The journey from fat to fit. Road trip, woo hoo!

EVENT DAY! 5/31

Last night, I did it.  I went from the Couch to a 5k.  An officially timed and regulated real live honest to goodness 5k race with 3,000 other people.  Me!  Running!  With them!  Surreal.

 

I was waiting to get my time before I wrote this post, but the web site says the time will be up some time before 6 pm and it’s not there yet.  I felt like I did the run at my average treadmill pace, so I would estimate my time to be about 40 minutes as that is where I usually am, 40-42 minutes or so.  I’ll update when I get the info.

 

The race was fun.  There was a costume contest (which I did not participate in, thank you very much) and there were freebies before and after (Italian sodas, Starbucks, Frisbees, light up things to wave around because it was a night race). 

 

There were an estimated 3,000 runners but, man, did it look like more.  I liked it.  It’s really easy to get lost in a crowd of 3,000 people, especially when you’re one of the 2,000 wearing your normal running clothes and there are 1,000 others mixed in dressed as the Village People, the Portland Trailblazers or the Brady Bunch.  Oh, and my favorite, the track team from the movie Juno.  Instant classic.

 

The race started with a big uphill push and I was thinking, damn, I’m glad to get that out of the way.  But there were other hills that brought me from a jog to a trog.  I did walk a block in two different places where the road narrowed from four lanes to two and the crowd really pressed in.  The walking breaks were NICE but I didn’t prolong them and got right back into my jog when everyone else did.  Yes, I am EXTREMELY SUSCEPTIBLE to peer pressure.

 

All in all, I think I did great.  The fact that I ran it makes me proud of myself and where I am right now.  I still haven’t had that A-HA moment, but it was definitely a MMM-HMMM moment.  Yes, here I am, and this is good.  I am living a life in a body that is now allowing me to go out and DO THINGS, things that I didn’t feel I could do before.  Friday, golfing with a group of over 100 people – I can’t golf, but it was fun in a social way, but it’s definitely something that 30 pounds ago I would have been way too self conscious to do.  And now a 5k, not only trying it but actually DOING it.  My journey is not over, though, and maybe it’ll take 25 more pounds for the A-HA to arrive.  But MMM-HMMM is good for now : )

 

I do have to say, that whole “runners high” endorphin thing?  Still a mystery to me.  All I feel is WORN OUT after I run.  I feel glad that I did it and proud of myself for pushing through the suckiness of it, but that’s about it.

 

So today is a rest and reward day, going to see Sex and the City with a girlfriend, having popcorn with the dreaded movie butter on it and taking it easy. 

 Thanks to my virtual running buddies for helping me get my ass off the couch : ) 

TRAINING DAY 40 (5/29)

Went to the gym.  My Zen and gym card are still MIA, so I had to pay $5 for a new gym card and use DD9’s iPod, but she has my favorite album that I’ve been running to so it was all good.

Achiness aside, I ran 3.11 miles in 40 minutes 37 seconds at an average speed of 4.6 mph, so  pretty much my normal run on the treadmill.  Achiness got better through the course of the day, so by 4:30 pm I felt OK to go to the gym and I am feeling fine now, just sore ache but not anything too severe … so no excuses to not participate in my race on Saturday, unless I do something totally retarded to injure myself at the stupid golf tournament tomorrow!

TGI-Thursday!

TRAINING DAY 38 (5/28)

Ran outside again today, same walking path as yesterday.  My iPod (actually, faux pod) is missing, and along with it the gym card that I keep in the case.  So yesterday I used my daughter’s iPod.  Decided to do that again today since mine still has not turned up, but as soon as I turned it on the battery died.  So today was a run with no music.

I parked on the far side of the parking lot today after yesterday’s disappointing realization that I was only going 3 miles versus 3.1 miles.  I clocked it in my car today and with the new parking spot I went 3.1 plus a little, so yay for that.  But I forgot to check the time before I took off today, so I have no clue how I did timewise.

I jogged 1.8 miles, which is up the path, through the busy intersection, to the turn around point and back to the intersection.  On my first pass thru, I caught the “walk” light so I had no break in running, which is a deal I had made with myself.  If I catch the “don’t walk,” I’ll take a little break, but if I catch the “walk,” I soldier on to the 1.5 mark.  Damn stupid light luck!  Anyway, hit the 1.5 halfway mark, ran around the round about to head back and had given myself permission to walk for a few minutes, but I didn’t need to.  So I kept on running.  When I hit the intersection again (1.8 miles total run) I had a don’t walk, so I had a few seconds break, walked across the intersection and walked about one block before I resumed jogging.  When I clocked it in the car it was under .2 of a mile, and with my new self-imposed rules, it doesn’t count as a walking interval if it’s under a 1/4 mile.   

After the walk of about a block+ I resumed my jog and made it back to the car.  Downed a bottle of water and came home.  When I logged on to write about it, I can’t find my post from yesterday.  Oh well.  Brief synopsis of yesterday below.

All in all, two good outdoor runs in the last two days.  But I am definitely feeling it in my legs.  My thighs are sore, like in a good work out way, and my knees are achey, in a not so good way.  I’m going to go back to the treadmill for 5k on Thursday and then no run on Friday.  I forgot that Friday is a fundraiser golf tournament for my daughter’s school, so my ‘rest day’ will consist of 18 holes of golf.  Oh, and I don’t play golf, so that should be interesting.  Then Saturday is the race.  I’m nervous and excited and kind of sick to my stomach if I think too much about it.  What if I am last?  What if I am the fattest person there?  What if I am so slow I stick out like a sore thumb?  And on and on it goes.

Hitting the shower now, then lunch, then running errands.  I have to work tonight, then I’ll be all caught up with work and can enjoy my sewing class tomorrow, and spend the rest of the day sewing if I want to.  Looking forward to that!

TRAINING DAY 37 (5/27)

I wrote a post and it somehow disappeared.  Oh, well.  Long story short: had a good run outside along the river.  Went three miles in 39 minutes, including two short recovery walks.  Made a new rule for myself that if the walk is less than 1/2 mile, I can still declare I “ran” the 3 miles as opposed to ran and walked.  Also, was excited about my time and then realized that it was 3 miles even, not 3.1, so my time was basically the same as my treadmill time.

TRAINING DAY 36 (5/26)

This may have been my worst run ever, or at least in recent history.

Got to the treadmill at 11 am, thinking it’s a holiday, no one will be there.  Wrong!  It was packed, all treadmills filled.  All bikes filled.  The only thing to do was the *&#% elliptical, so I hopped on.  I did a 1/4 mile in five minutes and I think I may have suffered a slight cardiac episode.  I was sweating and puffing… IN FIVE MINUTES.  Thank God a treadmill freed up so I switched over.

Got going on the TM at 4.7 mph and thought, wow, I should warm up on the elliptical every time, because I felt really loose and kind of got right into the running groove.  That lasted for about 10 minutes, and then I just felt overwhelming fatigue.  And thirst.  Then I realized, I puttered around all morning getting work finished up so I could enjoy the day off, and I had not eaten anything or had as much as a sip of water.  NOT SMART.

After one mile at 4.7 mph I dropped it down for about 20 seconds to a walk at at 3.3 mph and drank half a bottle of water.  Felt good but, again, NOT VERY SMART, because as soon as I took my speed back up to 4.6 miles per hour I could feel the water sloshing around in my stomach.  YUCK.

I ran at 4.6 mph for a few minutes but really thought I should just quit and go home, even come back to the gym later in the day if I wanted to.  Then I talked myself into staying on the treadmill for 2 miles, even if it meant trogging.  So I dropped it to a 4.0 mph trog and stayed there for a while.  I started to feel a little bit better, better being defined as less close to death and by no means “feeling good,” so I stayed at 4.0 trog until I hit the 30 minute mark.

From 30-35 minutes I went up to 4.5 mph.  Then I decided to go five more minutes at higher speeds to TRY to get the 3.1 miles done since I was so close.  So from 35-40 minutes I did 1 minutes at 5.5, 1 minute at 5.3, one minute at 4.9, then I did two minutes at 4.7.  This put me at something like 2.9 miles total.  I dropped down to 4.6 and finished off the 3.1 miles.

This is the most physically ill I have felt after running.  I was literally dripping sweat like giant rain drops onto the treadmill, red as a fire engine, and ragged heavy breathing.  I started coughing when I got outside and was close to dry heaves.  Could this all be because I was on an empty stomach?  I finished the bottle of water, came home and ate a yogurt, now I’m feeling back to normal again, but still hot and red.  I’m going to hop in the shower now and pray for recovery!

STATS: 3.10 miles, 42:23 minutes, 4.3 mph average speed

TRAINING DAY 35 (5/25)

I made it downtown and jogged the route of my race on Saturday.  I’m glad I did.  I don’t want any surprises, and it was surprisingly hilly.  At least now I know.  Not hilly like you’d be driving in your car and notice, but hilly enough to have me huffing and puffing going uphill.

I parked and followed the route, mostly jogging but occasionally walking.  There was a lot of downtown shopping and foot traffic, more than I expected on a Sunday, so that kind of broke up my running spurts, that and having to stop at intersections and wait for lights.  Of the 3.1 miles, I would say I ran a good 2.5 of it, then walked on and off for maybe 1/2 a mile.  Maybe less.  Hard to tell.

