Sunday, September 8, 2013

C25K...Am I insane??

Last March/April, I made a bet with my husband in conjunction with "March Madness." If I won the tournament bracket challenge, he had to give up all fast food. If he won the challenge, I would have to train and run a 5K. I HATE running! I will say it again, I HATE running! I am not built to be a  runner.

Well....I lost the bet......

Bill was kind enough to give me a year to pay off the bet.

Fast forward to the beginning of September. With hubby having trained and run in his half marathon, I figured I had better start training and getting ready to pay off my bet.

I decided that it was time to do this because I gained some weight over the summer and I just don't feel good about myself.

So I did some research, talked to some friends who are runners, and over and over I was given the "Couch to 5K" program to try.

I googled the program and decided to follow the training program here. Basically you start by interspersing walking and short running and then each week you run a little longer and walk less.

Last week I did the first week of workouts. For the first week, you are supposed to warm up for 5 minutes, then alternate  60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes (8 times), then do a cool down of 5 minute walking.


After workout #1 (Monday) I felt exhausted and I hated that I couldn't run for 60 seconds without getting winded . It was horrible! I felt like I wanted/needed to pass out! It was awful! But...I did it.

Workout #2 (Wednesday) wasn't much better.

Workout #3 (Friday) was better. My legs didn't feel like lead and were not as sore.

Today, I had to decide whether to do another week 1 workout, or move on to week 2. Week 2 is basically walk 5 minute warm up, then alternate 90 seconds of jogging with 2 minutes of walking for 6 cycles, followed by a 5 minute walking cool down.  When I headed out this afternoon, I decided to see when I got tired of jogging and if it was under 45 seconds I would repeat a week 1 workout, if it was after 45 seconds then I would do a week 2 workout. Well....the first time I looked down at my stopwatch for the run it said 92 seconds! So I decided to do a week 2 workout. Today's workout felt really good. I am beginning to think that I can do this.

My ultimate goal is to run most of a 5K in the beginning of November put on for the benefit of "Food for the Hungry" for our local county. I am hoping that I can do this. And as a side benefit I really want to lose some weight so hopefully that will happen as well.

I am not a runner, but maybe just maybe I can do this.

Are you a runner? Do you workout? Any tips for me?

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