window sill gardening, day 4

Another new thing I have picked up on - I've started to do some window sill gardening, after wanting to do it forever, I've bit the bullet and have started to actually go for it.

I have planted a window sill box with lettuce, bell pepper, roma tomato and chives, and a container with strawberries and one with four varieties of basil.
The basil has just now started to grow above ground! Awww so cute! Well three of the four have popped up.
And one tiny lettuce thingumy has also popped up above ground! Awwwwww! :-)

I wonder how long this will go well for. So far it has me very excited and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm watering them every day. All of them quite a lot (of sprinkling), except for the bell pepper, because I understood it doesn't like to be too wet. The strawberries and the basil are also under some kitchen foil, because apparently they like that when they are first sprouting. I wonder if I should have done the same for the bell pepper and the tomato. Ah well!

w4d2

Yaaaaaay!!! :-D

I did it! I was going to skip the running today and run on wednesday or thursday instead, but all throughout monday I just wanted to run again after the wonderful run on sunday, so I couldn't help it! I ran at 5:30 am, together with my half-awake doggie and it was wonderful. I had a bit of muscle ache in my shins, but I have to admit that I only half-heartedly did the warming up, so I only have myself to blame for that. And the breathing was a little difficult during the second run (first five minute run of that day), but other than that it was a breeze!

I am not even batting an eyelid about running for three minutes now. And I am not hugely impressed with running for five minutes either. It's just two minutes more than the three minute runs ahaha I can't believe how easy it is for me to keep breathing quite normally and how my legs seem to support my running and how I don't even feel the need to go extremely slow. I'm sure I'm going a whole lot slower than most joggers/runners, but I'm going a whole lot faster than I thought I would ever go. And as long as Tobi is trotting instead of walking, I'm doing something right :-D

Yay! Great run! Bring on w4d3 :-D (I was even thinking how I can quite easily skip the walking intervals and just keep going for 16 minutes, but that's pushing it I suppose ahaha, the 20 minute run of w5d3 seems less daunting to me every day now though).
Also, I can definitely feel my legs getting stronger and stronger. It's great.

w4d1

Yaaay! I did it! Up to now I thought the program was tough, but essentially doable. This week was the first time that I thought it was totally absurd. No way could I run for 5 minutes continously. But you know what? I could :-)

It was lovely. I went to the forrest with Tobi again. He was brilliant. He followed all the commands perfectly and he had as great a time as me running around through the beautiful forrest. The wheather was slightly rainy and cold, but warm and dry enough for a comfortable run. There were many other people out running and mountainbiking. That was really nice!

And the running itself - well I would almost say it was a breeze. My legs were fine, my breathing was fine. The only difficult thing was the pacing, but I had put some rather slow music on and that really helped me to keep a slower pace and thus keep going.
I definitely got another taste of the runner's high as well, whooo hahaha

A note to self:
- do not put cleaning vinegar on your only sport's bra. It makes breathing rather difficult. Tsk!

w3d3

I'm a week 3 C25k graduate! Whooo!!!

I can't imagine now thinking 90 seconds of running is a breeze. The 3 min. runs are still kicking me in the rear end (my legs are fine, but my breathing..oy!), but I did it! :-) And pretty fast. I can slow down and still not be walking, which I'll probably need to do during the 5 min. run of week 4... I now totally understand why so many people do week 4 twice. I think I might turn out to be one of them. We'll see!

This time we had another run in with wild life. During the last 3 minutes a fly (or other type of insect) flew into my eye! Ouch! I couldn't get it out for a while either, but I kept going LOL

Aaaanyway! Dance of joy! Level 3 runner! I haven't figured out what to buy myself for this milestone yet. I think perhaps some more music to run to.

W3D2

I can't believe I've been running for this long already! And the voice over of the lovely Get Running app told me that I've basically been running 3 times as long as I was two weeks ago! Can you imagine?! I'm proud! :-)

And it was a fantastic run today! I thought it was going to be miserable, because I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I was all bloated and had a belly ache from the monthly female curse, so I thought I was perhaps going to walk around a bit, but run...? Nah.

So before I went, I thought about what my favourite place to run would be. The answer: the woods. Only they are further away than the 5 minute warm up. I decided not to care about that and just pause the warm up and start the last minute the moment I arrived in the woods. I did, and it was brilliant. I think the slightly longer warm up did me a world of good. I had no (read: NO) muscles aches. I felt like I could go on forever.

Tobi ran off leash and had soooooo much fun! As did I! It was brilliant! I was smiling so much I forgot I was running! I have not paid any attention to posture or breathing or whatever. It was just go-go-go with a big smile on my face! A couple of times I realised I was out of breath and wanted to stop running, but then I realised again that I was trying to follow a program and wasn't just out there having brilliant fun hahah So I kept going. It was great. The weather was lovely and the woods are my favourite spot in the entire world. Tobi was having the time of his life. It was great.

