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!

Week 2, day 2

So I took some time off in between the last walk/jog and this one because the fronts of my legs were hurting. Not in the "Ooo, my muscles are sore because I'm a workout person now," but in the ouch, it feels like I have little fractures on my leg bones, and my muscles are so tight my legs feel like rocks wrapped tightly in skin.

I went to Duluth, my hometown, and did some hiking in my favorite park, Jay Cooke. Maria and I did The Stairs, which are stairs that lead down to the river. I did The Stairs often growing up, but my dad would always run behind me on the way back up, yelling like a drill sergeant. 

Since the flood, The Stairs are almost all wiped away, except for a few slate ones, but I'm super brave and buff so I went for it, skidding down muddy hills and embracing trees all the way down.

Anyway, that story is to prove I wasn't completely lazy as I tried to wait for my legs to stop hurting. 

I went for the second run about a week after the first one, at night and with John, and I gagged a bit on this one, though it had been 4 hours since dinner. I was definitely running out of breath on these little 1.5 minute runs, and I asked John to  watch how I was running and tell me if I was doing something wrong, which might explain why I'm hurting my legs. All he said was "I dunno. Your boobs like nice," so I've got that going for me. 

I feel like I could run better if I weren't gasping for air. 

Week 2, day 1

Instead of using my same old streets, I went to the park in the evening. I liked the feeling of being in the woods, which I frequently miss, having grown up in the woods and moved to the city. 

Week two has longer running times than week one, and I was nervous to start this one. It's a bit like the first day of school..."can I make it? Did I learn enough last time?" 

It went better than expected. It was hard, yes, but I didn't puke! I did take a two minute break to use the restroom and the drinking fountain, which helped a lot! I haven't been bringing water with me on these workouts simply because I don't have anywhere I store it (women's clothes are useless! I have no pockets and have to store my phone in my bra, facing out to avoid boob sweat). 

"I might actually be able to do this" is a sentence I would say if I had enough breath. 

Week 1, day 3

I bought new shoes! They are pink and grey, and actually designed for running. When my feet hit the ground, the pavement is not as harsh because there's more cushion. I survived this walk-jog better than the others, and was cheery and sweaty at the end. It feels possible. I know I'm not destined for marathons, but still, I can move faster than I could a week ago.