Category Archives: C25K
Graduation!
It’s finally here! I graduated the Couch to 5k program! I am most proud of myself for actually sticking to something and finishing the entire thing to a T.
Last night I did my last C25K run of 3 miles. Man it was a toughie since we had dinner ahead of time and it was humid out. Luckily I have the motivation of it being the last run and Steph running by my side (and ahead of me at some points). A full review of my experience with the program will come after I finish the race next weekend.
Today I got my graduation gift!
A Garmin 610! It will definitely take a while to get used to wearing such a big watch but all the features on it look awesome. You can race against yourself, set workouts, and have a training partner that I think tries to keep you at a certain pace. While I was happy training with Cardio Trainer on my phone for the C25K this seems like it will give a lot more detailed stats, which I love! I cannot wait to try it on Monday!
5 Signs I’m Becoming a Runner
5. I have all my runs scheduled in my Google calendar
4. The foam roller has become a permanent fixture in my family room
3. I sit Indian-style at my desk to stretch out my hips (even at work)
2. I spend hours looking at race recaps, running tips, and potential races
1. Ran an easy 3 miles on Monday which was faster than my PR pace (easy and 3 miles in the same sentence? what?)
What makes you feel like you are a runner?
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again
I started today with the best of intentions. I woke up early and decided I would finally try out this park to go running in. It was day 3 of week 8 so I had 2.75 miles to run. The plan was to leave at 10 but I ended up taking a little nap and didn’t wake up until 11:30 or so. Fine, no problem. I got up, put my running gear on, got Scout ready and headed to the park.
As I entered the park I thought ‘This is going to be great’. The park was beautiful. I looked at the trail map and after 5 or so minutes of walking I started running. Within 2 minutes someone had some business to attend to. I didn’t want to run the entire time with a bag so I decided I would find a garbage and start over since I was only 2 minutes in. There was no garbage to be found so we walked back to the car.
Running take 2. Scout and I started towards the trail. There was a huge hill there with no discernible trail. Fine. We would just run down the hill and get to the trail. After the hill and a little bridge we got to the trail. It was all grass, $&#!. We ran for a little bit on the grass and I just couldn’t do it anymore. Running on grass is hard! So I decided we would go back up the hill and run around on the road. Who was I kidding. I was already exhausted; there was no way I was going to be able to run up a huge hill.
I decided we would walk up the hill and then finish up the mileage once we made it. I got up the hill and just didn’t have the motivation. Okay, just run to the car. 5 minutes later I was walking again. This run just wasn’t happening.
Fast forward to 7:45 pm. I’m driving home from my parents and I start thinking. Will I still graduate the C25K if I miss this run. Sure, people miss classes and they still graduate. But will I still feel like I actually completed the program. By the time I reached my house I decided that I needed to go on this run. Not only to fulfill day 3, but to clear my mind. This run was for me. I left Scout at home and shut off the voice updates on my time and pace. I didn’t care how fast I was going, I just wanted to run.
I finished the 2.75 miles this time. While it wasn’t my fastest run of the week I still feel like I ran well and more importantly I got back out there and actually did it. Week 8 is officially completed!
The Best Thing I Ever Ate (Vegetable Edition)
Today I decided that I wanted to start eating healthy. Most of the time I think I want to eat healthy but never actually have enough motivation to do so; today was not one of those days. At work I had a banana with peanut butter, a salad, a roll, a cucumber salad, and some pretzels with string cheese. Overall that was a good day for me. I’m trying to lay down some rules so I will actually eat better at work since free and unlimited food doesn’t often lead to healthy choices. I’m going to try to only get hot food for lunch twice a week so I will eat more veggies at work. Also going to try to allow myself one bagel a week. I originally said ‘limit’ but why not put a positive spin on what I can have!
