Couch to 5K

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So I kinda goofed up on the W8 stuff... I never really did the 28 min run, but I did extra 25 minute runs (thanks, rain!) and two shorter, faster runs. Today I put 30 min of music on the MP3 player and just decided to go until I wanted to stop or the music ended. The music ended first, so I guess I'm on W9. 🙄

It felt pretty good, though. 🙂 Not TOO awful of a pace.
 
Packen said:
Congrats everyone on all the great progress!! Chinola, how did the race go??
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I flew to NJ to visit family the afternoon of the race so I didn't get a chance to come on here to talk about it.

The race totally kicked my ass. The other people in the race were beasts! My boyfriend and I were so intimidated by them all! So I ran a bit too fast when the race first started because everyone else took off hardcore. Then we had to run on sand which I've never done before. That was hard! About 0.5-0.75 miles in we had our first water obstacle which consisted of swimming through the water in sneakers and clothes and everything so that slowed me down for awhile because my shoes were squishy. It actually wasn't possible to run the entire race because of the terrain. There were areas where you were climbing over foliage and areas that were huge boulders that you needed to be careful climbing over. The obstacles weren't too bad. Only the 100 foot ascent with a rope gave me a hard time, I don't have much upper body strength.

We finished the 3.2 mile race in 1 hour and 16 minutes. But here's what we found out afterwards, for some reason our heat ran an extra 1.5 miles! The entire group got off course and ran a total of 4.7 miles. No wonder it took us so long and I was so beat! By the end of the course I was begging for it to be over and now I know why. I definitely didn't run as much as I was hoping I would but all of the obstacles in between the runs tired me out. Overall it was a lot of fun though and I would do it again. I would just like to be more in shape for it! My boyfriend wants to do it again on July 23rd but the problem is that we get back from Panama at 5pm on July 22nd. I'm afraid we'll spend the money registering and then be too tired to run it. I guess we'll see what we decide to do.

I'm going to post photos of some of the other participants that ran the race so you can all see how terrifyingly ripped everyone there was! These photos are from the race's fb page that's public so they're okay to use.

Rippedgirls.jpg
rippedguy.jpg



I need to start training again but being in NJ has thrown me off and I've been eating too much and doing too little activity. I'm going to try to run tomorrow morning if it's clear (so much rain lately).
 
Holy COW, Chinola! Those people are outrageously ripped!! Congrats on finishing the race, and it sounds like it was a lot of fun!

I FINALLY did another day of Week 2 today. I managed to find it in me to skip yesterday 🙄 but I wasn't a total slob. We had shavings delivered yesterday, which entails having the guy with the dump truck dump 10 cubic yards of shavings in the front of the barn which I then have to single handedly shovel into the empty stall where we store them. Needless to say I'm good and sore today.

Anyway, today's run went well. I felt awesome after the last segment, way better than I felt after the first two. I guess that's that "runner's high" you always hear about. After I got back home I got in my car and drove the route I did-4.8 miles total in about 59 minutes (my cool-down walk was longer than expected since I ran about .4 miles past my house to finish out the last running segment. So total I think I only ran about 4 ish miles, maybe 4.1, in the 45 minutes of running. That's okay though, because the route I took had some more substantial hills than my usual route.

I'm glad I got that done and will allow myself 2 days of recovery (with maybe a long walk tomorrow or Sunday) before starting Week 3 on Monday. My first 5K this year is 2 weeks from tomorrow-I hope I can still run 30 minutes straight when that rolls around!
 