I parked and the dash clock said 11:58.  I stowed my purse in the trunk, studied my map, and took off.  I got back to the car, retrieved my purse, drank a bottle of water and started up the car.  Dash clock said 12:50.  So all in all, I’m happy with my time and happy with my ability.  I never felt like I was going to have to bail out, which has been another one of my pre-race anxieties.

Plan for the week: Run 5k M/T/W/Th, two times at gym on treadmill and two times outside.  Friday rest.  Saturday race.  Sunday drink beer and eat fried chicken.

Happy Day Off tomorrow to those of us who have one! 

TRAINING DAY 34 (5/22)

I had a good treadmill workout.  I used Couch to 5K week 4.  Started the 5-min warmup at a 4.5 mph jog, did the running intervals at 5.0-5.5 mph, did the walk intervals at 4.5 jog.  During the last run, where he tells you to really push it in the last minute, that’s when I went up to 5.5.  After that, I needed a rest, so I did walk about 2 minutes of the 5 minute cool down.  Then I went back into a 4.5 mph jog with the goal of jogging to the 40 minute mark or the 3.1 mile mark, whichever came first.

Of course, I started to get antsy toward the end, as I am at 2.8 miles and closing in on 40 minutes, decided I wanted to get the whole 3.1 total finished, so I ramped it up to 5.5, trying to beat the clock and get to 3.1 miles in 40 minutes or under.  I even upped it to 5.7 for the last stretch, but came in just a little short.  Still, though, my best time ever, and considering that I have a 2 minute walk in there, pretty good.  If only I had trogged instead of walked, I would have made it to 3.1 in under 40 minutes.  Next time.

STATS: 3.10 miles total, 40:17 time, 4.6 mph average speed.

GOAL FOR SATURDAY: Hit the gym and do the C25k Week 4 again, no walking this time, amping up my speed and finishing in 40 minutes.

 GOAL FOR SUNDAY:  Go downtown and walk the 3.1 mile route of my race next week, even if it’s raining.  

GOALS FOR THE NEXT WEEK: Run 3.1 miles Mon - Thurs, twice on TM and twice outside.  Friday rest, Saturday race.

TRAINING DAY 33 (5/21)

Met my goal, yay, which was a challenge after the WORST WEIGH IN EVER because all I wanted to do was get under the covers, eat Oreos and watch daytime TV.  But I got off my ass, went to the gym, did my 5k on the treadmill AND did not eat a morsel of food that was not on my food plan, except for the glass of red wine which, hello, high cholesterol, it’s practically medicinal.

Run Stats: 3.11 miles, 4.6 miles per hour the whole time. 40:59 minutes.

I think I am giving off a funky electromagnetic vibe because I obviously interfered with the correct scale reading at Jenny Craig and then at the gym I ran at 4.6 mph the whole time, never adjusted the speed at all, yet when I ended and looked at my stats, it said my average speed was 4.5 mph.  OH NO YOU DIDN’T.  Do not try to rob me of my .1 mph increase from last time.  The electronic Gods are not smiling on me today.  It’ll be a miracle if I can even get this to post.

Goal for tomorrow: C25k Week 4 podcast, up the run speed during the runs and jog the walks.  Do it outside if the weather is nice.

TRAINING DAY 32 (5/20

Because of the timing of the rain, I didn’t make it downtown to walk/jog the race route.  By the time it had dried up enough that I felt like going, I was involved in getting other things done.  Plus I had to keep my 9-year-old home from school today because she had a tummy ache, so I stuck close to home.

Weather got nice this afternoon, sunny but with clouds, nice and cool out, so I decided to go for an outdoor run.  I went back to the bike/walk path that I did my first C25k run on, along the Columbia River (Washington side) (just FYI, Lori, the river is the “state line” between Oregon and Washington.)

It was breezier out by the river (nothing like what you get off of the lake, I’m sure) but enough to make my breathing much more labored than it is in the gym.  I going to give way too much detail here so I can kind of work out for myself what my time looked like, so forgive me and please just skim it because it’s boring!

My plan was use the C25k Week 2 podcast (run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes) and really run on the 90 second intervals, jog on the 2 minute rest periods.  I started out jogging through his intro (which is about 1.5-2 minutes long) and the five minute warmup.  When it was time for the first 90 second interval run, I was already pooped and breathing way too hard!  So I trogged through the 90 seconds, then walked the 2 minute walk.  From then on, I pretty much just followed the podcast.  I did really push the runs on the running intervals, and I trogged through some of the walking intervals, but did walk parts of them as well. 

I made better time than I thought because I was at the 1.5 mile point in about 20 minutes, which is 5.5 mph average speed if I am calculating that right.  So not bad!  I hit the 1.5 mark and turned around.  I was in a walk interval and about two blocks away is an intersection that is pretty busy and I know I will have to stop and wait for the crosswalk light.  That’s when the podcast announces “Time to start your next run.”  I hit pause to give myself time to get to the crosswalk, then wait for the walk light so I could start the run at the other side of the intersection.  When the light turned green, I started to run, hit play and, oops, was back at the beginning of the podcast! 

By this time, I had built up better stamina, so from there I jogged through his intro, through the five minute warmup and through the first interval, so a run time of about 8-8.5 minutes.  Then I did a two minute walk.  Then I jogged about another 8 minutes and was back at my car.

All told, I was out for about 40 minutes and went three miles, so yay for that!

GOAL FOR WEDNESDAY: Run 3.1 miles on the treadmill at 4.6 mph steady throughout the run.

GOAL FOR THURSDAY: Go back out to the outdoor path and use the Week 4 podcast, trying to up the run speed during the runs and jog some of the walking time.

TRAINING DAY 31 (5/19)

Goal for the day: Run 5k at a moderate steady pace on the treadmill.  Ideal time, under 40 minutes.

I managed to meet my goal pretty much.  I ran 3.11 miles in 41:30 minutes at an average pace of 4.6 mph.  I ran 2.85 miles at 4.5 mph and then hauled it at 5.5 mph until I hit 3.1.  For a cool down I walked at half mile a 3.0 mph.  It felt kind of whimpy, so I adjusted the incline on the TM from flat to 6% incline, which was not much of an incline, but enough to make it feel less whimpy.

Goal for tomorrow: run 3.1 miles using the Couch to 5k podcasts, doing intervals of 5.0-5.5 mph running during the “run times” and jogging of 4.3-4.5 mph during the “walk times.”  I am also hoping to take it outside tomorrow vs. the treadmill and am even contemplating going into downtown Portland and doing my run along the route that my race is on.  

I am off of work tomorrow, so I am thinking that if I hit downtown at 10 am or so when everybody is working, the sidewalks will be okay for running.  And I am familiar with the race route, there are a lot of apartments and condos in the area, so I know I’ve seen runners through there before.  Worst case scenario, if I am too self-conscious to run because it is more crowded than I anticipate, I will walk the route anyway just to get a feel for it.  I have developed this new fear that the race route will be hilly and I won’t be able to do it!  So before I let that get out of hand, I need to go investigate. 

TRAINING DAY 30 (5/18)

Nothing very exciting.  Hit the gym, ran on the treadmill.  Two miles at 4.5 mph, then I reverted to my OCD speed monitoring method and ran 1 minute at 5.5, 1 minute at 5.4, one minute at 5.3… planned on finishing the whole last mile like this but I was dying, so I then dropped it down to 5.0 and stayed there until I was at 2.5 miles total.  Dropped it back down to 4.5 and ran until I hit about 2.85 miles total, then kicked it up to 5.0 for the final push to 3.1 miles.

STATS: 40:38 time on the treadmill, 3.11 miles run, 4.6 mph average speed

GOAL: I want to run every day this week, alternating the focus of my workout.  M-W-F I am going to jog my 3.1 miles at a comfortable pace (4.0 - 5.0 mph) without doing any big speed pushes.  At least one of those days will be an outside run hopefully.  Tues and Thurs I am going to run intervals on the treadmill to try to build my stamina at higher speeds.  Maybe something like run 2 minutes at 5.5, then jog 3 minutes at 4.5, or possibly go back to one of the old podcasts and do a jog for the walks and a speed push for the runs.  Haven’t worked out all the kinks yet, but I want to step it up before the race.  My goal is that when the race comes, 3.1 miles isn’t killing me the way that it is killing me now.

Time for a shower and dinner.  I have been dragging around all day with my allergies and over-medicating myself with benadryl because I have been so miserable and the claritin and my Rx allergy med aren’t touching it!  I am giving myself a big pat on the back for going to the gym on a Sunday when I could come up with about 100 good reasons not to go and about 200 things around the house that I should have done instead.

Adios, amigas : )

TRAINING DAY 29 (5/15)

It wasn’t a fluke.  I did it again.  I ran 3.1 miles.  I did two miles at 4.5 mph, upped it to 5.0 for a quarter mile (3 minutes), then back down to 4.5 mph.  At about the 2.80 mile mark I decided to get the mo-fo run finished with and went up to 5.5 for about two minutes and, voila, I was done! 

STATS: 41:19 minutes, 3.12 miles, average speed 4.5 mph. 

I follwed it up with a 15 minutes stroll.  I do mean stroll… 5 minutes at 2.5 mph and 10 minutes at 3.0.

