Finished what I started.

Major accomplishment today!! I finished my C25K program!!!

I am insanely proud of myself right now. I started this 8 weeks ago with the intention of finishing it in 8 weeks. And I did! I even made up one run this week. So I technically did 4 runs this week. But I didn't stop, I didn't quit, and I didn't make any excuses to quit or skip ahead. Scratch one thing of my list of things to do :) I loved pushing my body and seeing how far it would go, and finding out how strong I actually am :)

I figured out that my mapmyrun app drives me crazy! LOL. I need to fiddle with the settings again because this time I somehow had it set to tell me every 30 seconds all my stats. I was afraid to mess with it during my run because I didn't want it to stop recording my workout. So once again I dealt with it. I hope it's not something I have to set every time that I want to run. That will get old. I want to set it so that it comes on every 5 minutes. That way I know a good starting time after I warm up and a good cool down point after I stop running.

One of my friends immediately suggested I start training for a 10k now that my 5k training is done. I thought about it for a few minutes. But I really want to get a solid 5k done for several times before I start training for a 10k. Right now with warm up, run, cool down I am getting right at 2.35 miles. That's a 40 minute workout. I am going to do a couple of 30 minutes runs this week and then maybe on Saturday try to run a 5k and see how long it takes me. Last week doing the 12 minute runs 3 times I was able to finish 3 miles in about 53 minutes. But I also had some walking in there. I am very interested in seeing if I can push myself to run the majority of a 5k with a warm up/cool down. The part of park path that I run on to do 3 miles has this amazingly wonderful (*sarcasm*)hill that I have to run down/up. It's pretty killer for me. And I usually looked forward to walking shortly after I made it back up the hill. If I ran a 17 minute mile I am still looking at 51 minutes for 3 miles. I think my next goal would be to try to get a 5k in under 50 minutes. And then under 45 minutes. And then I think when I got to a 40-45 minute 5k that I would want to start training for a 10k. I am in no hurry really to train for things. I am enjoying taking it slow. I haven't had any injuries in doing it this way, and I am looking forward to that staying true for all of my running :)

I think the next thing I want to focus on is getting some strength training in. I did a really good job disciplining myself getting 3 runs in a week. Now I need to work on the other end of it. And do a good job getting disciplined at 2-3 days of cross-training on the bike and getting a good strength training going. All while keeping up my 3 running days too. We are on the downward end of school here, I would like to be at a really great routine by summer to keep it going while school is out. I know when winter hits that I probably won't be running outside as much so I want to be able to keep up working out and just having it be part of my routine.  My initial thought is getting one day of arms and one day of legs and then one day of both maybe? I suppose that one day of just a biking cardio is a different move than the running? I don't know. I will sit and figure it out soon. I've managed to lose 20 without toning, but if I don't start doing it now, I am just going to have lose skin. And that is something that I don't really want right now.

I am feeling very rambly right now! So I think at this point I better stop for the night or I am not going to make any sense here soon ;)