I'm pretty sure those women could break me in half with their pinky toes. 😱
 
breenie said:
I'm pretty sure those women could break me in half with their pinky toes. 😱
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That's exactly how I felt when I drove up and saw that those were my fellow racers! 😱
 
Did well these past couple of days =) I went a total of 4.8 miles yesterday in 57 minutes, including the warm up/cool down and walking segments. So that was a 4th day of Week 2. Today I went with my mom as she did her C25K workout and just played around a little. I did 1/4 mile warm up jog, timed myself over a mile, and then did a 1/4 mile cool down jog. I did my mile in 9:07! I wasn't going all out, though I don't think I could keep up that pace for an entire 5K. I did the whole 1.5 miles in just over 14 minutes. I also walked 3/4 mile for a total of 2.25 miles today. My dad is doing his C25K in the morning, so I will probably go and do that with him before starting Week 3 of B210K on Monday. I'm not trying to push myself too crazy hard, but when I have this motivation I want to take it and run with it (pun intended) because I don't know how long I'll have it 😛

So overall I am feeling pretty good! Hope everyone else's runs have been great!
 
Nice job, EllieGirl!! I've never done a 9 minute mile so I'm impressed!

Well, last Friday rolled around and I felt like total crap so I didn't do W2D3. Yesterday I had to rush out of town for a reception party so I didn't get a chance to go out. This morning I got up and felt that, due to my laziness, I deserved to have a go at W3D1. I still have a residual cough from that cold, and if I breathe in deeply I want to cough, so starting up was difficult, but I got it done. I will admit, I switched it around so I did the 1.5 minute jogs first, and both 3 minute jogs after that, but I got it done!
 
Finished W3D2 today, but only after my dog tried to kill me by running into the backs of my legs as I was walking down the stairs this morning. I think she was on a similar mission during the jog/walk... Anyway, it was good. I feel good. My legs were starting to burn by the end of it but I am happy with that. Can't wait for W3D3!

Anyone else have an update?
 
Did another W9 run last night! Felt pretty tired 15 min into it for whatever reason, but I was 15 min from home... so I kept jogging home. Still slow like a sloth, but less slow than I was halfway through the program... soooo, I guess that's good.
 
After I ran with my mom on Saturday I rode my bike about 6.5 miles in 30 minutes on Sunday. Then yesterday I started Week 3 of B210K. It actually went really good! In the 53 minutes of running/walking I went 5.14 miles which I'm really proud of! I planned on doing W3D2 on Wednesday but I think my BFF and I are going to go on a trail ride that evening, so I might push it to Thursday and then do Day 3 on Sunday. We'll have to see how late we get back from our ride.

Sounds like everyone else is doing great! Breenie, you're almost graduated!
 
After pouting about the rain all last week (since I was sick the week before and ready to run), I opted for the indoor-treadmill version, and I have to say I was pleasently suprised by how much I enjoyed it. I thought I would be annoyed with switching from walking to running, but I rather enjoyed the hopping onto the siderails to adjust the speed back down. :laugh:

Also, it was one of my best runs so far! Considering that I'd taken two weeks off and picked up right back where I left off. Can't wait to run again! Yeay!
 
EllieGirl89 said:
Sounds like everyone else is doing great! Breenie, you're almost graduated!
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Yeah! Originally I wasn't planning on doing the B10K with y'all since I wanted to get my pace a bit speedier before adding more distance, BUT...

I think I am going to sign up to do the 10k at this event, and my boyfriend wants to sign up to do the half-marathon! http://www.rootsnbluesnbbq.com/ This means he'll come visit me in September! 😍 Yay! It will be nice to look foward to something in Missouri other than just vet school. 😉 It looks superdy duperdy fun, so I guess I'll be jumping on the 10k bandwagon in order to make this happen. Time to run hard, y'all!
 
Ok, I fell off the wagon for a week a few weeks ago. But I caught back up. Had my best 5.3k run last night of any so far. I'm starting now to think ahead a bit since I'm very near the end of the initial goal (C25K).

Which would be better? Focus on getting my abysmal 5K time down to something not terrifically embarrassing (ahem... I'm around 28 slow pokey minutes now), or keep extending the time/distance?
 
