I've neglected the blog a little bit because I've got a FB support group of friends who also run or want to run or are starting C25k. So, sorry, blog!
Well I guess I have to write about week 7 day 2, since I accidentally just ran it twice. ;P Which I guess is okay, because the first one wasn't the right amount of running.
I have been convinced by a friend to start running outside instead of on a treadmill. Of course, this friend lives in Florida, where everything is flat. I live ... in hill country. It's definitely a different type of running, but I'm not unprepared for it. It's probably good that I get outdoors to run, since I have my first 5k race outdoors (of course) this upcoming Saturday.
I woke up late in the day on Friday and thought to myself, "Hey, self, why don't you go for a run?" At that point, it's near 11am (don't judge, ok. Shut up). I poked my head out the door and thought, "naaaah, it's fine outside! It's a balmy low 70s and it probably won't get much warmer! I'll be fine! Right?"
WRONG
Whatever the temperature, you of course feel hotter when running, added to the fact that running in the near-noon sun makes you feel even hotter. Smart people probably know this. I'm an idiot. I got about halfway through the first part of the run, where there is a long, long, slow ascent to a hill. In the sun, I just couldn't do it. I turned around, still running, and went back in the other direction.
What I FORGOT, though, was there was a frikken ginormous hill that I had just run *down*, far larger and steeper than the slow ascent that had been ahead of me. Stupid me. I stopped and walked when I realized that I was sweating buckets, and that I just couldn't get my breathing under control. Once I got to the top of the hill I ran again. It wasn't the 20 minutes straight of running, more like 16mins, walking, then 4mins. My legs felt like jelly -- it was the first time I had done any hill running in quite a while. I was disappointed by that, but I also felt so blazing hot that I didn't care, and I knew I hadn't wimped out. I had done the right thing in the circumstances.
Today, I learned my lesson and thought that I'd go out just a few minutes before sunset. I thought I should have enough light to be able to complete my run without it getting too dark. I don't have any special reflective-y gear, only 90s graphic t-shirts, mostly from Broadway shows, and my husband's Navy shorts, because prior to this I was not an athlete and I have been trying to do this running thing on the cheap. Plus, a lady running at night or after dark doesn't sound safe. So some sun, and light, was a must.
No need to fear! Everything was totally fine. Plus, did you know that somehow the grass and trees are nature's A/C? I could have sworn as I ran along, breathing in the delicious honeysuckle aroma, that something like a cool breeze (like, 65 degrees cool!) was coming off the grass and through the trees. Halfway through my run along the same route, along the same long, slow ascent that made me turn around last time, it felt great. I was fine. I could do it! I did the whole run!
Unfortunately it wasn't the RIGHT run. :P I should have run 5 minutes longer than I did. For some reason, I couldn't get MapMyRun and 10k Runner to play nice on my iPhone. I think the latter must have restarted, and so instead of being on w7d3, I was on w7d2. Again.
I am hoping that the hills will help me come race day, despite being a little behind. r/C25k says it unlocks "beast mode". ;) I can get behind that.
One other interesting phenomenon I noticed -- when one starts out, you get used to running a minute, and then walking to recover. Once recovered, you run a little longer, recover again, etc. Now that I'm running 20+ minutes, I'm still recovering from my run, but I noticed it WHILE running. Towards the beginning of the run, almost at the start, there was a short but very steep hill which got my heart rate up. Then I ran *down* the hill (the one that killed me and made me walk), and I noticed that, while running, my heart was nonetheless slowing down. I was recovering from the exertion while still exerting myself. I was completely recovered at the bottom of the huge hill, ready to conquer the long, slow hill (henceforth to be known as the LSH). Once I got to the top of the LSH and was running along a more or less flat course, I found myself recovering from the previous hill. Towards the end of the run, it was just running. It wasn't even terribly hard (which probably should have tipped me off), so I started to sprint towards the end of it, just for fun.
This is neat! I'm really excited about everything, and impatient to improve my running time and distance. Maybe next time I won't make boneheaded mistakes. ;P
I'll check in after the race in a couple days.
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