W5D2

I took care of business Tuesday night and completed W5D2. It went quite a bit better than I was expecting. Day 2 consisted of an 8 minute run, a 5 minute walk, and another 8 minute run. I kept my pace relatively slow for the runs as my focus was on completing them and building up my endurance for the 20 minute run on Thursday evening.

The first 8 minutes were pretty uneventful. My breathing was better than it had been on Day 1 as I was able to go about 8 steps between each breath out. Toward the end of the first run, I found myself wondering how I hadn't reached the stopping point yet, not because of discomfort in my legs, but I felt like I was covering more distance than I thought I would considering my pace. I ended up going roughly .7 miles in each of the 8 minute runs. Although that's nothing amazing, I think it's in line with a 10 minute mile which is a pace I've read a lot of people mentioning as a good one when preparing for a 5k.

One of my sub-goals for the 5k is to finish the event in 30 minutes or less. Obviously that would require each of my miles, on average, to be less than 10 minutes. Improving my endurance during the C25k program and the training between the completion of it and the actual event should allow me to accomplish that goal. Of course, my main goal is to simply complete the event. Let's get back to business.

The second 8 minute walk went just as well as the first, although my breathing pattern suffered a slight bit around the last 2 or 3 minutes of the run; a breath out every 5 or 6 steps. That was still better than Day 1, though. With roughly 90 seconds remaining, I fought the only mental battle of the night. My legs voiced their displeasure at the new length of time but I knew there wasn't much time left. Sure enough, the woman's voice came on, informing me that there was only a minute left and I kept pushing.

Sixty seconds later and she told me to begin the cooldown walk. Oddly enough, at the announcement of the completion of the run, my immediate thought wasn't gratitude that I'd done it. Instead, I found myself wondering if I had kept up with the pace from Day 1 that would have me finishing the same amount of distance. Although Thursday's workout remains a bit daunting to me, it's something that I feel I'll be able to do and I'm anxious to prove myself right.