C25K: Week 9, Day 3

I'VE GRADUATED!!!!

I can now proudly say that I've successfully completed the Couch To 5K program and after 9 weeks of training (minus a few minor set backs due to injury), I've already done 3 5K runs! I even managed to shave off some time for this graduation run by completing the 5K in 33:19!!!

I now have just 11 days until my first actual 5K race!!! I know that I will be able to do it with no issues and am totally excited - but nervous! lol

C25K: Week 9, Day 2

I seriously can't believe that this program has almost come to an end. I only have 1 run left and I will be officially considered a C25K GRADUATE! It's crazy!

I took full advantage of the beautiful weather last night and completed my WK9D2 run on the track at the local high school. I already knew how many laps I had to do to hit 5K - 12.5 - but was initially bummed about the fact that I wouldn't be able to keep track of time. Well, I fiddled around with my iPod and quickly discovered that this baby has a stopwatch! Who would've known?! :)

Out I went, in my brand new runner's capris (bought as a gift to myself for doing my first 5K Monday) and I had a fabulous run!! I'm not going to lie, I was ready to be done after 10 laps, but I powered through, increased my speed and finished in 33:48! Quicker than Monday! :)

Only one more run to go and that will happen Saturday morning with my mom by my side while she starts week 8. :)

C25K: Week 9, Day 1

Well, I am now in the final stretch! I'm in the last week of the C25K program now and am happy to report that... I did it!!!!!

I went into Wk9D1 tonight with the goal to not only run for 30 min, but I REALLY wanted to run 5K. And that's exactly what I did!!! I managed to reach 2 of my goals in one run!

I wanted to start week 9 Saturday as per my normal schedule, but after a VERY late night Friday (went to a concert in TO) I decided not to push it because I was so tired. I'm glad I waited until today because I felt more ready to reach this goal. I decided to do my run on the tread mill just so that I could get accurate stats for my time/distance.

I ran the first 25 min at 5.1mph .... then ran 5 min at 5.5mph... when I hit the 30 minute mark, I felt amazing! I saw that I didn't have too much farther to go so I then increased my speed to 5.8mph and powered through right until I hit that beautiful 5K mark! My official time for my first 5K was 35:10 and I am SO proud of it.

I now have 2 more runs to go to graduate C25K and 3 weeks to work on reaching my goal of doing 5K in 30 min. Hopefully i reach that goal just in time for my first race!!!

.....oh and i might actually be doing the sportinglife 10K in toronto May 2 now!!! ;)

BIG NEWS!

I have officially REGISTERED for my very FIRST 5K race!!!

Date: April 3, 2010

Location: Ajax, ON by lake Ontario

Start time: 8:30am

I can't wait!!!! :)

C25K - Let's Catch Up Here

I've been so busy lately and haven't had the chance to make my last few posts! Don't worry, I haven't quit!!!!! I'm actually super excited as I only have 4 more runs to go to finish this program!!

So let's to an overview of the last few runs:

Week 7, Day 3
After my not-so-encouraging first outdoor run 2 days earlier, I decided to return to the treadmill to build up some confidence again. I breezed right through the required 25 minutes and felt great afterwards!

Week 8, Day 1
This week all 3 runs are to be 28 minutes long. It was so gorgeous outside that I just had to try an outdoor run again. Thanks to the suggestion of a coworker, I made my way to a local high school and decided to tackle the run on a track. I learned my lesson my first outdoor run and really worked on paying attention to my pace and breathing so that the first 5 minutes wouldn't be awful again! Consciously knowing that I had to work on that really helped and although it felt like forever, I managed to get through the 28 minutes with no real issues!

Week 8, Day 2
Last night we had gorgeous weather again! It was 12 degrees outside after work! I was so happy with the weather that I headed out to the track again with just a tank and long sleeved top on! (along with pants of course lol) I had the track to myself again and breezed through the 28 minutes! Seriously, it seemed to go by so much faster this time - it felt great! The only downside was that the smell of people bbqing was killing me! haha I remembered to count my laps this time and actually RAN 10 laps which equals to 2.5miles (just over 4K). Upon doing research, 5K is 12.5 laps so I'm only 2.5 laps off of the 5K goal!!!

Only 4 runs to go and I will be an official C25K graduate! :)

C25K: Week 7, Day 2

The days are getting longer and the temperatures have been staying above 0 the past few days, so I decided that I was going to attempt this run outdoors. I haven't run outdoors yet, so was pretty excited to actually cover some ground on this workout! I had heard and read that running outside was very different in comparison to the treadmill, but I was finding the treadmill really easy lately so I figured - how hard can it be?!

Well! I'm not going to lie... HOLY SHIT THAT WAS HARD!!!!!!!

It's hard to pick a route in my neighbourhood because there are hills everywhere. My run started basically by going up hill and after a measly 5 minutes I found myself completely out of breathe and feeling so defeated!!! In my heart I was so upset that I wasn't finding this easy because I wanted to get the workout done so badly. I started walking after maybe a 6 minute run and continued up the hill. I kept walking until my turning point was in sight (at the top of the big hill) then crossed the road to head back. I decided at that point that I could NOT give up so I started running again. I changed my route around to allow myself to continue to run, only walking at intersections when I needed to wait to cross. I managed to run for about 23 minutes straight before walking and then heading home.

Overall, I did get the workout done.. it was just broken up a bit in the first quarter. My confidence was definitely shaken, but I am not going to give up! I plan to do Wednesday's run back on the treadmill to give myself a confidence boost, then back outside again on Saturday. I will just try and pick a different route this time. I'm not sure of any exact stats on last nights' run - thinking of buying myself Nike+ for my ipod soon - but I know for sure that I got in a killer workout.

Staying positive!