Couch to 5k: Week 8, Day 2

I didn't want to do it, but I took the advice of my beautiful wife and got my lazy tail out of bed this morning and ran. She was right, of course. I'm glad I did it. I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but I did it and I'm motivated to get out there and do it again. It's funny how easily a couple days off can lead to a week off.  I can see how a week off could easily turn into never running again.  I don't want to end up there, so unless I'm physically unable to run, I'm committing myself to running at least 3 times a week.


The word for today is cold.  It was 22 degrees when I parked the car this morning.  It really didn't feel too bad for the most part.  My hands and my neck were a little cold.  My neck was especially cold when I started sweating and running directly into the wind. 

I was supposed to run 28 minutes this morning.  It had been 6 days since I last ran and I felt it.  I got 20 minutes and then had to walk.  I partially blame that on the bitter wind blowing right in my face.  The road through the park runs generally west-east.  I always start on the west end and run east, then turn around and come back. The wind was blowing out of the west.  The first half wasn't bad at all as I had the wind at my back.  When I turned around, the wind was blowing right into my face and the running became significantly more difficult.  I made it to my turn around in about 17 minutes, including the 5 minute warm up.  When the wind started hitting me in the face, I slowed down a bit to try to compensate, but my lungs started burning and I could feel myself slowly but surely losing the battle.  At the 20 minute point I had two choices.  Pass out or walk and catch my breath.  Passing out is not something I really wanted to learn about this morning, so I stopped to walk for a bit.  I walked for 3 minutes, which was plenty of time to catch my breath and then ran all the way back to the car, which was only another 4.5 minutes. 

I'm a little disappointed that I had to take a walk break this morning, but I guess I shouldn't have taken nearly a week off. 

Today's Stats:  I did the same 2.8 miles I've been doing and I did it in 32:33 which is a pace of 11:37 per mile.

Next up: I'm going to repeat Week 8 Day 2.  I want to be able to comfortable and consistently run 28 minutes before I move on to Week 9.  Also, I'm hoping to have time to get to the pool tomorrow after work and start training to swim a mile.