Week 2, Day 2: Pump Up the Volume

Today is the first day I ran alone, and with an ipod, and Holy Cow what a difference. I didn't think I was running any faster, especially because I was noticing that the landmarks at my intervals were about the same as yesterday, but I must have miscounted yesterday towards the end and skipped the last running interval (though I don't see how that's possible) but anyway, I ended up finishing the loop in 25:54, compared to yesterday's 30:17. 4.5 minutes off of a 1.6 mile loop? I know, I know, time doesn't matter; but, but, 4.5 minutes off of a 1.6 mile loop! Who rules? Effie rules!

For those of you doing the math at home, I told you I was painfully slow! And also, you should download Craig's PaceMate application here which makes it easy to calculate your pace AND your projected race time for 5K, 10K, marathon, etc. The downside of this joy is that I already have to start thinking about increasing the distance. I knew in my head I'd have to do that eventually, but I didn't think that it would happen so soon. I'll probably just keep the same 1.6 mile loop, but add some down & back side streets or even just pass my house for a few minutes and then turn around. I'm not ready to do two full loops, which probably won't happen until the very last week of the program. Two full loops is 3.2 miles, and a 5K is 3.1 miles, so eventually the goal is to be able to run 2 full loops. I think I'm giving myself a panic attack. Back to the present now.

I started feeling the beat down at about minute 17 of today's run. My 90 second running intervals were getting longer and longer and my 2 minute walk breaks were getting shorter and shorter. The last running interval was downhill AND there was a great song on my ipod (Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's "Squeeze Me In") so I totally rocked that and almost continued running all the way home for the last minute or so, but then remembered that I'm fat and lazy so I walked it instead. Today was the first day that felt like a run. I was out of breath and sweaty when I got home, and that felt good.