I did a 5K race in week 8 after only getting to 4.5, so you're definitely capable of it, especially with race day excitement.

Things have been a little rough. I've been having asthma issues for the past few weeks and then on Monday I got mosquito bites. I've had increasing reactions to them and I had a very severe reaction this time. I ended up needing a prescription steroid cream which helped, but I only managed two miles today. My time is getting better but I haven't been able to do the distance without walking a bit for a few weeks.

The background story is that I have a previous soft diagnosis of fibromyalgia by one doctor that I've kept quiet about with current doctors because 99% of the time I'm good and my migraine drug is one of the things they prescribe for it already. But between the asthma, fatigue, and muscle pain that I've had the past few weeks, along with the severe immune reaction to the bites, I'm guessing I'm having a flare up of whatever this is. I do have a previous autoimmune disease (Graves) so it's not unexpected. The good news is that my breathing was pretty OK this morning, so I seem to be getting over it. It was my stomach that cut things short and that may not even be related.

I've kept moving (did hills on Tuesday and a slowish 5K on the Sunday before), so I'm not completely behind but I think I'm going to go back to some longish intervals and see how I do before moving back to solid running because I feel like I need a structure to get back to full capacity. I'm not going to be running the full 10K in September anyway, because the elevation gains make that pretty impossible.

In other news, I'm pretty sure I'm signing up for another 5K in October, so that will be three races in a month: 9/30 - 10K, 10/07-5K, and 10/22-5K.

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

I have decided to veer away from the C25K program and I'm going to do alternative days of intervals and non-intervals. Kind of making it my own.

So plan is:

Tonight: 5km route - 3 x 12 Minute run intervals with 3 minute walk intervals

Wednesday: 4km route - 25 minute run - no walking

Friday: 5km route - 2 x 15 Minute run intervals with a 3 minute walk interval

Sunday: 4.5km route - 28 minute run - no walking

Tuesday: 5km route - 2 x 15 minute run intervals with 2 minute walk interval

Thursday: 4.5km route - 30 minute run - no walking

Saturday: 5km route - no walking - no time limit.

You're becoming a complete health guru! Opening your time up to facilitate MFP groups, sharing delicious recipes, creating monthly weight loss spreadsheets for everyone, blogging about your journey of successful weight loss, and now you're creating your own C25K module! Is there anything you can't do? You're like superwoman! I hope your employer never lets you leave, or they'll be missing out on an amazing person!

I did my first 5km run last week and then got sick and took about 5 days off. I did my second today. I have never run before I started using the app. I started the c25k app in May and have been working on getting up the a 5k run. I feel excited and proud that I completed this. I want to keep running 5k every other day and then begin the 10km trainer app.

After umming and ahhing all weekend I chickened out in the end and decided to repeat week 4, reason being that my knees are quite weak and I really don't want to overdo it and injure them so another week building up a stronger base won't do any harm. Anyway, probably for the best as this morning's was my first official bad run. Oh boy was it hard, I forced myself to push on and get it done, but it was ugly lol

Run last night was crappy. I am still having trouble breathing, and I'm achy all over. My legs are sore today again, which is just weird based on my conditioning level (I hadn't been sore in weeks until last week!). I did two miles, stopping a lot but still at a decent pace overall. I changed routes (so I'm not near water), which I'm hoping is some of the problem, as the new track is all dirt whereas the last was asphalt. It looks like I'm losing morning run times as school is starting and the scheduled times are days I have to take her, but the weather has cooled down quite a bit for afternoon runs and I'm hoping it sticks.

So I'm not sure what to do. Going to keep trying to run but I think I'm going to shift to short running intervals with short walks (like 5/1) until my breathing improves. No mosquito bites last night so at least there's that.

