I did it!

I just completed w5d3 on the c25k running plan. For those of you not familar with the plan, this is a full 25 minute run with no walking. I'd been feel lots of anxiety about this day - mainly because, from here on out, the plan calls for straight running, with no breaks for walking in the middle. Its a huge milestone, and I'd been looking to that day with some dread.

Although today is my day off, and I have all weekend, I got up at 5:30 to run. I was worried that if I didn't get it in this morning, it would be a struggle to find time. We're finishing our basement, and the HVAC contractor will be there all day. I really didn't want to have to try and run down stairs while he's working. And I have a Passion Party tonight. I wanted to try and run today too, as tomorrow Ben and I have plans to strap the kids into our Kely Adventurer packs and find a non-snowy trail somewhere. And I want fresh legs for that.

So, anyway, I got up at 5:30 am on my day off to run. Overall, I felt really good. Towards the end, I had to drop down to a 4.5 on the treadmill, which to "barely running". But, I ran the whole thing. About 20 seconds from the end, I think that I maybe threw up in my mouth a little bit - and I counted-down those last few second. But I did it. I immediately felt an overwealming sense of accomplishment. It was a really great feeling.

This may sound strange to say, but I miss running on my off days. I know that the program is pretty clear about having rest days, but I'm starting to think that maybe I could at least get up and walk on my off days. I think if I walked at an incline it would be non-boring enough to make me want to continue. And it would be good training for hiking season that is fast approaching.

I found the coolest running log, appropriately at CoolRunning.com. Its also the webpage that has the c25k plan. I had just never bothered to check it out - I've been logging all my stuff just on a hand-written chart. But yesterday, I entered all my info since I started 5 weeks ago. Its the neatest thing - it keeps track of lots of different information, and then you can create custom graphs to track improvement. Although it doens't feel like I've progressed much, I made a graph yesterday that shows I've shaved almost a minute off of my mph pace since starting. Thats great progress! I highly suggest checking it out. You can even keep track of non-running exercise activities - and you can classify them however you want, and only graph certain activities. I love maps, charts, graphs, etc - this is the perfect thing for me! I'm such a geek.