Tuesday
Today is going to be my off day from this training program. My legs are so sore from not having done any sort of running for so long to jumping in with both feet. When I got out of bed this morning, I almost fell over. :-)
I haven't weighed myself yet to see what my starting weight in all of this is. I have a pretty good idea of what I weigh, from having been to the doctor recently. But since I'm not running tonight, I figure I should start on the eating better part of this.
I have recently taken a liking to So Be Lifewater. There is still sugar in it but not as much as pop has. I have tried to quit pop before and it just hasn't worked out too well for me. I could get myself down to one a day and then be able to go without for a few days and then for some reason I was right back to having 3 or 4 a day. Terrible, I know. Surprisingly, I went ALL day without a pop. I might pay for it later, but it's a start. Probably shouldn't quit that " cold turkey" but I didn't really have a want for it. So, I drank 4 Lifewaters and had a pretty light lunch. Pretty good start, I think.
I'm sure by tomorrow, my legs will feel a lot better before my run. Even if they don't, I know I have to push through the pain or I won't stick to this. I have felt pretty tired today but I am pretty sure that too is just my body adjusting to the extra activity.
So far so good. We shall see what tomorrow brings!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
C25k: Day 1
Day 1 Monday
The entire day was a cooler day...supposed to be the coolest of the whole week. I put some sweats on, with a couple layered shirts and an Under Armour fleece; laced up my tennis shoes and headed out. iPhone in hand with headphones to keep me going as I listened to music.
Today's workout was a brisk 5 min warm up walk and then I was to jog for a minute and walk for a minute 30 seconds. Sounds simple enough. I live outside of the city limits so running on the roads around my home have always been an good choice. I started down the drive way for my 5 minute warm up walk and thought "this isn't going to give me much of a workout but it's exercise so I guess I better stop complaining." Once I got into the workout itself, my mindset changed almost dramatically. The app has a "personal trainer" built in to tell you when to walk and when to jog so you don't have to worry about watching the clock. Which I found nice because I could concentrate on the task at hand and not have to worry about it.
Before I knew it I had already gone a little over a mile from home, and still had about 15 minutes left in the work out. So I kept going a little further from home before I turned around to make sure that I was out on the road for the whole 30 minutes of the workout. After about 5 more minutes, I turned around and headed for home. By this point in the workout I was really starting to feel it in my legs but knew that I had to push through the pain or I would not get very far in this 9 week program. I started back home, jogging and walking, jogging and walking and before I knew it my "personal trainer" was telling me to "walk briskly for 5 minutes" as my cool down walk. I was more than a 5 minute walk from home but that was ok.
When the 5 minute cool down walk was over, the app had tracked me to have gone 1.86 miles. Which really was about 2 miles cause I wasn't home yet. But I was paced at 14.07 min/mile. I was kind of surprised by that. Not because it was 14.07 minutes but because it was ONLY 14.07 minutes. For someone who hasn't ran, at all, in about 4 years, I'd say that's pretty good for the first night out. After all, I have to start somewhere, right? I was pretty pleased with that and I actually felt good afterwards.
Day 1 down. SUCCESS!!!
The entire day was a cooler day...supposed to be the coolest of the whole week. I put some sweats on, with a couple layered shirts and an Under Armour fleece; laced up my tennis shoes and headed out. iPhone in hand with headphones to keep me going as I listened to music.
Today's workout was a brisk 5 min warm up walk and then I was to jog for a minute and walk for a minute 30 seconds. Sounds simple enough. I live outside of the city limits so running on the roads around my home have always been an good choice. I started down the drive way for my 5 minute warm up walk and thought "this isn't going to give me much of a workout but it's exercise so I guess I better stop complaining." Once I got into the workout itself, my mindset changed almost dramatically. The app has a "personal trainer" built in to tell you when to walk and when to jog so you don't have to worry about watching the clock. Which I found nice because I could concentrate on the task at hand and not have to worry about it.
Before I knew it I had already gone a little over a mile from home, and still had about 15 minutes left in the work out. So I kept going a little further from home before I turned around to make sure that I was out on the road for the whole 30 minutes of the workout. After about 5 more minutes, I turned around and headed for home. By this point in the workout I was really starting to feel it in my legs but knew that I had to push through the pain or I would not get very far in this 9 week program. I started back home, jogging and walking, jogging and walking and before I knew it my "personal trainer" was telling me to "walk briskly for 5 minutes" as my cool down walk. I was more than a 5 minute walk from home but that was ok.
When the 5 minute cool down walk was over, the app had tracked me to have gone 1.86 miles. Which really was about 2 miles cause I wasn't home yet. But I was paced at 14.07 min/mile. I was kind of surprised by that. Not because it was 14.07 minutes but because it was ONLY 14.07 minutes. For someone who hasn't ran, at all, in about 4 years, I'd say that's pretty good for the first night out. After all, I have to start somewhere, right? I was pretty pleased with that and I actually felt good afterwards.
