From excuse to progress

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results." - Willie Nelson

Over the past week my calves & Achilles have been really painful so I have had to back off on my training a bit.  I can't blame anyone but myself, I decided to increase my mileage more than the recommended 10% and now know why they say not to.

During my "down time" I started to feel like this was one more thing that I started & couldn't finish.  I finally decided that I'm not going to get anywhere if I keep making excuses, so enough is enough.  Yes I'm slow, have you ever tried to move 204lbs on your own?  It's not easy, but I'm doing it.  I've gone from a pace of 20 min/mile to somewhere around 16:30.  That's better progress than no progress.

In short, "I didn't come here & I ain't leaving." -Willie

Sweat

When I first began this journey it was because I wanted to cross off "run a marathon" off of my bucket list.  After a sprained/broken ankle & some research I decided that I was going to add "jog a complete 5k" as a step to getting to the marathon.  (A few years ago I met my goal of completing five 5k's in one summer, but I walked most of them)

Like I have mentioned in previous entries, my motivation seems to be melting with the heat.  If you know anything about me, you know that I hate to feel myself sweat, that's why swimming & skiing have always been my preferred sports.  Well there is no way to continue to train without some sweat, so after some more searching if found the quote that is perfect for me.

               "No one ever drowned in sweat."
                  -Author Unknown

I would put it on my mirror so I could see it everyday, but that might require breaking a sweat. 

5 Minutes

I FINALLY made it through week 4 of the Couch to 5k program & am halfway through week 5.  I never in a million years thought that I would look forward to running or be able to run 5 minutes non-stop.  Next up, running with a blister on the bottom of my foot & running for 15 minutes non-stop.

Cross Training

Fellow "waddlers" do any of you cross train?  If so, what do you do?  How often?  I'm in a bit of a rut & don't want to overtrain & end up hurt.

Stuck and other ramblings

I have been following the Couch to 5k program for over 4 weeks now & figured that I would see some progress by now, but rather than "dropping the lbs" (as my husband would say) I've gained 4 pounds!  I'm trying not to get discouraged, but when you add to that the fact that I'm stuck somewhere between week 3 & 4 of the program, it gets depressing.

By the end of week 3, you are jogging for 3 minutes x2.  Week 4, you jog for 5 minutes once.  I can't get past about 4 minutes before I'm ready to fall over dead.  I thought that it was because I had a cold last week, so I took it easy this week & just repeated week 3, hopefully I'll be able to get back on track next week.

In other news, I may not look like a runner, but I feel like one.  I have the aches & pains, but more importantly, after I have on my shoes & shorts, I feel like I actually belong out there drenched in sweat.  Maybe there is something to this "runners high" after all!