Beginning runner using C25k

Program: C25k Week 3 Day 1
Date: 10/21/2014
Start time: 7:22 pm

Goals:
• Run and walk with head up, not down
• Keep arms from crossing over chest, elbows at 90 degrees
• Keep comfortable ‘talking’ pace
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 53:24
Ave Pace: 17:13
Change from last attempt: +4:56
Change from Week 1, Day 1 (58:58): -05:34
Change from Fastest Time, (Week 2 Day 3: 48:28): +4:56

So before I went on my run I had to move furniture. Because my wife hurt her knee I had to do it on my own. So I moved three sections of a sectional couch upstairs by myself. The hard part is that half way up the stairs, they make a 180 degree turn, and I had to muscle the piece around without gouging the wall or ripping the banister off. Suffice it say that I was a bit tired when I went out.

I still started off well, the 90-second jog didn’t bother me at all. When I go to the 3-minute run, I have to admit I was in some discomfort. By the end of it I needed the full 3 minutes of walking to get my breath back. This was the first time since I started the C25k program that I was short of breath. All other times it had been burning muscles that had bothered me.

I still finished all the run portions of the program and I have confidence that I will do so on the next two days of this week’s program. I have looked forward a bit and seen that in week 4 it jumps up to 16 minutes of running. So week 2 & 3 are 9 minutes, week 4 is 16. That is a bit of a jump and it has 5-minute run portions. I have progressed well every week and am hopeful that this week is no different.

Goal Achievement:
• Run and walk with head up, not down
o Doing well on this.
• Keep arms from crossing over chest, elbows at 90 degrees
o Did pretty good on this one.
• Keep comfortable ‘talking’ pace
o Still a work in progress..
• Complete run portions of program
o I did it, not comfortably, but I didn’t quit!
• Increase my pace
o A definite work in progress.

Program: C25k Week 3 Day 3
Date: 10/27/2014
Start time: 6:39 pm

Goals:
• Run and walk with head up, not down
• Keep arms from crossing over chest, elbows at 90 degrees
• Keep comfortable ‘talking’ pace
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 52:29
Ave Pace: 16:57
Change from last attempt: -00:55
Change from Week 1, Day 1 (58:58): -06:29
Change from Fastest Time, (Week 2 Day 3: 48:28): +4:01

I took a few extra days off here. Normally I would have done this run on Saturday the 25th, but I wasn’t feeling it on that Saturday or Sunday. So I went out on Monday and while I did not do great, I did ok.

I am still having difficulty with the warm-up. Part of the problem is that the warm-ups I see online are for people who are in shape and regularly run, I am not either one of those. But I tried a different way this time and I think it worked well for me. My legs weren’t too sore and my lungs did not get really distressed.

I am on to Week 4 Day 1 now, which alternates 3-minute, and 5-minute runs for a total of 16 minutes of running, which is the biggest jump to date, considering week 3 is only 9 minutes of running.

I will probably start week 4 on Wednesday, wish me luck!

Goal Achievement:
• Run and walk with head up, not down
o Doing well on this.
• Keep arms from crossing over chest, elbows at 90 degrees
o Did pretty good on this one.
• Keep comfortable ‘talking’ pace
o Still a work in progress..
• Complete run portions of program
o I did it, not comfortably, but I didn’t quit!
• Increase my pace
o A definite work in progress.

Program: C25k Week 4 Day 1
Date: 10/30/2014
Start time: 7:02 pm

Goals:
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 50:09
Ave Pace: 16:11
Change from last attempt: -02:20
Change from Week 1, Day 1 (58:58): -08:49
Change from Fastest Time, (Week 2 Day 3: 48:28): +1:41

This week was a pretty big jump in run time. Week 3 is 9 minutes of total running, with the longest being 3 minutes. Week 4 is 16 total minutes of running, 2 3-minute and 2 5-minute runs.

I did ok I think. My biggest goal with all of these is to run or jog the entirety of the run portion, and I did that. I posted my 2nd fastest time and I wasn’t hustling too much, or focusing on time. This is my 10th time doing the 5k and I am noticing that my total stamina is getting better. I know I could have pushed myself harder on this workout and still been fine. On W2D3 when I posted my fastest time, I was concentrating on coming in under 50 minutes, I wasn’t trying to beat any time on this run and I was only 9 seconds over 50 minutes. Gives me hope for the future.

I do an entire 3.1 miles when I do these ‘runs’, but I incorporate my warm-ups into the 5k, hopefully as time goes on I won’t need to do that. So for this run what I did was start out with a 5 minute walk to my starting line and I do some stretches while I’m walking (striding, high knees, hip flexing, etc.). Then when I get to my starting position I alternate 1 minute of running with 90 seconds of walking (basically week 1 day 1), I do that 3 times. I then keyed up my current workout (W4D1) and did that. After that workout was over, (I was a little over the 2 mile mark) I keyed up W2D1 for the rest of the run. I think the biggest detriment to my time on this run is that after I did my warm-up (the 1 minute runs), I still did the warm-up for W4D1. When I do day 2, I think I will fast forward a few minutes and see what that does.

Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o I did it. There was a time or two I wasn’t sure if I could complete the 5-minute runs. The funny thing is that I start getting really burned around the 2:30 mark or so, which makes even the 3-minute runs painful. But I reach a point at about 3:30 where the burn subsides a bit and running for the rest of the 5 isn’t too bad.
• Increase my pace
o This one is progressing. Looking at my split times, I can see that I am getting faster on the run portion of the program.

ashoona wrote: »

Really motivating to read your updates! Keep going and good luck!

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback and encouragement.

BaltarVK wrote: »

Great job man. You are where I was a few years ago. You can do it!

This is a bit why I am doing this. When I started looking around for people who were as unfit as I am and just started running, everything was so far beyond what I could do. They would talk about running 10-15 mintues or more. I could barely do one minute when I first started.

My hope is that when someone goes to look for beginning runners this post pops up and they can see how terrible I was/am but that if you stick with it, it can get better. I am only on Week 4, but I have hope that I will finish this program.

Program: C25k Week 4 Day 3
Date: 11/04/2014
Start time: 7:38 pm

Goals:
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 50:02
Ave Pace: 16:08
Change from last attempt: +01:09
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -08:56
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +01:34

This was one of those times that I wished I was running on a treadmill and not outside! It wasn’t that cold, but the wind was blowing and it seemed I was running directly into it for most of the run. At one point I was running uphill and into the wind!

On this day, I honestly thought that I had done better than I actually did (as far as time and pace are concerned). I may have exerted myself more because of the wind and that is the reason I felt I did better. Either way, I am reasonably content with this day. I had hoped to keep it below the 50-minute mark, but oh well.

I am on to week 5 now! I have looked ahead and this is the first week where every day does not have the same run. On day 1 it is three 5-mintue runs for a total of 15 minutes. Day 2 is two 8-minute runs for a total of 16 minutes. Day 3 is a solid 20-minute run! To be honest I do not know if I am going to keep this order. W6D1 is 5-minute run, 8-minute run, then another 5-minute run. W6D2 is two 10-mintute runs. Those seem as if they should come before the 20-minute run on W5D3.

For those of you that completed the program, did you do it in order? I am seriously thinking about going from W5D2 to W6D1, then W6D2, then going back to W5D3. I don’t know if I am just afraid of failing here (so far I have been able to complete all the run portions and even though I am VERY slow, I take a bit of pride in this) and this is the reason I am hesitating. This program has been around for a bit and if the sequence were off, I would think it would have been fixed by now. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Goal Achievement:

• Complete run portions of program
o This is probably a sense of pride for me. Thus far, I have completed all the run portions. Not at a great pace, but I have done it. As a comparison, for last year’s results in the 5k I am going to do in December, I would have finished in 690th place overall (out of 810), 290th for Males (out of 322), and 119th for my age group (out of 147). Not even in the top 50% for any of them and by the time December 20th rolls around I may still not be, but I plan to RUN the entire 3.1 miles, even if it is at a 16/min pace.

• Increase my pace
o This one is progressing. My warm-ups are getting better and I do feel that every time I go out I am getting better. I know that eventually I will speed up, even if it is not progressing as fast as I would like. My goal is not to injure myself on this, so sometimes it takes some self-control to moderate myself.

handyrunner wrote: »

Wulfax...thanks for sharing your progress its cool to see your progression.
Have you signed up for a race yet? it be a good way to cap your success when you complete the program!!

I have signed up for one. I am doing a jingle bell run on December 20th. When I started the C25k program it was 11 weeks out.

justalittlecrazy wrote: »

Thanks for posting your progress. You wrote about hoping someone who was just starting running would see your posts and following it... that would be me! I am signing up for a Jingle Bell run on December 24th. I am more overweight than you are so I am probably going to try to stay at around weeks 1-3 for many months to protect joints. I've completed 3 days of training so far and am handling it well... the main problem being that my muscles have been built up a lot from walking 35+ miles per week so I can physically do the running even though its a really bad idea to push it for a while yet.

I will be excited to keep watching you prep for your 5k- so awesome!

Taking it easy is a good idea. My wife is heavier than I am and she pushed herself and payed for it. For about 2 weeks she was barely able to walk because it messed her knee up.

Program: C25k Week 5 Day 1
Date: 11/07/2014
Start time: 7:48 am

Goals:
• Complete run portions of program
• Increase my pace

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 50:06
Ave Pace: 16:08
Change from last attempt: +00:06
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -08:50
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +01:40

I took a personal day from work and for a change I actually ran during daylight hours. It was an interesting experience actually seeing where I was going.

Overall it wasn’t too bad. It was 3 5-minute runs and I think I did ok. I am still trying to refine my warm-up procedures as the last 5-minute portion was easier than the first.

Excited to move forward with the program!

Goal Achievement:

• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions, but like I said above the last portion was easier than the first, need to work on my warm-up.

• Increase my pace
o This one is perplexing to me sometimes. I feel like I am going faster, but it isn’t reflected in overall time increases. I am not overly worried though, I know speed will eventually come once my endurance increases.