Day 1 down. SUCCESS!!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Couch Potato........
.......to 5k runner......in 9 weeks. Yep, in just 9 short weeks I will be running a 5k like it's nothing. At least, short term, that's my goal. Call me crazy, tell me I can't do it, encourage me; but I CAN and I WILL do this - my mind is made up. Besides, if I can't devote 30 minutes 3 times a week to this, then my priorities aren't what they should be.
For any of you that know me, you know that I was always athletic in school. Enjoyed exercising, playing sports and all sorts of stuff. But like most people, the older I got, that harder it was for me to find time to keep in shape. No, I haven't "let myself go" by any means, I'm just not "in shape" like I used to be. There have been many times that I have told myself, "OK, you're going to start exercising at least 3 days a week so you can stay healthy" and I have never stuck to it.
So what's different this time around, you might ask. I'm 30.....and I come from a long line of health issues on both sides of my family. For that reason alone, I should be more than motivated to do something as simple as this. After a conversation with my sister-in-law (with 3 kids between the ages of 9 and 4 and who ran in the Chicago Marathon this past October) told me "I ran 6 miles today" I started thinking. "I wish I could enjoy running like that," I said to her. She then started to tell me about this program called Couch to 5k and encouraged me to google it to learn more about it. Once I typed it in the google search bar, I was more than shocked to see all of the results that came up.
Once I found the correct one, I obviously dove in to learn more about it. And even found out that "there's an app for that", for you iPhone, Android and Blackberry users. I downloaded the app, printed some information off and thought to myself "this is the first day of the rest of your HEALTHY life." Now, I realize that being healthy is more than just exercise, it's eating right and getting a good amount of sleep each night.
Couch to 5k is 30 minutes 3 days a week at your own pace. Something along the lines of "jog for 2 minutes walk for 2 minutes" to build up to just straight running. In the past, I would ALWAYS just set out and start running and then be very discouraged when I became out of breath rather quickly. It's a 9 week program that gives you a simple structure to follow to be comfortable and CONFIDENT to run a 5k, with no problems. The app I downloaded has a timer on it and a built in "personal trainer" to tell you when to switch from jogging to walking and so forth. It will also play my iTunes to keep me from thinking what was I thinking? and more on the task at hand.
This isn't a quest for me to lose a bunch of weight and become stick thin. I realize that I'm going to lose some weight but it's going to be a healthy weight loss, not drastic. I also realize that I'm not going to see results immediately like I would normally hope for and get discouraged for not seeing.
I'm going to keep a blog to remind myself where I started and how far I have gone in my journey. It is way past time that I do something about it and get healthy and in shape. Follow my journey, or JOIN me! :-)
To be continued.......
For any of you that know me, you know that I was always athletic in school. Enjoyed exercising, playing sports and all sorts of stuff. But like most people, the older I got, that harder it was for me to find time to keep in shape. No, I haven't "let myself go" by any means, I'm just not "in shape" like I used to be. There have been many times that I have told myself, "OK, you're going to start exercising at least 3 days a week so you can stay healthy" and I have never stuck to it.
So what's different this time around, you might ask. I'm 30.....and I come from a long line of health issues on both sides of my family. For that reason alone, I should be more than motivated to do something as simple as this. After a conversation with my sister-in-law (with 3 kids between the ages of 9 and 4 and who ran in the Chicago Marathon this past October) told me "I ran 6 miles today" I started thinking. "I wish I could enjoy running like that," I said to her. She then started to tell me about this program called Couch to 5k and encouraged me to google it to learn more about it. Once I typed it in the google search bar, I was more than shocked to see all of the results that came up.
Once I found the correct one, I obviously dove in to learn more about it. And even found out that "there's an app for that", for you iPhone, Android and Blackberry users. I downloaded the app, printed some information off and thought to myself "this is the first day of the rest of your HEALTHY life." Now, I realize that being healthy is more than just exercise, it's eating right and getting a good amount of sleep each night.
Couch to 5k is 30 minutes 3 days a week at your own pace. Something along the lines of "jog for 2 minutes walk for 2 minutes" to build up to just straight running. In the past, I would ALWAYS just set out and start running and then be very discouraged when I became out of breath rather quickly. It's a 9 week program that gives you a simple structure to follow to be comfortable and CONFIDENT to run a 5k, with no problems. The app I downloaded has a timer on it and a built in "personal trainer" to tell you when to switch from jogging to walking and so forth. It will also play my iTunes to keep me from thinking what was I thinking? and more on the task at hand.
This isn't a quest for me to lose a bunch of weight and become stick thin. I realize that I'm going to lose some weight but it's going to be a healthy weight loss, not drastic. I also realize that I'm not going to see results immediately like I would normally hope for and get discouraged for not seeing.
I'm going to keep a blog to remind myself where I started and how far I have gone in my journey. It is way past time that I do something about it and get healthy and in shape. Follow my journey, or JOIN me! :-)
To be continued.......
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