First 20-Minute Run!

Hello all!

A little update on my progress in my Getting In Shape Journey:

Today on my training guide to run a 10K, I was told to walk or run for 20 minutes.  At first I thought, "Maybe I'll walk 5 minutes, run 5 minutes, etc." And then I thought, "that's too easy, what if I walked 5 minutes, ran 10 minutes, walked 5 minutes?" And then I thought, "I ran over a mile and a half last weekend... I should just run the whole thing..." And so I did :)  And it felt great!

I had some potatoes about an hour before I ran so that I could get some good carb-energy in me.  I started out with some yoga with my friends Courtney and Anna - this was good since it's power yoga (we missed you Tabitha!).  We used dumbbells and focused on arm strengthening.  The DVD we use is really good for toning and burning calories, more so than it is like regular yoga.  That was a good start!

Then Anna and I went into the exercise room at the gym and while I ran, she walked for 20 minutes (by the way, she did an awesome job this morning with running two miles!!! Way to go, Anna!)  I started these 20 minutes thinking again, "I'll take it slow so I don't wear myself out." So I started at 4.5 miles (treadmill speed).  At about the 5 minute mark I felt a little bored with going that slow so I up'd it to 4.7.  At about 12 minutes, I up'd it again to 5.2 and ran at that speed until I had one minute left to go.  At 19 minutes I got it up to 5.7, ran at that speed for about 30 seconds, and then finished strong (for Jessica) at 6.0 speed!  IT was pretty great ;)

At the end of 20 minutes, I completed 1.65 miles!!! 

:D  Hooray!  That's 5/100 more than I ran on Saturday (little victories!).

Overall, I am so thankful for my friends, and for the working body God has given me :)

I also found a nifty little online device that I've seen a few of my friends use on Facebook.  It's called "dailymile" and it's a site that reminds a little of Twitter (?) where you can track your progress!  If you want to look at progress from there, feel free to look!

Jessica's dailymile Progress