Never let a bad day get you down

I have a confession. Couch to 5k hit a bit of a snag last week. I am majorly bummed but determined not to let it sidetrack me!

I swore up and down that I would run at least once while I was in Florida last weekend. I even gave up coveted carry-on space to pack my running shoes, only to arrive in the middle of the first tropical storm of the season! It rained off and on all three days that I was there. And then I returned to Indy to find more of the same - three straight days of rain!!

So it was a full week before I got to run and I'd missed two training days of Week 6. My first day back was a run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute day - which I'd completed successfully twice the week before. I even added distance the second time I did it! I was so proud! But the first day back was a different story - I only completed 2 rotations before I started having chest pains. I ended up taking a huge break smack in the middle and walked for five minutes while they subsided. I have random chest pain every once in awhile, but they usually aren't brought on by exercise, so it totally threw me off my game. I was eventually able to run for a third set of 4 minutes but that was it. I was so disappointed in my abysmal performance, I came home and did Level 3 of The Shred as penance!

Needless to say, I was not very excited to run again on Sunday. I was worried about the chest pains coming back and irritated that I'd manage to lose progress in just a week. I'd been thisclose to enjoying my jogs and now I was actually less enthused than when I started this whole thing! I decided to stick with Week 6 since I'd performed so dismally the first time through it. I did a 4/1 training day and completed it without incident, although I definitely noticed I was slower than before.

Today I stepped things up to a 5 minute run and a 2 minute walk. It went better than I expected, although I found myself glancing at the ipod a lot to see how much time is left. It's sad, but I motivate myself by counting down how much longer I have in each little rotation - half way done! only 2 more minutes! only 1.5 more minutes! only 1 more minute! Pathetic, I know. But hey, whatever gets me through, right?