5K Running Training Update

I joined a 5K training group at the end of April. My first race is July 3rd in Brentwood, TN. We are set up to run/walk in intervals. When I started the first week of my training, we had to run for 1 minute and walk for 1 minute over the course of 4 intervals. I seriously thought I was going to pass out just from running for the first minute. Our schedule has been set up to where we run 3 days a week, have a long recovery walk once a week, cross-train up to 2 days a week, and take one full day off each week to rest. At first, it was almost impossible for me to actually get 3 days of running in each week. However, it was always much easier on our Thursday night run if I had run the other 2 days each week. The way the program is set up, we added 30 seconds to our run each week until we were up to 4 minutes of running at a time. The walking went up to 2 minutes initially, and then was backed down to 1 minute. We started out doing 4 intervals each week and now are up to 7. The first time I did 7 intervals of 4 minute run/1 minute walk, I really thought I would die. Now, I feel so awesome after my workout. I know with the pace I'm running(see jogging) right now it will take me at least 8 intervals to complete the race in a couple of weeks.

I'm so excited that I started this program. When I got started, my goal was just to finish the race. Now my goal is to complete a 5K every month for the rest of the year before I start training for the Country Music Half Marathon in January. The Country Music Half Marathon is run the last weekend in April in Nashville. The race is full of hills and seems to always be the hottest weekend of the year to that point. This race will be a huge challenge for me, but I'm very excited to work toward completing it.

I'm so lucky that I have lots of people supporting my efforts. My dad, oldest niece, and 2 of my best friends are getting up way early on a Saturday to run the 5K with me on July 3rd. The race starts at 7:00 am, so we all have to be there by 6:30 at the latest. In addition to my friends and family supporting me, we also have a group of mentors that run with us each week, who are all running the race with us. I'll post pictures of all of us following the race, since my sister and 2 younger nieces should be getting up early to see us all cross the finish line. I also have lots of friends supporting me on both twitter and facebook. All the cheers I get each time I post about my workouts really help to keep me motivated.

I plan on posting updates on the last 2 books I read tomorrow night. I finished reading Larissa Ione's Desire Unchained and KT Grant's Lovestruck in the past week. I had hoped to get at least one of the post up tonight after this update, but my run lasted a bit longer than I expected.