Jumped into Week 7 a little early... AKA... Being bold!

No run this last Sunday - which would have been Day 3 of week 6. My running partner was getting over being sick, and that seemed like a good opportunity to take some time to spend with my hubby and little boy. We tried to take Ethan to the park to "get his play on" so he'd be ready for an afternoon nap. When we arrived we found him already asleep... lol. So we all went back home and had a nice nap together before getting ready for church.

Monday morning I decided I was feeling great with week 6 and was eager to start week 7, so I just jumped straight into week 7 instead of finishing the third run from week 6. It didn't seem like that big of a jump in my head... adding "only one minute" the each interval. Each of the six intervals. 6 minutes isn't that much, right? And it didn't really seem to be! I'm actually really stunned/impressed/blessed/elated at how great I'm feeling when I run. I've been keeping an eye on my heart rate during treadmill runs as a sort of marker for my fitness level, and I'm actually close to keeping my heart rate on the low end of the cardio spectrum... right above the whole "fat burn" spectrum. I'd love to be able to spend an hour running in the fat burn spectrum... blasting away pure fat calories while doing what my body has grown to love. Mmm! I think I have a few more weeks of running before my body hits that level, but I'm really looking forward to it!

When I stepped on the treadmill on Monday I actually thought, "Is that all? Maybe I did it wrong... I feel amazing!" That gave me the assurance I needed to resolve to finally set the treadmill at a 1% incline.

I've read in several places now that treadmill running is slightly easier than road running. With a treadmill there's not much difference in incline (unless you use the incline feature), not as much keeping your balance on varying terrain, no wind resistance, and your body isn't working as hard to propel you forward as much as it is keeping your legs under you. It's not enough of a difference that you could be a "fake runner" by only using the treadmill, but I've been concerned that it might be just enough difference to make me think I'm awesome and then be disappointed/surprised when I get on the road for a race and find things are harder. So... I finally followed the advice of setting the incline to 1%. I actually avoided it for the first interval and a half... I was REALLY like the feeling of running feeling easy. :) But I finally "put my big girl shoes on" and pushed that darn incline button. I could definitely tell my body was working harder - but was excited to see that it wasn't pushing me as hard as I'd feared it would. My run was harder, my breath was a little heavier, and I was WAY sweatier... but it still felt good. And after it was all over, there's just something wonderful about walking away and feeling like I accomplished something. Even if it was just kicking my own butt. :)

I'm going to register for my 10k as soon as Daniel gets paid this weekend... and I can't wait! When I think about the race my tummy starts to get a little tense... but I know it will be an amazing experience and that I'll really enjoy it. I've got about 4.5ish weeks left until the 10k... and I'm SUPER excited! AH!