"My butt is in a whole other zip code!" and week 1 in the bag

I finished my third run of my first week of training today and it was pretty spectacular. It's getting easier for me to run for the amount of time I'm running at right now, so we'll see how well I do when I have to increase my time. Last time I tanked when I had to start running for 3 and 4 minutes at a time, so hopefully this time I will learn to pace myself a LOT more during my runs.

One thing I really love about the program I'm doing is that each work out is never longer than half an hour. Granted, many people also lift weights in conjunction with this program. I haven't yet but am thinking it is something I should do in order to strengthen my ankle.

The ankle has been bothering me but I wouldn't say it was horrible. The more I stretch, the longer I can hold off the pain. It usually jumps in half way or two-thirds of the way through the run. I am really thinking phsycial therapy might be necessary for this to go away, but I'm worried I may not have the time to commit to it. I think, though, it will start to get to the point where if I want to continue running, I'm going to have to do something about this stupid ankle. How frustrating!

In other news, I convinced my sister to run the Feb. 7 5k with me! So excited. I hope running will give her the "alone time" she is looking for. I really like it and have been looking forward to the time I get to just concentrate on nothing and run. My sister is worried she won't be able to run, but if I can do it, anyone can. I get really self concious doing it at the gym because I feel like all these people are creeping me and listening to me sound like a freakin' steam engine when I run or they creep how slow I'm going or how hard my feet hit the tread mill. Of course I am just insane, none of the people at the gym care about this. My sister has a treadmill at her house she can use, so none of that will be a problem for her. But, as she explained to me over the phone, "my butt is in a whole other zip code!" haha. She's going to start training after Christmas.

So I seem to be in a good place right now - hopefully this will keep up into next week.

Next week I'm running a minute and a half with two minutes in between. If you'd like to take a look at my whole training plan, it's here: http://http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

My next run will be Monday morning.