I haven’t posted too much here on my Couch to 5K progress. It basically goes Amy complains about running, she huffs and puffs and hurts through a run and then comes back, pats herself on the back by posting the completion on Facebook and then complains about how long the next run is. There has been absolutely nothing glamorous about it. I don’t enjoy it. I haven’t had any epiphanies. I still don’t like running. So there’s that.
There’s this little list in my C25K iPhone app and it has checkmarks up through Week 4, Day 2 and I can not make myself not check the next one off. But this week I’ve been very, very close to quitting. I posted on Twitter that Week 4 looked scary. And it was. I thought maybe it was my imagination. Maybe I hadn’t eaten enough. Maybe I had too many rest days in between because of the holidays. Because man, that was tough.
But I found out that most people quit in Week 4 or 5. After searching a bunch of the C25K forums, it turns out that a lot of people said just get through Week 4 and you’re good.
So this week for me isn’t just having fun with an iPhone app or trying out running. To me this week is do or die. Am I going to quit this C25K thing or feel like I’m going to die trying? Because you don’t put your body through what I’ve gone through the last two workouts just because you’re playing around.
Last night Melissa got me into her gym and she did the whole program with me. She even matched my cadence for some of the running and walked when I walked. Something that she, as a marathoner, really didn’t have to do. She doesn’t know it, but a lot of times when I’m at the gym and I just don’t think I can run anymore, I imagine her on the treadmill to my right. And Dad’s on my left. And even sometimes Melissa’s brother and sister join us. It sounds stupid but it helps to know there are others that have gone before me and were right where I was. And if they can run for miles without dying and even enjoying it, I can too. So last night when Melissa was actually running beside me, I can’t tell you how much it helped. At the end, I simply had to watch her run and somehow tell my body just to do the same thing because I couldn’t do it by myself.
As today is New Year’s Eve I feel it’s pretty appropriate for me to choose to go for it. Make it my goal to finish this thing. I should be done the first week of February. I have no idea if or when I’ll run a 5K. I’m honestly ok if I never do one but I don’t think Melissa is going to let me NOT do one.
I found this quote here and laughed so hard. It’s pretty much where I am with this whole thing.
"I run. At least, that’s what I am telling myself. It’s actually more of a "continued forward motion at a semi-consistent pace while praying I don’t die" kind of activity."
But that’s ok. I’m still going to check all the checkmarks, publish all the Facebook posts and hopefully by February continue in a forward motion at a semi-consistent pace while praying I don’t die for 30 minutes in a row.