As I was strolling I started screwing around with my iPod (which is actually my faux-pod, a Creative Vision M) and decided to venture away from U2, my go-to running music, and find a song that makes me smile and could serve as kind of a theme song and settled upon I’M BRINGING SEXY BACK by Justin Timberlake.  It was perfect.  He is the epitomy of hotness and the song made me literally smile.

The point of this little digression… we should come up with a theme song that makes us all feel good about our running experience to end every run with.

TRAINING DAY 28 (5/13)

I did it… I ran 3.1 miles.  I feel like I am going to die, but I did it.  I didn’t really intend to do it, but it just kind of happened.  And if I did it once, I can probably do it again, right?  And if I did it in the gym on the treadmill, I can probably do it outside in a race, right?  RIGHT? 

I spent two minutes screwing around with my iPod, my headphones, getting situated.  I jogged at 4.3 mph, intending to just go 30 minutes at that speed.  I jogged 2 miles in 28 minutes and decided to give it a push to 5.0 mph for a quarter mile and then quit.  I ran at 5.0 for about 4 minutes, then dropped it back down to 4.3 for another quarter mile, which put me at 2.5 miles and about 38 minutes of running, so I decided to go for an even 40 minutes.  When I got to 40 minutes, I was at something like 2.8 miles total, and since it was so close to 3 I decided to try to do it.  I did another 5 mph push for maybe two or three minutes, then finished the last quarter mile with a 4.0 trog.  Then I walked for a little while to cool down.

I am kind of feeling nauseaus and headachey now, so I am going to bed early.  Good night : )

My stats: 2 minute walk, 41 minute run, 7 minute walk.  Total workout: 48 minutes, Mileage: 3.35 miles, Average Speed: 4.1 mph

NONTRAINING DAY (5/12)

Well, I got no exercise over the weekend.  So today was my back on track running day.  I had to work this morning, so no gym.  I decided to go to the gym this evening before dinner, but there was no one home to hang out with DD9 and I didn’t want to leave her home alone.  We have just started letting her stay home alone for brief periods, but since I would be at the gym with no phone, I wasn’t comfortable with that.  So I decided to take her to the park and run at the park.  There’s a small track, probably half the size of a normal school track.

I ran three times around the track, then walked two times around.  All told, 13 minutes.  I had no motivation to continue.  I wasn’t particularly tired or sore or winded or anything else, but I just had no mojo going.  There were a lot of people at the park and I was feeling really self-conscious the whole time that I was there, running laps round and round people doing park like things with kids and dogs etc.

So I bailed, planned to go to the gym when DD21 got home to babysit DD9, but in the interim decided I was hungry for dinner and just plain in an F-it kind of mood.  Now I am getting in bed at 8:20 pm feeling frumpy and funky and lazy and sluggish and blah and WAH WAH WAH… poor me.

I have to work out of town tomorrow, all day, so I don’t know if I am going to make it to the gym or not, but I am going to try really hard.  Since I am crashing so early, hopefully I’ll wake up early and can hit the gym at 5:30 am when they open.  I’m not even going to call that an official “plan” for tomorrow, but it’s a sub-plan at the moment.  A big maybe, what-if, we’ll see kind of plan-ette.

I need to find something to snap myself out of this funk.  It’s partly triggered by a trip to the mall today, which I’ll write more about another time.  But long story short, my clothes are all baggy and frumpy, and it’s not just me — DH, the most unobservant man on the plant, commented as I was going to work today that my suit looked frumpy.  FRUMPY.   My clothes are too big, yet I’m too fat to fit in anything cute and fitted and, not to sound like a broken record here, but WAH WAH WAH again : ( 

 I know that in the realm of problems to have, your clothes being too baggy is a good one, but I am having lots of issues today!  Missing my mom, feeling like an old lady (my oldest daughter turned 21 yesterday), feeling like a slug, and seeing my flabby body in the well-lit dressing room three-way mirror did not help the situation.

The only thing that I can think of to help me feel better is M&Ms, and at least I have the foresight to know that is not really going to help and will actually make me feel worse, after the M&M high is gone.  No M&Ms for me tonight, I’ll call that a victory.

TRAINING DAY 27 (5/9)

Went to the gym and hit the treadmill.  Felt like kind of a dufus because I am inside running on the treadmill looking out on a fabulous, glorious, perfect day for outside running.  I need to get over my outdoor running hurdle, but am not sure how.  My big plan is to go for an outdoor run this weekend and jog 15 minutes, walk 5, jog 15, walk 5.  No distance measurement and no speed push, just get the feel for the great outdoors.  Sounds reasonable, no?

My run stats for today: 2 minute walk @ 3.3 mph, 34 minute run … yeah, that’s right, 34 MINUTES BABY.  I ran 1 mile at 4.5 mph, jogged 1/2 mile at 4.0 mph, RAN 1/2 mile at 5.0 mph then ran 1/2 mile at 4.5 - 4.0 mph.  Then I walked for about 9 minutes which put me at the 3.1 mark and 45 minutes.

So, two major milestones for me today.  I ran for 34 minutes consecutive and I ran 2.5 miles consecutive.  I felt so good about my accomplishment, and then as I’m walking out of the gym I catch a glimpse of my red-faced sweat-soaked self in the mirror and, wow, guess what?  I’m still chubby and my arms look horrid in a tank top.  WTF?   I just ran like a rock star, why don’t I look like one?  And not Janis Joplin, if you please. 

TRAINING DAY 26 (Wed 5/7)

I had a GREAT IDEA! today.  I was going to get on the treadmill and run 3 miles.  Wow!  What a concept!  Oh, and I was going to do it in 45 minutes. 

The to doing this, of course, was to RUN FASTER than I usually run.  So I got on the treadmill, spent a minute walking while I got my iPod situated, and then cranked that mother to 4.5 and started running.  I didn’t time my intervals per se but I changed speeds on a song by song basis, so figure each interval is between 3 - 5 minutes long.  So I did one interval at 4.5 and now it’s time to crank it to 5.0.  OK.  Did that.  Ran at 5.0 for one song, then took it back down to 4.5.  Ran another song at 4.5 and this voice in  my head starts SCREAMING at me … STOP RUNNING, THIS IS BAD, THIS IS VERY, VERY BAD.  I couldn’t breath, I was literally panting, and was sweating more than ever and could feel the heat burning my bright red face.

So interval/song number four, I took it down to 4.0 and still this voice wants me to stop.  I finished the interval, then dropped it down to 3.4 for a brisk walk for the duration of one song. 

 During the walk I took a head to toe inventory, and there was not a damned thing wrong with me.  The usual/normal shortness of breath had returned vs. the oh-my-god breathing I was doing at 5.0 mph.  My legs and feet ached, but in the normal “we don’t want to run” kind of way, nothing unusual or new.  The walk lasted about four minutes, and by the end of the walk I determined that there was not a damned thing wrong with me other than I don’t have the stamina to keep my run speed at 4.5-5.0 without dropping it down to 4.0 in the mix.

So after the four minute walk, I let go of most of my OCD issues and decided to focus on just one goal… run a mile.  No worries about the time, about the speed, just run a freaking mile.  The walk took me to exactly 2.0 miles total distance, so I cranked it to 4.3 and started jogging again.  I eventually dropped it down to 4.0 and it took me about 15.5 minutes to hit the 3.0 marker.  I kept running until I hit 3.1, which had me at 43-44 minutes total time, and walked until I hit 45 minutes and was done.

So, the moral of this story: If I want to run faster, I need to work at it in intervals and not just try to go fast for 30 minutes.  Oh, and when my body says something is wrong, sometimes my body is just tricking me because I hate exercise.  And maybe it’s not even my body talking to me but one of the lazy voices in my head who wants to go home and watch General Hopsital on Tivo instead of running.

My run stats: 45 minutes, 3.16 miles, average speed 4.2 mph

My intervals:

1 min - walk 3.3 mph

23 min - run 4.5-5.0 mph

4 min - walk 3.4 mph

16 min - jog 4.0-4.3 mph

1 min - walk at 3.3 mph

TRAINING DAY 25 (Mon 5/5)

Went to the gym. Jogged. Didn’t die.

Had to work today and then had a drill team practice (yes, I’m
coaching an 8 year old drill team, don’t ask). Then she had track
practice from 5 - 6:30, so I went to the gym and got my run in then.

Walked 1 minute at 3.0 while I got my iPod on etc. Then ran for 30
minutes at 4.2 mph. No ups and downs, just jogged at 4.2 mph the
whole time. Then I walked for four minutes to cool down, 3.3 mph.
Stats: 35 minute workout, 4.0 mph average, 2.33 miles total.

I had to go pick up DD9 from track practice so I didn’t focus on
hitting 3.1 miles or 45 minute workout. I’m giving myself an A for
effort because at 5:30 pm I DID NOT want to go to the gym, but I did.

Yay me!
 

TRAINING DAY 24 (Fri 5/2)

I ran for 30 minutes! Consecutively!  In a row! Without stopping!  Without walking! 

I got to the gym at a weird time, 9:30, and it was packed, every treadmill was full.  I stood there for a minute trying to figure out what to do and then decided to get on an elliptical rather than stand around like a dork and whine over the treadmill situation.

