Third Times a Charm.

After two weeks of not being able to make it through the dreaded 3 mintues of running interval I decided to repeat week 3, yet again, for the third week in a row.

I just have not been ready to take on 3 mintues + 5 minutes. If I can't get through 3 minutes of running straight, I can't expect myself to get through 5. I have been bummed that it has been so hard for me to get through. But tonight I did the impossible. I ran for 3 minutes straight! I felt fantastic! I'm going to stick with the week three run for my next two runs and then finally graduate myself to Week 4 of the Couch to 5K program.

On another note, it has been one month since I started running so I thought now would be a good time to do a weigh in and take my measurements. While I only lost a couple of pounds, I lost a couple of inches as well! Well, everywhere except my boobs, they didn't go down much haha. It makes it easier to keep going when I can see the progress that I'm making.

A Rough Week.

Week 3. I knew this week was going to be a hard week, and I knew it would either make me or break me.

The good news is that I pushed through the week and haven't given up on running.

The bad news? Well, I didn't run well this week. In the couch to 5k program you are supposed to take days off in between and as I was trying to keep up with my schedule I ran too many days in a row and my shin/calf muscles were really hurting, badly.

Sunday night I finished up week two, then ran again on Monday. This is when my lower legs really started hurting. Tuesday I went for a power walk with some ladies at work, and after 5 minutes of walking my lower legs were throbbing. My boss (who's a runner) was showing me some new stretches to help. She suggested that perhaps it is a good pain and I am just building the muscle. Either way by the time Wednesday came around I decided that I needed to take a night off. A night off turned into 3 nights off. I ran again on Saturday but it wasn't my best, I barely made it through the 3 mins run. Because of all of this I have decided to repeat week three. Week 4 has a five minute running interval and if I'm still having trouble getting through the three mintues there is no way I can do five.

Tonight I ran again, I didn't make it through the three minutes, but it was a much better run than I had all last week so I'm feeling hopefull for the outcome of this week.

Diary of a Wannabe Runner.

Tonight marked Day 3 of week two. The running segments this week were 90 seconds running and 2 minutes of walking. In total it was only an extra minute of running, but it had me running for longer intervals. It was tough.

I really can't say that I felt like I made much improvement this week. I really thought I was going to die. The only thing that kept me going was starting to plan in my head some rewards I would give myself for finishing different milestones. Turns out that a nice new pair of shoes is a very powerful motivator haha.

I think next week is going to be the make it or break it week for me. I had to run tonight (Sunday) instead of the scheduled Friday because I was camping all weekend and just didn't have the time Friday or Saturday. If I want to stay on schedule for next week I'll be running back to back nights. On top of that, I promised my boss that I would go for a power walk with her on Tuesday. So I really won't have a rest day until Thursday.

Sunday - Week 2, Day 3
Monday - Week 3, Day 1
Tuesday - Power Walk
Wednesday - Week 3, Day 2
Friday - Week 3, Day 3

On top of all of that... I have to run for three minutes straight next week, this I am really nervous about. I'm contemplating re-doing week 2, but I need to keep challenging myself and pushing forward. We will see how Monday goes.

Cheers.

Couch to 5K

I decided on a whim to start running. I was intrigued. A lot of people in my life right now are running, running for fun, running for marathons, and running to get into shape. This all peaked my interest, the thought of a running group sounded like fun. Don't get me wrong, I loathe running, but for some reason I wanted to try it out.

I know that the key to running is to start slow and do it in bursts. I still wasn't sure exactly where to start. A friend of a friend recommended I look up the 'Couch to 5K' training program, and so I did. The program has you run 3 times a week and starts you off with small bursts of running alternating with walking and slowly bumps up your running time and decreases the walking.

This was week one for me. In week one the program has you do a 5 minute warm up walk followed by alternating running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds segments, then a 5 minute cool down. In total, you end up running for 8 minutes which seems achieveable.

I convinced a friend to run with me so I could have a little motivation. I found some podcasts online to help keep track of the time. While I'm not a huge fan of the music choice, they really keep with keeping me motivated.

Our first run went pretty good. Running for 60 seconds seemed so easy... too easy. But by the end of the run I was exhausted. We ended up skipping the last two and a half running intervals because we were both DONE! We ran along a trail so it was hard to map how far we actually went.

The second run I did on my own. I ran around my neighbourhood so that I could see (for fun) how far I actually ran. This time I finished all of the running intervals (yay!). The distance ended up being just under 2.5kms!! I was impressed.

Run #3 was Friday. I was tired, after the 2nd segment I thought there was no way I would ever make it through all 8. Somehow I managed to do it, and I did it in a faster time than I did on my second run.

They are small improvements, but improvements none the less. I'm going to keep up with this, I'd like to see what I can do.