Week 5 in the Bag!

[bloodofareptile]

So, I've been lax at blogging but not at running - I've kept chugging away in my absence.

I finished the terrifying W5 R3 tonight. I've been having very quiet, dark thoughts about this run for weeks now. I was half full of total confidence that I could do it and half full of screaming terror that it was too much, and of course I wouldn't be able to make it through.

It was a hard one for me. The preceding runs that I didn't blog (W4 R3 to W5 R2) all went fine, as the rest has. This one, not so much. By the five minute mark I was already doubting - fifteen more minutes seemed like an age. I nearly gave in at the 10 minute mark, but then I had a magic five minutes where it felt like no effort at all.

Then the fifteen minute mark, and my feet, ankles, and calves were screaming at me to stop. Oh, the aching. My limbs often give out before my cardiovascular system does, and I was sure I wasn't going to make it. But then I started yelling at myself in my head like a drill sergeant.

"You can do this. It's just five minutes. You've done that so many times. You can do that in your sleep." Repeat every minute or thirty seconds, literally, until the end.

I've never been more grateful to stop, but I was so happy that I'd done it and not quit. What a ride!

I'm quite looking forward to Tuesday, and a return to a break in the middle... though I've read a lot of blogs that have said that one ended up being harder!

After that, I'm really nervous, as I have someone coming to stay with me for six weeks and so far this running lark has been entirely hush hush! I'm not sure I'm ready to "come out" to my friends yet!

[RhonaL]

Well done! I have just done Wk6 Run1 and it is okish - just don't think about it too much.