot in Seattle right now holy carp) and stretched out my legs as best I could. I think I need to lookup some knee stretches/strengthening exercises as I “notice” my knees toward the end of a run and I noticed they were pretty puffy as I was stretching, though they didn’t hurt. (I was really hard on my knees as a kid though so I wouldn’t be surprised if I have lingering issues lurking in my past).
When I got home my foam roller had arrived – yay! – but my computer had shut itself off from the heat in the house – boo! – so I didn’t get around to looking up the foam exercises/stretches I wanted to and spent most of the evening cleaning the dust out of the fan filters on my PC and making sure it was cool enough. by then I was tired and my muscles had stiffened up a bit (I think you’re supposed to foam roll when you’re warm from exercise.. right?) so I just vegged out and played some WoW like a good nerd…
So, I have my final run on Saturday! after that, I think I’ll do a week of 30-minute runs and then launch into the Higdon 10k beginner’s plan…. wooooo!
Daily Nightly 