Congratulations, ennay!! :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2:

I did my long run this morning -- 7 miles, with no walk breaks at all! I think that's my longest run ever without taking a quick walk break. I felt quite comfortable throughout, even though my legs were tired. Miles five and six felt particularly good, believe it or not. Took me nearly an hour and a half, but I'm proud of myself! The fact that I can run that long without stopping still kind of amazes me, considering where I was a year ago.

Lisa, I totally believe it. I dont think I get going for about 5 miles, runs of 2-3 miles for me are more painful.

Today I used the treadmill at the Y and did 3.1 miles in about 32 minutes, which is fast for me. I followed it with another 1/2 mile of walking on a steep incline. I have this huge interest in hiking lately, which I haven't actually acted on yet, so I kind of thought I should get used to walking hills!

Hello! :wave:

I kind of followed Tricia in here... I have just started my 2nd week of the Couch to 5K - and I feel awesome! Never thought of myself as a runner... not that you can call what I am doing at the moment 'running'!! :lol3:

But I just wanted to say hello, and maybe start visiting this group as well as my Crazy Canucks, etc.

I am currently working on finding an excellent bra (that doesn't cost the world, since I hope to be too small for it soon!) and another pair of the trainers I wear now, as they are already a little too big.

Thank you for being such an inspiring group!

Heather :D

Welcome, Heather! You'll love it here! I started very slowly with running and now I'm hooked. The key, I think, is just to get out there and do it as often as possible, and as comfortably as possible. Don't push yourself to go too fast -- I had trouble with that because I kept thinking I was just way too slow. It's ok to be slow -- I'm still slow, and I probably always will be!! But I can run reasonable distances now and I'm improving every day, and so will you! Check in frequently and tell us about your progress! :)

Edited to add: As for the bra situation, I still wear two bras when I run. I never wanted to spend much money on a heavy-duty support bra, as my sizes changed pretty frequently (down from a double D to a single D now and still getting smaller). I wear a regular comfortable bra under a sports bra and that has always worked quite well, even when I was quite large in the beginning. Wearing two bras isn't uncomfortable, so I've never had a problem with it. No jiggling, which is good.

Welcome!

I did about 7.4 miles with running club this evening. Bits of it felt really hard because it was my first time back doing hills (the runs I've done since the marathon have been pretty flat), but I was pretty much running at my normal speed.

I'm meant to be doing a 10 mile race on Wednesday night which I'm a bit unsure about. I've registered and have got a number for it, but if I don't feel up to it I don't want to push myself too hard. I think I'll probably do it, but I'll leave it until Wednesday to decide for sure.

Hi all, I've never visited this thread, I'm not a runner...but I want to be! I've heard multiple times about the Couch to 5K plan and I checked it out, it really seems doable! I'm eager to start, I will be starting tomorrow since I was already out on the trail this morning for my exercise.

I have a question though, did those of you who have started the program (or finished it) do any additional exercise on "off" days? 30 minutes 3 times a week doesn't sound like much exercise at all. I understand the concept of starting slow but that seems too slow! How did you approach the plan? Did you modify it at all? etc.

thanks!

Other plans have you run/walk up to five times a week.

Some people do fine with C25K as written, others need more time at one or more levels. You'll know when you get there.

Five weeks from not running at all to running for 20 minutes at a time is not slow at all. Most conservative plans take twice as long.

The plan I was reading on coolrunning.com was for 9 weeks. I'm going to do it and I'll certainly keep coming to this thread for support, ya'll seem great! To cement my decision and make a commitment I've found a 5k in approximately 9 weeks (it's the Asbury Park 5K in New Jersey on August 11th) Anyone else here in the NJ area going to do it?

You can also tweek the C25K in the other direction. I sped it up a bit since I have no patience to go all nine weeks. A did weeks one and two and then skipped ahead a few weeks and it didn't seem to matter. But the important thing is to find your pace and do what works. Easing into running is totally the way to go it is so cool to actually be able to train your body to do something which it couldn't do before.

I also tweeked the 3 day a week bit. Instead I just ran every other day which squeezed an extra day every other week. It seemed to always take about 45 minutes (with a short warm up walk on each end). On my off days I would lift weights (and still do).

Ran 7 on sunday and it took me a grand total of an hour and 40 minutes. Miles 6 and 7 were definitely not my best. After the 5th mile my run resembles those slow motion takes on the bionic woman. Until then I am running about a 13 minute mile which is still not exactly speedy but I am pretty laid back about the whole thing. I figure it will all come in time. Its nice to feel marginally fit.

Ennay....Amazing.

And Lisa I am impressed with your 32 minute run. You are really racing ahead so to speak.

