One week down, five more to go

After one week of my 5k training, I am optimistic about the program. I had a couple of bad days, but that's to be expected. Here's a summary of the week, day by day:

Tuesday:
As I anticipated in my last post, the track was snow-covered on Tuesday, so I switched that day's workout with the hill workout on Thursday. I was able to do the warm up inside on the treadmill and go out in the 2-degree windchill for only 5 minutes of running up the hill outside my house. That was tough, but it was a good workout. I had psyched up for it (unintentionally) the night before by reading LOTR. The part I was reading was when the fellowship tried to take the path over the mountain Caradhras and was deterred by frigid temperatures and massive snowfalls. It was all too appropriate for my frozen ascent to the top of the hill time after time the next morning!
Wednesday:
The next day found me exhausted and sore, and my knee hurt a little, so I only ran 1 mile, but I was ready for the pace intervals on Thursday.
Thursday:
I had to go to the track directly from work, and it was after 5 p.m. by the time that I got there. I jogged for a mile clockwise on the track, stretched, and then jogged another mile to complete the warm up. Then I started the intervals (counterclockwise). My goal pace was 8:00 per mile, or 2:00 for each lap. My first lap surprised me: 1:52. I had to side-step some snow, and patches were icy, so I was surprised that it was so fast. I tried to slow it down, and the next two laps were 1:56 each. The sun was setting, and the track seemed to be getting icier. Every time my foot hit the ground it slid a little bit. I wanted to run all 6 laps, but I ended after only one more, which took me 1:54. The whole workout felt great. I was pleased that I was a little under pace, even when holding back as I was because of the ice.
Saturday:
After a day of full rest, I decided to do my long run on Saturday. It was supposed to rain all day today, and I didn't want to be stuck doing 4+ miles on the treadmill, so I switched Saturday's short run with today's long run. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, because I had no energy at all on Saturday. I dragged myself 4.5 miles, with some walking up the really long, steep hills. It took about 50 minutes.
Sunday:
Today wasn't much better. It turned out to be a beautiful day, with no rain until the late afternoon. I set out, noting that my calves were tight and a little sore. I jogged 2 miles in about 22 minutes.

Now that I'm at the end of the week, I see that I still have a long way to go. It's definitely doable, though. I just have to continue getting out and following the plan as well as I can, remembering to listen to my body, too. Rest is going to be just as great a part of my journey as the running. Now to begin a day of full rest. If anything, I'll just stretch my calves.

Schedule

I checked out a book from the library that has a 6-week training schedule for intermediate runners for a 5K race. I'm set to begin it tomorrow. I've been running 2-3 mile runs throughout the week, as well as some strength training and a 3 1/2 mile bike ride to work up to it. I think that I'll be ready for the intermediate workout. Of course, the weather is going to be a problem with this schedule. It's currently snowing, and I have a feeling that the track will be covered, so it will be difficult to do the pace intervals. Let's hope that the track will be cleared by tomorrow. If not, I'll have to do something else, like maybe switch the intervals with the hill run scheduled for Thursday.