Showing posts with label c25k. Show all posts
Showing posts with label c25k. Show all posts

Saturday, June 6, 2009

C25K week 1 DONE! and I learned some things about myself.

Last night I completed Couch to 5k week one, I was sore, it was raining but I decided that anything worth doing is worth doing 100% so I did not let either of those things stop me. I got dressed and headed out in the rain for my final run of week 1 not knowing whether I would finish it, as I walked out the door I told wify "I will either start and come back in 10 minutes because of the rain and or soreness, or I will run the whole thing, see ya in 10 minutes" once the first interval came around I knew that it was going to be a good run because I was taking long strides and was well ahead of where I have been ending after the first interval. I was far enough ahead of where I have been running by the 4th interval that when I reached the hill that I dread running up I had walked about 1/4 of the way up it before the I had to start running, usually I stop running before the top so again I knew that I was ahead of my pace. I was feeling good, the rain was heavier than a drizzle but not too hard by New England standards and honestly it somehow energized me and by the last interval I was so far ahead of my pace that I started running in the spot where my last interval usually ends.


I learned a couple of things about myself last night, as long as I stay focused and remember that I am choosing to do this I can and will. The second thing that I learned is that I LOVE to run in the rain! this is so odd to me because I was that guy that if it was raining outside would stay indoors and avoid the falling water like I was the wicked witch of the west when I was bigger. Running in the rain is almost like the world is mine at those moments, no one is around and its just me and the wet road and we get to have the rain all to ourselves. The cooling affect that a light rain provides is just enough to make running a bit more comfortable in the being hot department and I am already starting to appreciate this.

My calories for Friday were at 1720 so says my excel sheet but I was up a little later than usual last night and ate two oranges around 10:30pm so I am over by that much, I have the feeling that I will have to raise my caloric intake because of the running and I say that because I have been hungry this whole past week and I can't help but think that its my body letting me know a change is needed because of the extra work that the running is taxing my body for. I drank 1 gallon of green tea, 1.5 gallons of water and a Fuze fruit punch so to say that I am hydrated is an understatement and of course W1D3 was my exercise for the day, I did go my furthest distance last night which was 2.162 miles in the 29:45 that week one takes.

I was going through some comments that were left for me and one of them stood out to me and the simplicity of the statement caught me off guard, and actually gave me a smile. Andrew said "You've got to have the right gear when you're a runner I reckon!" as a response to This Post where I mentioned buying a compression shirt and the "when you're a runner" part really stopped me for a second and I thought about it, Never in my life has someone referred to me as "a runner" and I realized that I have made substantial changes in my life that will almost certainly mean that I will have that many more years to spend how I wish, doing what I want to with my wife and children.

With that I will end this post, I have a bird house to paint with my daughter so off I go into Daddy duties, make sure to get that H2O down and if someone can refer to me a "a runner" anything is possible.

As Ever
Me

Thursday, June 4, 2009

C25K week 1 day 2 fini, and some new gear for my running.

Yesterday was time for W1D2 on the C25K program and sore quads and all out into the rain I went to get day two under my belt. Earlier in the day I was out and about and thought that I would look around for a compression shirt to run in, the last time I went out the highest size was a 2xl and I already knew that I was a 3xl so why bother trying one on? I walked in and again looked at all of the 2xl shirts and wify said "are you going to at least try one on?" so I thought about it and decided why not and off I went into the changing room with 3 different shirts. To my surprise a 2xl shirt fit me, in fact it was a bit long on me which was awesome in itself as this was something that I wanted in a compression shirt so I was happy to find a shirt, the shirt that I bought is a Rebok play dry compression shirt. I put the shirt on at home and wify took a look and we both agree that I am a lot smaller with it on, in fact my regular tee shirts that I wear look too big when I have the compression shirt under them. The amazing part about that shirt is that it shows me just how much extra skin that I have on me, if a compression shirt can make me look as small as it does I do think this is just the beginning of my skin issue woes, but that is a bridge yet to be crossed so I will not dedicate too much attention to it just yet.