LetItSnow said:
Which would be better? Focus on getting my abysmal 5K time down to something not terrifically embarrassing (ahem... I'm around 28 slow pokey minutes now), or keep extending the time/distance?
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If I were in your position, I'd love to have a faster pace, but I'd go for extending the time/distance. I've always wanted to say I went for a 30-minute run for the heck of it, and now that I have a fiance and a dog who both like to run a lot (the fiance ran for an hour one day just because he felt like it 😱) it's a bit of extra motivation.

By the way, I don't think your 5k time is abysmal. That's what, a 9-minute mile on average? I've never done that!

I just finished week 3, and am fairly happy with how I did. I maybe should've pushed myself to continue up that last hill that was 2 minutes into my last jog, but I turned around and continued on a flat part. Pumped for week 4 on Monday!
 
LetItSnow said:
Which would be better? Focus on getting my abysmal 5K time down to something not terrifically embarrassing (ahem... I'm around 28 slow pokey minutes now), or keep extending the time/distance?
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Uhm BreenieSloth over here is much slower than that.
 
LetItSnow said:
Oh, ok, then I don't feel so bad. I thought maybe I was the only one here who regularly gets passed by 6-month-olds. 😉

So it sounds like your advice is extend distance, not worry about time?
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That's what I would do. One advantage I see in extending time/distance over improving speed that I didn't mention - it keeps your heart rate up for a longer amount of time.
 
LIS, I was in your shoes when I finished the C25K, although when I first finished C25K my mile times were ridiculously slower. I think it was due to my pace being so slow, that with the C25K, I wasn't really running 5k, so my first race was a bit of a shock. Anyway, I started researching how to get faster. Most of the sites I visited (coolrunning, active, runnersworld, etc) all suggested increasing the distance and you will naturally start shedding time off. I worked too, and between first 5k in March and the second one I did in June, I took off a little over one minute for each mile, 4 minutes total on the 5k.

So that said, I have REALLY been dragging my feet on starting the B210k. I know I keep making these promises to start, and then I somehow get derailed. I haven't even run in over a week 🙁 My plan is to get 2 3mile runs in this week and then start the B210k on Monday. NO EXCUSES.
 
Okay guys I'm gonna be a lame-o. I'm going to try to do my last C25K run this weekend (I did like a 2mi run yesterday but was just tired and grumpy), and then I'm going to start training for a 10k. I'm not going to do the B10K because my biggest problem with the C25K was that I hated doing the same workout all week. :/ So I'm gonna do this plan instead: http://www.halhigdon.com/10ktraining/10knovice.htm

But I'll still hang out with the crowd!
 
breenie said:
Okay guys I'm gonna be a lame-o. I'm going to try to do my last C25K run this weekend (I did like a 2mi run yesterday but was just tired and grumpy), and then I'm going to start training for a 10k. I'm not going to do the B10K because my biggest problem with the C25K was that I hated doing the same workout all week. :/ So I'm gonna do this plan instead: http://www.halhigdon.com/10ktraining/10knovice.htm

But I'll still hang out with the crowd!
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I think it's awesome that you're doing it differently, but only because I'm a selfish jerk: Now I can get feedback from you and EG about which approach worked better.... 😉
 
LetItSnow said:
I think it's awesome that you're doing it differently, but only because I'm a selfish jerk: Now I can get feedback from you and EG about which approach worked better.... 😉
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Will do! I will probably using riding the horse as my strength/cross on some days, and biking the rest of the time. 🙂 My program is a little longer-- 8 weeks versus the 6 and is distance based. I'm a slow runner, though, so I think I need that discipline!
 
Started Week 5 today! Did anyone else think it was a lot easier than Week 4? I'm feeling pretty good about myself today for sticking with it! As of yesterday, I lost 6 pounds since I started! 19 more to go!

I hope everyone else is doing well!
 
