Weeks Five and Six...

Week Five, we ran 2.92 miles on Saturday morning with Mindy and the group. By this time, I had gotten to the point where I didn't want to miss the Saturday morning runs. I couldn't say I liked them, but I looked forward to them. I know that sounds crazy, but the feeling I got after I ran was worth every painful minute I spent running. :)

I was able to run 4 minutes, then 6 minutes, then two more 3-minute intervals. I was so excited about it -- I didn't say anything to anyone because I thought it sounded really lame to say I could run 6 minutes in a row! But, it was amazing to me... I'd been struggling to run three minutes at a time, feeling like I could hardly breathe afterwards. To do 6 minutes in a row was a big deal to this old lady!

The rest of that week, my run time improved slowly but consistently. At home I was running 4 minutes at a time, with 2 minutes in between. I got 3 intervals in on my regular weekday morning run. At the track, we ran a full lap, then walked for half a lap -- four times. I added a 5th one just to push myself a little, which I had made a pact with myself to do on track days. On Thursday, I added another 2-minute interval at the end to try to push myself a little more.

Week Six started off with a longer Saturday run -- just over 3 miles. Mindy promised us we wouldn't know the difference between 3.02 miles and the 2.92 we ran last week. She was right. This time I ran 6 minutes, 10 minutes, and 4 minutes, with 2-3 minutes in between. I rocked it! :)  Again, it wasn't monumental for the average person, but for me, it was tremendous! I think I was on some kind of a high, because I lengthened my run on Monday to include two loops in my neighborhood, and I was able to run 12 minutes without stopping on one of my weekday runs! When I ran that long at once, it shortened what I was able to do after that, so I could only do two 4-minute intervals before I petered out. Still, I was happy with that! At the track, we ran two laps around and then walked for a lap. We did that four times. It just about killed me! As a result, I was only able to do 4-minute intervals at home on Friday. My butt and upper thigh muscles were burning! They do on a regular basis these days, but this particular run they were worse than normal.

I have been struggling with fatigue -- I don't know if its muscle fatigue or just overall fatigue from working so hard to fit all this running into my already crazy schedule. I just know that I don't want to stop doing it -- I just sometimes find myself having to talk myself into running, which takes a lot more time than I have. I guess its just a work in progress...