**Drew I'm still waiting for your suggestions for my shins!!!

I've got W3 Day 2 tonight and I'm actually looking forward to it. We went for a nice hike yesterday in the beautiful Sourland Mountains. Although I have always enjoyed hiking I always thought of it as exercise but now that I've been C25k-ing it seemed so restful! My knees were hurting pretty bad yesterday. It was below freezing here so I popped a couple Advils when I got home. That did the trick and today I seem to be just fine. I'll try the icing technique next time.

Irish-hang in there! You may find the next run easier! Drew, thanks for the Week 3 thread! Glad to have you on board Hawaii! I can't beleive we're in week 3!!! Great job getting here everyone, especially those with kids, school and other responsibilities! My hat's off to you!

Beachbum, glad to have you just a few days ahead. You can help confirm what we think we fel happening with our own runs. Although the running was longer, I also felt it was easier somehow. Maybe this middle aged body is finally getting this running stuff sorted out -form, stride length & pace needed to go the distance... it worked Monday & if my body 'remembers' it, I'm good to go the next few sessions.

Has anyone else noticed an overall improvement in how they feel? My mood is more even, stress is well, less stressful - LOL! - my appetite is better & sleep is more refreshing. I'm walking with better posture & seem more economical in my movements. I'm also doing every other day strength workouts - just light stuff but that effort, miserable as it can seem during the odd moment, feels GOOD. Soon, I'm hoping that the scrawny little muscles I have will firm up, then go a little bit. I'm sick of loking like the female version of before photos of Charles Atlas - the 97 pound weakling. Inside this pale, weak, scrawny shell, there's a bundle of dynamite struggling to get out.

Luckily, at 47, there's plenty of patience & THAT I'm gonna need! One step, one day at a time. Run Two tomorrow.

I have definitely noticed a change in my mood. I am feeling so much better, can't really explain it, just better. I have a head cold right now but I completed w3d1 yesterday and survived. I actually feel a lot better today so I'm contributing this fast recovery to exercise. I have my spinning class tonight and will complete w3d2 tomorrow. I want to try and increase my speed but I really struggle through the walks. yeasterday I did my first brisk walk at 3.5 (can't seem to go any faster than that) and the rest of them were at 3.2. My runs I am at 4.0 but the last run I increased it to 4.5.

Also, I have started drinking the whey powder once a day. I am hoping that it will not put any extra pounds on me. Just drinking one full scoop with FF skim milk for now and when the milk is gone I may just use water. I think that I can benefit from the extra protein I just really don't want to put on any extra pounds or bulk up from it. I know that I need to get on some king of low calorie diet real soon.