Wisher - I'm starting week 3 tomorrow. I follow the 3 day a week running for now. On my "off" days I do my elliptical for some non-impact cardio to give my legs a break and I do weight training. So far so good. I'm loving it! Hope you do too!

Ok ladies, I'm finally here with my half marathon race report. I finished in 2 hours 41 minutes, which put me at a pace of 12:19 per mile. Going into the race, I was hoping to get under 12, but the course wound up being quite hilly, and since I'm used to running along the flat flat flat Chicago lakefront, I'm still very pleased - heck, I'm very pleased just to have finished.

The other unexpected challenge was the cicadas! This race was in an area of Chicago that has a lot of old trees, and the 17 year cicada population is out in full force now. Not only was the noise amazingly loud, there were little dead cicada bodies smooshed into the road everywhere, and I had several fly into me during the run - ick!

It was a beautiful day, and I felt pretty good the whole way through, even with the hills. One of my friends surprised me by showing up at around mile 11 and running up one of the hills with me, then doing the last lap around the local high school track with me, which was really nice.

Of course, at mile 13, I kept thinking - holy cow, if this was a full marathon, I'd only be half way done now! I think I'll definitely have to work on speed a bit to get to the point where I really believe I can do a marathon. But, I am thinking about it - maybe next summer. In the meantime, I was so excited about yesterday, that I went on the web tonight and signed up for another half marathon this September. And the good thing about this one is that it's back in the flatlands of downtown Chicago, so surely I'll be able to improve my time :)

Here's a little picture of me on the last lap - I don't think I realized till I saw this that running really has created some muscles in my legs - when I look at them in the mirror, I still see fat girl legs.

Well done and nice picture!

(I'm still gutted that I managed to run a whole marathon and they didn't manage to take a single picture of me - and in my first they only managed two, some people seemed to have 11 or 12 just from one race!)

Great job, Rachel!! :cheer2: And nice picture! Add your name to Helen's on my list of running inspirations!!

Was this your first half marathon? I can't remember. I'm getting ready for mine in September so I'll probably have lots of questions for you! My first one is about walk breaks. Did you take them? Did you plan them or just take one when you needed it? I'm wondering if I should take them to conserve energy or just run until I can't run anymore. As I get into longer runs in my training this summer, I'll probably have a better idea of what I should do.

This morning I ran 4 miles at a slightly faster pace than normal. Felt good, but I'm taking tomorrow off and going to step aerobics and bodysculpting classes (my usual Wednesday thing).

I'll be out of town all next week so I'll have to find some good spots for running in my hometown. There's a great little park that's nice and flat, but running the 1/2 mile loop over and over gets quite dull. Everywhere else will be nightmarishly hilly, I'm thinking, but I have a few runner friends who live nearby and I can get their advice.

Look at those legs! Woo hoo Rachel!!!! Very cool.

Lisa I am right behind you with a half in October. I am sure I will be pleased just to finish and even more pleased if my legs look half as good as Rachels by then. (thanks for posting the motivational picture).

Today was hills for me. The problem when I run outside is I haven't got the faintest clue how far or fast I am going. Best guess is between 4 and 5 probably closer to 4 since I am ALWAYS slower than I think. It was excruciating hill repeats a very short hill and a very good workout. Ran up my hill 25 times talk about monotonous.

But I like running up hills... kind of has a superwoman feel to it. Of course if I could watch myself and see how slow I actually go it might ruin the image. But luckily I am blissfully unaware. (insert superhero music of your choice)

Rachel you look wonderful!! Congrats :celebrate:

Thanks everyone!

Lisa, to answer your questions, yes this was my first half marathon - in fact, it was my first formal race of any kind. I kept meaning to get in a 5k or 10k race beforehand, but somehow never quite got around to it. So, I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, but once it got underway, I was fine, and everyone was very friendly on the course.

As to walk breaks, I walked through the water stops as I was drinking, but otherwise, didn't take a real walking break until I hit the biggest monster hill of the course at about mile 8. (We first headed down a big hill toward the lake front, and while that was nice, I knew what was going to be on the other end - took one look when I got to the bottom, and decided walking back up was definitely the way to go!)

In the last 5 miles, I probably took another 2 or 3 walking breaks as my legs got a little more tired. I didn't really have them planned out, but figured I would need a little break here and there, particularly as I got closer to the end. I think you're right that you will be able to get a better feel for what will work for you as you get into some longer runs in your prep training. I don't think you would want to wait until you absolutely feel like you have to take a walking break, but I did try to train myself to run for a pretty good stretch without one.

Helen, I'm with you on the photo thing. My first marathon they had 2 cameras set up to get the finish line shot with the time and when I went through BOTH Cameras got the person before me and the person after me. RRRRR

Wooohooo Rachel!!!!!