The run itself last night went well for the most part, I started off and after the first interval the compression shirt rolled up and I thought to myself "this is wonderful, now I get to play with this shirt for the next 30 minutes" so as soon as the first interval was done I pulled the shirt down as I walked and prepared for the roll up again when the next interval came along, but I sort of kept an eye on it and I did not roll up this time and every interval after that it seemed ok because the dampness of my sweat gave it some grip. Along I jogged thinking about how my wife had said that after the 2nd interval when she was on day 2 that she had no more soreness in her legs and I started interval number 3 and still sore. The 4th interval is the hill, you know that steep one that I mentioned in the last C25K post? man did I feel it going up that hill, when I hit the top of the hill I looked back at it and said some profanities at the defeated hill and continued on my way. This is about when I was coming down a longish straight downward sloped section and someone in a car was not considerate enough to turn their high beams off and I was pretty much blinded, the only thing I could see was the lights! it was as if I was in space or something and everything was perfectly black except the lights and I got too close to the edge of the road and twisted my ankle a bit on the edge of a driveway, I felt no pain so off I went and the rest of the run/walk went smooth and nice.

I felt great during this entire run besides the soreness in my quads (which never went away) I found that I was not as winded as the first time out and the difference in this compared to the first run was that my sore legs were my limiting factor where the first run was limited by my being out of breath. I did remember to check my heart rate immediately after 5 of the 9 intervals and it averaged out to 168 beats per minute which as far as I can tell is slightly higher than it should be for my age but maybe I am wrong, chime in with a comment if you know what it should be. I covered more ground on day 2 compared to the first run, the first day I ran 2.049 miles in the 29:45 that the podcast lasts and last night I went 2.095 miles according to Gmaps, so ever so slightly further but further none the less, and there is always room for some inaccuracies but I am pleased either way.

Onto my intake for Wednesday, I consumed a total of 1610 calories and drank just under 1 gallon of green tea, 1 gallon of straight H2O and 2 bottles of Fuze fruit punch. My exercise for the day was the C25K program and other than the slight twisting of the ankle I feel like I am on my way with this program and feel good about it so far. I am less sore this morning than when I went to bed last night, in fact I am less sore this morning than I was before I ran last night as well which I hope means that the soreness will continue to get less and less from here on out, I do have some pain in my ankle but nothing that is even close to real pain, its more like a discomfort that is letting me know that something happened so I am going to keep an eye on how that feels and if it is even slightly sore come time for Fridays run I will skip it until Saturday giving it an extra day worth of rest.

Week 1 day 2 is fini and I look forward to completing week 1, I have not decided whether I will do week one twice or if I will move right onto week 2 when the time comes and I will decide on Monday when I actually head out for that run, it will all depend on how day 3 goes. Tomorrow I weigh in and even with the new exercise this week I am not expecting a big drop if any mostly because of the soreness and I know that I have to be retaining a bit of water because of it but it honestly does not matter if the scale shows progress this week because the running IS showing progress and as long as progress is being made in some aspect of my new healthier life I am happy with that, which is not to say that I am not looking for losses but I am pleased with myself this week to say the least.

Check out tomorrows post to see if the fat man has lost some weight and of course keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

C25K Week 1 Day 1 complete and a report!

C25K week one day one complete! I have started down a path that I hope brings me the ability to run a complete 5 kilometers straight. It has begun, right now as I type this I am still sweaty but feel good, the first 3 intervals I did not feel one bit and was starting to get cocky but then I think it was the 4th interval I hit the spot on the route that I chose that I was hoping would be a walking segment but I was not that lucky. Bamn! the steepest part of the walk/run and Robert (hey I am on a first name basis with him now) says to run! so I started chugging up the hill and about 30 seconds into this interval I glanced over my shoulder and my cockiness was sitting on the side of the road panting and told me to go on without him, so I did. In all honesty I felt good during the entire run and probably could have done a 9th interval but then I did leave Mr.Cocky on the road side so I best close my pie hole about that! Where I have to run is pretty hilly and I think that will work to my advantage because I will have to work harder than if I was on a treadmill, I have 2 different directions that I can go and one is as hilly as the next. The fact that I am running on hills is something that I did not want to deal with but seeing that I did ok on my first time out I am kind of happy that there are hills, I think it will make me a better runner in the long run.


