Come by the Hills...

Okay, so maybe I've mentioned this fact once before...I can't remember and don't feel like reading back through 20-odd posts to find out so bear with me, but the road behind my house where I go running has HILLS. It's a paved road, which is find, but like most back country roads around here it is full of twists and turns and those darn hills.

Said hills didn't bother me too much in the first few weeks of c25k, but OH MAN do I feel them now!! Especially when my jogging intervals seem to always fall on the uphill portions of my route (which isn't too difficult, because the road always seems to be going up or down), I feel like I'm going to DIE. It's insane. I've decided I would be ten times faster if the road were flat, but I know that's also a total lie because I'm super slow on the downhill parts too, hehe.

So I was kinda nervous about starting week 4 today, but it had more to do with DREADING w5d3, which contains a twenty minute run. TWENTY MINUTES. With no walking breaks!! And I'm terrified. W4 was my quitting point last time around, so there's the added pressure of w5 being unchartered territory. Now to be perfectly fair, I used to jog/run around a lake by my campus in college and did just fine. It was almost 5k and took me FOREVER, but I did it regularly. Granted, I was probably 40lbs lighter at the time...yeah, that doesn't help me feel better.

Anyway, back to dreading today: it really wasn't so bad! Yes, the hills were brutal during the 5min jogging intervals. Yes, I wanted to give up several times. And yes, it took a lot of mental focus to finish strong. BUT I DID IT. So I'm proud of myself.

One thing I do remember about my college days and running around that blasted lake was getting into the "zone" after the first few minutes. Initially, I hated life out there, but I remember always feeling like I found my groove by the time I passed this one tree stump. If I made it to that stump, I was golden for the rest of my run. My intervals are still pretty short, but I've gotten glimpses of that zone and I need to hold on to that feeling.

I need to remember that once I'm running longer distances, it really does get easier mentally...instead of reminding myself to keep going, I'll have to remind myself when to stop. And getting back to that place...that running zone...is as important a goal as any.