Hi all :wave:

I did day two of week two on the Couch to 5K programme this morning -it is VERY hot here at the moment, but I just knew that if I didn't go in the morning, I'd try to find excuses all afternoon NOT to go in the evening! :D

I took a different route, which was less hilly, but a bit firmer, and thus maybe a little tougher on my knees. :( I'll know tomorrow, I guess.

I haven't 'cheated' at all - though that's a poor word - I am timing my jogging and walking, and managing not to walk longer in between this week, which is definitely a step up from last week! :) I'm a little worried about week 3 - Tricia - how are you finding it? Not such a big jump up, and manageable? It LOOKS like a big jump up in time - if I find it hard, I think I'll do week two again :lol3:

Wisher -I have never felt so good as doing this - get started and let us know how you get on!

Have a great day everyone -
Heather :D

Rachel--your first race was a half-marathon??!! Wow! I'm impressed! Congratulations!

Ennay, we're doing a 5K race in Tigard this Sunday. They have a balloon festival, I guess. My DD picked it out. We've never been to this place so it should be interesting just trying to find it via the google map. :)

ARGH! I was supposed to start my first day of the C25K program today and I went down to the fitness room at our apartment complex to use the treadmill and it was locked and there was no one else there to let me in! I'm really bummed, I can't run outside because it's 106 degrees out. I'm just really grumpy because this is the 3rd time in the last 2 weeks that I've gone to use the room and it's locked, they're not supposed to lock it until 10:00 pm. Unfortunately the manager's office opens after I go to work and closes before I get home so I haven't been able to bring this to their attention! It's so frustrating when I'm shooting for a 5K August 11th!! Thanks for letting me vent :D

Wow!
 

Great jobs on those races ladies! You amaze me! I on the other hand, let my mental slump lead to a physical one, and now I'm out there huffing and puffing on 1/2 mile jogs instead of my former 3 mile ones. Why doesn't the body have a rewind mechanism that I can set and say, see you remember, a few weeks ago we were running 3 miles easily, why can't we do, say half that and work back up, why am I back at square one? Ah well, I'm back in the groove, however small it may be, and working back up to 3.1 miles again for another 5k in July for motivation. Great job guys, all you racers and C25k'ers... Keep it up!

Hey wisher, summer in Tucson was what finally convinced me to become a morning person. I'm outside between 5 and 7, depending on my schedule. Well, most summers anyway since I'm on running hiatus until about March of next year.

Congrats Rachel.

Hi everybody. Still lurking...

Anne

Yuk, my 10 mile race last night was horrible. I still technically managed a 10 mile PB, but only because my old one was pretty slow - I barely got above marathon pace overall and finished in 1:28:something. I've actually been far faster than that for the first 10 miles of a HM, but I always seem to have bad runs when I do a 10 mile race. I had awful stomach problems so ended up run/walking back to the finish after the first 5 miles, then felt really grotty all night so I'm not sure whether it was something I ate rather than just bog standard runners trots. Ah well, there will be plenty more races.

wndranne - I actually am a morning person, however I'm already up at 5:15 every morning to make it to work on time, if I got up earlier to run it would be dark out and I don't really feel comfortable running by myself around the city in the dark! I'll figure something out though, I refuse to just give up!!

wisher, I hope you can figure everything out. 106 degrees is crazy! It gets to the mid-to-high 90s here in the summer, but I'm lucky that I'm off all summer and can get up and run early but not TOO early. I just did my five miles this morning, but it's cloudy and cooler today anyway.

Helen, I'm sorry you had a bad run, but you're right--there will be lots more of them, and you have lots of successful races in your future. And a "bad" run for you would be a success for most people, I bet! Look how far you've come! I try to remember that when I get disappointed in something with my running. I beat myself up about my slow pace all the time, because I really want to get to a faster "easy" comfortable pace, but I'm still between 11:30 and 12:00. Then I remember that a year ago there's no way I could've even run for 11 minutes straight to save my life, and I'm thankful for how different my life is now!

Did 3 miles this morning, and those miles were MUCH tougher than the 5 miles I did yesterday. So weird how that works sometimes. Had about an 11:20 average pace, and for some reason that killed me. Ugh.

Hi all :wave:

I've finished week 2 of the Couch to 5K programme... quite surprisingly worried about week 3... anyone done this and repeated a week?

It's great inspiration for me to read all of your entries about how much or how far you run - at this point, I'm still amazed I am actually moving at all! :D

Have a great day!
Heather :)

If you need to repeat a week, repeat the week.

C25K progresses a lot faster than many other programs.

:wave: Hi all you runners! I’ve missed you.

Helen - Congrats on another fantastic marathon, speed demon! Sorry your 10 mi didn’t go like you hoped.

Rachel – Great job on your half! Very impressive. You look great, running really does do nice things for the look of your legs.

