C25K Week 8 Complete... FINALLY

I've FINALLY completed Week 8! It took me longer because of our crazy schedule and I had to put a couple extra days in between my runs. It made it harder, but nearly as hard as Week 7. Something about those 25 min runs just did me in.

Week 8 we had to run for 28mins all three runs. I was nervous because of the trouble I had with Week 7 but I had a new determination not to fail anymore. NO MORE EXCUSES.

Run 1 was a challenge BUT I wasn't struggling and cusing or huffing and puffing at the end. I felt GREAT and excited. I had to do this run on my lunch break at work and even though I took a quick shower afterwards I felt really gross putting my work clothes back on and sitting in my office the rest of the day. Its getting harder and harder to do my runs at work. Boo...

Run 2 was my best run this whole journey. Throughout the run I was getting bursts of speed and actually RUNNING instead of jogging. I was great! I was exhausted afterwards.

Run 3 I compeleted three days after Run 2 instead of one day. It sucked. I jogged most of the run and I just wasn't feeling it. PMS had a huge factor in this but again... that's just an excuse. At 20 minutes my lower back started screaming at me. At 24 minutes it locked up and an I had to stop and walk. After a minute of walking I was upset with myself so I pushed myself to run the last 3 minutes. Now I'm sitting here thinking a heating pad on my back would do WONDERS - But I'm glad I pushed myself.

Now that Week 8 is complete I'm moving into my final week of C25K. It won't be my final week of running and prepping for a 5K. I'm only at 2 miles when I hit 28 mintues and I don't see myself running that extra 1.1 mile in the 3 minutes that is going to be added this week.

Kevin and I were going to run the Turkey Trot 5K / 1mile Jaunt BUT I just found out its on a Wednesday at noon. WTF! UGH... Looks like we're on the search again. Soooo until the 5k I'm going to be adding 3 to 5 mins on to each week until I hit 3.1. Afterwards I'll just keep working on my time. I don't see myself speeding up tremendously but speed isn't my goal... finishing is my goal.

I also downloaded an app on my phone called Run Keeper. I really really like it so far. I can program my exercise into the app and it tells me when to walk and when to run. It tracks GPS where I ran and for how far. It also tells me what my pace is. My first two runs this week were 12 minutes and today's was 13.50! See I was jogging SLOW..... After you've completed your workout it emails you a summary and uploads to your profile on their website! I like it because I can track my progress... or lack there of...

Week 9 shouldn't take me nearly as long to complete as this week did. Here's to actually finishing the program!!