I spoke to my friend Steph earlier in the day and mentioned I was going for a run tonight. She also had to run so we decided to go together. I love when that happens! I feel like running is so much easier when you have someone with you (even though we don’t talk at all when running). So I went for a 2.75 miler with Steph and Scout. It was probably my best run yet. My phone lies but it said we did 2.75 miles in 30 minutes which was a 10:46 pace. At one point I looked at my phone and it said I was running at 7:00 minutes per mile which was definitely not happening so I’m guessing it was probably closer to an 11:00 pace.
Which leads me to the title of this post. For dinner I mad tostadas (they turned out just okay) and the best vegetable I ever ate.
Okay I confess, I devoured them before I remembered to take a picture.
So what was the mysterious vegetable? Green bean fries! Hands down the best vegetable dish I have ever made. It might have something to do with the fact they have the word ‘fries’ in their name or that I generally like green beans but they were truly delicious. So how did I make these guys? Just tossed some green beans with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary and baked at 425° for about 30 minutes. Easy peasy! I think these have just worked their way into the weekly rotation. Next time I’ll even take pictures.
BPM Fun!
This is my first blog post from my new computer! I had been waiting to buy a new computer until I got the desk for my study which I ordered months ago. Last Saturday it finally arrived so I went out to buy a new computer yesterday. It’s not totally set up yet since I need a couple of various wires but it’s functioning way better than my old laptop.
I feel like the screens look very short but apparently they only make widescreens now.
I basically spent all day trying to compile a playlist for my 5k that’s in a couple of weeks. I don’t listen to incredibly pop-y music so I was trying to find some songs with a good beat and motivation lyrics. While searching for some songs I came across jog.fm. This site has tons of different songs and lists their BPM (beats per minute). It correlates this to a pace so you can find the proper song to keep you at whatever you want your pace to be. Pretty cool huh? I tried to pick songs in between 10 and 11 minutes for most of the race. I added some slow BPM songs at the beginning since I almost always start off to fast and some quicker paced ones at the end because… well, I liked them. I’m going to test out the songs during some of my longer runs to see if anything needs to be tweaked but I’m pretty excited about the whole thing!
I also spent today planning out my weekly meals since when I don’t do this I tend to order out nearly almost day or waste a ton of fresh food. Additionally I cut up some veggies to snack on during the week. One thing that really struck home during the Healthy Living Summit was to have an everyday veggie tray. One of the speakers, Dawn Jackson Blatner, noted that every time there is a veggie tray at a party everyone gravitates towards it but at home you rarely eat those veggies. She suggested having fresh veggies cut up and at eye level in your fridge so you will snack on those instead of something else. I thought this was such a great idea! This week I have orange bell peppers, cucumbers, and some carrots. Hopefully that little trick will get me eating more vegetables! I used some of those cucumbers in my dinner tonight along with shredded lettuce, Cheddar cheese, and falafel.
Yum!
Dog Run
For the past week my parents have been in Florida so I have been dog sitting their crazy dog Piper.
She is a bit of a handful and incredibly codependent. The whole week I’ve had this 60 pound dog with me at every step.
This monkey has seen better days.
Generally I take Scout for every one of my runs. This week I knew that wouldn’t be possible with Piper staying with us since the second we leave she starts barking. Scout was not happy about this situation. Every time he saw me put on my running gear he got incredibly excited, and each time I had to leave him at home.
Today I really wanted to go to the park to run but I don’t like to go alone since it’s through a bunch of woods and I don’t feel safe. Somehow my 30 pound dog makes me feel safer even though I know if there was any danger he would run for the hills (he’s a ‘I come first’ kind of dog). I knew I would either have to run around the development again or take the risk of leaving Piper at home alone. I decided to take my chances and go to the park because really how could I deny this face.
We hit the trails and did our 2.5 miles in 28:54 (according to my phone) which was 1.5 minutes quicker than Wednesday’s run. Not where I want to be pace wise but hey my pace was 40 seconds quicker than the last time and that’s pretty much awesome. I felt much better during the run compared to the rest of the week. I kept asking myself why I couldn’t go faster, but somehow I didn’t (couldn’t?). Next week’s 2.75 miles seem impossible but really it’s only 3-4 minutes more. That’s so little in the scheme of things.
