Week Four of C25K is Done and Ready for Week Five

Running continues. A few of the scheduled running days the past week or so I missed as busy with other things. Trying to get back on a regular routine this week. A great run this morning with beautiful weather and I felt overall pretty good throughout the run. I just finished week four of the Couch to 5K. I believe it said as I finished week 4.3 that I was half done.
I have noticed that during the walking piece of the program, my shins are hurting a lot. I plan on doing increased stretching before and after each workout. I usually spend about five minutes stretching legs, arms, and body. However, I think I need to spend more time as my shins really hurt toward the end of the route. They do not hurt much during the running segments though which seems odd.

My average pace is still not that fast, but I do have to take into account that the start and end of each run is a five minute warm-up or cool down. Plus the walking between each segments. I can see that my average page is gradually going down as I get farther in the program. Just a few short weeks ago I was averaging 15 minute a mile pace. Now, the last few have been in mid-fourteen min mile. So, I continue to improve as I get farther into the program.

The days I have scheduled to run continue to be Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The difficult part are those times when in the evening on Tuesday or Thursday we have something else planned. A few times I have been able to get up early to run on those days, but usually bed feels too good and there is no desire to get out of the warm bed to go into the cool morning run. That I think will get better though as it continues to get warmer and if I have a need to run in the morning it will be a little easier to get up and do so.

The good news is that I am still enjoying running. Except for a few a aches and pains during or after a run, I feel good. I enjoy the whole process. I enjoy how good it makes me feel to know that I finished the run. I can also see that it is helping in my everyday mobility where I do not get "as winded" going up stairs or walking across the campus.

The best part is how excited my dog, Oliver, gets when he sees me putting on my running gear. He knows and he begins running around whimpering because he knows when I get home I will take him on a walk. As much as I feel motivated now to go out and run, I think a large part in doing so is knowing how excited he gets and how much he loves going on walks that helps to motivate me to continue this process.

My plans for when I finish this program? Well, I plan to run a 5K in September/October. Other than that, I just plan to keep running. I have a gym membership which I have not used in a few months by physically being in the building, but possibly after I finish this training program I will start frequenting the gym. I want to keep running throughout the years, so at some point I will need to be in the gym when I cannot run outside.

Until next time, have a great run!