Running FAIL

Or not. It was almost a C25K bust after only 1 week. I got ambitious. It happens. I AM, after all, great, so why shouldn't I be able to do anything?

Oh, yeah...great, yes. Human, yes. Superhuman, not so much.

Here's how it went down.

Last week, I was walking 28 minutes and running 2. I had kept my speed to 3.0 on the walks and 4.0 on the run, but that always felt slow, so i would bump it up to 4.2 about 15 seconds in. No problems at all.

This week, we were increasing the running to 4 minutes and decreasing the walking to 26. I went into this really excited about this, by the way. So I work out my times and put them on a post-it and stick it to my iPod. Because I'm anal like that and hate staring at the treadmill and counting on my fingers to make sure I have the times right.

Ok, so 26/4 works out to 8 minutes walking, 2 running, 9 walking, 2 running, 9 walking. I like to do my short walk at the start so I have more recovery time after running. See, I do think these things through. Well, like I said...I got ambitious. 3.0 and 4.0? Nope. Not good enough. Lets go 3.3 and 4.5!

The first 8 minutes were gravy. No problem at all. The first 45 seconds of running was ok, too...then, my shin started to hurt, and I was barely able to keep up with the treadmill. I stuck it out for 45 more seconds, then hit stop. I had every intention of saying fuck it and just walking the rest of my time. But...I'm stubborn, and all I could picture was Jillian Michaels standing in front of me. I decided I wasn't going to give up just because it was hard, but I wasn't going to kill myself, either. So I started the treadmill again (after a few gulps of water)...but at 3.0 for the walk. And I didn't set up the intervals beforehand. After about 5 minutes, I figured I had recovered enough, and set out on the second running interval...at 4.0 for a minute and a half. Done. Walked another 5 minutes, then did the last minute of running, and gave myself 10 minutes of recovery walking. I had done it. Slower than I wanted, but I still finished.

And when I was done, I wiped the sweat off of my face, and went through the weight circuit. No slacking at all for this chickie.

What I learned: for right now, work on time, not speed. Speed will come later. Or not. I'm not actually planning on participating in a 5K, so if I can't do a 10 minute mile, so what? Or if it takes me longer, who cares? My ultimate goal is walking 60 miles...not running 3.

As a side note, I *may* be developing shin splints already. I'll be keeping an eye on this situation, and hoping that I'm wrong, but if the pain gets worse, I'm gonna head to the doctor. Right now, it's mild discomfort...which could just be because I'm fat and putting a lot of stress on my legs.