Rachel--your first race was a half-marathon??!! Wow! I'm impressed! Congratulations!

Ennay, we're doing a 5K race in Tigard this Sunday. They have a balloon festival, I guess. My DD picked it out. We've never been to this place so it should be interesting just trying to find it via the google map.

ARGH! I was supposed to start my first day of the C25K program today and I went down to the fitness room at our apartment complex to use the treadmill and it was locked and there was no one else there to let me in! I'm really bummed, I can't run outside because it's 106 degrees out. I'm just really grumpy because this is the 3rd time in the last 2 weeks that I've gone to use the room and it's locked, they're not supposed to lock it until 10:00 pm. Unfortunately the manager's office opens after I go to work and closes before I get home so I haven't been able to bring this to their attention! It's so frustrating when I'm shooting for a 5K August 11th!! Thanks for letting me vent

Great jobs on those races ladies! You amaze me! I on the other hand, let my mental slump lead to a physical one, and now I'm out there huffing and puffing on 1/2 mile jogs instead of my former 3 mile ones. Why doesn't the body have a rewind mechanism that I can set and say, see you remember, a few weeks ago we were running 3 miles easily, why can't we do, say half that and work back up, why am I back at square one? Ah well, I'm back in the groove, however small it may be, and working back up to 3.1 miles again for another 5k in July for motivation. Great job guys, all you racers and C25k'ers... Keep it up!

Hey wisher, summer in Tucson was what finally convinced me to become a morning person. I'm outside between 5 and 7, depending on my schedule. Well, most summers anyway since I'm on running hiatus until about March of next year.

Congrats Rachel.

Hi everybody. Still lurking...

Anne

Yuk, my 10 mile race last night was horrible. I still technically managed a 10 mile PB, but only because my old one was pretty slow - I barely got above marathon pace overall and finished in 1:28:something. I've actually been far faster than that for the first 10 miles of a HM, but I always seem to have bad runs when I do a 10 mile race. I had awful stomach problems so ended up run/walking back to the finish after the first 5 miles, then felt really grotty all night so I'm not sure whether it was something I ate rather than just bog standard runners trots. Ah well, there will be plenty more races.

wndranne - I actually am a morning person, however I'm already up at 5:15 every morning to make it to work on time, if I got up earlier to run it would be dark out and I don't really feel comfortable running by myself around the city in the dark! I'll figure something out though, I refuse to just give up!!

wisher, I hope you can figure everything out. 106 degrees is crazy! It gets to the mid-to-high 90s here in the summer, but I'm lucky that I'm off all summer and can get up and run early but not TOO early. I just did my five miles this morning, but it's cloudy and cooler today anyway.

Helen, I'm sorry you had a bad run, but you're right--there will be lots more of them, and you have lots of successful races in your future. And a "bad" run for you would be a success for most people, I bet! Look how far you've come! I try to remember that when I get disappointed in something with my running. I beat myself up about my slow pace all the time, because I really want to get to a faster "easy" comfortable pace, but I'm still between 11:30 and 12:00. Then I remember that a year ago there's no way I could've even run for 11 minutes straight to save my life, and I'm thankful for how different my life is now!

Did 3 miles this morning, and those miles were MUCH tougher than the 5 miles I did yesterday. So weird how that works sometimes. Had about an 11:20 average pace, and for some reason that killed me. Ugh.

Hi all

I've finished week 2 of the Couch to 5K programme... quite surprisingly worried about week 3... anyone done this and repeated a week?

It's great inspiration for me to read all of your entries about how much or how far you run - at this point, I'm still amazed I am actually moving at all!

Have a great day!
Heather

If you need to repeat a week, repeat the week.

C25K progresses a lot faster than many other programs.

Hi all you runners! I’ve missed you.

Helen - Congrats on another fantastic marathon, speed demon! Sorry your 10 mi didn’t go like you hoped.

Rachel – Great job on your half! Very impressive. You look great, running really does do nice things for the look of your legs.

Heather & wisher - Welcome! I started with c25k, still not doing much more than 3 miles but at least I can do that. I’ve run 2 5k races this spring and really enjoyed them.

deeinthekeys – I know all about the slump! I’ve had a few myself. The important thing is you are back at it and will get back to 3.1 and beyond.

Speaking of slumps…I didn’t run for a week. A small slump, but I still feel kind of bad about it. Last weekend was crazy, this week was crazy trying to get settled in the new house and I just didn’t have it in me to get up at 5 when I was going to bed later than normal. And it has been way too hot to run after work. Finally got up this morning and ran a little over 2 miles with a half mile walk for warm up and cool down. It is still so humid though, even if cool enough at that hour. Not quite back in my groove, but I’ll work that out next week. I’ll be out of town with a busy agenda this weekend so I doubt I’ll be running.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Sheila, I almost did that race last year. I'd love to have a FE at a race sometime, but this year I am mostly doing long stuff. I might do a 10K in NorthPlains in Aug.

I did just under 10 miles this morning. It felt a lot better than the race on Wednesday - admittedly it wasn't as hilly - I just took it at a slow pace (slower than my normal long run pace), and told myself not to obsess about times, just to get used to being on my feet for a decent amount of time. I guess I kind of assume that because I could run 26 miles 3 weeks ago, I should be able to do more than 10 now, without realising how much it does take out of you. I'm sure I could do more if I had to, but I've got time before Amsterdam to build up relatively slowly, so there's no point rushing it.

I might go out with a running group from my gym tomorrow, if I do I don't think it will be a particularly hard or long run unless there are some secret speed demons I don't know about! I know I'm faster than the personal trainer organising it, which gives me confidence that it will be well within my ability. I'll see how I feel, I might have a rest day as I have actually hit 30 miles this week which isn't too bad.

Hi ladies! The title of this thread is no longer accurate for me, as it is hot and humid here in Chicago this weekend, so I am far from a cool runner - much more of a hot, sweaty runner! That's ok, at least I'm still getting my miles in - trying to run early in the day to avoid the worst of it. Ran 6 yesterday, and 7 this morning. Hope you're all doing great - I love reading the C25K progress reports!

Finally had my first C25K "run" this morning. It was harder than I thought it would be, seemed easy at first but then after a few running cycles it got harder and harder! I actually walked through the last minute of running. I think the name is a little misleading, no one could get off the couch and do that not have exercised at all before! lol

Anyway I'm glad to have started it finally, tomorrow is an "off" day, I think I'll do some work on the stationary bike then back to C25K on tuesday!

P.S. loooove my new running shoes!