Uh, hello, have you ever been on an elliptical?  WTF?  I was on it for four minutes, moving as slow as I could and still technically be moving, and my quads were ON FIRE.  Worse than the torture squats I did this week.  Thank God a treadmill opened up four minutes into my elliptical workout and I jumped off and grabbed the treadmill before anyone else could.

Considering myself sufficiently warmed up, I went straight into running with the goal of running 28 minutes.  Started at 4.0, moved to 5.0 by the middle of the run.  Then I decided to try something different and instead of my usual routine, which is slowly move back down to 4.0 incrementally, I shot straight down from 5.0 to 4.0, jogged there for 3 minutes and then ramped it back up slowly to finish at 5.0.  I don’t know if there is a right way/wrong way to do this, so if anyone knows what the proper approach to pacing yourself would be, let me know!

Anyway, it worked for me.  So at 26 minutes of running I was at 5.0 mph planning to do that for 2 minutes then quit, but a song that I really like was on, so I just kept going til the end of the song, which put me at 30 minutes.  Then I decided to let go of my OCD and quit where I was rather than go to the 5k mark. 

Stats at that point: 30 minute workout, average speed 4.3 mph, distance 2.15 miles.

I was going to quit, but yet another song that I like was on, so I decided to just have a leisurely walk to cool down.  So I walked at 3.0 mph for about 8 minutes, enjoying the music and enjoying the not being at home doing laundry-ness of the moment.  Then my OCD reclaimed its position in my frontal lobe and I needed to stay on the treadmill until I made it to the 5k mark.  So I decided to run again because by this time I was ready to quit and go home.

So second run stats: 15 minute workout, average speed 3.8 mph, total distance .95 for a total workout of 45 minutes/3.1 miles.

Now I need to finish the job I was working on, do laundry, pack, shower and go take a deposition at 2:30 pm.  After that, hubby and I are going to Bend, Oregon to do some hiking this weekend while DD9 is at girl scout camp for two nights.  I am excited.  This is the kind of activity that I would have in the past found an excuse to bail out of and let DH go without me.  We are going with his brother, who I love and adore, who is very fit and active and outdoorsy and has NEVER done anything to make me feel inadequate, but the fact that I have always been the most out of shape person in our family has made me feel inadequate and embarrassed to go on these outdoorsy type trips for fear of slowing every one down with my lameness.

But now I am feeling WAY LESS LAME and not worried at all about being the one holding up the hike!  Yay for me!  (Plus, the fact that he has a touch of plantar fasciitis that has him on limited mobility helps me feel confident of my keep-up-ability!)

Happy weekend, everyone : ) 

TRAINING DAY 23 (Wed 4/30)

First, about the running.  Uneventful other than the usual oh-my-dear-lord-I-am-dying thing that I have not overcome yet.  But I did a 3-minute walk at 3.3, 28-minute run at 4.0 - 5.0, 3-minute walk at 3.3, 10-minute run at 4.3-4.5 and one final minute running at 5.0.  No cool down walk, I was at 45 minutes, 3.14 miles and I was D O N E.

My workout plan for the week: keep the walks to three minutes, run 28 minutes consecutive and then run again, however long it takes to hit my 3.1 miles.  Next week I’ll bump that up to 30 minutes consecutive and keeping bumping up until I get up to 40 minutes consecutive.

Now, about the other stuff that is not directly running related.  I went to the gym in a B A D mood because my soon-to-be 21 year old daughter needed a ride to a doctor’s appointment on my day off, which just set me off.  I had a crazy morning, which is my usual routine, but I LIKE having a routine.  DD9 has violin at 7:30 am on Wednesdays.  From there, I take her to school and then go to Jenny Craig to weigh in at 8:50.  Then to the gym.  I take off almost every Wednesday because of the violin lesson.

So DD20, knowing that I take Wednesdays off, scheduled her appointment assuming that I could take her (she does not drive, anxiety issues).  And I did.  And now I’m hostile because I am feeling very used lately by both of my “adult” children, both of whom left home too young, declaring their independence and adulthood, only to end up back home again.  I love my kids but lately it’s just too much. 

So, I am glad that I went to the gym anyway, in spite of the scheduling glitch, but I H A T E working out that late in the day (noon) and just was not feeling the love on the treadmill because of my bad mood.

And on the I am glad front… I lost 1.2 pounds this week for a total of loss of 27.2 pounds and I had my monthly measurements taken… I don’t remember the exact number, only 2+ inches or so, but my total inches loss is now 24 inches!  I am psyched about that.  TWO FEET OF ME IS GONE, BABY, GONE. 

TRAINING DAY 22 (Mon 4/28)

AMENDED: I just checked the coolrunnings web site and I skipped a week!  Oops.  I have been training for 22 days, that part is right, but what I did today was actually day 1 of week 8.  Week 7 should have been three 25-minute runs, week 8 three 28-minute runs.  I did 28 minutes.  So I’ll just keep going for 25-28  minute runs for two weeks and then jump up to week 9, which I think is the final week and is 30 minute runs.  With my short legs, though, I’m going to have to keep on adding time, because 30 minutes is not going to get me to 5k unless I haul ass, and I’m not so much into the ass hauling.

ORIGINAL POST: Couch to 5k Week 7 Day 1.  Uneventful gym run.  I gave a little shudder when I looked out the window down at the running track and blew a little kiss to my treadmill.  Does that make me a gym snob?

There was a guy (hot and young, but that’s beside the point) on the treadmill one row in front of me.  He was running … not jogging, running… at a nice clip, so I decided to try to match my stride with his.  I got into perfect sync with him and then looked at the numbers.  He was going 7.5 mph and I was going 4.5 mph.  I’ll say it again … sucks to have short legs!

I’m thinking about increasing to going to the gym every day with a day off here and there as opposed to every other day.  I had to pay for a $5 gym day pass today because my 20-pass prepaid card was used up Saturday.  I have a BAD HISTORY with gym memberships and so this time I went with the $95 20-pass option.  It never expires.  So if it would have taken me six years to go to the gym 20 times, that would be OK.  More expensive than a regular membership, but way better than commiting to six months or a year, paying monthly and not going - yet still having to pay.

So now I need to make a decision.  Purchase another 20-pass card or commit to a six month membership.  The membership is a far better financial deal, IF YOU USE IT.  I feel ready to commit, but I have also felt that way every other time I have joined a gym and then flaked out on going after three months. 

I’m also on my end of the month budget this week, which means ZERO DOLLARS to spend on anything until I get paid, so I have a week to figure out what I want to do with the gym.  DH is “staking” me on the day passes until pay day because when I say ZERO DOLLARS I mean ZERO.  Budgeting is not my forte, to say the least.  The good news is, the car is filled, the bills are paid and I do have $100 in grocery store scrip… just no extra cash.  I do this to myself about once every three or four months, just spend every dime I have before the next check comes in.  You’d think I’d learn.  But back to running…

I did a 4 minute warm up walk (3.3 mph), 28 minute run (4.0 - 5.0 and back down again), 3 minute cool down walk (3.3 mph).  I was at less than 2.5 miles total, so I did another 10 minute run (4.5-5.0 and down again ) which put me at the 3.1 finish line.  Then I walked for 4 minutes to cool down before I called it quits.

STATS: 49 minutes, 3.33 miles total, 4.0 average mph.

Happy Monday : )

TRAINING DAY 21 (Sat 4/26)

My 9 year old daughter had a track meet this morning.  It was a glorious day to sit outside and watch silly kids run and throw things and jump and have fun.  And we ate hot dogs and it was all very festive and outdoorsy and springy and lovely.  And it put me in such a mood to run!  Look at them running… I run too!  I should go run … but that’s frowned on during the track meet.  So we came home and did home stuff and then at 8 pm I decided to go for a run because the weather is perfect and the sky was dusky and wouldn’t I look so cool out for a run on a beautiful evening with my iPod strapped into my brand spanking new arm band designed just for !running!   

So I went to the high school track and I went running!  Outside!  With air and asphalt and passers-by and outside-y type things!  It was quite the adventure.  There was a family of gnarly people hanging out near the track have a domestic dispute, possibly alcohol fueled, and a troll-like man who appeared to be in his 100’s trogging around the track.

The high school running track is down a hill, across one street and parking lot from the gym where I usually run on the treadmill.  The treadmill window looks out on a pituresque garden, then a parking lot and rolling green hill.  You can’t really see what’s on the downside of the hill, but it’s the running track. 

Well, from the track, I could see the gym perched up on the little hill, all lit up and festive and inviting and shining like a beacon with the beautiful treadmills just staring at me, looking lonely, through the window as I ran around and around the stupid stupid track while the stupid stupid gnarley people argued and smoked and the scary man chased me and “kind of dark” turned into “pretty f*ing dark” and then the dad of the gnarley family came down to the track and took a leak behind the high school football equipment locker and with that I got the hell out of there.

And did I mention I’m allergic to nature and now my eyes are itchy and I’m scratching them out of my head?

