The Couch to 5K Running Chronicles: The End Is Near

Last week we ran a full twenty minutes with no walking.  Today, the last day of week six, we ran twenty two minutes with no walking. I barely recognize myself.  I can no longer claim to be a couch potato.  That's a good thing, right?

The end of week five left me achy and tired. I pushed myself harder with both the running and p90x in the name of outdoing myself. It left me with that good I-deserve-a-donut-and-I-will-nap-a-lot kind of achy tiredness.  It was great.  I'm still in running honeymoon.  I actually look forward to lacing my shoes and hitting the pavement.  Something that could not be said of my other fitness endeavors. I haven't yet found the meaning of life while running but I sure am learning how to push my body to cooperate with my brain.  I think it helps that I don't keep time.  My running buddy is responsible for giving cues as to how long we still have left to run. He cues me half-way and at the final two minutes. Any more than that would make me time conscious instead of trying to enjoy my run.  So I try to tune out time consciousness with fun music and thoughts of dancing. That's the only way I'm surviving the long runs.  

Week six finished today.  The weather was so pleasant. I tried to run faster despite the extra two minutes added to this week's run.  I think I deserve beer today.  From here on out there's no more walking!  Week seven is running for 25 minutes, week eight 28 minutes and finally, week nine - running for 30 minutes.  People, I wasn't running six weeks ago!  If you don't believe in miracles now is the time.  

We are looking at a couple of local 5k races prior to the big race in Vegas to put our training to the test.  For now, I have to run this program one step at a time.  

Off to grab a beer and put my feet up.  Happy running!

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