Ok onto some details, I ran/walked 2.049 miles in the 29.45 minutes that week one takes to complete, that's just over 4mph if I did my math right. Like I mentioned the first 3 intervals were very easy but after I hit that steep spot I knew that it was a workout and was sweating pretty good but I felt good throughout the entire process. At one point I thought about how not so long ago when I could not make that quarter mile walk to see a broken bridge and here I am starting a 5k running program @just about 340 pounds, my how times have changed.

Onto the regular stuff, I had 1690 total calories for the day and I drank just under 2 gallons of fluid, 1 gallon of green tea and the rest was straight H2O, I wanted to make sure that I was hydrated because of the start of C25K yesterday. Exercise was the start of C25K and well, I already covered that so I won't go further than that. over all it was a good day and I am actually looking forward to Day 2 of the program, I am very curious to see if I am sore for the next run and I am going to attempt to improve the distance every time I go out so that should be fun.

The above was written almost immediately after I ran last night, from here on is this morning and after a nights sleep I feel good, I can feel that I did something that is not routine with my exercise but I woke up feeling good, no soreness at all. I am planning on doing some calisthenics and light weights today as exercise but the C25K plan calls for no running today so I am going to obey that and go as far as to not walk either, so a weight day it shall be.

With week one day one (W1D1) under my belt I am on my way to running a 5k race, let us hope that my joints and physical hold together for the ride. I have had my oil checked and filled my tires to the proper foot pounds, I am using premium gasoline now and the tune up from the doc should be what I need to keep the miles rolling in so now I will hope that it all holds together as I advance through the program. I have decided that I am going to add up the miles that I run/walk from here on out and create a map to see how long it takes me to run to CA from CT so look for that in the future as well as all of the normal things that I have always posted on this blog.

We will call that the end of the post, so as your reward for reading the whole thing go grab yourself a big ol glass of H2O! if you think that you are too out of shape to do any exercise keep in mind that I am just about 340 pounds currently, I was 534 pounds at the start of my weight loss program and I have just started a running program aimed at getting me running five kilometers straight, still think that you can't exercise? I think that its all a matter of how you look at it, now get up off of your ass!

As Ever
Me

Monday, June 1, 2009

C25K start and a lot on my mind.

Today is the day that I am planning on starting the C25K program and I woke up with a sore back but I am running anyways. I am planning on doing my runs in the evening and because of that I will have to post how each run went on the day after the run. I may add a C25K ticker or tracker on the side bar but I have not decided on that just yet and you will see it appear one day if I decide on doing that. Besides tracking my time etc for this program I want to track the distance that I go each day as well as how I felt during the run so that I can see if my pace is getting faster or slower each day, I am sure there will be an excel sheet snapshot posted after I get it made and some data into it.

My plan of attack is that I have no plan, I am just going to start walking and when the guy on the podcast says run I will do it and see how well I fare. a while back just for fun while I was walking I timed out week one and almost completed the whole thing without any real issues but I have not been riding my bike and only walking for exercise so I do not know if that will effect the way I feel tonight when I do day 1 week 1, all I can hope for is that I complete the entire 30 minutes. I did not exercise all weekend, I did not do anything that would even remotely be considered exercise honestly so I should be fresh for this new routine.


Since I mentioned the weekend I want to share how it went, Friday my sheet says 1370 calories but we went to the drive in theater and I had a small apple and a big bowl of pop corn (air popped from home) during the movie so I am slightly over maybe by 150 or so if my estimate is right. Saturday was fine and well where intake was concerned and a quick look at my excel sheet says that I had 1695 calories so I was within the limit and the weekend was off to a good start. Sunday I did not count my calories and I know that I went over, by how much I am unsure, my Father stopped by along with a couple of wifys friends and we cooked chicken and fish out on our grill, we had corn a salad some watermelon and corn tortillas & salsa with dinner out on the picnic table. I decided that I would load up on fruits early in the day because I knew that I was going to eat some fish (it was fried) and ate nothing but apples, oranges and bananas before dinner. I drank enough fluid all weekend and on Sunday I drank more than 2 gallons between my green tea and straight H2O so I stayed hydrated throughout the weekend and all but Sunday was decent on the calories.