So, my running stats: not sure how long the track is, but it goes around a football field.  I walked one lap, ran 3.5 laps, walked 1 lap, ran 1.5 laps and planned on continuing for one more until the aforementioned peeing incident.  My goal was eight times around because somehow I had myself convinced that one lap is 1/4 mile so four times around is a mile and eight times around would be 2 miles.  Of course when I got home DH informed me that he thinks it’s actually an 1/8 of a mile per lap, so, screw that, I hardly ran at all if that’s the case, which I refuse to believe.  My total time on the track was 25 minutes, so DH’s estimate is actually probably right, and damn, I suck.

TRAINING DAY 20 (Fri 4/25)

Major running/workout milestone for me today (actually 2 of them) … I am the reddest and sweatiest that I have ever been in my life, truly disgusting, and don’t care!  Ha!  I walked out of that gym feeling like a wet rat and did not even care… whereas my norm would be oh, my god, look at me, duck head, hustle out of there embarrassed and assuming all eyes are on me.  Instead I walked out, dripping sweat, head held high, with my hell-yeah-I-just-ran-5k swagger, and frankly I don’t think anyone even noticed.

Run was brutal.  I am done with the podcasts and just using my own music since the intervals are over, which is so enjoyable!  I tweaked the workout and did: 3 minute warm up walk @ 3.3 mph, 25 minute run starting @ 4.5 mph, ramping up to 5.0 and back down to 4.3 over the course of the 25 minutes, 2 minute cool down at 3.3 mph.  I was only at about 2.25 miles total, so I started all over again with an abbreviated format.  Next set I did 3 minute walk @ 3.3 mph, 7 minute run @ 4.5 mph and 5 minute walk @ 3.3 mph.

The OCD Gods were smiling down upon me… I finished at EXACTLY 45.00 minutes and EXACTLY 3.1 miles total workout.  My average speed was 4.1 mph, which is where I earned the right to use my hell-yeah swagger on my way out of the gym.  My best “speed” to date had been 3.7 mph.

 Listening to music I love has made all the difference in the world to me as far as speed.  And my second running milestone is that 3.3 is my new baseline brisk walk, as opposed to my former 3.0, and 4.3 is my new slow jog, as opposed to 4.0.  I can breathe normally and drink water and adjust my iPod at 3.3 now… dare I say it aloud, I think I have built up some endurance and stamina!?

Happy weekend, every one : )

TRAINING DAY 19 (Wed 4/23)

Week 6 Day 3… the brutal 25 minute run.  It almost killed me.  Literally.  But the new shoes were sweet … no foot pain at all.  Just a lethargic oh-my-god-I-want-to-lay-down kind of killing me.  This was my 19th day of C25k.  I thought it was 20, but I didn’t give myself credit for a couple of runs that I did that were extremely lame which I did over again the following day.

I walked five minutes, ran 25 minutes, walked five minutes … putting me at 2.3′ish miles.  I decided to keep going to 2.5 miles, and when I hit 2.5 miles decided WTF and went for the full on 3.1.  I was getting even more lethargic towards the end, so at about 2.8 miles I went back into a 4 mph jog and finished that sucker off. 

 Nice reality check for me.  During my cool down walk, I was going 3.3 mph, which is really brisk for my short legs.  I noticed that the guy on the treadmill next to me was going at the same exact pace as I was, step for step.  I looked at his settings and he was going 3.7 mph to my 3.3 mph and we were in sync perfectly.  Nice reinforcement that, yes, I have a short stride and there’s just nothing I can do about it other than trog if I want to stay in the 3.5-4.0 range for walks.

Stats: 49 minute workout time, 3.1 miles total, average speed 3.8 mph.  Walking at a minimum of 3.3 mph and running varied from 4.0 to 4.8 and back down again.  5 minute walk at 3.3 mph, 25 minute run starting at 4.0, working up to 4.8 by the middle of the 25 minutes, then back down again to 4.2 by the end.  10 minute walk at 3.3 mph and then three minute jog at 4.0 to hit the 3.1 mile mark before I devised a way to commit suice on the treadmill.

TRAINING DAY 18 (Mon 4/21)

This was my day two of week six but I did a serious deviation from the podcast.  Podcast is, I think, 5 min. warm up, 10 min run, 3 min recovery, 10 min run, 5 min cool down.  I started out with the five minute warm up walk, but Alicia Keyes was rocking on the Today show so I switched my headphones to the gym TV and lost track of time.  By the time I realized what I was doing, I had been walking at 3.2 mph for 10 minutes and the podcast had moved on to the run segment without me.  So my workout looked like this: 

10 minute warm up walk - 10 minute run - 3 minute recovery - 15 minute run - 10 minute cool down walk

I was great for the 10 minute run and the 3 minute recovery, but then I went into OCD overload during the second run.  I ran 10 minutes, and was almost at 2.5 miles, and liked the song I was listening to, so decided to go until the song was over, but then that put me at an “uneven” time to stop and “uneven” distance, so I had to keep going until I got to a place where the timing and distance “worked” for me to be able to stop.  I am sick, I know.  I am running and having this internal dialouge of “Stop at 2.25 mph.” “No, stop at exactly 13 minutes of running.” “No, close your eyes and don’t look at the numbers and stop when the song is over.”  “Hello, duh, how about run until you’re tired and can’t run anymore.”  “No, that doesn’t sound like fun.”  And on it went. 

So I ended the last run at 15 minutes and 2.5 miles, then did the cool down walk until I hit 3.1 miles and, yay me, I did a 5k today!  3.1 miles, 48 minutes, average speed of 3.8 mph

Interesting thing about not using the podcast: I was able to walk and run faster than I usually do.  I did all of my walking at 3.2 - 3.3 and the running at 4.3-5.0 vs. my usual 3.0 and 4.0.  I liked listening to my own music, too.

When I realized that, oh crap, I should be running now, I upped my speed and started to run.  I didn’t want to listen to the Today show, so I listened to nothing and then realized, duh, I have my iPod right here, but I am too spastic to really operate it while running.  But I did manage to somehow get it to start playing the last album I had listened to, which thankfully was U2 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which turns out is a great running CD!

 I also learned (the hard way) that at the increased walking speed of 3.3 mph I am not coordinated enough to drink water while walking.

TRAINING DAY 17 (Fri 4/18)

I had to take my DD-20 to the airport at 4:30 this morning, so on the way home I — Ms. Dedication — went to the gym at 5-freaking-30 a.m.  I did Day 1 of Week 6, which kind of felt like regression after doing the 20 minute run day before yesterday.  I had some MP3 problems, so by the time I got the podcast up and running, I had already logged three miles of my brisk warm up walk.  So what I did was walk two more minutes, then start the first five minute run three minutes early.  At the end I ran an extra three minutes to satisfy my compulsion of all things “even” so I ended up doing three eight minute runs instead of 5-8-5.  I am a freak, I know.

At the end of my last eight minute run I was at 2.25 miles, so I walked until I hit 2.5 miles.  Total workout was just under 42 minutes.  I accidentally pressed something funky on the treadmill and didn’t get to see my stats as far as average speed.  Oh well.

So now it’s 9 am, DD-9 has been dropped at school and I am going to take a nap! 

TRAINING DAY 16 (Wed 4/16)

Tough day for me to get to the gym but I made it a priority and got it done.  Shuttled kids around all morning, had a doctor’s appt., had one kid home sick from school, but I still went to the gym.  My run was not the greatest, but I am going to practice my self love skills and say “that’s OK,” because the fact that I went to the gym today was an accomplishment for me.

Did the Week 5 day 3 run.  My iPod died 7 minutes into it, so I just used the timer on the treadmill.  So I did the five minute walk, ran for 20+ minutes (I think I went an extra minute or 2 because I had to use my OCD method of gradually lowering the speed as opposed to just going from running to walking… doh!).  By the time I finished running, I had been on the treadmill for about 27 minutes.  Then I walked until I hit the exact 2.0 mile mark, which put me at 33 minutes total workout.  I could have stayed and walked a little longer at the end endurance wise, but time wise I had things to do so 2.0 miles was it.

I looked ahead at the running schedule and I’m not happy.  According to the schedule, 30 minutes equals 3 miles.  But, hello, I am 5′1″ with a short little stride and I’d have to be really  hauling ass to get 3 miles in 30 minutes, and I much prefer my trog to any ass hauling of any sort.  I’m not sure how I am going to increase my speed without huffing and puffing my way into a collapse!

I was disappointed in my run stats.  I ran for 20 freaking minutes and it was less than 2 miles?  UGH.  I thought for sure I had run at least 2.5 and that I’d be hitting the 3.0 by the time I did the cool down walk.  Sucks to have short legs!!

TRAINING DAY 15 (Mon 4/14)

Day 2 of Week 5, eight minute runs.  Uneventful physical activity wise but my mental processes were on overdrive.  I think I have OCD when it comes to running on the treadmill.  I don’t want to stop until I have exact numbers exactly where I want them.   I want to finish in EXACTLY 40 minutes at EXACTLY 2.5 miles.  I finished at 40.39 seconds, 2.5 miles, average pace 3.6 mph.  Close.

On the second 8 minute run I ran one minute each at 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.7 and 5.0.  For the 5 minute cool down I did one minute each at 4.7, 4.5, 4.3, 4.1 and 3.7.  That put me at 13 minutes of jogging and my OCD kicked in and I needed to make it 15 minutes before I could stop, so I did a two minute trog at 3.5.  That put me at just over 2.25 miles, and my OCD kicked in again and I had to get to 2.5 miles, so I walked at 3.3 and then 3.0 until I hit the 2.5 mile mark at called it a day.

