Monday, November 1, 2010

Couch to 5K: Week 4 Day 1 v.3 or 4

Seems I'm stuck on week 4.  The good news is, it's becoming easy.  I plan to continue with week 4 through the rest of this week and then move on to week 5 next week.  I'm trying really hard to keep from pushing myself too hard and end up having to take any time off. 

This morning it was cool out and I was alone in the park.  It was a perfect morning to run.  I started out at what I hoped was a pretty slow pace with the intent of increasing my pace over the course of the whole session.  My goal was to pick a pace for the first 3 and 5 minute repetitions and then up that pace slightly for the second 3 and 5 minute repetitions. I made it through the first 3, the first 5, and the second 3 without any problems.  I definitely picked up my pace in the second three minute rep, but found myself concerned that I didn't have enough left to make it through the final 5 minutes.  As I began the last 5 minute rep, I was not quite as recovered as I had been to start the other runs.  At about the halfway point I found myself wanting to walk and catch my breath.  I made myself keep running and was able to distract myself with trying to calculate the amount of time I had left in my head.  It worked, and before I knew it the 5 minutes was up and I had made it back to my starting place plus a few feet.           

I made it back to the car at 31:01 which was a pretty big improvement over Friday.  It also probably explains why I was ready to walk during the last 5 minute run.  I had picked up my pace fairly significantly.  It's become almost instinctual now to run faster toward the end.

Today Stats:  2.48 miles in 31:01 for a pace of 12:30/mile.  This reduced my overall average pace since beginning the program to 12:51/mile - the lowest it has ever been. 

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