We also saw a squirrel running up a tree with his mouth full of pine cone! LOL Tobi nearly caught it! And we saw loads of other dogs and Tobi was friendly with all of them (and vice versa), and we saw some Shetland ponies that scared Tobi a lot hahaha. So - much - fun!
I think we'll run there again on friday. Or else on saturday if I decide to do an early run on thursday.

Wheeeeeeee this is what I started running for! Brilliant! :-D

W3D1

Today's run was wonderful.

Run 1 was hard on my muscles, but otherwise okay. 90 seconds of running is a breeze now haha

But then the first 3 minute run was coming up. The hardest part of it was that I missed the very frequent encouragement of the voice over of the Get Running app! LOL She now only encouraged me at the start, after 90 seconds, 30 seconds before the end and 10 seconds before the end. So the first 90 seconds were quite lonely hahaha
My breathing got quite difficult in the end of it and I needed a good portion of the walking break to catch my breath again, but meanwhile...I made it! And then my muscles were warmed up as well, so the other two runs were pain free. Breathing was hard again for run 4, but not impossible. Not to the point of getting dizzy or anything, just...out of breath I guess.

Tobi was loving the running again.

Oh! I almost forgot! We got caught in a fisher's line! Somebody must have thrown their old line on the path. (It's a path around a fisher's lake.) We got a few strange looks from other people in the park. Turned out we were schlepping a few branches along behind us, that got caught in the fishing line too. Ugh. Thankfuly I had just finished run 4, so it didn't interfere with the running itself. Just with the cool down.

Anyway - W3D2...we're ready for ya!

W2D3

The wheather was lovely today - a true 'first day of spring' - but I had a rather horrendous run. My muscles ached and kept aching in my lower legs. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, other than walking around on heels for a day ahaha

Oh well...

The dog didn't enjoy it either this morning.

So we had a bit of a bad time, but we got through it! So I'm hopefull that we are ready to start week 3.

For now though --- level up! I finished week 2!!! Regardless of *how* I did it, I did it! I'm a level 2 C25K-er! Whoo!!

W2D2

I ran at 5:20 this morning!

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it, nor did I think I would feel like it at all, but somehow the thought of not running for another three days got me up and running (literally). I think I'm getting a little addicted! This was my 5th time running officially :-)

And it went really well! During all the runs I felt my shins. They kept burning a little. But not at all as bad as during the first week.
And I didn't feel weak in the legs even once, nor did I feel out of breath even once! It went so well! :-) I even prolonged run 5 (probably to 2 minutes?) just because I felt like it.
I think that week 3 seems totally possible right now. But let's wait till W2D3 before saying that out loud haha

Tobi was such a brave little doggie this morning. Without any breakfast, and at a time when he normally only walks outside for a few steps, pees and goes back into his cage, he now ran and ran. We passed the entrance to our appartment block a few times (I felt safer staying around there) and he did want to run back in a few times, but he was easily persuaded to keep running.
At one point he got scared of a cat (tsk!) and he tried to hid near my legs, but obviously that's a bit of a stupid idea haha I nearly tripped. And due to that constirnation, Tobi was absolutely convinced that the cat was trying to get him. He was so scared! He ran very fast LOL

All in all, a great run! Looking forward to W2D3 - which I am most likely going to do on thursday. I will be 30 years old by then LOL

W2D1

Polished :-)

In my first run my shins were hurting again, but it was only for a little while. After that there were no muscle aches.
During my second run I was so out of breath and all wobbly in the legs. When the Get Running lady told me: 45 seconds to go, I thought she was going to say 15 seconds to go. Ack! I couldn't run anymore. With every step I sent out a little prayer: 15 seconds to go now please, 15 seconds to go, please. And right when she announced the last 15 seconds "No Hay Igual" by Nelly Furtado started playing and I was able to pick myself up again and those last 15 seconds were a (slow haha) breeze. Just goes to show what a mental struggle running is.
During the rest of the runs my legs were absolutely fine though. I think I ran run 3 way too fast and I had trouble breathing properly. Runs 4, 5 and 6 were much better in terms of pacing and breathing.

I still have no major muscle soreness, which is amazing to me. I was so expecting to wake up in pain for the next few months!

I feel good about W2D2 now. I can handle it, I know! I'm still little apprehensive about week 3 coming up though, but I'm sure that by W2D3 I'll feel ready for it. Or not! haha

I also downloaded a 200 crunches in 6 weeks program, because I feel like my core strenght is going to be the key to good running posture. I did the initial test and my grand total is 7...hmm Now this I am going to feel in my musles tomorrow! I already feel it now. I'm just going to do that program on the running days too. I'll have sports days and rest days.