To top off the morning when I got home there was no barking and everything looked more or less okay. Success!
Something to be proud of
For the past 6 weeks I have been diligently following the C25K program and each run was more or less obtainable. This week (week 7) I find it so hard to walk out that door and the runs are torturous and incredibly slow. Yesterday I was really down on myself. I kept thinking ‘Just give up’, ‘Maybe you’re not supposed to be a runner’, ‘You will never reach your goal pace’. We really can be our own worst enemy.
Then I remembered I have been running 3 times a week for the past month and a half. That’s quite an accomplishment for me. I don’t think I have ever consistently ran for that long of a period. Things started looking up. Yeah I was still going much slower than I anticipated but I was still doing it and I still have 3 weeks until my race. Even if I don’t reach my goal time I will certainly be more prepared than I have ever been in the past.
And that is something to be proud of.
I Survived!
Hurricane Irene has come and gone and I’m no worse for the wear. Unfortunately, my house cannot say the same. I woke up this morning with two leaks in the ceiling. Fun. Hopefully the builders or the home owners association will fix that.
Back to Friday. Somehow, after this beautiful week, Friday was hot and humid. It was a run day but I knew I couldn’t go right after work and I would have to wait a few hours. So I watched some TV and ate some dinner. The run seemed less and less likely. Luckily I had plans to run with my friend Stephanie. Without each other I don’t think either of us would have made it out. She was a real life saver, well her and my socks. Who wouldn’t be motivated to run when their socks were telling them to.
My run for the C25K was 20 minutes/2miles. Up until now I was running the timed distances since it’s easier to track (I don’t yet run 10 minute miles). So the plan was to run 20 minutes. When we started running my legs and lungs felt better than ever, my stomach not so much. Regardless I kept running… We hit 20 minutes and I wasn’t dying so I decided to run the extra to make the 2 miles. It felt great (my stomach still not so much). I decided from that point forward I would do the mileage over the time so I can actually get to the 3 miles by the end of the training. I hope the rest of my runs feel that good. For the first time I actually feel like I have improved since I started the program 5 weeks ago. 4 weeks left to hit my 5k goal of under 33:00 which is my most realistic goal to date.
Back to reading and resting.
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood
It was a gorgeous day today. That and the fact that I haven’t taken Scout out for a few days was all the incentive I needed to turn a day I didn’t want to run into a good run day. Today was day 1 of the 5th week of C25K – half way through! I had 3 five minute runs and 2 three minute walks. Somehow the five minutes of running seemed like nothing. Well not nothing, but not incredibly challenging.
After the run I went grocery shopping to pick up the groceries I need for this weeks ‘menu’. While I was there I saw some shredded Brussels sprouts. These were not on my ‘menu’ and I don’t generally like Brussels sprouts but for some odd reason they looked delicious. I heated them up tonight to go with my Panini and they were, in fact, delicious.
On a side note – how do I not burn my Panini? These cheese either doesn’t melt or it gets burnt, the melting cheese usually wins out. In the Panini was mozzarella cheese, spinach, and roasted red pepper (which I have become obsessed with).
This weekend was the Healthy Living Summit. Amazing doesn’t begin to explain the experience. I went without knowing anyone, without really having a blog, and rooming with strangers. My roommates Shana and Gina ended up being awesome. We also met some other people including two girls from Canada, Hilary and Katie (who will hopefully starting her own blog). I also got a lot of momentum to really get this blog going and to work on my health.
Incentives
Does anyone else give themselves little gifts for their accomplishments or is that just me? I love marking my accomplishments with a token of some sort. #1 – It helps me not frivolously spend money all the time since I have to wait to get the item and #2 – It gives me that little push to finish a goal.
Current incentive:
A Garmin 610 when I finish the C25K program. A graduation gift if you will.
Source: Garmin
I think that’s the model I want at least. I definitely want a smaller one and let’s face it I always think the most expensive one is the best. Does a slowpoke beginner runner like me need the best… probably not but oh well :)
