Couch to 5K - Day 2

I completed day 2 of the Couch to 5K program yesterday morning (yay!), and it was a lot harder than day 1 (boo!). After the initial 60-second run, I had to force myself not to quit every time the voice prompt told me it was time to run again. By the last few running spurts, I was pretty much ready to die. I was constantly checking the timer to see how many seconds of the minute were left, because I didn’t think I could keep going. I also felt as though I was breathing a lot heavier than I did on Monday, and everything just felt harder. Arg.

The important thing, I guess, is that I didn’t quit and start walking even though I really wanted to. The whole time, though, I was second-guessing myself. Do you really expect to start running at your size? You hate this. Running will never be something you enjoy, so why waste your time? I pushed through the negative self-talk, but I’ll admit that it is very hard to imagine myself running for longer than 60 seconds, much less a bloody 5K. While huffing and puffing, I tried to picture going for even a mile, and I about gave up and went back to be right then and there.

I think I just need to be patient with myself. I just started exercising after a two year hiatus (and I wasn’t exercising very much before that), so I’m super out of shape, and everything is going to be challenging. If I need to repeat week one of Cto5K for a while, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. For now, I do feel proud that I’m actually running (a grand total of 8 minutes every other day, but still!).

I get up at 4:50 AM to exercise, so it’s very dark outside when I head out. (I do it that early so I can get to work on time, but that’s really the best time of day to go anyway, because it is SO hot here, and running in the sunlight is utter misery. I also hate people watching me when I walk or run. I know I need to get over that, but right now I don’t want my neighbors all up in my weight loss business.) I only run in my little mostly-gated neighborhood, but it can feel a little scary if I let myself think about it too much. Today, two black cats ran right across my path while I ran, and while I don’t believe in that stuff, and know my protection comes from Someone much more powerful than cats, it still creeped me out a little.

My next scheduled day of the program is Friday, and I’m really not sure what I’ll do because I don’t work on Fridays, so it would be awesome to sleep in. But if I wait until it’s hot, I know I’ll be miserable. Maybe I’ll just get up early to get it over with, then go back to sleep... Yeah, maybe not.