Is running for me?

Well on Saturday I got back on the C25K horse, nearly a month after my last session. Let me say that being sick sucks, being so sick that I couldn't run, even worse. All of my build up was gone. All the work I had done was gone. 


For some reason I wasn't looking forward to it, in fact I was dreading it. At first, I was going to restart at week 3, but once I looked at what happened on week 3, I bumped it down to week 2. I figured if it was too easy, I would transition into week 3 no problems. 


I could barely do week 2.... I stopped running several run sessions. I'd go fine for about 45-60 seconds but could not go the full amount. I think that there was one maybe two intervals, that I could actually run the full length. 


I chugged through the entire session, I was bound and determined to complete it. But I am definitely no where near where I was a month ago. 


I am wondering if I should just restart the whole program, all the way back to week 1 day 1. Or keep at week 2 until I feel ready to move on.


The other part of me thinks I should give up running completely. I mean, maybe it's not for me. I enjoy walking so much more, and it's much less impact on my knees/ankles. Perhaps taking a hiatus from running until I can get some more weight off?


Kayla and I have a 5K coming up in September, and I'd love to be able to run it with her. I want to beat my time from last year's 5K (48:15.2). 


Right now I can walk a 5K in an hour, so I am not that far off from my time from last year's time. 


Today, I was planning on getting another long (10K) walk in, but I realized that I should probably do a C25K session, probably week 2. 


Perhaps this is just the "first session after a long time off" jitters or something. I don't want to give myself any doubt, but at the same time, I said I wasn't going to do anything that wasn't any fun for me. I need exercise/activity to be fun for me so that I will keep doing it. 

Couch to 5K Week 2 in the books!

So today, I was first going to hit the gym, but once I got outside it was too nice out. So I changed my mind and went for a training run. Finally 4 weeks later I finished week 2... damn sinus infection. I am looking forward to starting week 3.

Today's run felt good, the second run cycle my right knee started aching so when I got to the walk portion I took the time to do a nice long stretch. It felt really good and loosened right up. I then did the next couple of run intervals on the grass. Thankfully my town has a nice long stretch of grass called "The Plains". It was my first experience running on grass. Thoughts... it was quite nice. A lot more forgiving than the treadmill and pavement. A lot easier on the joints.

I feel like I am making progress, the first couple of run intervals I was doing a lot of negative self-talk. You know, the kind I've been doing my whole life. Whenever I've started something and it got to a point that I was struggling or had to make a tough decision... yeah well I kept telling myself that I was going to complete the run. I even said it out loud! I hope the postman wasn't bothered by the girl who was yelling at herself... oops! I'm not crazy I swear! The app I have for my iPhone chimes in with "you are halfway" and I was like score, I got this. I busted out the last half of the training session and at the end, I felt SO good and SO proud of myself for being able to combat the negative self-talk. Big NSV (non-scale victory) for me!

I may not be running my first 5k in 2 weeks, but I'll feel confident in the training that I am doing now and I know I will be successful!