Starting C25K is a step into uncharted territory for me and not only since losing the weight, I have run randomly throughout my life but I have never really run further than a mile straight in a row and the thought of running more than 3 miles is a bit daunting to me. A lot of the people that might be reading this right now that run 1/2 marathons or 10k's or even 5k's may be thinking "a 5k daunting?" To that I answer yes! I am the fella that less than a year and a half ago could not walk 200 feet without pain in his back, sweat spraying out of every pour sounding like a heavy breathing prank caller and I can honestly remember having the thought "why would anyone want to walk unless absolutely necessary" Now I am going to try and run 5 kilometers in a row? I recently walked 5k all at one time so the natural thing in my mind is to now run it.

If I when I pull this 5k thing off I will be crossing a line that I have never had the privilege of being on the other side of physically, and honestly I think there will be a mental line being crossed at the same time, if it has not already been surpassed. Imagine going from a state of mind where I created an animosity for people who could would walk any distance further than me to the mindset that I am in currently where I am actually thinking about running a 5k distance as a stepping stone to distances beyond that, I have not yet run a single mile yet and here I am thinking about going further than 5k already.

Today I leave you with a quote.

"Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be"
~Don Quixote~

As Ever
Me

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Run fatty run! oh my!

I had a great day yesterday in terms of this weight loss program, I decided that I was going to get extra movement into my day because of a heavy St Pattys day meal and that I did! I first rode my stationary bike for 23 minutes in the am followed by a walk with my daughter, we walked 1.3 miles in 22 minutes (me pushing her in a stroller) and back home for lunch. I did well with my calories for the day as well, I ended at 1695 total for the day and more than a gallon and a half of fluid including more than a gallon of green tea. My plan was to walk twice and ride the bike twice so while we ate dinner I asked wify if she would like to go on a walk after dinner, she agreed and off we went.

If you read this blog regular like you know that I am planning on starting C25K very soon (as soon as the weather stabilizes a bit) I have to do the C25K program outside so I want to make sure that I have the best chance of an uninterrupted program as possible but I have been getting anxious to start so last nights walk turned into a sneak peek at whats in store for me. If you are not familiar with the C25K program it is a running program designed to get anyone running a 5k in 9 weeks time and every person that I have talked to that has tried it loves it so I figure its a good place to start.

Week one starts with a Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes, well I got ambitious and after the 5 minute warm up walk I ran for the first 60 seconds and was pleasantly surprised that even with my 350 pound boyish figure I managed that trot with no ill effect. I was thinking about how easy that first 60 seconds was and decided to do a few more and ended up running for four 60 second intervals with the 90 second walks between them and by the end of my "test run" I had completed 15 of the 20 minute program and was not really feeling too bad, besides the small cramp in my ribs because I had eaten just 20 minutes before we set out on the walk. I was starting to get winded near the end and since I was cramping in my rib and had made it back to the same spot where wify was walking I decided to stop it there since it was really not something that I had planned to do, but as I said I was pleasantly surprised at how the "trial run" went which means that I am more anxious to start the program than ever.

Then it was time to get home to ride the bike a second time, as I walked up the driveway I stopped at the rear of our car and said "pop the trunk" so that I could slip the stroller back into the car and wify looked at me with a half of a grin and said "I didn't bring keys" so I said "yeah right pop the trunk" a short argument discussion followed and now I have to break into my own house! neither of us had brought keys with us on the walk, we both thought the other had them (I will not get into that too much) so we spend the next 30 minutes attempting a B&E on my own place. After successfully breaking in (with the help of wifys step dad who lives on the lake and a few screw drivers ) I fixed the "security flaws" that allowed me to get in, which just means I had better not forget keys again or else I will be kicking in a door! but it was too late for the bike ride as the kiddos needed to get to bed and my bike is next to my sons room, no worries there is always today!

The highlight of my day was the C25K preview and the low point, well the B&E of course but over all it was a positive day and I look forward to tomorrow to see how my hard work is paying off on the scale. Until then stay hydrated and grab yourself a big glass of H2O and I will be back tomorrow in the am to report what the scale says to me.

As Ever
Me