Progress! Change! Woo!

Sometimes I feel silly while running on a treadmill. Every step I take my gut and my love handles just bounce up and down. I'd like to be able to see myself run, I think I might get a kick out of it.

Anyway, I haven't written in a while,but that doesn't mean I haven't been running! It was nigh impossible over break (roads too dangerous and no gym), but once school started up again the first thing I did on Monday the 12th was head to the gym. I ran a mile at a 12:00 pace to see how I'd do. It was a little bit tough near the end, but I got through it without too much difficulty. I think that I could have kept going, but I didn't want to push myself too much. Tuesday I went back to the gym and struggled through a half mile. I've never really run on consecutive days (I was doing the couch to 5k program which had full rest days), so this was pretty big for me. I pushed myself to finish a half mile, but I knew my body didn't want to go much farther than that.

Wednesday I rested, and Thursday I headed back to the gym. I set a goal of 15:00 (1.25 miles), and by the time I got there, I decided I was comfortable enough running that I should keep going, so I pushed my goal to 18:00 (1.5 miles). I just kept going until I got to 20 minutes - it required a bit of an extra push, but a run should be challenging. I was so proud of myself, I almost threw my hands into the air at the gym, but then I realized that I might embarrass myself a little and refrained.

After that hard run (my longest treadmill run! wee) I took Friday off and got swimming lessons from my friend Annie on Saturday. I always thought I could swim, you know, I can move from Point A to Point B in a somewhat timely manner. We spent almost the whole time on breathing and form. Damn! It's hard. It was fun, though, and a pretty good work out. Before, I never really liked to use my legs when I swam and she made me, so my legs were a bit sore. I went to the gym again on Sunday and ran a mile (all of my runs are set to a 12:00 pace on treadmills). Monday I went swimming again. Tuesday no gym. Woops.

Now Wednesday. Wednesday was a day I was proud of. My goal was to run for 15:00. At about 12:00 I was starting to feel it, and I pushed myself to make it to 15:00, and I made it. I did my cool down walk and two minutes into it, I thought to myself, "I think I can run more, and I want to!" I finished my cool down, and then reset the treadmill for another 9:00. It was hard to stay motivated mentally, and my eyes kept wandering back to the timer, but my body was totally fine with it. I required a bit of a mental push around 7:00 in, but I just told myself that only 2:00 were left - I had already run for 22:00, what's another two? Awesome day at the gym. Not my longest uninterrupted run on a treadmill, but the most distance I covered by running on a treadmill. Pretty cool! Running for so long made me a couple of minutes late to work though. Woops again! They didn't mind, luckily.

I usually go to the gym before class, but I have to do a load of laundry and I wanted to write a post because I haven't written one in forever, so I'm going to go around lunchtime. My goal for the day is 8:00!