Suck it!

After having a most disturbing dream about a boy trying to drown my nephew Jackson in the bathtub, I was more than happy to get up at 4:30 and head out for my workout. I woke up feeling fairly decent considering the time. I didn't have the greatest workout on Monday morning (I'm up to 25 minute runs in the C25k program), I finished but it was one of the worst 25 minute experiences in my life. I kept telling myself all day yesterday that this morning's workout was going to be different. It was going to be hard at first, sure, but once I got past the first 5 minutes I'd hit my zone and cruise on through. Sadly, this was not the case.

I got going and just like Monday I had a really hard time getting into my run. By minute 12 I just wanted it to be over. My breathing wasn't the issue, it was my legs. They just didn't want to cooperate. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a battle of the wills between your brain and your legs but it's not fun. My legs kept saying, 'just stop' and my brain kept saying, 'don't you DARE!' I kept trying to ignore the clock, the time seems to go so much slower when I watch the minutes tick by, but I couldn't help sneaking a peak every so often to know how soon my 25 minutes of torture were going to be over. As 30:00 got closer on the treadmill (5 minutes for a warm-up, of course) I started to think that if I couldn't get over this hump the last 2 weeks of my program were going to be miserable (next week is 28 minute runs and the last week is 30). So, instead of stopping after 25 minutes, I decided to suck it up and keep going.

My initial goal was just to go an extra minute or so to prove to my legs, once and for all, that even though they were tired they certainly had 25 minutes of, and let me emphasize slow running in them. It's amazing how much less unpleasant something seems when you choose to do it as opposed to a when workout program ordering you to. Suddenly my run didn't seem so bad, maybe it's because I was on a mission to prove myself. The next two minutes felt so good that I decided to go another three. When I got to 30 minutes of running I was tired but not so tired I couldn't keep going. Soon, my 2 extra minutes turned into 10 extra minutes. If I had had more time I probably would have kept going but I knew I was going to need a good cool-down.

All in all I ended up with a 35 minute run this morning which was just over 2.5 miles! Before I started this program I had never, ever in my entire life even run one mile so I feel like this is a really big accomplishment and while I know I have a long way to go I want to take a minute to enjoy the progress I've made so far. I'm also hoping that my legs got the picture and won't give me any hassle on Friday when I attempt my next 25 minutes.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. I guess I could share that this morning when I was thawing my blueberries for you morning snack at work I dropped the bowl and splattered blueberry juice all over the place. Sadly I was wearing one of only two pair of work pants that I can still wear and they're tan in color. I guess I'm off to buy some new pants tonight.

I hope you're all having a great week and are enjoying the beautiful summer time weather!