Push ups – Week 1, Day 3

I did 27 push ups today! Plan calls for 5 sets of 4, 5, 4, 4, and at least 5, but I did 10. Easy enough.

Then I decided I might as well be doing sit ups at the same time. Can't hurt to strengthen the abs too! Well, I can't do the full sit ups, but I'll do crunches for the first round and then maybe try to do the full sit ups later. So I started with the same sets as the push ups challenge, for Week 1, Day 3, so I'm on the same schedule. I was able to do 20 crunches for the last set, for a total of 37 crunches.

C25K - Week 3, Day 2

10/30/08 Thursday

Well, I made it, but barely. I was able to run the full amount of time, although I really wanted to quit early the last 3 minutes of running. My legs hurt (thighs) and it was hard to breath. It was windy, so the way back was harder running against the wind. Plus I had mowed the lawn yesterday, so that’s about 60 minutes of walking fairly quickly behind the mower. Maybe my legs weren’t able to rest enough.

I thought I was good to go after I was done running, but as I was walking back, I started feeling terrible. Usually, that’s the best part – I’m done running and can just enjoy the feeling of accomplishment and being outside. Today was an unusually warm day for the end of October – it was close to 70! I was thrilled to be running in just a tank top! I should have put shorts on, but didn’t realize that it was that warm, so I wore my long pants. It was a lovely day to be outside!

But anyways, the side of my abdomen started hurting really bad and I just wanted to curl up on the side of the road, but managed to make it home. Usually I stretch on the front steps when I get back, but I couldn’t today. I just went in and kicked my shoes off and collapsed on the bed. It hurt so much! I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but I was curled up in pain for about 5 or 10 minutes and then it calmed down to a tolerable ache, and so went the second day of week 3.

Push ups – Week 1, Day 2

I did 22 push ups today! The plan calls for 5 sets again: 3, 4, 2, 3 and then at least 4, I did 10. It says to rest for 90 seconds in between, but again, that’s too long, so I just rested however long I felt I had to, but did rest the full 90 seconds before the last set. It was still easy enough, but I noticed after last time that my arms and chest were sore from push ups, so it’s working anyways!

C25K - Week 3, Day 1

Wowza! I ran for 3 minutes straight today! The plan for this week is to run for 1 ½ minutes, walk for 1 ½ minutes, run for 3 minutes, walk for 3 minutes, and repeat. So it’s a total of 9 minutes of running. The first 3 minutes went by quickly, I was thinking later that maybe I only ran for 2 minutes, but in the end, I think it was 3. It’s hard to keep track with a watch that’s not digital, because you have to remember how many times the second hand has gone around. I for sure did the whole 3 minutes the second time though. It seemed long, but it’s weird, it didn’t seem to be harder than running 1 ½ minutes, just the same level of difficulty stretched out longer, if that makes any sense…

I’ve been walking to the end of our road, about 5 minutes, and then I start the intervals of running and walking. There is a nice paved trail that is 2 miles long across from our road. When I am halfway through the intervals (about 10 minutes), I turn around and come back to the start of the trail, and then walk the rest of the way home, another 5 minutes or so. That’s why I think that I did run the whole 3 minutes the first time, because I turned around halfway through as usual, and made it almost back to the beginning by the time I was done with the intervals.

It’s easy to see if my distance increases or not by going the same route. Today was a little shorter than the last couple weeks, but this week there is only 18 minutes of intervals, while there was 20 minutes the first 2 weeks.

It was chilly out there today. I needed my hat and gloves the whole time. It was nice and sunny though, and not windy. Can’t complain about the crisp fall air! Feels great to get out there and enjoy it! It helps to always try to think about how I feel when I’m done, and not while I’m out there running.

Push ups!

10/27/08 Monday

I started another challenge today! It’s called the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge. I’m going to do this on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the days that I’m not doing the Couch to 5K challenge. I tried to do regular push ups, but I’m not even able to do one (how pathetic is that??), so I’m going to do this challenge by doing the push ups on my knees, girly push ups… ☺ When I get to the one hundred push ups mark (should be in 6 weeks!), then maybe I’ll start over by doing them the real way.