 Are you guys stretching before/after running?  I have not been and have been fine, but just read an article about the importance of a post-run stretch and am wondering how everyone else is doing in that department? 

TRAINING DAY 14

OK, so I also joined Lori in the week 5 podcast.  Pretty uneventful.  But holy shit, we jump from 5 minutes to 8 minutes to 20 MINUTES?  That’s quite the jump. 

I was really busy this morning and didn’t get to the gym when I wanted to get there and ended up at the gym at almost noon with a ton of stuff that HAD TO GET DONE … TODAY… but I went anyway because I’m an athlete totally devoted to my training (tee hee).  I found that it was kind of stressful, though, to be there running on the treadmill with so many “to do’s” running through my mind.  I usually have a million “to do’s” on any given day, but for some reason when I am at the gym bright and early it is okay to have stuff to do, because I have the day ahead of me.  But at noon, the stuff to do seems much more immediate and oh my god I need to get it done now because it’s almost time to pick kids up from school blah blah blah blah blah.  So, not very relaxing, but it was productive. 

My TMI moment:  I have lost abut 28 pounds since November and haven’t bought any new clothes yet.  As a result, my underwear is freaking falling down off of my ass when I run.  Of all the problems to have, yes, I know, this is kind of a cool one, but it’s really annoying at the gym and I look like a freak constantly tugging at my pants to surreptitiously pull up my underwear as if no one knows what I am doing.  OK.  I’m done.  Sorry.

I may try to get to the gym in the morning again just because it might be nice to do something “for me” before I start my crazy day of prep for our Vegas party tomorrow night.  But so far so good, the house is clean, the rented black jack tables and poker tables are here, everything is on schedule.  Just need to decorate and put together event packets.  Caterer comes at 5 pm and we roll at 6:30.  Wish me luck.

From this point on, I’m just kind of documenting my run stats for my own perverse pleasure, so feel free to quit reading now… happy weekend, everyone!

I did the warm up and the runs/recoveries per the podcast until the last run.  I did the last five minute run at: 4.0 x 1 min, 4.1 x 1 min, 4.2 x 1 min, 4.3 x 1 min, 4.5 x 1 min.  I did the five minute recovery at 4.4 x 1 min, 4.3 x 1 min, 4.2 x 1 min, 4.1 x 1 min, 4.0 x 1 min.  Then the podcast was over and I did 3.9 x 40 sec., 3.8 x 40 sec.  40 seconds because that’s what the auto count down dealie on the treadmill is set to.  It counts down every 40 seconds.  Then I hit my trogging speed of choice, 3.7, for two minutes, followed by my super slow mo trog at 3.5 for about 2 minutes.  So about 15 minutes of running/trogging.  The odometer was at 2.25 miles total, so then I walked for .25 mile.

Overall stats were 42 minute workout, 2.51 miles, 3.7 average mph.

TRAINING DAY 13 (Wed 4/9)

Home again home again jiggity jig… I am so happy to be home and getting back into my routine.  Got home last night and have had to deal with some funky family problems, but I still made it to the gym this morning, which I am really proud of, because my “old norm” would have been to skip the workout and deal with the husband/teen crisis a-brewing on the home front.  No more.  Me first, then deal with the messes.

Hit the treadmill, did Week 4 again and I think I’m going to move on to Week 5 for my next workout.  My stats were 40 minutes, 2.5 miles, average speed 3.7 mph.  I did everything per the podcast, then did the last five minute run and cool down as: run min 1 - 4.0 mph, run min 2 - 4.2 mph, run min 3 - 4.4 mph, run min 4 - 4.5 mph, run min 5 - 4.7 mph, cool down min 1 - 4.5 mph, cool down min 2 - 4.3 mph, cool down min 3 - 4.0 mph, then did my trog at 3.7 mph for about five minutes because I wanted to get to an “even” 2.25 mph, then walked at 3.0 mph until I hit 2.5 miles.

I know that’s more than anyone could possible give a crap about knowing about my run, but I like writing it all out, so bear with me!

I had a Jenny Craig weigh in this morning before I went to the gym and I am up .4 of a pound, which is the same as a hold in my book, and this is good considering the food orgy I partook of in New Orleans.  I’m devoting myself to a strict Jenny Craig diet for the rest of this week, until my party on Saturday.  I am hosting a fund raiser for my daughter’s school, a Viva Las Vegas night at our house for about 40 people, catered food, rented gaming tables, the whole deal.  My stress level is off the charts with that to deal with and coming home to a disaster zone of a home after a week away and it feels great to say that getting to the gym for “my run” really helped me chill out a little bit!  I guess I’m a runner now (where’d I steal that line, haha).

REGRESSION TRAINING DAY 12.5 (Sun 4/6)

Quick note from Little Rock, Arkansas. I did a run yesterday, but it
was kind of cool outside and my sister’s neighborhood is extremely
hilly, so I decided to do the week 1 run just to get moving. It was
either that or a brisk walk. My timing was a little bit off and I
ended up back at her house with six minutes of podcast remaining, so I
didn’t finish the last 1-min. run or do the 5-min. cool down.

Kind of lame, but, frankly, I was prepred to be disappointed in myself
for not getting any exercise while out of town, something is better
than nothing.

On the plus side, I have held firm to my plan to make-up for my food
overindulgence in New Orleans and have had nothing but healthy salads,
grilled chicken and yogurt since Friday night.

I’ll be home Tuesday night and back on my routine Wednesday and I’m
looking forward to it.
 

TRAINING DAYS 11 AND 12 (Tues 4/1 and Thurs 4/3)

I got in my Week 4 run Tuesday morning before going to the airport.  I traveled an eight hour day with a 9 year old and six month old to Little Rock on Tuesday, got here at 10:30 pm.  Drove eight hours to New Orleans with same two kids plus my sister and her 2 year old all day Wednesday.  Did week 4 again on treadmill in New Orleans at hotel.  Drove back to Little Rock today, Friday, and hope to get in a week 4 run again before heading home on Tuesday.

 I’ve been way out of control with my food while in New Orleans, but now that I’m back at my sister’s house we’re vowing to eat nothing but leafy greens for at least 2 days!  We really overdid it in N.O., but that’s part of the charm of that city.

TRAINING DAY 10, 3/30 (Sunday)

I started to title this post “Week 4 is my prison bitch,” but thought that might be offensive and then realized I really need to lay off the cable TV.

Not much to report.  I met with week 4, we had a chat, I told her she was going down in a major way and then proceeded to whip her butt.  My run stats: 33 minutes, 2.0 miles, average speed 3.6 mph. 

I followed the podcast pretty much verbatim.  I kept my walks between 3.0 and 3.5 and my runs at 4.2 - 4.5 except for the last minute of the last run where the Voice of Oz says to “really push it for the last minute” and I ramped it up to 5.0. 

My face redness has progressed from a level 1 red (”you look good with a little color”) to a level 5 red (”hey lady, are you all right?”) and now 20 minutes post run I am still cardiac arrest red.  But I am impressed that I can run for five minutes without having a lung burst.  I am having achey feet while I run though, so I need to investigate new shoes pronto.  Someone told me about a shop where they have you run on a treadmill and determine “how” you run to fit you in the best shoe.  Probably costs an arm and a leg, though.  We’ll see. 

My 19-year old wanna-be-delinquent son has moved back into the house (there is a running point to this story, so bear with me.)  He moved out after high school graduation to live in the BIG WORLD as an ADULT but that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be so he’s home since last weekend.  He has missed most of my running hype.

This morning he was frying an egg as I am heading out the door.  He asked where I was going, I told him the gym.  He asked what kind of workout I was doing, I told him training for a 5k.  He asked what kind of intervals I was doing, I told him about the podcasts.  I’m waiting for a smart ass remark any minute, because the boy does have a quick wit, and I get nothing.  Hmmmm, what nice kid I raised, look at that, as he goes back to frying his egg.

As I’m walking out the door, he says “RUN, FORREST, RUN!”

The kid is a smart ass, but he did make me smile on the treadmill, which is an accomplishment.

TRAINING DAY 9, 3/28/08 (Friday)

Went to the gym IN THE SNOW this morning.  Hello, spring break!

My run stats: 34 minutes, 2 miles, average speed 3.6 mph. 

Of the 26 minute podcast, I walked the warmup, the two 90-second recovery walks and the 3-minute recovery walk and ran the rest of the time.  After the last 3-minute run, I ran/trogged the rest of the podcast.  Then I did an additional five minutes of running, reducing down gradually from 5.0 mph to 3.7 mph, then walked at 3.5 and then 3.2 until I hit 2 miles total.

I am going to try podcast #4 this weekend.  And I have a new plan for transitioning to outdoor running.  I am going to try doing podcast #1 outside.  After the struggle of making it to week 3, I hope that week 1 will feel “easy”.  We’ll see.  I walked one mile outside with the baby in the stroller yesterday and even though it was chilly vs. freezing, I found the cold air painful when I started breathing heavy.

