Beginning runner using C25k

Program: C25k Week 5 Day 2
Date: 11/08/2014
Start time: 5:38 pm

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

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 51:19
Ave Pace: 16:33
Change from last attempt: +01:13
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -07:47
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +02:53

First, thank everyone for all the encouragement and support! I really hope that the struggles and epiphanies that I have here will help someone else along the way.

This day was two 8-minute runs.

So November 8th was my 40th birthday. A side goal I had on this day was to do my fastest time to date; unfortunately I wasn’t able to do so. One reason is that it is more important to me to complete all the run portions than to focus on time at this point.

I have had a bit of a revelation about my mind and my body on this run (I had noticed it before, but didn’t realize the significance). Both my mind and my body want to quit running around the 3 minute mark. Every time I get to about 3 minutes I have a solid minute of my calves being on fire and my brain trying to rationalize stopping to walk. I had pushed through this on the 5-minute portions and once I did the last minute or so wasn’t too bad. The same thing happened on this day. About three minutes in I had the physical and mental blocks go up, I pushed through them and the last 4 minutes were fine. This gives me hope for the next portions of the program.

I will follow the advice of those here and go ahead and do W5D3.

Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions. 8 minutes is the longest I have run in once stretch in 21 years.

• Increase my pace
o Once again the later portions are faster than the first ones, my new warm-up didn’t do the trick. I will alter it again and see what happens.

Program: C25k Week 5 Day 3
Date: 11/09/2014
Start time: 8:16 pm

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

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 55:15 (13th out of the 15 I have done)
Ave Pace: 17:50
Change from last attempt: +03:56
Change from W1D1 (Oct 7, 58:58): -03:43
Change from fastest time (W2D3, Oct 18: 48:28): +06:47

This day was a 20-minute run.

First, WHOOHOOOO!!!! I ran/jogged for 20 minutes! I did it!!!

Ok, now that the patting on the back is out of the way, man I am slow. To be honest, in general I am not worried about my pace too much, but when I am almost 7 minutes off my fastest pace and only did it 3:43 faster than day 1, I will admit it does take a bit of the wind out of my sails.

Based on how my body felt at the end of the course I know that I could have pushed for a faster pace. I just have to figure out a way to slowly increase my pace while still completing all the run portions. One thing I have noticed is that usually when I do a run portion for the first time I am a bit slower, but as I get used to it and gain more confidence my pace increases. Hopefully this will happen.

On a side note, man are my legs fatigued. I think I may have overdone it a bit this weekend. On Friday I did 7.2 miles, on Saturday 7.49, and on Sunday 4.58. I am going to start W6D1 on Tuesday, that will give me 48 hours of rest and hopefully after that my legs won’t feel as fatigued.

Goal Achievement:
• Complete run portions of program
o Completed all the run portions. At the 10 minute mark in the program I got the chime and the lady said “You are half-way.” I realized then that I had run for 10 minutes in a row. That was the longest I had run since 1993. I also realized that every second I continued to run became the longest I had run. When the final chime sounded for my cool down, I will admit that I had a smile on my face.

• Increase my pace
o I think I found a good warm-up for me. I just need to refine it a bit as my timing was off. I will work on it today to have ready for Tuesday. I am hoping that getting my warm-up dialed in will increase my overall pace. But as I was much slower today (this run ranked 13th out of the 15 I have done) we will see. I felt better when I started my 20-minute run, I think maybe I was just a bit too conservative.

spikrgrl503 wrote: »

Congrats on week 5 day 3! I started C25k in april of last year having never run for more than a minute before. I am on week 13 of the C210K now! I think your strategy to focus on your run rather than speed is spot on. After I completed the C25k I was able to run a 5k in about 40 minutes (I'm not overweight though). I then moved on to an app called 5k forever, which is an interval training sort of like C25k but instead of run/walk it's run slow/run slightly faster/walk. Once you can actually do the 5k without stopping, no matter how slow, I recommend either starting from like week 4 and trying to do it faster, or moving onto the 5k forever app. I finished the 8 week program of 5k forever and shaved almost 10 minutes off of my 5k.

I'm rooting for you!

Thanks for the tip, unfortunatly that app is iPhone and I am an android guy. I will look to see if they have something simular for andriod. Sounds like that is the next step for me. I have 4 weeks left on this program which should take me up through December 6th. The 5k I have signed up for is on December 20th. I would love to do a sub 40 minutes.

IndigoSue13 wrote: »

Congratulations on your progress! I'm doing C25k also, but am taking it very slowly (repeating days when I need to - currently on Week 3), and doing it on the treadmill for now. I know the treadmill isn't optimal, but my first attempt a couple years ago had me tripping over a rock and spraining my ankle so badly the doc said it would have been better if I'd broken it. Accident prone as I am, I think the treadmill is a safer bet for the time being.

I'm really enjoying following your progress. It's very inspiring. Keep up the great work!

You are moving and you are trying, that's what is important.

Injuries are a terrible thing, especially when you are exercising. Back when I was in tip-top shape I pulled a muscle in my shoulder and couldn't lift more than 5-10 lbs for over a month. It took me even longer to get back to exercising (and in a way I never really did).

Now I am very careful when I am out because I understand how fragile my newfound exercise habits are. I understand that if I hurt myself, I may never get back to it, at least not for a while.