Week 5 Goals, RUNNING and Equipment Update

Training Days: 3
Total Time of Each Session: 30 minutes
Objective: Jog for 5 min. and then walk at a fast pace for 5 min. Repeat 2 times

Today marked the beginning of (at least partial) RUNNING! I am so excited! I felt like there was still this big "what if" in my mind about whether or not I would be able to continue making progress and actually running.

It is embarrasing to me to write about how I ran for 5 minutes three times today, but was worried about how HARD the running would be. I know that to someone else that seems really lame, but I'm just being honest.


I woke up really anxious to get outside this morning! I had programmed Garmin with a fancy "advanced" workout so that it would beep at me each time I needed to change from run to walk. The running went well. I think that because, in the past, I have always tried to run too fast at first, it was always my cardiovascular system that hated running. Today, I went REALLY slowly and what was tired was my legs. I just need to build some muscle. Honestly, I ran so slowly that my heart rate and my pace stayed lower than when I was at a fast-walk pace. I don't care though! I was running! **Bella was incredibly bored (and therefore poorly behaved on the leash) with the pace. I just don't think she could understand how I could possibly be running so slowly.**

All weekend, I was wondering if I was going to have to alter my training schedule and do 3min run/2 walk 5 times because I wouldn't be able to do the 5 minutes of running. It was not bad. I just realized that I would like my legs to be stronger so the muscles didn't get so tired (mostly my calves). Maybe some resistance training is in order . . .

Equipment Update

I went to the running store this weekend in preparation for my "week o' running." I purchased this handheld insulated water bottle.

It was very comfortable on my hand this morning, and I really liked it. At the running store, I debated long and hard about which type of nozzle to get. There was one that is always closed unless you bite on the tip and then the water is dispensed. The benefit of that is that you don't have to pull a top "up" to get the water to flow every time.

I chose the more traditional type of top that you have to pull up to get the water to flow but that if the top is up, the water can still leak out. My reasoning was that I wanted the ability to dump the water on Bella and wouldn't have been able to with the one you had to "bite" to engage. I didn't love having to pull the top up this morning, but that is minor. We'll see how it goes. I can always try the other one.

I also purchased the leash system I have I have written about in previous posts because my current water/leash waist pack is too bouncy for running. It was AWESOME this morning. Maybe it is just because I've been using the bulky waist pack, but honestly, I didn't even know I had it on. Several different times, I panicked when I thought it had unhooked itself because I couldn't feel it around my waist. That's how comfortable it is! I'm hooked (literally).

As an after thought, I also grabbed these socks. Last week, even though I was just walking, I felt like some of the other socks I had tried were too "silky" and my feet were sliding in my shoes a bit. I noticed that the skin on the outside of my big toes was sore (like the beginnings of a blister). These Thorlo's were AWESOME--so padded and my feet felt great! The pair I purchased were Moderate cushion. They do make a THICK cusion version. Maybe I will try those sometime too.