Really struggling this week. Whereas before I was finding running tough but enjoyable, this week it's just extremely tough going. I'm telling myself firmly I have to just hang in there and persevere but gawd it's hard. While I was preparing myself for c25k I was getting up, waking up, having a light breakfast and 'walk-running' an hour later. However, since the real heat kicked in I've had to start falling out of bed at 7am (I am NOT a morning person at all), throwing a coffee down my throat and getting my run in before it gets too unbearably hot (still sweat buckets though). I imagine that the combination of it being early, tiredness as I'm not sleeping well or much atm, heat and possibly also missing that bit of toast in my stomache are all adding up to work against me. Hopefully in another 3-4 weeks the heat will start to ease off enough for me to maybe run an hour later :-/

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

eleanorhawkins wrote: »

Really struggling this week. Whereas before I was finding running tough but enjoyable, this week it's just extremely tough going. I'm telling myself firmly I have to just hang in there and persevere but gawd it's hard. While I was preparing myself for c25k I was getting up, waking up, having a light breakfast and 'walk-running' an hour later. However, since the real heat kicked in I've had to start falling out of bed at 7am (I am NOT a morning person at all), throwing a coffee down my throat and getting my run in before it gets too unbearably hot (still sweat buckets though). I imagine that the combination of it being early, tiredness as I'm not sleeping well or much atm, heat and possibly also missing that bit of toast in my stomache are all adding up to work against me. Hopefully in another 3-4 weeks the heat will start to ease off enough for me to maybe run an hour later :-/

Could you run in the evenings while it's hot?

Tried that but it's hotter than in the mornings plus I'm even more tired by then :-(

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

eleanorhawkins wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

eleanorhawkins wrote: »

Really struggling this week. Whereas before I was finding running tough but enjoyable, this week it's just extremely tough going. I'm telling myself firmly I have to just hang in there and persevere but gawd it's hard. While I was preparing myself for c25k I was getting up, waking up, having a light breakfast and 'walk-running' an hour later. However, since the real heat kicked in I've had to start falling out of bed at 7am (I am NOT a morning person at all), throwing a coffee down my throat and getting my run in before it gets too unbearably hot (still sweat buckets though). I imagine that the combination of it being early, tiredness as I'm not sleeping well or much atm, heat and possibly also missing that bit of toast in my stomache are all adding up to work against me. Hopefully in another 3-4 weeks the heat will start to ease off enough for me to maybe run an hour later :-/

Could you run in the evenings while it's hot?

Tried that but it's hotter than in the mornings plus I'm even more tired by then :-(

You can't win lol I had drop back to late evening like 9/10pm in July because it was just too humid/warm and that was in Ireland, I can't even imagine trying to run in proper humid heat. I would just be a puddle of sweat at the side of the road.

lol yeah, I sometimes think half the weight I've lost was probably just in sweat! I keep telling myself (and really hope it's true) that the advantage to starting at this time of year is that by the time it gets cold (ok chilly, we don't really get proper cold) it'll feel so good I'll be flying. Might be pigs flying really but I have myself fooled into keeping going to see :-)

Just finished week 5, day 1. It wasn't too bad, I only had to give myself a stern talking to during the last couple of minutes However I am feeling more than a little wary of day 2, and am desperately trying to not even think about day 3!
There's some weird stormy weather just arrived here this morning, which meant it was a little bit cooler this morning, that probably helped. Praying it stays that way for a few days, I could really use that help this week!

I really enjoy it. The basic functionality is there for free but to activate random zombie chases you have to subscribe. Even without the chases, the ongoing story is engaging and keeps me motivated to keep going. The chases are pretty fun though and it's surprising how much speed you can manage to break out even if you think you're too tired.

Week 5 is done! Had to resort to the usual 'fool myself into doing it then give myself stern tellings off' tactics while warming up for day 3 but actually, although it did seem to go on for ever, only the last few minutes were really hard work. Plus the feeling of satisfaction at managing to do it is going to have me floating 3 feet off the ground all day. I mean I just jogged (albeit at the turtle pace my short legs can cope with) for 20 minutes without stopping. Me. The one who couldn't walk for 3 days at the end of January after running for 60 seconds a couple of times!!!!! Of course, I have no idea whether or not I'll be able to walk tomorrow but so far I've only really had aching legs after a run once so here's to hoping :-D

Today I'll do week 3, day 1. I'm super slow - I "run" a 15-minute mile but at least I'm running.

I stumbled on week 7, unfortunately. I'll have to repeat it next week.