week 4 day 1

Wow I think I let this one beat me before I even put on my runners...we had such a big weekend with Rhys doing his black belt grading and everything else going on as normal and I had been reading the forums like crazy. There were lots of posts from people who had trouble with this run and I think I let it all get under my skin.

I went out to the farm and on the way home I was thinking should I give my mate a ring and get her to come with me? I decided no because she is an accomplished runner and I was a bit intimidated by that.

I jumped on Face book where I bumped into Mandy who is the lady that told me about c25k running in the first place and she is also a Karate student that works with me regularly. we chatted for a moment and I told her I was off to try my week 4 d 1 at Casey fields where they have all sorts of sporting stuff. I could tell she was thinking about it and I invited her along. Mandy doing week 1 d 1 and me doing w4 d1.

Well the track we were running on was designed for push bikes and so black top all the way. I normally run on a gravel track so this was a major change for me. As much as I hate to admit it I think I was trying to impress Mandy a bit and I walked out faster and started my first jog faster than I normally do by the time I realised what I had done I was really struggling with the first 3 minute run. I ended up dropping back to a walk about 20 seconds early on that interval. It was then that I realised that lots of the track we had decided to run on had several inclines. Now I won't go so far as to call them hills but talk about put me off. when I got to the first 5 minute interval I knew I was in big trouble... I did the best I could to push through and I made it to about 3min 50 seconds before I dropped back to a walk. I did the 5 minute walk and got my breath back faster than I thought I would I finished the next 3 minute run fine. The last 5 minute run I made just under 4 minutes before I dropped back to a walk. I have to say the inclines and the black top didn't help at all. I was pretty down on it all as I walked back to where Mandy was but I realised that even though I did not make the 5 minute runs I did make personal bests for the amount of time i jogged. Prior to today I have never jogged more than 3 minutes in my life so to add almost a minute to that is a good thing. I am playing with the idea of repeating the last run in week 3 or at the very least repeating today's run in the more familiar environment by myself so I don't get distracted by anyone else and their pace. I know I don't need to be competitive with Mandy and she is so wonderful she encourages me to keep going no matter what Thanks Mandy your a real Gem. I will make up my mind on Tuesday depending on how I feel about which run I will do. I am not stressed about this anymore I understand that everyone has a bad run sometimes. I will wait and see what happens in the next run before I make any more changes.
So yeah Week 4 day 1 damn thats hard