Did something different today

Just a short post, but I was proud of myself today, and thought I'd share.

As I'm in NH today, I had a few options. I could go to pilates, or I could pay to get a day pass to use the treadmill at the gym to do Week 3, Day 1 of my C25k (where longer runs come in), or I could try to do the C25k outside. I decided to be brave and try it outside.

As you leave our complex, you can go left, or you can go right. Left stares at a hill. A big one. I have great friends that run this way all the time, and I'm a bit in awe of them. I'm no where near ready for that hill.

But going right is kind of flat. I figured I could handle that. So I gave it a shot.

The first thing that surprised me is that my first 90 second run felt like 45 seconds. I was so surprised when the program beeped for transition! The 3 minute run felt longer, but it probably felt like 3 minutes, and not 5. I am attributing this to a few things. 1) I'm just getting more used to longer runs. 2) I probably didn't run as fast as I do on the treadmill, when I can set the speed, so maybe I wasn't working as hard and 3) running outside, instead of a treadmill, is just plain less boring, and time can go by more quickly purely because it is interesting.

I still plan on using the treadmill for this stuff, because I feel like being able to pay attention to my speed an how fast I'm running is an important part of me feeling like I'm making progress, but it was nice to know I have options (like for next weekend, when I'm back in NH again) and beyond.

Oh, and I also came to a decision today, even if a bit earlier than I needed to:

I'm going to keep going, week by week, on this 9 week program. I'm handling it okay, and I feel like I'm accomplishing something. 2 more days of Week 3, I can do. Week 4 has alternating (with walk breaks) 3 minute and 5 minute runs. I can't look past that week yet - I'm just going to try it and see where it goes.

And, yes, for those of you counting at home, my "weeks" are averaging a bit more like 8 or 9 days, but I'm okay with that. :-)

Thanks for reading!