C25K- Week 5, Day 3

I just finished the 20-minute run... and with that, week 5 is behind me. This run was originally scheduled for yesterday (Sundays are normally my 'rest day'), but I was helping my husband teach a CPR class yesterday and we ran late, late, late! By the time we arrived home, I was not in the right mental frame of mind to do this run... and I knew that in order to get through those 20 minutes, I really needed to be!

Okay, so that brings me to this morning. I did the run at 8:00AM b/c I wanted to get out there and get it over with. The temp was 67F, but the humidity is 100% today!!! ARGH! It was like running in a suana! Awful! The minute I started doing my 5-minute warm-up, I knew that the weather was not going to be helpful to me. At that point I was thinking that I should have stuck with my original plan and did this run indoors on a treadmill. Oh, well.... too late!

The first 10-minutes of the run went as well as expected. Intensity wise, it felt similar to the first 2 days of week 5. Right around the 11 or 12 minute mark, I had a mental block and needed to push. My breathing was also more labored than I like, so I slowed my pace. The next few minutes went by well... but at minute 16 I was hit with a triple whammy! My breathing became labored and I slowed my pace again. I alsmost wanted to stop and walk at this point, but I didn't it. I also felt a few cramps in my uterus. This isn't the first time this has happened and it always seems to occur when I push myself to that next 'level'. The third thing that occurred is that I noticed a pain in my hip! This is my first running related "pain". I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm running on concrete. I think if I had run on the grass today, though, I would NOT have made it. Running on grass is way more difficult.

So, I pushed through the cramps, the hip pain, and my labored breathing and finished up the run. For the first time today, I started down the last lag of the 5K route that I mapped out. That was rewarding.

Anyway, I'm REALLY glad this run is over. I'm glad that I got through it... it was a confidence booster, but I'm also really happy to be moving on to week 6, where there once again are small walking breaks. Hopefully by the end of week 6 (and the 25 minute run), I'll be more prepared for this type of sustained exertion.

Everyone has their 'most difficult' C25K day... Week 5, Day 3 is mine.

I 'may' start Day 1 of week 6 tomorrow... depending on how I feel. If I don't, then I'll have to bike tomorrow and run on Tuesday and I would rather not start switching my schedule around. We'll see how I feel. Sitting here right now I'm ready to do it, but maybe tomorrow morning will be a different story.