W5D3

The infamous Day 3 of Week 5 is in the books! Fellow C25K runners know what this day means: jumping from an eight minute interval on day two to a 20 minute run on day three. I finished with flying colors! I still can’t believe I ran for 20 minutes straight! Especially after missing my target by 40 seconds on day 2. I guess it really motivated me to finish day 3.

When I arrived at the trail I noticed the amount of cars parked along the side of the road. My initial thought was that people in Santa Rosa are running en masse on Saturday morning but later I found out that there was an actual race later that morning. The trail was packed with runners!

At first I was a little bit intimidated by all the runners. Lean and toned bodies all over the place, running warm-up laps with a pace I only can dream of (for now). But I was on the track to run my own race! During my stretching a slightly overweight guy passed me and I noticed he had the same pace I normally would run. A perfect target! Once in my 5 minute warm-up I saw him 300 meters in front of me. Perfect!

My 20 minute run started and the first 2-3 minutes are the hardest for me. My legs already start feeling sore but within 5 minutes everything went into auto pilot. My pace was perfect, my breathing controlled and my focus on the guy in front of me was sharp.

Every now and then I would lose sight of him due to some curves in the trail but I was gaining ground on him. I was afraid of going to fast and I would pay a price at a later time in my run. But everything felt good! My heart rate was steady at 149 Bpm with no extreme fluctuations, even the uphill parts!

My podcast notified me the 15 minute mark and I was a few feet behind the guy! I was about to past him! He was huffing and puffing and I knew exactly what he was going through. A few weeks back I was doing the same thing! I showed no mercy and once past him I excellarated with 4 minutes or so to go.

I knew my last minute would all be uphill but because of the guy I felt like a million bucks. Slowly I ran up the hill with one minute to go. And there it was, a little chime in my podcast telling me the race was over. I finished my 20 minute run! I was smiling ear to ear.

I couldn’t have picked a better day for my W5D3 run. The morning fog was about to burn off with a temperature of 63F (17C) and cool breeze. The guy in front of me was a blessing as well. Also my virtual running mate Daisy ran her W5D3. She is running on different continent but we are on the same running schedule. Once again congratulations on finishing your W5D3!

Last but not least a Wordpress plugin for the Nike+ sports kit. My stats are now automatically visible in the right column. Sweet… On to week 6!