After a weekend of driving, the last thing I wanted to do this morning was C25k, but I set my alarm for 5:30 like usual. It went off, I woke up. . . and immediately went back to sleep. I finally got up and my dog guilt-tripped me into taking her out. Unfortunately, the recent rain, plus the higher temperature at 8:30 instead of 6 am like I'm used to killed me and I didn't actually do W4D1. Tomorrow, I try again, but this time at 6 am.
 
Soooo hot. I officially start 10k training tomorrow, but tomorrow is a stretch/rest day. 😉 The long runs are on Sundays, so I did this week's long run yesterday just to kinda have an extra level of prep. My 5k time is more than 30 minutes, so I hadn't actually run a 5k in the C25k. It went well, though. I had a brief stop in a creepy deserted campus research building to pee. Never again. So creepy.

Congrats, Jess! Glad things are going so well for you. 🙂
 
Aaaalright, so W4 is not going as well as I'd hoped, but that's okay. I did the first 3 jogs and I guess this week I'm going to slowly add more jogging time so I actually can do the routine. Then next week, I'm going to just stick with week 4, and move on to week 5 after that.
 
scb44f said:
Aaaalright, so W4 is not going as well as I'd hoped, but that's okay. I did the first 3 jogs and I guess this week I'm going to slowly add more jogging time so I actually can do the routine. Then next week, I'm going to just stick with week 4, and move on to week 5 after that.
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I did week 4 three times in total. Stick with it!
 
LetItSnow said:
I did week 4 three times in total. Stick with it!
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Glad I'm not the only one who felt like week 4 was a hurdle (or a brick wall...). I'll definitely keep you updated on how this one goes 🙂
 
Finished Week 5 today! I never thought I'd be able to run 20 minutes straight but I made it!

How is everyone else doing?
 
Poking my head in here. I am still running. I got derailed a bit after I was waitlisted and got super bummed out and didn't want to do anything. But I've been back at it for about a week now since I've started my job and I have something of a normal routine again. I started week 8 last night and felt really good with it. Didn't feel much different from week 7. 😀
 
Stupid week 4. I can't seem to get past it. I have fallen off the wagon again. To be perfectly honest, I probably won't get back on until I have free access to the campus rec center. 100+ degree weather every day is not conducive to me exercising. Congrats to all who are keeping at it.
 
Almost done with my first week of 10k training! 🙂 This is kinda the easy week, since I've already done the "long run" that I'm supposed to do on Sunday. Next week will be the big test.

I played sand/beach volleyball yesterday. Damn it's hard. I fell over a lot.
 
Wow, everyone is doing awesome!! Sorry I haven't been around much this week; I've been SUPER busy. I finished Week 3 of B210K on Monday, then I tapered off a little because I ran a 5K this morning! I ran 5K on Wednesday at a pretty fast pace; then yesterday I ran 1.5 miles at an 8:40 pace! Not that it was comfortable; I was pushing, but I can't believe I did that.

I got to the 5K today a little nervous but ready to go. My goal was to break 30 minutes and when I saw some of the hills I'd have to run up I wasn't sure I could do it-but I did!! I finished the race in 28:40!! My last 5K I finished in 33:07 so that was a huge improvement. It was a lot of fun and I'm interested to see the results of how I ended up with respect to everyone else and the other women in my age group.

Back to the B210K grind on either Monday or Tuesday, depending how I feel. I'm going to give Week 4 a shot but am not too proud to go back to Week 3 if I need to. It's amazing how having those little walking breaks in between can help you. I struggled some today with the 5K and running almost 30 minutes straight because I've been so used to having walk breaks now! Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things relatively quickly.
 
I have been derailed and my legs are going to hate me for it. I have family in town and am going to visit other family next week, so I don't foresee any week 4 action going down anytime soon. Keep up the awesome work, everyone, and I'll be back soon enough!
 
Question:

I have really really crappy tennis shoes right now. Like with holes and everything. I have been walking in them because I can't afford a new pair right now.

