Seven weeks.

Gotcha eh? I bet you aren't expecting me to say that I am seven weeks in to a run/walk 10km training program... You know better, our two lovely children are more than enough!

I can't believe it has been 7 weeks.  In the beginning, I could jog 1 minute, and would walk 4 minutes.  That first training piece was 35 minutes.  This mornings jog (end of week 7 of 13 weeks of training) was 54 minutes... I can now run 4 minutes 40 seconds, and then I walk 1 minute 20 seconds.  For week 8, it jumps to 5 minutes jogging, and 1 minute of walking.  I am doing the old school Sun Run training from years ago that plans your training over 13 weeks.  You start off with the 30 second segments and end up being able to run about an hour.  In the very least, I would love to be able to run for 15-20 minutes, and then stop for a minute, and then continue on.  Maybe once I feel like I am in a decent place with this, my goal would be to go out for 45 minutes, 3 days a week.  That would be about 4 miles/6-7 km I think.  Seems reasonable...

Now why does it feel better to say JOGGING and not running?  I think it is because I feel if I say jogging, no one expects me to be sprinting.  I also am not really a running fan.  Jogging, I can get behind!  Who knows why that really means something to me.

The last seven weeks have passed quickly. I have come to look forward to my jogs, and seeing how far I have come, and what I can do now.  I am glad to be doing something physical again.  I am running at 5:20ish in the morning.  The mornings have been amazing as the sun is coming up about 5:40 and the weather this June and July has been exceptional.

I plan to do a 5km in early September (Run or Dye) and I hope to do a 10km in early November.  Next year, I will be doing the Sun Run and who knows what else.  I don't really see any distances beyond a 10km in my future, but who knows.  I used to be only able to run for a minute.  Perhaps a year of training, and 10kms will be nothing! Who KNOWS!  It is amazing, but training works.

Consistency, a little at a time.  Not setting a crazy, blistering pace.  Just getting out there.  I love the quiet mornings.  This morning's jog was the first time I have gone for a run and it has been "soothing".  The rhythm of just moving, and watching the run, and looking at the fields as they slowly moved by, and looking out for slugs, listening to the frogs, in a word, awesome.

It also really helps to talk to other people that run, or are training, and have physical goals.  We help to motivate each other.  It also helps to put it out there, since people ask you then, and it helps keep (me at least) accountable.  It also means the world that when the alarm goes off at 5:10 am, my dear hubby rolls over, and says to me "running day!".  It all helps.  Especially the support at home.  I have a skirt I want to fit in to by September, and a coat he bought me a few years that has never fit and I LOVE.  One day I will post a picture of me in this lovely green coat and I will NOT look like a stuffed sausage in it.  Goals are so important, as are little rewards along the way.