I have an upcoming “struggle” to try to work through.  I am leaving Tuesday to go visit my sister for a week.  She just relocated from New Orleans (our home town) to Little Rock, Arkansas and she’s MISERABLE so I am flying out there for spring break with my 9-year old daughter and 6-month old granddaughter.  My sister has a 2-year old.  So it’s going to be kids, kids and more kids.  And to add misery to misery, we are going to make a 7-hour road trip from Little Rock to New Orleans to visit my dad and brother and brother’s new 2-week old baby.  Lord help us!

So… long story short (too late, right, haha), I don’t know how much opportunity I am going to have for running, and I’m worried about “losing my groove”.  I am trying to ”promise” myself that I’ll get up early before the kids and go for a run, but reality is my sister and I like to have a few drinks when we get together (translation: put kids to bed and drink a pitcher of martinis), so I don’t know how realistic that is.  Food wise I think I’ll be okay because my sister is a healthy cook/eater, her husband is a vegetarian and long-distance runner, and they don’t do junk food. 

So wish me luck on that front!

I’m going to try to get in Week 4 day 1 saturday or sunday and day 2 monday or tuesday before I leave tuesday afternoon.  I haven’t even looked yet to see what exactly week 4 entails… I’m too chicken! 

TRAINING DAY 8, 3/26/08 (Wed)

I did my second day of the Week 3 podcast without incident.  Did it on the treadmill at the gym.  I added in quite a bit of extra “trogging” at the end.  Trog is my new word for the combination slow trot/jog that I seem to favor that is more than a brisk walk, but sloppier than a power walk.  Believe me, if you saw me doing it, you’d say, “Yeah, she’s trogging all right.”

 I had a Jenny Craig weigh in this morning.  I was disappointed that I only lost a quarter of a pound for the week.  But with the holiday festivities and Easter candy and birthday cake that we have in the house, I guess it’s to be expected.  They do a measurement every 4 weeks, and this was my 20th week, so I measured in at -4.5 for the month for a total of 21.5 inches lost in 20 weeks.  That is really exciting to me!  The more it comes off, the better I feel about running… or is it the more I run, the more it comes off?  Huh.

Anyway, happy running and happy day to every one : )

My stats: 34 minutes, 1.99 miles, average speed 3.5 mph.

Warmup: 3.2 mph, 90-sec run 4.5 mph, recovery 3.2 mph, 3 minute run 4.0 mph, recovery 3.2 mph, 90-sec run 4.5 mph, recovery 3.2 mph, 3 minute run 4.0 mph x 1 minute and 4.5 x 1 minute… extra: 4.3 x 1 minute, 4.0 x 2 minutes, 3.8 (that’s my trogging speed) x 4 minutes.  I stopped keeping time at that point.  I was at 1.76 miles total, so I walked at 3.0 until I hit 1.99 and quit.  I figured I’d get that last .01 of a mile by walking to my car in the parking lot : )

TRAINING DAY 7, 3/24/08 (Mon)

I did it… I moved on up to the Week 3 podcast.  This was a monumental step for me.  By nature, I am not a mover.  I’m a stayer.  I like to stay and stay and stay.  I like the comfortable, the familiar, the easy to do.  My natural instinct was to stay in Week 2 until it felt comfortable, which is not an unreasonable thing to do, but for me comfortable could mean I never move on.  Still breathing heavy? Better not move on.  Can’t do the intervals at 6 mph?  Better not move on just yet.  Red cheek? Best stay put for just a little longer.  If nothing else, at least I am self-aware and know this about myself.

So this morning I went to the gym, hopped on the treadmill, cued up Week 3 with the safety net plan of, if it is too hard, I will stay on the podcast for today and walk when I can’t run anymore, and tomorrow do week 2 again.  But I didn’t have to!  I did the three minute runs, plus a little!  When did three minutes become so long?  I did my own self-timed three minute run Saturday and it was not as long as the ones I did today.

I did my walking at 3.0 for the most part.  I did the runs at 4.0 and 4.5.  At the end, for the five minute cool down, I went from 4.5 for the run to a jog of 4.2 for one minute, then 4.0 for one minute, 3.8 for one minute and then brisk walk of 3.5 for one minute and 3.2 for the last minute.  I was only at 1.7 miles, though, overall distance, and wanted to get that up to at 2, so I kept walking at 3.2 until I hit 1.95 miles.  I could have gone that extra .05 of a mile but the clock was ticking for getting to work, so I called it good at 35 minutes.

My stats: 35 minutes, 1.95 miles, average speed 3.3 mph.  If my calculations are correct, of the 35 minutes, I ran for 12 minutes and walked for 23.

Time to shower and get to work… happy running!

TRAINING DAY 6, 3/22/08 (Sat)

Yay for me!  I got my ass out of bed (much against my instinct to snuggle in and stay another hour) and went to the gym.  Hit the treadmill, did my Week 2 run for the fourth time with no issues.  The last run I did the 90 seconds, then went 90 seconds more to see if I could do three minutes… and I surprised myself because, yes, I can, and I didn’t even die or anything.

So I think I may give Week 3 a try on Monday.  If it is too much, I’ll go back to Week 2 for another round. 

I’m finding part of my “success” is to keep a nice jogging pace.  If I walk at 3.0 and run at 4.0 I seem to be fine.  When I ramp it up to 4.5 for too long, I start to feel really fatigued.  But at 4.0 I was able to get in that full three minutes without any problem.  I find it hard to believe, though, that I will be able to ever run for longer than three minutes.

The good news is, even if I have to walk half of my 5k at 3.0 mph and jog the other half at 4.0 mph, I can still finish in under an hour.

 After the run I can home and did a seven hour cleaning marathon, and had horrible crap nachos with everything for lunch and now feel ill.  And I still have a bunny cake to bake for tomorrow.

Happy Easter everyone,

Shana

TRAINING DAY 5.5, 3/20/08 (Thurs)

I am dubbing this 5.5 vs. 6 because I am considering it a do-over after my yucky day yesterday. 

So today I did week 2 again, on the treadmill, and it was perfection.  I did tone it done.  I did all walking at 3.0 and all running at 4.0 with the exception of the last run, which I did at 4.5.  The upside is I felt great, I did everything that I needed to do and rebuilt my confidence.  The downside is I probably should have pumped it up a little bit because I didn’t get my heart rate up very high.

I did have a 10 second shoe tying break during the second to last walk segment and accidentally reset the treadmill, so I didn’t get to see my stats, which I like to do.  Oh well, better than tripping over my shoe lace.

I also noticed that the gym is 70% less occupied on Thursday as it is on Mon, Wed, and Fri, so I may reevaluate my schedule. 

Goals for the week: get in another good week 2 run, decide at that point if I want to do another day of week 2 or move on (waiting to hear from some of you who move on first!); get in at least one 3 mile walk before Monday; stay on my food plan.

Unrelated, but I had a weigh in at Jenny Craig yesterday and was down 2.5 lb for the week, for a total of 23 pounds down in 19 weeks.  I am feeling really good about that, and that’s got to be part of what is helping me feel so good about my running.  I am definitely noticing a lot less ass jiggle when running : )

TRAINING DAY 5, 3/19/08 (Wed)

Today is gorgeous and sunny so I decided to run outside.  There’s a little track around our neighborhood park.  I think it is 1/8 of a mile. 

On the way to the park, I realized that the beautiful sunshine was deceptive and it is pretty dang cold out (turns out it is 45, just checked my yard thermometer).  Anyway, I did my five minute walk and realized, wow, this track has quite a bit of slope to it.  The first run came and I did the whole 90 seconds, but it was a struggle and I was breathing really hard.  And the cold air did not feel good.  Did the walk segment, started the second run and could not complete it.  Probably did a minute.  Same thing with the third run.  I was doing okay on the flat parts and downhill, but on the uphill I was just dying and could not run it.

Also, half of the track is shady and half is sunny, so I was sweating and took off my sweatshirt, but then hit the shade and was covered in goosebumps.

Then I realized, duh, I am here alone, I can just run back and forth on the flat part of the track in the sun.  So I did the full run for no. 4.  But my chest and throat were really hurting and I don’t know if this is anatomically possible, but I felt like I was just filling my head and sinus passages with icy air.  Not a good feeling. 

Run No. 5, I did almost all of, on the flat ground.  Same for no. 6.  But I couldn’t push through to finish them.  And by this time I had a pounding headache and felt really nauseaus.  I had a few sips of water on the five minute warm up and could feel them sloshing around in my stomach.  I am here to tell you, nothing more humiliating than going out for a run, feeling like an athlete, and puking.

Did the cool down walk home, came in and laid down for a few minutes and am feeling better, but all in all not a good experience.

I am going to do day 2 of week 2 again tomorrow on the treadmill and call today a failed experiment in the great outdoors.

I’m really disappointed, because this is my fifth day of c25k and my first bad experience, and I am a master of focusing on the negative and forgetting the positive, so I am making a really conscious effort not to do that here. 

TRAINING DAY 4, 3/17/08 (Mon)

I did the Week 2 podcast.  I didn’t suffer any abject humiliation on the treadmill, but, man, it was hard!  I did the whole thing as coached, i.e. walked all the walks and ran all the runs, but I really do not think I could have pushed it one smidge further.

