Four.

In case you’re wondering, I’m going to be posting every day about my 100 days. All the way up to Day 100. Maybe even more. I think I have to do this for my own sake. It helps me hold myself accountable to doing the daily 30 minutes.

In case you’re wondering, I’m using a mixture of the Couch 2 5K program and the 100 Days of Running program. I’m using the C25K plan (broken down into 9 weeks of running/walking, building up to a 5k) to help me start to run. But those 9 weeks of running/walking training counts towards my 100 Days. The 100 Days being running for at least 30 minutes each day. The C25K plan starts with a 5 minute warm-up, has 20 minutes of running and walking, and a 5 minute cool down. These thirty minutes are what I’m counting as the thirty minutes required for the 100 Days program. After I complete the C25K, I’ll be on my own, running for thirty minutes everyday. Solid running. Also, the way the 100 Days program is, that thirty minutes can be broken up throughout the day, if I want to do fifteen minutes here, and fifteen there. Or whatever.

For right now, this works for me. I like this plan. I like this program. I like the way that it’s set up right now. There may be a time later on (probably after I complete C25K) that I change things up a bit. Who knows. I’m fickle.

So, Day Four.

Turns out, I should be more worried about my left knee.

At about minute 10 (in the middle of running), my left knee starts to hurt badly, relatively speaking. So I slowed my pace. But the slowing my running didn’t help, because my knee ached with every heel strike. So I tried to strike mid-foot, and that helped a little bit. When the next round of running came, my knee still wasn’t having it, even with slowed pace and different striking. So I decided that walking (briskly, of course) would probably be the best solution for now. So I finished the last 7 minutes (or so) with walking it out.

I’m not proud of that. I feel kind of defeated. But I can’t fix my knee by continually pounding away at it. Tomorrow I’m going to use the elliptical again and see if that won’t help a little bit. Tonight, I’m icing.

To end on a happy note, tonight I ate 4Rivers for supper. It was delicious, as always, and will be lunch tomorrow. I am so, so excited.