Keep Moving Forward

This week brings a lot of change, but change needs to be embraced, because without change there is no improvement, only stagnation.
Change isn’t easy, but it is how we grow.

This week brought change in weather. YAY! “Fall” has finally arrived in Florida, and I’m relishing the 70-80° temperatures

How I feel in the cooler weather

This week also brought a change to my C25K training.

This week marks the first week of running twice as much as we were walking.
After the 5 minute warmup was a 3 minute jog, followed by a 90 second walk, then a 5 minute jog and a 2.5 minute walk, then repeat, but skip the last 2.5 minute walk and go straight to the 5 minute cool down.

I tried to mentally prepare myself for that change, but all I managed to do was make myself dread it.

Me, every time I thought about the schedule for this week’s workouts

I wish I could say I psyched myself out and it wasn’t as bad as I expected. But it was EXACTLY as bad as I expected, so maybe I did an ok job preparing myself in that I wasn’t caught off guard by how tough the run would be (like I was when the first time I had a 3 minute jog).

I almost made it through the workout without any problems, but in the last minute of the last run interval I started gagging, so I slowed my pace down. Then in the last 20 seconds the gagging got worse, but I pushed through knowing I was almost to the end. I literally stopped & puked the water I drank during the workout just as the cool down timer started. As I stood there I could feel my leg muscles tightening, because I basically went from active to stopped in the span of 2 seconds.
Once I finished vomiting I finished the cool down then took a soak in the bathtub and felt much better. But running 3 days in a row (remember Sunday’s run was so crappy that I had to redo it on Monday) is not something my body is used to, so I was sore for the remainder of the night and I’m still a little achy today.

But if I didn’t feel like this, after the workout I was probably doing it wrong anyways

 

But as I look back over the last 4 weeks I can’t deny that I have made an improvement. At the start of the program 60-90 seconds of jogging was a challenge and jogging 3-5 minutes would have been unthinkable; now those short intervals are as welcomed as the walking intervals and 3-5 minute runs are a challenge that can be overcome.

One of the things I have learned is how empowering this program has been.
While I’m not necessarily one to give up easily, my depression has a way of convincing me that “it will be too hard, so why even bother” or “I know I can’t do it, so I’m not even going to try”
But running with C25K has caused me to start realizing that yes, I can do it, even if it isn’t easy. I’m still working on applying this newfound empowerment to all parts of my life, but even being able to recognize this in my running is a step in the right direction and that alone pleases me.

As an aside, I’m currently working on a post dedicated to what its like to live with depression and the science behind how running helps. Hopefully I’ll have it done and published before the end of the weekend.

Now on to the stats!

Week 4, Day 1  Stats 10/07/2014

Distance: 2.6 miles

Time: 34 minutes 47 seconds

Average Pace: 17 minutes 15 seconds per mile

Motivation: 4

Emotion: 3