Running Plan Back on Track

My knees are still behaving well. I did day 2 of week 5 of the Couch to 5K plan tonight and was able to ran both 8 minutes intervals. Yeah! End up running about 2 miles total. I am just so jazzed that my knees are fine. Guess the pain was from overdoing it the first couple of weeks. Should have just followed the 3 times a week schedule instead of trying to do more.

I was a little out of breath after the second 8 minutes run. My heart rate got up to about 171 bpm towards the end of the second interval -- only briefly, maybe a minute. I think that's 91% of my 191 bpm max heart rate (MHR) so maybe too much for me. Most of the run was about 161 bpm, 81% MHR, so I should be ok if I keep things at that effort level.

I may repeat day 2 again before attempting day 3 of week 5 which is a 20 minutes run. A little intimidating to try it. Also tonight's run was on the treadmill which is easier for me. I may want to repeat the run on a track to see if I can handle it before going to day 3.

I've also been stretching more after the runs so may be helping with the knee pain. Downside is that it's taking an hour now to do the 30 minutes run, stretch, and get ready for work. So it's difficult to be done by 5:50 am and pick up Elias in the morning for work. I would start earlier but Bally's opens at 5 am on the weekdays; can't start any earlier unless I want to run outside --- nah, due to safety. I may just have to do evening runs after work or be quicker with my stretches and showers in the morning!

Regardless, I'm happy that the pain is gone and I'm back on track with the running plan.