28 Minutes

Those Couch To 5K folks are really stinking smart. I don't know how they figured out the genius of having you do the same workout 3 times, but it's brilliant. The first two times, I can't quite do it and need a couple short breaks to stretch or catch my breath, then I can keep going. It's just out of my reach. The third time I can do it. Every week I've thought "I'm going to need to repeat this week for sure"... and then the last day I do it, and I'm ready to move on to the next week. I am now moving on to Week 9... the last week. The 30-minute run. I am only 2 minutes away from accomplishing the run that seemed so impossible on week one. Unfreakingbelievable.

In a way, it's harder than I thought it would be. I imagined that the first few times, 90 seconds would be super hard. Then that would be easy and 3 minutes would be super hard, etc. That isn't quite how it has been for me. 90 seconds is still hard, 3 minutes is still hard, every minute is hard. The first 5-10 minutes are really bad, and the uphill parts are really bad. The downhill parts are less bad. When I'm done though, I feel successful, healthy, and fantastic. It's worth it to feel like that.

Tomorrow I'm going to Colorado Springs for the second attempt of my dad's surgery. Yes it's scary and I honestly don't know how it's going to turn out. It would be a lie to say I'm sure he's going to be ok. I'm not sure what to think, but it does remind me that I'm doing the right thing for my heart with my running, workouts with the "penguins", and this blog. My dad has heart disease despite the fact that he has always had low cholesterol, low blood pressure, and has always been very healthy. The last thing I need to be doing is making my chances for getting heart disease even worse by being out of shape and overweight.