Week Three

This is the third week of Couch to 5K. Some of us in our party (Keetha) cannot HANDLE THE COUCH TO 5K (say that in a Jack Nicholson growl), so we are repeating Week Two rather than advancing to Week Three, wherein a three-minute jog is required.

Week Two workouts look like this:

Brisk five minute walk

90 seconds of jogging

2 minutes of walking

90 seconds of jogging

2 minutes of walking

90 seconds of jogging

2 minutes of walking

90 seconds of jogging

2 minutes of walking

Looks easy, no?

Yes, but the 90-second jog business last week was challenging. Very. If by challenging one means could not finish but one 90-second jogs, not four of them as we were supposed to do.

Last Monday was hard. I thought things may go marginally better Wednesday, which they did not. Friday they weren’t all that much improved. Friday also had the added bonus of being the day that my ankles and the sides of my feet hurt all day. So that was fun.

The ache in my ankles and feet made me wonder if perhaps when I walk and jog, I’m rolling my feet out slightly so that I come down on the sides of my feet. I looked at the soles of my running shoes and I can’t determine any kind of wear pattern so what the heck do I know.

I had a much fun weekend that did not include an over-abundance of sleep. Since I was a child in my yellow-canopied bed in the yellow house on Pecan Street, I have had trouble getting to sleep. I run through the day and think about the next day and the one after that and the weekend of my cousin’s wedding and what should I wear to that and I want to make homemade pizza dough again and I need to break out the label maker and get that office organized and I wonder if those eggs in the refrigerator are still good.

Monday morning when the alarm went off, I could not make myself get up. I was both tired and sleepy and already had a headache I could tell would be with me all day, as it was a headache from lack of sleep, a headache that sleep and only sleep can cure.

Since we did not get in our workout in the a.m. that meant we would do in the p.m., when we got home from work, around 5:30 in the afternoon, when the humidity and heat would be at their zenith. Awesome! Mondays can be bad enough and couple that with dreading a workout all day? Not. Fun.

Let me tell you, I can bet that it will most likely NOT happen again that we miss a morning workout. Because a Monday when you’re already tired and worn down needs a quiet, soothing conclusion, NOT a hot, exhausting run.

Oh, another thing? You know what else is different at 5:30 p.m. from 5:30 a.m.? The sun, it is quite high in the sky, meaning it is broad daylight. Cars and trucks and SUVs drove willy nilly past the courthouse, right where we are jogging/running/jogging. Other people were there, walking and such. It was disconcerting. I much prefer the quiet new mornings when it is just us with no observers. The sky is a deep soothing shade of blue that slowly changes to purple and pink. Plus, on a less poetic note, it ain’t nearly as hot in the early morning as it is in the late afternoon.

Lesson learned. Also? I still suck. On Monday afternoon, I completed the first 90 second jog. The second one, I had three more seconds to go, so that wasn’t bad. The last two I probably jogged about a minute each, aka nowhere near to completion. Sometimes I think maybe I should go back to Week One and huddle there for about another two weeks.

Here’s an odd thing: Yesterday, my ankles, feet, and knees hurt, and hurt badly. Is it supposed to feel like this? They hurt when I walk, they pound and ache when I sit still. I kind of feel like an angry person kicked me in the kneecaps and about the ankles. Is this normal? Am I just sore? Why didn’t my knees or feet hurt the first week?

I’m not looking for a reason I shouldn’t do the Couch to 5K. On the contrary; that first jogging circuit, I really really like. It feels good. The second one is great, too, right up until the point where I get winded and then it is No Fun Anymore.

This morning when I woke, I immediately noticed that my nothing was hurting, which, yay! Then I started the brisk five-minute (brisk!) walk and I could feel a bit of a twinge in my knees and ankles and feet. When the 90-second jog ensued, it was all back. I did the first two, then jogged 1 minute instead of 90 seconds and for the last one, about 45 seconds. By that point I was hardly lifting my feet from the pavement so I’m not sure that even qualified as a jog. I walked an extra lap and who knows? Maybe this is all muscle fatigue that will work itself out by Friday. Here’s hoping.