I did up my speed, which I am sure added to the kick-assedness of the experience.  I did my warm up walk at 3.5 mph, ramped up to 4.5 for the first run, but I found that I could not do the recovery walk at 3.5, it was too much.  So I did the remaining recovery walks fluctuating between 3.0 and 3.2 and did the majority of the runs at 5.0, sometimes dropping down to 4.5, but mostly 5.0.  I did the five minute cool down walk with 30 seconds jog at 4.5, 30 seconds jog at 4.0, and the rest at 3.5 save the last minute when I dropped down to 3.2.

My workout stats per the treadmill were 33 minutes of workout, 1.99 miles completed and an average speed of 3.6 mph. 

I am feeling A LOT LESS self-conscious about my body and how goofy I probably look running.  It’s part “I don’t care, I’m doing it anyway” and part “Hey, I don’t look half bad.”  It’s an awesome feeling.

I’m glad I moved up to week 2, but after this first day I cannot imagine ramping it up to week 3!  But then again, that is how I felt on day 1 of week 1, so maybe I’ll be able to stay the course.

I love having the support of others doing the same thing and hearing about your experiences, so thanks to everyone who has joined this group! 

TRAINING DAY 3, 3/14/08 (Fri)

I did my third run today. I wussed out and did it on the treadmill.
I LOVE the fact that in this new and improved reality, exercising on
the treadmill is considered wussing out considering the fact that I
haven’t done this much exercise in 10 years.

I had a great run, ramped my speed up to 3.0 on all walking segments,
4.0 on run 1, 4.2 on run 2 and 4.5 on the rest of the runs. On the
final run, I did an extra 30 seconds at 4.5 before starting the cool
down walk. I ran for all of the running parts with one 30 second
exception on run 5… see below.

At the faster speeds, I definitely feel a difference in my breathing
(much heavier) and my recovery (slower). In fact, I came home,
showered and 30 minutes post-shower my cheeks are still red. I’m
debating continuing with week 1 on Sunday vs. moving up to week 2. I
guess I’ll decide on Sunday. I like that we have a big enough window
to do that before the Starlight 5k.

Two small mishaps. First one, during the warm up walk, I started
watching HGTV with no sound on a TV to my left, and kind of veered to
the left, and took a step with my left foot off of the moving part of
the treadmill and onto the side part of the treadmill and almost ate
it. Yes, I am a spaz.

Second mishap, much more significant. During run 5 one of my
earphone things was feeling wobbly, so I tried to adjust it, and
pulled too far and yanked my faux-pod off of the treadmill bottle
holder where it was resting. It slammed to the bottom of the
treadmill, the cord for the earphones yanked out, and WHAM, the
sucker flew off the back of the treadmill at 4.5 miles an hour and
into the next row of treadmills behind me! Being the vision of grace
that I am, I couldn’t decide how best to slow down the 4.5 mph run
and reclaim the faux-pod and made a less than smooth transitional
dive off the treadmill to grab it off of the floor. The kind senior
citizens on the treadmills behind me pretended not to notice, God
bless them.

Happy weekend, everyone : ) 

TRAINING DAY 2, 3/12/08 (Wed)

I decided to do my training on the treadmill today because I didn’t want to go out and run by myself this morning because there was no one else on the track that I drove to (lame, I know) and besides, I bought the 20-punch gym card and need to use it 18 more times.  It actually worked out great.  I think I’m going to try to alternate treadmill with outdoor running during the training. 

I felt a lot more focused and less distracted on the treadmill, at least until someone turned on Animal Plant on a TV that I could watch but not hear.  That was a little distracting… but I digress.  I also like the fact that I could decide how fast to set it and know how fast I was going.

In an effort to not sound like a whiner, I am going to offset all of the negative things I have to say about exercise with positive ones.  My glass is half-full, damn it.

POSITIVE 1: I did the whole thing dead on with the podcast, not skipping an interval.   

POSITIVE and NEGATIVE:  I had no problems with recovery after each interval.  I must have a really good heart.  I tend to get really red, and that’s never going to change.  I’m a natural red head with freckles and translucent white skin.  So, red face aside, my breathing is not labored.  I’m breathing heavy, like exercise heavy, during the runs, but not panting/dying/causing a scene/hey lady, are you okay breathing.  Next time I’ll take my heart rate to see where I am.  Where was I going with this?  OH, anyway… cardio wise the runs are fine, but it’s my feet… owie!  My feet hurt during the running portion, when I ease back to a walk, they feel better.  WTF is up with that?  Any ideas?  I have six month old New Balance running shoes that have hardly any miles on them and they are a good fit.  I don’t have any health problems that would lead to circulation issues.  I am thinking that the problem is my delicate little size 6-1/2 feet are not meant to be pounded by 163 pounds of fat. 

POSITIVE 2: I was not self conscious, didn’t feel like a giant ‘tard on the treadmill with everyone pointing and staring, which is how I usually feel at a gym.

NEGATIVE 1: I don’t like the techno music on the podcasts… at all!  But maybe that’s a positive because I can dream of the day that I don’t need to be coached and can put on my own music and just run.

NEGATIVE 2:  I still didn’t buy a sports bra, and I need to.  Do they make sports underwear, because I think my ass jiggles more than my boobs.

POSITIVE and NEGATIVE: The yoga pants that I had on were way too loose (yay for me!) but kept slipping way down on my hips (not conducive to a good workout).

POSITIVE 3:  Most of the 60 second runs seemed short and the 90 second walks seemed long. 

NEGATIVE 3: At the end of the 60 seconds, my feet hurt and I’m happy to be walking again, so how am I ever going to be able to run for more than 60 seconds?  On the positive side, I guess it’s better to have owie feet than bursting lungs.

So that’s 3 positives, 3 negatives and two washes.  Hey, my cup REALLY is half full!

TRAINING DAY 1, 3/9/08 (Sun)

Well, things didn’t work out exactly as I had planned … go figure, haha.  My plan was to get on the treadmill and walk a leisurely three miles to start building endurance, and to do that today (Sunday) as well as Wednesday and Friday. 

So, plan for the day was go to church, then I had a volunteer thing at church to do.  After that, come home, go to the gym and hit the treadmill.  Of course the volunteer thing took an hour longer than expected and of course my 9-year-old darling daughter couldn’t come home from church without having a friend come along for a play date.  But it’s all good, I’ll get the girls home, feed them, and go to the gym.  My darling hubby can keep an eye on them. 

When we get home, DH is waiting for me to walk in the door so he can tell me that he’s going to help friends of ours rip out bathroom cabinets in their “new” house.  Oh, okay.   No gym for me.

My oldest darling daughter comes home a few minutes after that and DD9 and her play date convince DD20 to take them to see “College Road Trip,” which leaves me home with the 5-month-old baby.  Okay… time to make lemonade from the lemons getting thrown at my plan.

I loaded everyone up, dropped DD20, DD9 and friend at the movie theatre and took baby girl and the stroller to the waterfront to walk.  I figured I would listen to the C25k podcast for timing and just walk through the jog intervals.  At least I’d be getting off my ass and getting a feel for the program.

So we hit the waterfront, walked through the five minute warm up and now it’s time to jog and I think, what the hell, let’s do it.  So I jogged for 60 seconds!  Yay for me!  NOTE TO SELF: buy sports bra and jogging stroller.   When the 60 second interval ended I did the 90 minute walk and then it was time to jog again, and I did it again!  I am feeling 100% rock star at this point.

I made it through the first three intervals without having a coronary.  When the fourth jog interval hit, I was in a more congested area with walkers right in front of me and I was too self conscious to bust out into a jog…. EXCUSE ME, JOGGING WOMAN COMING THROUGH… so I walked through the fourth interval.  I turned around to head back to the car, and jogged for the fifth, sixth and seventh intervals.  When I got to the final interval, I decided to really run, just balls out go for it running.  Going downhill.  With a stroller.  Uh, bad idea but no one was injured.

After the final jog, there is a five minute cool down, which was near perfect timing for me to be back to my car with a sleeping baby in the stroller ready for the drive home.

My “fear” of jogging was that I would feel too jiggly, too winded, too self-conscious.. and I was jiggly and winded but fuck it, no one was pointing and staring, so I guess I need to start believing my hubby when he tells me that 90% of the shit I believe about the way I look is really all in my head.  I did sit in the car for a moment, looking in the mirror, expecting to see a fat red face that looked like she was about to stroke out.  What I saw was rosy cheeks, not strokey at all, and my hair even looked good, a little sweaty but not like plastered down and disgusting.  I know, worrying about what I look like while running is not really productive here, but these are the things that go through my mind.

I downed a bottle of water and drove home.  And then ate a damned brownie.  Oh, well, baby steps, right?

 FEEDBACK ON THE PODCAST:  I used the Ullrey (sp) podcast and it was REALLY helpful.  I can’t imagine how you could do this without the podcast unless you are on a treadmill and holding a stopwatch to time the intervals.  The only drawback is the music.  Techno.  Yuck.  But if I can listen to my 9-year-old play the “Meet Miley” CD for hours on end, I guess half an hour of techno isn’t going to kill me.

I’m going to copy the post above to the PDXcouch25k yahoo group.  I’m trying to figure out the best way to network the people that want to do the C25k together.  I thought the yahoo group was the best way to go because everyone can post their own experiences as opposed to commenting here.  Any feedback on how to make this work best is appreciated!  I’m looking forward to hearing about how others do on their first C25k day soon!