Tobi loved the run today. He was a bit better at not going too fast - apart from during run 6. Maybe I had gotten very very slow by then though? Anyway, he wanted to pull me faster, but my breathing wouldn't let me, so I stopped him from pulling me.
The rest of the time he was brilliant though. He was happily running along with me, ignoring other dogs, not staying behind to sniff things for too long. We had a great time!

W2D2..here we come!

W1D3

I did it! :-) I finished week one! Whooohooo go me!

Tobi is absolutely knackered. He's gone into his cage the moment he finished his doggie breakfast.

Run 4 was a b%$#^$ this time and run 1, 2 and 3 were a bit of a struggle also, but after that I was practically flying.
I had read up on correct running positions, because I felt bad about slamming my heel into the asphalt and then slamming all my body weight onto it as well. Poor heel.
I kept reading about chirunning. I tried to apply those principles today, and I suppose I didn't get it right(ish) till the sixth or so run, but it made a huge difference. Just the fact that I'm placing my feet underneath me and therefore behind my center of mass (and whoo quelle mass!), makes a big difference.
I felt I was no longer struggling against the road, but struggling along side with it. Just that mental shift makes a difference too, I suppose.
It seemed that today I didn't need the full 90 seconds of walking in between runs to recover. I could have done with about half and that would have been fine. I suppose that means I'm getting ready for the next level as well :-)

Oh and I didn't have any muscle ache from W1D2! I was so surprised! I had mentally prepared myself for 9+ weeks of sore muscles, but nothing. Perhaps it was because of the bananas I ate. Perhaps it was because I streched well? Or perhaps because my body is getting used to the running?
Here's to hoping that I won't have muscle aches from this run either!

So anyway - good run! Tobi was a little annoyed today that he didn't get to sniff all the leaves and twigs that desperately needed sniffing. I had to encourage him to run along quite a few times. I suppose the wheather wasn't as nice as during the previous runs. And I also suspect that a few female dogs are in heat, which means there are many hormones coursing through my little male doggie's body... ai ai.
It was funny, during run 6 a few dogs started barking from accross the lake and it startled him quite a bit. Then for run 7 I wanted to run the same path in the park again, because it was beautiful (and down hill LOL), so I turned around. Tobi was absolutely convinced that I was scared and tried to run away from the scary dogs. He became hyper alert and kept looking around him with lots of suspicion. I had to laugh so much! Maybe that helped me finish the run on a high note too :-)

I promised myself that for each level up I will reward myself. For week one it is one new song from Itunes to run to :-) So I'll have a look for that right now!
For finishing week 3 I'm going to get an armband or something similar for my iphone. For finishing week 6 I'm going to get something like the nike+ thingy. I'll think about my reward for week 2 as well :-) It's very much an Apple affair...tsk! Oh well :-)

Also, I read online that something that is hugely motivating to finish the whole program is to pick a race of 5k in your neighbourhood. Turns out that half way in june there is one! Eek! If I get past week 7, I'm going to perhaps do it. We'll see :-) It's terribly scary to think that one day I might be able to run for 45 minutes or so! The 90 seconds of week 2 are scaring me slightly already. Eek!

Anyway...yay! Finished week 1! Who would have thought! :-D

Weigh in: 97.8k

W1D2

Last saturday I ran W1D1 of the C25K program, which I'm following using the Get Running iphone app (so far I really really like it - friendly voice, use of my own music, good interface, top marks!).

I was supposed to run again on monday, but it was snowing badly, and despite my courageous idea to go out running at 5 am - I chickened out. A woman running alone in the dark...just not very safe. So I thought I'd go running in the evening, but I was exhausted. Same thing on tuesday, so I kind of thought I was going to give up. I would never get to 5k anyway.

But then I read someone's blog yesterday of how he started out and how everything hurt and how he didn't believe he could do it, but he's doing week 7 now. So I'm inspired.

And this morning the sun was shining and I was working from home, so I could 'sleep in' and therefore go for a run when it was already light. And I did it! Whooo!!

My shins hurt a lot doing the first few runs - they were burning. (Didn't know there were muscles there?!) But I changed the way I was running. Less from the lower leg and more from the upper leg and that felt good. At run 5 I was so done with it though. But my doggie, Tobi, a little dachshund, pulled me forward! And by the time run 7 was rolling around, I could just run and run forever (or so I thought). It felt great! I could have easily gone on for a couple of more runs of a minute anyway.
I love the feeling I have all day after a run. Slightly euforic - like I can handle whatever life is throwing at me.

My weight is 98.4 kilo's after lunch and fully clothed. Still - that's too much. So I'm hoping that will go down too. C290k would be good! :-)