Couch to 5k starting 7/15

Did W2D1 last night...with a VERY strong headwind So it was somewhat painful, but not too bad; doable. But I definitely noticed that I was slower and much more out of breath by the end than I was with Week 1 this weekend. But that's how we improve right? I also noticed that I had some crazy Einstein-lookin hair by the end, with all that wind blowing it around. (I wanted to put a smiley here, but they're all bald....poor smileys )

I used Gmaps Pedometer (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/) to map my approximate route, and I'm walking/running about 2.28 miles, already up from the approximate 2.16mi from where I was turning around during Week 1 :bigsmile: YAY! The program works! :laugh:

You're doing a great job Pixie!

Sorry I've seemed to abandon you...too much drama going on with the family :ohwell: It's totally thrown me off my routine and I'm struggling to stay motivated. I haven't gone out since Saturday. :frown: I've been going on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I missed Tuesday cuz I was up late Monday night helping my sister clean her house to prepare for her baby which is due in less than 2 weeks. I just couldn't get out of bed Tuesday morning. I should have gone Tuesday night but I ended up plopped on the couch with my husband catching up on all the shows on our DVR. I justified it by telling myself we don't watch TV together very often. Lame excuse, I know. We stayed up so late watching TV I couldn't roll my lazy butt out of bed yesterday morning either. Last night's excuse was that it was still 105 degrees at 8:45 PM and I hadn't yet downloaded the next podcast. Weak! So I downloaded the podcast but stayed up late rearranging my playlists and syncing the silly iPod...overslept this morning too. Now I should go tonight but we have another heat advisory and...see how the excuses just seem to pile up. I need to just suck it up and DO IT!!!

I'm kind of dreading it. It's become painfully obvious (quite literally) that I need new shoes. I can't get out to buy them until tomorrow night. Maybe I should just pick it back up on Saturday...Gah!!!

See what I'm doing now? Nope, no, no way. NO EXCUSES! I HAVE TO RUN TONIGHT! PLEASE help me hold myself accountable to my run tonight. Feel free to spam my e-mail if I don't post about completing W3D1 before midnight MST?:sad:

Only made it about half way through. 9:00 and it's still 103 degrees out...between the heat and my lousy shoes I just couldn't make the 3 min jog. Walked the rest of the way. At least I did that much. I'm not going to count it as a complete W3D1. I'll get new shoes tomorrow and rock it Saturday morning! I CAN DO IT!!!

Good luck anyamalfoy! I think it is absolutely doable by Halloween. My 5k will be Sept 25th.

Picked up pair of Asics last night. They are awesome! I really liked my New Balance but I don't think I will were anything but Asics when I go jogging.

W3 will definitely be a repeat week for me. I'm able to manage the 90 sec jogs no swe... no problem, lots of sweat but no problem :bigsmile: The 3 minute jog had me very intimidated before I started but I did better than I thought I would. I think I made it at least 2.5 mins through the first interval before I thought I would collapse :ohwell: Not sure how long on the second...couldn't even venture a guess, I was just anxious to finish at that point I'm confident Tuesday will be better.

@Pixie - I know what you mean. My gym closed a few days after I started this so I haven't gotten any strength training in either. I haven't decided what I'll do yet. For now it's just this and cycling 2-3 times/week. I figure this is a pretty big goal for me so I'll cut myself some slack on the strength training at least unil after my 5k at the end of September

I did W3D1 last night, and it really wasn't too bad. I'm still moving really slow and having pretty much no muscle soreness, so I'm thinking I might try and up my speed, as long as I can still keep my breathing in check.

This looks really neat... It basically trains you to run? I think I'll check out the site and see what the podcasts are and hopefully start tonight. My sister (my support group, ha) and I walked yesterday, and I said, "Let's jog to the corner!" and I was about ready to lay down after that one, so hopefully this will be easy enough for my lazy you-know-what. :bigsmile:

I usually log the number of minutes for both walking and jogging/running. So for Week 1, you do 8 intervals of 60sec jogging and 90sec walking. That's 8x1min=8min jogging and 8x1.5min=12min walking, plus another 10min for walking your warm-up and cool-down.

I'm ready to do W3D2 tonight! And I finally started getting off my lazy butt and doing strength training on Tuesdays and Thursdays.....It's only about 10min or so, and my weights are only 2lbs each....but I'm doing it...

I like cycling on the days I'm not doing C25K.

