Guilt, Exhaustion & Sunny Days

So despite the fact that I'm still getting over being sick (I'm still coughing) and even though I'm not sitting around being a couch potato, I still feel regularly guilty for any time I don't run and for not being as far along in the couch to 5k as I'd like to be.

And that's just silly, because I AM running - sure, I missed a run last week and the week before, but I still did two, which is more than none.  It's not that I'm letting myself off the hook, it's just that I can very easily beat myself up for not doing enough.  And sometimes, I need to remember that I'm just where I need to be.

This week, I have all intents and purposes for doing three runs.  However, I am doing week 5 over.  So today's run was five minutes running, three walking, five running, three walking, and five running.  After the first five minutes, I was REALLY glad that I'd decided to repeat week 5.  Walking around the Harry Potter park in flip flops last week totally destroyed my calves.

It seems like a silly thing, but by Friday morning, my calves were so incredibly sore! I ran anyway on Friday, as I mentioned - sometimes, it seems like when I push myself through muscle soreness, it actually helps me to recover faster.  My legs were sore all through Saturday and a bit yesterday too, but felt good today.  Until I started running - it's not that they hurt, it's just that the muscles were so tired.  And my legs overall were sore - my right knee was twinging (it does, as does my left, since I sit cross-legged a lot and can never seem to get comfortable)  and my legs just hurt.

I'd really like to be running faster, but that's just not where I am right now.  I reminded myself that at least I'm running again - I can always build speed; it's just important that I'm out there period.  I did the full three five-minute intervals and then took the dog on a nice long walk and I feel good about that.

Of course, it helps that the weather is gorgeous today - 71 degrees, sunny, low humidity, windy on the front end of the run only.  It's a perfect day for a run, so it wasn't hard to motivate myself to get out there.  Now that I'm home again for a few weeks (finally), I can hopefully get back into my routine.

I looked again today at the date for the Bridge to Bay 5k, and it's May 7th.  I compared it to my schedule for the couch to 5k, and I think I *could* just about be ready for it - it's a week before I'm officially done with the couch to 5k, but I should be just about at 5k distance by then.  I will end up running it MUCH slower than two years ago, I think, since I had been running 5k distance for a few weeks in advance of that race.  But I think it's a good goal to have - I'll just look to finish it, and do the whole thing running (even that nasty hill).  I find having a race ahead of me is good motivation - otherwise, I just feel like a casual jogger.

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

So we'll see what happens. I'm plodding along, but slow, hard runs are better than no runs at all, right?