Week 5: Day 3 and Week 6: Day 1

I was SO dreading Week 5 Day 3 since I started the program. When I read jog 20 min/2 miles I started sweating. When I trained for the tri last year the furthest I ran without walking was 20 minutes or 2 miles. It was rough and I apologize to anyone in the gym that day that had to witness it! I got to the gym after dropping the kids off at school and tried to think of any real excuse NOT to be there...I couldn't find one. So, I hopped on a machine and started the 5 minute warm up walk. The whole 5 minutes I was telling myself "I can do this, I can do this" and at the same time saying "WHY am I doing this?" Then I started jogging. About minute 6 I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do a full 20 minutes without walking but I kept going and told myself to just get to 10 minutes, then 15 minutes and then 17 minutes and then it was just 3 more minutes and I was done! I DID IT! It felt so good to step off that machine knowing that if I HAD to I could jog 2 miles.
Monday (2/8) I went into the gym with confidence that I could definetly do todays workout. Heck, I had just jogged 20 minutes and didn't fall over. Todays workout was 5 min warm up walk, then jog 5 minutes, walk 3 min, jog 8 min, walk 3 min, jog 5 min. EASY, right? NOPE...I couldn't believe how my calves felt after the 5 min jog. The entire time I was jogging I was amazed at how hard it was. What the heck? The entire day my knee's hurt walking up and down the stairs...hoping they feel better tomorrow. Not looking forward to Day 2 (jog 10, walk ?, jog 10) and REALLY not looking forward to Day 3 (jog 25 without walking). Kuddo's to those of you who do marathons...or even worse Ironman's...you are NUTS!

Week 5: Day 1 & 2

Ok, Day 1 and 2 are done. I was nervous going into this week. Today I ran 8 min., walk 5 min and run 8 min. I did it! My heartrate stayed about 153 bpm while running which is good. The 1st couple weeks my heartrate was near 187 while running! I also wasn't totally out of breath..what a change! Pray for me on Friday when I do the 20 minute run without walking!
My pace has slowed a little bit now that I am running longer periods of time:
Running: 5.1
Walking: 3.6
Total miles today was 2 miles and 205 calories.

I have also signed up for dailyburn.com. A friend sent the link to me and if you are interested let me know because if 3 friends sign up then I can get a "pro" membership for 1 month free. The site itself is very nice. You put in your weight, your height and your goals (mine is to lose 50 pounds) and it will tell you how many calories to eat and how long it will take to get to your goal. If I eat 2,000 calories a day I will lose the 50 pounds in 39 weeks...that is about 1.01 pounds a week. I would like to lose it in 1/2 that time but I know that is probably stretching it :). You can also track your exercise, food intake and weight loss. I joined the "lose 50 pound" challenge...dont' know what that will do for me but we will see :). Again, let me know if you are interested or want to check it out...it is completely FREEEEEE!