C25K - Week 4, Day 1

Hi Everyone... I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've been really busy. I'm still going to the gym and trying my best to get a handle on my eating habits. I've been doing pretty well with that lately too. In fact, I'm probably going to have a pre-wiegh-in this weekend before we take my mother out to dinner for her birthday and then again on Monday to see if my one meal of bliss negatively affects me.

The Couch to 5K program starts out pretty slowly and progressively builds your stamina and confidence. I think that's why this program is so successful. I believe that a person could definitely go from being a couch potato to running a 5K (or 30 min. non-stop) if they follow the program.  And if the program advances too fast for you, you could always repeat a week until you're ready to move on.

Week 4, Day 1 - was the first day that I had to literally force myself to keep going. The recovery periods are short and the running periods are much longer than the 1min spurts in the beginning. This week, we have to run in 3 and 5 min. intervals with very short recovery periods. I generally try to get on a treadmill near a runner in hopes that their energy will be contagious. LOL

The program also encourages trainees not to skip ahead or run everyday. You know me... I'm hard headed so I like to knock out my 3 workouts back to back. I would love to finish this 5K in 30-40 min. So I'm trying to build the stamina now and then spend the rest of my time working on speed. I'm up to jogging at a 4.0 on the treadmill but see I need to go a lot faster than that to run a 10min mile. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. By this time next week, I'd like to at least run a 14min mile which would be a huge improvement from my 16 minute "molasses mile" I run now.

I typically spend an hour per day in the gym 4 days per week. I do the run and then walk on high incline as fast as I can (without holding) on for 15 min. The other 15 minutes are usually spent on the random treadmill cycle, the arc machine or the elliptical. It really all depends on what's still hurting when I finish the run. SMH...

Oh yeah, I made huge progress on Wednesday. I did 2 miles on the treadmill and then did 6 miles on the bike - all within 60 minutes. I couldn't believe my eyes. So yall know my new found goal is 10 miles now, right? LOL