Week 6 Day 3 (Third Time's the Charm!)

Week 6 day 3 was not my friend. I tried to run it on Monday - fail. I tried again on Wednesday - epic fail. I was simply running out of energy about 3/4 of the way through the run, but not able to make it to 25 minutes. Wednesday's attempt even ended with what I'll call an asthma "incident" (I won't go as far as to say attack) in which breathing was a little on the challenging side.

I'll argue that the weather has something to do with this. It's a brutal summer here in Northern VA. Today's high was 102 degrees. That's without the humidity, which was sky-high, giving us a heat index of more than 110 degrees. When I woke up it was already close to 90. So I did what any rational person would do. I attempted W6 D3 again. But this time, indoors. The gym has a whole row of fancy treadmills that have everything from a place to put my water bottle to a charging station for my iPod. And did I mention, AIR CONDITIONING. Wow, what a difference that made. It wasn't easy, but with the help of the AC I was able to complete that 25 minute run, with 5 minutes of walking on either end. I'm FINALLY done with week 6.

From here on out the interval training is over. Week 7 is three days of 28 minute runs. That three minutes may not sound like a lot, but I was DONE at 25 minutes today. 28 will be a challenge. But I'm really feeling good about finishing this thing, even if it takes me a few extra weeks.

I decided that from here on out I'm ditching the c25k Podcasts. They were fantastic while I was doing intervals, but not really necessary now that I'm just doing long runs. Instead I'm making my own playlists that last the correct length, with obvious cues for the warmup and cooldown walks.

I've also decided that as long as this brutal heat continues, I'm running inside. It's not as interesting as outside, but the AC is really helpful. And it's not too boring - the treadmills face a mirror, so I can watch people use all of the crazy other aerobic machines and weight machines.

It's at least a little bit entertaining. Plus I can watch myself in the mirror. It's fun to see my face go from peachy to tomato red over the course of the run. And I can also admire how hard core I look running. That's good for at least five minutes!

Stay tuned for my attempts at week 7, plus my reviews of the assorted running stuff I have picked up in this journey!