...And we ran in the misty rain (Week 3, Day 3)

This week's routine is:

1. Five minute warmup walk (about 10 for us)
2. 90 seconds jogging
3. 90 seconds walking
4. 3 minutes jogging
5. 3 minutes walking
6. Repeat steps 2-5
7. Cool down walk for at least 5 minutes.
   

So tonight was a true committment test for me. It was about 60 degrees, and foggy/rainy. We got home at 7:20 and by the time we fed and walked the craphounds and got ready to go it was quarter to 8. It was fully dark by then with no streetlights out here in nowhereville (sunset is around 7:16pm here-not that you could see the sun today). We changed clothes, and out the door we went. We had only gone a few hundred feet when Matt experienced some kind of pain on his inner leg. I told him that there was no shame in quitting if he needed to (then, or later in our session). He elected to keep going and see if it got better or worse.

So up the first big hill we went. Took us 10 minutes - about normal. We walked for about 30 seconds to recover from the hill, then we ran the first 90 seconds. The first running segment always seems hardest to me. Tonight was no different; but I made it. We actually walked for about 2.5 minutes because our "90 second recovery" ended up being on a rather large hill, so we walked up it and about 20 seconds later, we started our three minute run segment. It went uphill too, but a shorter hill - and there was a downhill on the other side, which was nice. It was tough, but not as bad as Tuesday.

The next two running segments were not so bad. Not easy, but I can tell a definite difference in my ability to handle them. We always go away from the house a bit further than halfway (it's an out and back course), then turn back. Gives us a nice long cooldown walk at the end. Well, we usually run a little just for fun because there's a couple of long downhill stretches as we go home. I finally figured out to take shorter steps - almost like balancing on a rolling log - while going downhill. It was fun - I felt like a little kid running down a hill. We were gone a total of 47 minutes. And we both felt better afterwards.

I'm considering repeating one day of week 3 on Sunday instead of moving on to week 4. Matt didn't go with me Sunday, and as hard as the three minute segments were, I'm a little concerned about moving on. But I don't have to decide today, thank goodness.

When we got back tonight, we were stretching on the outside steps, and Matt said "I'm really proud of you for running. I remember [years ago when we were dating] trying to get you to run with me. You weren't having any of it. And now you're doing it of your own free will."

Did I mention that I have an awesome husband?