Week Five, day two, starting to feel it!

I still feel like I deserve a round of applause every time I do actually go running after work, when it's all dark and chilly outside.

Tonight was about 9C and not terribly windy, humid, or wet (when I started). I stretched, put on a pair of running pants, teeshirt, and hooded sweatshit (my layers are starting to become a bit less!). I was, I admit, nervous about the 8 minute jogs. the pattern today was:

5 min warmup walk
8 min jogging
5 min walking
8 min jogging
5 min cool down

and let me tell you, 8 minutes FEELS more than five minutes. more songs go by on my ipod, I covered more distance, and it was harder. but still, not as terribly hard as I thought it would be! I did find myself waiting trying to count down how much time I had left by the songs that were playing, but I didn't actually struggle. I also know that I ran very slowly, and I'm still absolutely fine with that. way, way more important for me to actually jog the time I'm supposed to jog rather than go fast.

During my second jog it started to rain just a tiny bit - between a mist and a drizzle - but it didn't get in my way. On my second 8 minute jog I tacked on an extra minute! That means almost 17 minutes of jogging this time around, in two sets. I still do not feel mentally prepared at all for jogging 20 minutes in a row (which is day three). Physically I admit, I suppose it's possible. but ... really? what am I going to do for 20 minutes? I need to enter some sort of zone that I still haven't entered yet. Changing my music will probably help, and maybe changing my route .... more than anything I just wish I was able to do all this during the daytime. Maybe I'll do my next run in the morning and try to head for the park, i think that will help.

I am still astounded that I've made it halfway through the program! It has been totally worth it so far, to follow the plan slowly and regularly. let's see what happens when I go out for day three...