Onwards to Week Three!

Well, the good news is that I now have hard evidence that this blog wasn't just a whim and may actually last a little while, even if I am the only member of the world's populace currently aware of its existence (no, no, don't feel sorry for me, person who isn't reading this anyway; it's really okay, because ultimately, this is mostly for me anyway). This hard evidence of which I speak is the fact that the blog has acquired more than three posts, as of today. As someone who has been blogging since before it was cool (I started my first as a 17-year-old, waaaay back in 1996, when the Internet was still largely shiny and new), history has taught me that, at any given moment, I tend towards one of two blogging patterns: I either (1) create a blog and then update it loyally over a period of years; or (2) let it peter out after two or three posts. Hooray!

In any case, on Thursday, the husband and I finished up the last run of our running program's Week Two (10 sets of running for two minutes and walking for two minutes). His left calf was a little tight but didn't complain too much otherwise, and our outing was pleasant and pretty uneventful. This morning, we did our first run of Week Three, which involved 10 sets of running for three minutes and walking for two minutes. It proved to be pretty interesting, because this was the first time since starting that the husband and I have found our energy levels to be pretty mismatched. For some reason (perhaps the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had the forethought to consume about an hour before we left the house), I was filled with energy and had no difficulty with our three-minute run periods, even though they involved going up and down several hills. The husband, meanwhile, looked at me earnestly after finishing set seven and pitifully said, "I don't know if I can do this."

However, do it, he did. I spent the next few sets running right next to him, enthusiastically chirping platitudes like, "You can do this," and "This is good for us," which I'm fairly certain either helped tremendously or made him want to punch me out. Afterwards, we drove our course in the car like a couple of complete nerds, realizing that, although it was punctuated by the two-minute periods of walking, we actually ran a distance of somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 miles, which we thought was pretty cool for a couple of couch potatoes. I also tried out a new pair of Asics (the Gel Kayano 16) and discovered that they are heaven on earth for an over-pronating little earth pounder like yours truly. I barely felt like I was touching the ground at all (and I don't see how all runners aren't compulsive shoppers, with all the fun gear you can buy to supplement your training sessions).

The husband and I capped off our morning by going and getting some breakfast, then driving over potential future running sites (we're getting a little self-conscious about running around and around and around our neighborhood, giving embarrassed little nods to the people we keep running into again and again and again as we do so). Another fun little fact we have discovered about running is that it will absolutely make you view your town differently. We hate Tallahassee, but instead of paying as much attention as we usually do to its less attractive sides ("Ah, look. Nothing like the sight of beer cans on a lawn, softly glinting in the morning sunlight"), we were much more focused on thinking things like, "Oooh, hey! That park looks like it has lots of nice places to run!"

Good stuff.