Week 4, day 2

I put on spandex capris and put my hair in pigtails. I drove to a park with John, and tried. That's the best I can say about today's attempt: I tried. I really wasn't in the mood, it was 85 out, I sweat just walking around. Other people jogged past me. I still can't jog for 5 minutes. Midway through the workout, the fronts of my legs started reaaaally hurting again. I dunno. There's a difference between feeling the burn, and feeling like your legs are going to shatter, and there's a nail in your heel. I'm feeling kind of frustrated and down, because even though I'm trying my hardest, I can't do it yet. 

However-- I'm hauling around about 40- 60 more pounds than John. I mean, really, how good would he do with an 60 pound backpack? 

I really have no idea, but I guess I shouldn't compare myself to other people. I'm just going to keep trying. 

Week 3, Day 3

I do not appreciate jogging always.

Also, my interpretation of the word "jogging" is somewhat inconsistent and wibbly wobbly. Sometimes, I think jogging is a sort of friendly looking sprint, and sometimes, it's a fast bouncy walk. Sometimes it's a hateful, bitter activity.

I ate a Chipotle burrito 3 hours before this run, but it felt as if the burrito was floating, like a brick, around my entire torso.

It made jogging suck. 

Week 4, Day 1

Week 4 is: 5 minute warm up walk, 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 2.5 minute walk, 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 5 minute cool down.

So. I cannot jog 5 minutes, yet. I can jog 3.5 minutes. I can even jog 4 minutes. I just did it. 4 minutes is 4 minutes more than I was jogging in May, so for tonight, I am going to be happy that I can jog 4 minutes.

But! I just found out that the Couch to 5k ap keeps a map of where I walk-jogged, so that's cool! Tonight's looks like this:

I kind of want to interpret the shape like people interpret the shapes of clouds. 

Hike in a dress at Minnehaha Falls

For my birthday, we went out for breakfast and then ended up at Minnehaha Falls. We weren't really planning on a hike, but it just kind of happened, although we were dressed for breakfast at Hazel's NE, and not for hopping over tree roots and riverside puddles. It was great and weird. 

Week 3, Day 2

Soo....one of the things about the Couch to 5k ap is that you can choose between 4 different trainers' voices to tell you when to jog or walk. I chose Constance from the start because I'm trying to keep this as a positive experience, and applaud myself for what I am doing, rather than be self-punishing or depressed about how, in the grand scheme of all things that run, I am so, so far behind.

Also, I imagine that Constance must have had an interesting childhood because of her name, which I associate with a kickass badger from the Redwall series.

Week 3, Day 1

Week 3 is: 5 minute warm up walk, jog 1.5 minutes, walk 1.5 minutes, jog 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, 1.5 minutes, walk 1.5 minutes, jog 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, 5 minute cool down. 

I felt pretty good about this run! I went 2.12 miles, which isn' the best or worse that I've done, but I totally survived it. You can tell because I gave it a smiley face rating. 

Week 2, day 3

I just finished this run, and I'm proud of myself for squeezing it into my day. I drove up to Duluth for the day to dress shop for my sister's wedding, and after 5 hours of driving and 4 hours of sweatily trying on dresses in fitting rooms (I had double duty as I was trying on dresses, but also helping my sister dive into dresses), I was impressed that I was able to hop out of the car and into running shoes. The motivation partly came from dress shopping with a size 4, 6, and 8 bride and bridesmaids (when I realized you can basically add up their dress sizes to get mine, I screamed internally). 

Anyway. I'm a chubby girl. That's why I am trying to run, and why I named my blog Chubby Girl does Couch to 5k. There is much more to me than my chubby-ness! My humor and passion, hard work ethic, kind heart and nonprofit career. My love of literature and fall leaves and food and basically everything. 

I want to do this because I can. I currently do about 2 miles in the 30 minutes the app takes, but I know I can do better if I keep trying. Tonight's run went well-- I tried to keep myself at an easier pace so I wouldn't get barfy, and it worked! It's okay that I'm not a 5k runner now, but I think I can get there! 

 I am writing this from the bath, and my lovely John has sliced me some peaches from Georgia, then from my mother in law, then from the fridge. They are a cool and perfect post workout snack!