Posts Tagged ‘C25K’

Last evening, I finished my 10-week Couch to 5k program with a 35-minute 5k run (about 3.1 miles, with an ascent of approximately 350 feet). It felt somewhat anti-climatic. After all, I’d been building up to it gradually, and had been ahead of the program schedule consistently over the last few weeks, coming in just under 3 miles at my last run. Nope, it was just me walking up to my front door, panting, dripping with sweat, and Sara on the couch saying “good job, baby.”

So now what? I went from being winded after jogging two minutes to fairly easily running for half an hour. What were my goals, other than to motivate myself to engage in a new fitness routine, and just to prove I could do it? Not sure. I’ve mumbled about doing a half marathon, and surely, I have time to train for the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll (Half) Marathon in December. That seems like a lot of pain and abuse, but … um, it kind of all is. I mean, our bodies were not really designed to absorb the shock of continuous running on hard surfaces.

I definitely plan to keep running for exercise/recreation, though. It’s become something I enjoyed as I was exploring the neighborhoods around my house, and now that my regimented schedule is done with, I can continue the exploration, mix things up (play with sprints, strides, elevations, terrain). And it forces me to wake up early even when I have nowhere to be, which gives me a proper start to my day.

I don’t know if I’ve trimmed off fat or lost weight or anything of the sort. It sometimes feels like my pants are looser. And Sara claims I’ve been literally running off my ass. But if such a thing has happened, then it’s a welcome side effect, but by no means an outcome for which I specifically aimed. But my endurance is increased, and in theory, my cardiovascular system is happier. So … there you go.

Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement, and, um, see you on the road?

Today is day one of week seven in my From Couch to 5k training program. I know – it’s crazy that it’s been that long since this thing started … and that long since my birthday.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have caught my daily run updates (though they tend to be posted around 6 a.m., so maybe not), but after this morning’s run, I felt like I needed more space to share my thoughts. Good thing I’ve got this blog here.

This morning’s run was supposed to be a repeat of last week’s final run: 15 minutes of jogging and five minutes of walking. Each day builds on the previous one, and each week builds on that. So by the end of this week, I should be ready for 17 minutes solid of running. This morning I did 18.

But it’s not the fact I ran three minutes past schedule that’s important. It’s not impressive or surprising; I’ve been adjusting quite well and building endurance quickly (remember, at the start of this, I was winded after two minutes). It’s what happened in those last three minutes.

After my Droid buzzed to let me know 15 minutes had passed, I thought “I’ll just keep going to the end of this street,” which was just a block away. But my pace picked up, and my stride locked into a steady pulse. And suddenly, I was no longer aware of friction, or wind resistance, or muscle pain or even breathing. For those last three minutes, something weird happened … I was no longer consciously exerting effort to run. I just … was.

When I finally decided to slow to a walk, I could barely breathe, but after a minute even that returned to normal. No hacking or shallowness like I’ve had in the past. I’m sure there’s some sort of runners’ term for this. Breaking the wall? I don’t know. But I do know it was strange, scary, somewhat intoxicating, and … something I think I’d like to find again.

I have just less than three weeks left in this program, and have to double my time within that span. Stay tuned.

Up until recently, I’ve been of the mindset that running is something you only do when being chased by a tiger. And, to some extent, I still believe that our bodies aren’t designed for the impact of shoe-covered feet smacking down on a hard surface. None of that has stopped me from starting a Couch to 5k regimen last week.

There are a number of variations on this approximately 10-week program to get a relative newcomer to jogging/running (i.e., me) up to shape by slightly increasing speeds and distances of jogs in intervals with walks over each week of the program. Pretty straightforward. The one I’m using — because the chart breaks down suggestions into easy-to-digest minutes — is this one, but they’re all about the same in that they provide a structured, but customizable, approach to starting on the road to running.

I started on my birthday last week (Aug. 4), and as of this morning, finished the third run of the second week. It’s hard, I’m not going to lie. In the first place, I hadn’t been to the gym in about two months (vacations, work, blah blah blah), though that’s the other thing I started in tandem with this C25K thing — regular gym visits again. But even when I normally did cardio activity at the gym, it would be about 30 minutes on an elliptical or 20 minutes on the treadmill, so 15 to 20 minutes running/walking didn’t sound so much of a challenge. Oh boy, was I wrong. Even though up to this point, the longest jog has been four minutes (this morning, buffered by about five minutes of walking on either side), it’s taken everything I have to keep my chest from exploding. As I write this, half an hour after finishing, I’m still a little wheezy. Dealing with things like wind resistance, hard running surfaces and — if you believe my GPS-based running software — elevation variations of up to 60 feet provide a much harsher experience than gliding along on a stationary elliptical trainer watching episodes of House.

But that’s good. I needed a challenge, a shake-up, a new routine to break the old routine of letting myself go. It’s forcing me to wake up before 6 a.m. every running day, even when I have nowhere else to be that day (much to the shock of my girlfriend, who is used to me sleeping in until about 10 a.m. on Sundays, and now I’m awake for hours before she is). It has me back on pace for the gym, where I can now focus more time on weight training, because I’m doing my cardio-intensive activity in the morning instead of cramming everything into one session. And I feel pretty good so far, no shin splints or knee pain or anything of the sort. My back is sore right now, but I think that’s a combination of the hard breathing and residual soreness from the back and shoulder work I did at the gym two days ago (my lower back is just fine). I’m even considering a half-marathon, something I’ve been talking about for years but never got around to doing.

Of course, this is only week two. When I get to the point where my plan has me trying to do 15 to 20 minutes of straight running, I’ll be easy to find: Just look for the guy lying down on the side of the road, crying.