Would it be better to get a $20 pair of "running" shoes now, and in 3-4 weeks get a good pair? Or wait 2-3 weeks and just get the good pair? I'm not going to start running until I have new shoes either way, as I don't want to cause any injuries/pain. Right now, my current shoes do not cause my pain, but I"m just walking.
 
wolfspeaker said:
Would it be better to get a $20 pair of "running" shoes now, and in 3-4 weeks get a good pair? Or wait 2-3 weeks and just get the good pair? I'm not going to start running until I have new shoes either way, as I don't want to cause any injuries/pain. Right now, my current shoes do not cause my pain, but I"m just walking.
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I'm slightly confused about the question. If you know you're going to get a good pair, and the only question is whether to spend $20 now and get the good pair in 3-4 weeks, vs just buying the good pair now ..... why not save yourself $20 and get the decent pair now?

I'm by no means an expert ... about as far from it as possible (I'm just at the end of the C25K), but the advice everyone gave me was to go to a good shop where they can put you on a treadmill and watch you run and help you pick a decent pair of shoes.

Have to admit, I haven't done that yet, but it is on my list.
 
Official results from my race are in!

I actually finished in 28:35.4 for an average pace of 9:13/mile. Overall I finished 194th out of 423 participants! The thing I'm most proud of is my finish in my age group-10th out of 23 among women age 19-24! That's usually an age group of pretty beastly people so I'm so proud that I managed to finish in the top 10!
 
That was a lot of exclamation points...haha sorry.
 
Congrats EllieGirl! That's awesome.

Today was day 2 of week 6. I hit 2.5 miles and nearly made both my run pace and walk pace! Hope everyone else is doing well!
 
Wooo, Ellie! Congrats!

I feel kinda sick, so skipped my work out yesterday. Not sure if I'll make it up today, since I have to work 2 jobs. Blergh! Might have to skip it entirely. 🙁
 
Saved this thread from the brink of page two-dom! I haven't had a ton of time to update but I did Week 4 Day 2 on Saturday and will do Week 4 Day 3 either today or Tuesday (depends on how tired I am after a long day of large animal calls with the vet tomorrow). Hope everyone else is doing awesome! 👍
 
I'm back from my trip so tomorrow I am attempting W4D1 again tomorrow. My SO is here finally so I now have some outside motivation to do it.
 
Bigcatlover and I started the C25K program last week!! We did week 2 day 1 today and the humidity really got to me.
How do you runners run in this heat and humidity?!?!?
 
Eep. Sorry I haven't been posting. I've transitioned to just a nice routine of running my 5.2k route every few days.

I'm not sure whether I want to move ahead with stretching the time. It'd be the healthier option, but also the more time-consuming one. 🙂

Mostly I'm just happy to be regularly running for the first time in many, many years.
 
HawkeyeVet said:
Bigcatlover and I started the C25K program last week!! We did week 2 day 1 today and the humidity really got to me.
How do you runners run in this heat and humidity?!?!?
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I don't-I run really early in the morning, like before seven, or really late at night, around nine. The only time ill run more siring the day is if it is really cloudy and breezy. congrats on getting started though!
 
EllieGirl89 said:
I don't-I run really early in the morning, like before seven, or really late at night, around nine.
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Same here, except I only go in the mornings. I have little to no motivation to go out at night, but it could be fun so I might have to try it sometime. My SO will go whenever he feels like it, but he went through two-a-days for football through college so it's nothing he can't handle.

I finished W4D1 today. That's in quotes because I did the same routine that I did 3 weeks ago, when I first tried W4, so I only did the first three jogs. Looking forward to trying the last 5-minute jog on Wednesday.

Keep up the awesome work, everyone!
 
EllieGirl89 said:
I don't-I run really early in the morning, like before seven, or really late at night, around nine. The only time ill run more siring the day is if it is really cloudy and breezy. congrats on getting started though!
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Ditto. I was so fussy about trying to stay on schedule that there were a few times I ran after midnight just to get the run in.

Probably not the smartest thing in the world from a safety perspective, but......
 
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