Heather & wisher - Welcome! I started with c25k, still not doing much more than 3 miles but at least I can do that. I’ve run 2 5k races this spring and really enjoyed them.

deeinthekeys – I know all about the slump! I’ve had a few myself. The important thing is you are back at it and will get back to 3.1 and beyond.

Speaking of slumps…I didn’t run for a week. :o A small slump, but I still feel kind of bad about it. Last weekend was crazy, this week was crazy trying to get settled in the new house and I just didn’t have it in me to get up at 5 when I was going to bed later than normal. And it has been way too hot to run after work. Finally got up this morning and ran a little over 2 miles with a half mile walk for warm up and cool down. It is still so humid though, even if cool enough at that hour. Not quite back in my groove, but I’ll work that out next week. I’ll be out of town with a busy agenda this weekend so I doubt I’ll be running.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Sheila, I almost did that race last year. I'd love to have a FE at a race sometime, but this year I am mostly doing long stuff. I might do a 10K in NorthPlains in Aug.

I did just under 10 miles this morning. It felt a lot better than the race on Wednesday - admittedly it wasn't as hilly - I just took it at a slow pace (slower than my normal long run pace), and told myself not to obsess about times, just to get used to being on my feet for a decent amount of time. I guess I kind of assume that because I could run 26 miles 3 weeks ago, I should be able to do more than 10 now, without realising how much it does take out of you. I'm sure I could do more if I had to, but I've got time before Amsterdam to build up relatively slowly, so there's no point rushing it.

I might go out with a running group from my gym tomorrow, if I do I don't think it will be a particularly hard or long run unless there are some secret speed demons I don't know about! I know I'm faster than the personal trainer organising it, which gives me confidence that it will be well within my ability. I'll see how I feel, I might have a rest day as I have actually hit 30 miles this week which isn't too bad.

Hi ladies! The title of this thread is no longer accurate for me, as it is hot and humid here in Chicago this weekend, so I am far from a cool runner - much more of a hot, sweaty runner! That's ok, at least I'm still getting my miles in - trying to run early in the day to avoid the worst of it. Ran 6 yesterday, and 7 this morning. Hope you're all doing great - I love reading the C25K progress reports!

Finally had my first C25K "run" this morning. It was harder than I thought it would be, seemed easy at first but then after a few running cycles it got harder and harder! I actually walked through the last minute of running. I think the name is a little misleading, no one could get off the couch and do that not have exercised at all before! lol

Anyway I'm glad to have started it finally, tomorrow is an "off" day, I think I'll do some work on the stationary bike then back to C25K on tuesday!

P.S. loooove my new running shoes!

Yah for your first run. You best bet would be to run a little slower. The first intervals are often easy, but then your body gets tired. Going a little slower will make your later intervals easier! Don't worry if it seems like you could walk faster, your speed will come with time!


Hope this helps!

Ali

Hi everyone - it was a gorgeous day here in Chicago, and I got out of work a bit early, so enjoyed the extra free time by adding on a few miles to my evening run. Went 8.2 in total, and felt really great the whole time - it's amazing how much a drop in humidity makes things easier.

Did my 5K on Sunday. Perfect weather--a bit cool and overcast. The course was through a park, a butterfly garden, and part of it was on a bark chip footpath through the woods. Fantastic! The best part was that I did the 5K in 35.31, which is an 11.39 mile--my best time ever! My goal this year is to run under a 35 min. race, and I got pretty darn close. My DD ran with me, and it was helpful having her there to spur me on and vice versa. Told her she had to go with me to all my races this summer.

WTG Sheila! That's the time frame I am shooting for. Right now, I can do a 10:29 mile, but only one, and my longer runs always end up averaging out to 13:30-14:30, or somewhere in there. At least right now it's easy to get a PR on my 5k, since my times are so bad, lol.

I got back out there this morning and did a mile, in a 12:30 pace, not too bad considering I've only run a mile total before that this month. I hate being in a slump, but I feel like I've got it licked. Gonna keep it easy the rest of this week, and get back up to my mileage next week, as I've got a 5k the next week to try and finish.

Have a great day everyone!

Good Morning!

Wisher - Congrats on getting started! I am on week three, but I am actually repeating week two. I need to strengthen a bit more before moving on.

I actually went out on Monday, and had to cheat and walk a LOT - I just felt extraordinarily tired, and couldn't seem to push through it - but I was SO disappointed in myself. I am feeling better about it now, telling myself that in fact listening to my body is a Very Good Thing! :D

I was out this morning before 7am - SO unlike me!! - and I feel much better. Ran better, too - but it is still hard on the old knees... Still - I'm moving and shaking!! ;)

I'll probably move on to week three next Monday :)

Have a great day everyone!

Heather :D