So, today I started at level 1 and did 5 reps: first 2 push ups, then 3, then 2, then 2 more, and then for the last set, you’re supposed to do as many as you can, so I did 8. You can rest for 60 seconds in between. It seemed really long to rest for 60 seconds, so I didn’t always rest that long. It wasn’t really hard to do these, but I’ll just follow the program and see how it goes. So far, it seems like it’ll be an easy challenge, but we’ll see how I feel about that when I’m supposed to be doing 40-50 push ups in a row! That sounds like a lot!

Week 2, Day 3

Yay! I finished Week 2 today! Seemed to still be hard, but it was a beautiful, sunny day today, so that helps. It was a little windy again out there, but I’m not sure how much harder that makes it. It was the same amount of running as the other 2 days this week.

Week 2, Day 2

Made it out for a run this afternoon. Same deal as Tuesday with 90 seconds of running and 2 minutes of walking. I'm always definitely ready to start walking again after 90 seconds of running, but am able to run all the intervals. I remembered to stretch beforehand. It was just a little chilly, but the sun was shining, so I can't complain. Wore a hat for the first half, and gloves the whole time. It's great to get out and enjoy the weather!

Week 2, Day 1

Woohoo!! I can run 90 seconds at a time! I just got back from completing Day 1 of the second week. This week's plan is to run for 90 seconds and walk for 2 minutes - a total of 6 times in 20 minutes. That equals 9 whole minutes of running! It was around 50 degrees today when I went after the sun had already set. I was pretty chilly when I was walking, but warmed up as I ran.

It really didn't seem to be any harder than last week, so I'm game to keep running! I feel great when I'm done, so it's worth the pain while I run. My legs have been able to handle the running just fine - they have been just a tiny bit sore, but I've been remembering to stretch good after. I seem to always forget to stretch before - I guess I'm just so excited to get out there and run! :) It's a bit harder on my lungs though, I don't think I'm able to keep up a conversation when I run, because I'm breathing too hard. I am able to recover during the walking periods though, just in time to start running again.

Week 1 is Done!!

DH came with me today for Day 3 - He was the timekeeper. It was nice to be able to just run and not have to watch the clock. Seemed to be just as hard as the other 2 days, but today was really windy. It's another beautiful sunny day, feels great to be out there exercising!

Went about the same distance, same amount of running as the other 2 days.

Week 1, Day 2!

Day 2 is done! :) It felt about the same as Day 1, just as hard, but I did it again! I feel great when I'm done - glad that I did another hard workout. It also feels good to get out in the fresh, cool, fall air and sunshine! It's been around 55 degrees this week, I think summer is over...

I've been timing the intervals with just my regular watch - would be nice to have an iPod or something like that, so I wouldn't have to pay so much attention to the watch. I went about the same distance as last time, same eight 60 second intervals of running with 90 seconds of walking in between.

Week 1, Day 1

I DID IT!!!!! I started the Couch to 5K program today! I never thought I’d be able to run the full amount, but I did! And I lived to tell about it!! It was tough, and I probably ran pretty slowly, but I ran all 8 intervals of 60 seconds each with 90 seconds of walking in between. I went a total distance of 3.65 km.

I read about this program on www.coolrunning.com and decided that I wanted to try it out – not because I want to be a regular runner, but because I figured a person should be in shape enough to be able to run for more than 60 seconds at a time. That’s all I was able to do last week! In 9 weeks, I will (hopefully) be running for 30 minutes straight! I know, I don’t believe it either, but I’m hoping I can prove to myself that I can!

So, I’m starting this blog, just as a way to keep track of my progress. Feel free to join me! Or let me know how your C25K training went if you’ve already done that. Or just leave me some comments/encouragement/tips/whatever!