Update: Couch to 5K - Week 5, Day 1

Weeks 1 thur 4 of Couch to 5k were challenging, no doubt. But Week Five is a whole new ballgame - they start ratcheting up the fun in a whole new way! Previously, each week's workout was the same all three days. Week five is a bit different - three totally different - and more challenging! - workouts. They are as follows:

DAY ONE: Five-minute warmup walk; jog 5 minutes; walk 3 minutes; jog 5 minutes; walk 3 minutes; jog 5 minutes; five-minute cooldown walk.

DAY TWO: Five-minute warmup walk; jog **8** minutes; walk 5 minutes; jog **8** more minutes; five-minute cooldown walk. (Note that is only cumulatively *one* more minute of jogging than Day 1 - just strung together in bigger intervals - helps to realize it's the same amount of time as i've done before, just structured different - so theorectially, no biggie, right? :))

DAY THREE: Five-minute warmup walk; 20-minute jog (no walking intervals); five-minute cooldown walk.

So, as you can see, it gets progressively more challenging each day this week. But the cool thing is, once I survive week five, weeks 6-9 won't seem so scary any more, right? I hope, LOL! Anyway, if you are still awake, read on to hear (or "see" rather) my dramatic tale of surviving yet another day of this crazy exercise stuff.... ;)

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Wooohoo!!!! I survived Day 1 of Week 5!!!!! :) Today was the first genuinely COOL day we've had so far. It was only 62 degrees this morning, and very low humidity. aaahhhh... MUCH better!!!!! :) Gypsy & I got to the park at 6:15 - I slept in some because I had to go by the courthouse today to get my notary public certification renewed, which meant I didn’t have to leave the house at 7:30 in the morning (they don't open till like 8:30 or 9). I knew I could run one or two five-minute intervals (like I did last week), but wasn't so sure about how well I'd do with THREE of them to contend with, LOL!

Much to my surprise, it wasn't bad. When it came time for my third and final jog, I was startled to realize I wasn't panicking and thinking I'd never make it. I just started off and kept going. :) I was feeling so good, I even picked up the pace for a little while (but then slowed down to normal for the rest of the way, by which time I was breathing pretty hard, but not thinking death was imminent lol).

One thing I did during the whole course of today's workout was use a trick they taught us in the Riders' Edge motorcycle safety course: LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. Don't focus on/stare at the ground or the pothole in the road ("target fixation," I think the term was...something like that), because if you do, that's where the bike will go even if you don't want it to. (Yes, this is actually true... the very last thing I saw before I made myself need knee surgery, was the ground, lol!) Instead, focus on where you WANT to go, and you will go there. Kinda Zen-ish, but true.. So, that's the technique I used to try to survive my 5-minute jogs. I'd focus on a lamp-post or a sign on the fence where I wanted to run to, and kept myself zeroed in on that..and got there. Then focused on my next goal...and got there. Not as fast as I wanted, but I got there nonetheless.


I'm still REALLY slow. Three laps around this track is one mile. I was hoping that during my five-minute jogging intervals, I could complete one full loop (which would give me a time of 15 mins/mile - pathetic, but immensely better than I could do five weeks ago, lol). Well, not quite there yet. I *almost* made it around one full loop in five minutes - another 45 - 60 seconds and it woulda been a full loop. Which is some better than last week, so there's progress! :) If I keep plugging away at the time/distance, the speed will improve over time. Not worried about it particularly much; each day brings improvements of some sort, so it's all good!!! :-)

I did find myself wondering how on earth I was gonna handle day 2's two, eight-minute runs (but still not nearly worried about them as much as I am FRIDAY - the BIG 20-MINUTES-STRAIGHT JOG!) ack! But all I gotta do is show up, and keep pushing forward, and it'll all come together. :-)

So, I survived, and the doggie survived. :) [Which reminds me....When hubby went to the store last night, he bought Gypsy "High Performance" dog food, in keeping with her new athletic status as Jogger Dog, LOL. :) ]

So...week five, day one, DONE. As Jason & Grant say at the end of EVERY "Ghost Hunters" episode.... "ON TO THE NEXT!"