I Declare Week Seven Completed

I totally cheated this week by making my third run on a Monday when my first run was... last Monday. I was planning to run yesterday but that did not happen. On Saturday, I had to take an exam at 7:30 a.m. (for teaching certification, which I am looking into). I also had a friend's birthday party that night. Unfortunately, the nap I planned to take did not pan out and I stayed out until about 5 a.m. and drank too much. I woke up Sunday a) with my cold back YET AGAIN -- my nose is super stuffy and b) with a bad hangover. I had to sleep until 4 p.m. and after that, I had Valentine's Day plans with my family. I got home at about 9:30 but felt it was too late to run outside after that guy in the hood last week. So yesterday, instead of running I ate a cupcake in honor of V-day. Ha. Though I didn't smoke, and have only had ONE DRAG of a cigarette in over two weeks. Yay for me.

Yesterday, a couple of things gave me further motivation to continue (it is strange, but every time I take 2 or 3 days off, I feel certain that I will leave the house, attempt to run, and just utterly fail immediately. Let's blame years and years of smoking and exercise avoidance). I weighed myself yesterday morning and realized I had reached a certain goal I've been looking forward to (sorry, not willing to publish my actual weight, haha). Now, yesterday I was dehydrated and off a normal eating schedule due to the hangover and all the sleeping, but I weighed myself when I got up today and I think I can definitely say I've reached this particular goal. And I certainly don't want to throw it away. I stupidly did not really take an official weight before beginning this program -- plus December, month of pig outs and cookies, was the first month of it -- but I think I've lost over ten pounds. Probably eleven or twelve. Yay!

The other source of inspiration was not as awesome. Pictures from the other night were posted on Facebook and I'm not crazy about how I look in them. Also, as a sidenote -- I wore a shirt that I worried was too see-through. Yes, yes -- turns out it is pretty sheer. Whoops.

Anyways. Today's run was good. The best part had to be when I ran past this tall guy and he loudly exclaimed, "Baby, baby, lookin' good! Work it off!" hahaha. I hope he heard my appreciative laugh. The last two songs were kind of a struggle and there were points at which I was barely running. But overall, the run felt good, especially considering I hadn't run in three days.

I really think 28.5 minutes is going to be a struggle, because I was soooooo ready for the run to end, and I briefly considered what it would be like to have 3.5 minutes left (aka basically another song), and that made me briefly want to die. I think that about 99% of this is mental, though, so I will try to go into week eight with a better mindset -- beginning it on Wednesday, wish me luck!

Also, and this is kind of strange, I am considering signing up for this. It is a "Run for the Cheetah." Now, when you think of worthy charities, you may not think of cheetahs. However, I think I've stated before that I'm not really that into big races -- and all the other 5ks in Chicago look like they'll be giant. This one will probably be a bit less popular. And, I like cheetahs! And the entry fee is less than $30. So I'm considering this.

Regressing?

Phew, my dinner plans were canceled so I was able to run today and I can "finish" this week on Saturday like I really wanted. Still can't run for 25 minutes! I had to walk three times during this run. I ran for about six minutes and then walked for a minute or so. Ran for another two songs, maybe, then walked again. Finally I ran for the last six minutes and added another minute on the end. It's a little frustrating that I ran for twenty minutes already, not to mention the eight minute runs and the ten minute runs, and I can only make six or so right now before interrupting the run.

I'm still just out of breath, I think, which leads to stomach and chest cramps. Boo. I really don't think I'll be moving on to week 8. I'm gonna keep trying week 7 until I can do two 25 minute runs in a row, I think. If possible, I am just going to run every other day until this happens.

I also made two of my own playlists today. I just made sure the first and last songs were ~5 minutes long, and the middle songs added up to about 25 minutes (plus or minus a few seconds). So I listened to one of those during my run, because honestly I kind of hate the week 7 podcast. In the end, after I finish this program, I plan to just make mixes of a certain length (most likely 30 minutes plus a warm up and cool down song) and running to those. I don't want to get bored, so I started making lists of songs and coming up with theme ideas. I can get obsessive and crazy over playlists so I foresee a fun and involved project here.

My shins are hurting again, btw! This time it's kind of my inner shins and I think it might have to do with a pair of boots I wore out last night. By the end of my run I was a wincing, achy, huffy puffy mess. It was exceptionally attractive. I'm not kidding, I think another runner gave me a "what the fuck is up with you?" look. Ah well. Hopefully Saturday will be better!

25 Minutes: A Long Time

Week 7 will probably be the week I repeat ad infinitum. Today was day 1 of week 7, but the second time I attempted a 25 minute run -- if you recall, week 6 ended with one. And I "failed" again.

Firstly, let me assure you all that my knee (actually knees -- the right one developed a pretty sweet bruise) are fine. The left one hurt pretty badly every time I sat down or stood up for the past couple of days but felt much better today. So I can't really blame it on that. What I can blame it on, in part, are the cigarettes I continue to smoke occasionally. I had one last night and I don't think they are helping me here.

Still running on sidewalks because the ice on the running path just does not want to melt. I was doing pretty well but about 7 or 8 minutes into the run, I was really getting out of breath. So I walked for a minute or two. I got myself running again, but maybe 18 minutes into the run, I had to slow to a walk again. I walked for a minute or so and was able to run the last 6ish minutes. I tried to push past the end time, and did so for maybe 30 seconds but I developed a cramp in my shoulder/chest area and had to stop.

I felt vomity a few times, there were various cramps threatening, and I just have difficulty taking those deep belly breaths. But I'm working up to this 25 minutes thing and even if it takes me over a week, I'm gonna do it! I am still running the vast majority of the time and I feel good afterwards.

Unfortunately dinner plans with my grandmother mean I won't be able to do the Thursday/Saturday like I wanted, so I will see you on Friday, when I cram in a run before my plans for the night, and then Sunday.