Careful starting off with too much weight if you haven't been doing strength training. Your muscles will become sore faster and you'll be less inclined to continue. Water bottles make great substitutes if you don't have weights. A 20 oz. bottle is about 1.3 lbs, 24 oz approximately 1.5 lbs and 1 liter about 2.2 lbs. They're easy to grasp, cheap and you've just made yourself a decent beginner's weight set. Not to mention, you have a refreshing beverage when you're done :bigsmile:

Sorry to hear the ear buds aren't working out. I think your effort to push through the uphill finish will payoff. You're doing great!

I use the podcasts from runningintoshape.com. They keep in the 3 minutes for a full 8 min walk at the end. There's a lot of pop/hip hop (eh, not my favorite but...) and a bit of 80s. I have a 13 year old son who's doing this with me. It's a nice balance of music we'll both listen too and can tolerate. I don't really go for the techno stuff on Robert Ullrey's. I need to have music with lyrics otherwise my mind will wander to that dangerous place that seems self destructive, telling me I can't when I'm trying me best to prove I can.

I vote for doing it tonight. Then you'll have it out of the way and will be able to enjoy your sushi guilt-free. :bigsmile:

Actually, the earbuds are working great, this is the first time they've done that! And I actually decided to go early this morning, so that I'd have that many more calories to consume today. :happy: But I left my hair down (which worked b/c it was actually quite cool out at 5:30 this morning) so that it wouldn't look too bad for my presentation--WHICH WAS AWESOME!! :drinker: The run was pretty good too. Ran all 4 intervals, at a fast pace the first 2, a little slower the 3rd, and then slower still for the last one, but not as slow as W3D2. And I have determined, without any doubt whatsoever, that I effin hate sprinklers!

Hello again, jrh! Hang in there! You can do it! Motivational phrases!! :glasses:

These are not refreshing, lightly misting sprinklers. These are jet-blasting, arching-over-the-sidewalk sprinklers, because aparently my apartment complex thought that 2 small sprinklers for the 3-foot-wide strips of grass on either side of the sidewalk was too much. No no, let's just put in an industrial strength one and be done. I don't mind them during my c/d, but during my w/u or run, I don't want to get smacked with water and then have to take out my earbuds, dry them and my ears with my shirt, and put them back in... :grumble: Besides, I run at 5am or 8pm so that it's not that hot to begin with; in fact, this morning I was already cold so I decided to just turn around and take a different route.

W4D1 was not as bad as I was dreading. My last 5min run is the only one that really sucked. Kinda glad I ran in the morning; much as I prefer running in the evening, I wasn't as concerned with my performance, just trying to finish! :laugh:

Ooh, I was wondering about the sprinklers too. The route I take goes through the neighborhood and a park. The park has those kind of sprinklers. I've never run through when they're on so I had no idea what you were experiencing...until this morning. I can completely sympathize now - they are awful! :sad:

I ended up repeating week 3. I'm glad to hear week 4 isn't so bad. I've been terrified of doing week 4. I'm thinking at least one more day of week 3 maybe 2 then I'll move on. I'm cutting it a little too close to my September 25th 5k so I really need to get my booty in gear. :laugh:

@Delphic Scorpion - good luck with the knee, I hope it wasn't too painful. I'm with you on the 100+ degree 10PM runs...my husband thinks I'm crazy to go out that late but it's just too darned hot otherwise. I missed last night cuz we had a thunderstorm w/lightning. I can handle a little rain but won't run with lightning.

Okay, we went again tonight. Our neighborhood is very hilly, so we decided to use the school field across the street (we didn't before because we thought the street would be easier, even if it was all hill). It was SO MUCH BETTER. All of the other runs we had to take breaks several times, but on the field we took NONE. I even went another half time through (4 jogs).

By the end of 12 jogs I was feeling as tired as I had after 3 of the jogs on the streets. That's the difference. It was amazing. We're still going to do week 1 again because our "brisk walks" are still not quite at the brisk pace.

Don't give up Delph. I thought week 2 was easier than week 1. I did week 1 two weeks before moving on.

I'm stuck in a rut. I've fallen back into old habbits of making everything but exercise a priority. I need to get back to it fast. My 5k is coming up at the end of September and I'm behind. I still haven't completed week 3 :sad:

Realised the other day that the reason it was so hard was that I was REALLY tired. School etc. had stressed me out and I haven't been getting enough sleep. Hopefully it gets better. My sisters and I make our own little mp3 to listen to for week one. It's... interesting.

We came up with a theory and we want to test it. We took out all words and are just using one song in particular for the running bit, so any time we hear it, run, when a different one comes on, walk. Simple. Well, that one song is Lady Gaga's Just Dance, which is alright, but we want to see if after all these weeks of Lady Gaga signalling us to run we end up having some subconscious reaction to it. (This is what I get for taking a psych class.)

Hope you both get to feeling better; you can do it!