C25K – Page 2 – A Measured Life

C25K Week 7 & Running Belt Update

NOTE: I’m writing this entire blog from a comfy armchair at my local Panera Bread where I’m enjoying a delicious mango iced tea and a FREE chocolate pastry. Mmm. Okay, yes, eating a chocolate pastry isn’t very measured, but it was free. FREE I TELL YOU.

Image Courtesy of http://weight.sdghealth.com/couch_to_5k_weight_loss_success_stories.html

What can I say about Week 7? Yeaaaah. Week 7 of the C25K app is 3 days of solid 25 minute runs. No intervals. A little intimidating, no? Yes and no.

W7D1 – 7 am run. I had planned a route around the nearby neighborhood that would minimize the hills. I did a little mapping and managed to find a route with only a 50 foot gain. I live on the top of a hill (the neighborhood next door is actually named Hilltop) so no matter which direction I run there’s going to be some hills, so I planned around the really steep climbs. This was a success. The first half was definitely the harder half, but once the “You are halfway!” prompt sounded in my ears I relaxed and smiled and kept going. At the one minute remaining mark I worked on lengthening my stride to finish up. I finished feeling good and proud!

W7D2 – 2 PM run. 90 degrees and sunny. PMS. Stomach felt oddly full. Still, I’d promised Josh I’d run, and I’d stopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods the night before to use my gift card to purchase a Frogg Toggs Chilly Pad to stave off the heat stroke, plus a nifty (you heard me, NIFTY) headband to keep my hair from looking like I stuck my finger in an electric socket. So at this point, despite having a bad feeling about it, off we went to run. I planned a route around town to again avoid the hills, and I made it about 14 minutes into the run before my stomach started to rebel. Now I’m stubborn. I will push myself if I want to. But nothing, NOTHING, is worth vomiting over. So I stopped and walked a bit. Josh continued. I jogged off and on until the end of the timer before heading back to work, and I don’t think I’ve ever sweat that much in my entire life. It was like I’d just gotten out of the pool. For serious! After much discussion Josh and I decided to move our joint run to Friday nights at 5 instead of the hottest part of the day.

This is my queasy face. Why yes, he IS sitting on my lap. — This is my queasy face.

W7D3 – 7 am again. Ridiculously humid, but pleasant. Same route as D1, but this time, I used the Map My Run app so I could pace myself and see how fast I was actually going. I averaged 11:30 per mile, which I was pleased with! It puts me right in line to finish a 5k in 35 minutes. I’ve been e-mailing my friend Christina (remember her?) because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with myself once this training program was over, and she gave me a few suggestions, and I’ve decided I’m going to work on speed! Maybe by the time my official real 5K comes along in the fall I could do it in 30 minutes!

Running Belt Update: I took the belt in about 2 more inches, and MAN does it work better now! I still need to slide my phone around to rest on a hip to minimize the bounce, but it’s working great.

Lastly, I forgot to mention in my post about social anxiety and the Adventure Run that I won a prize that night: free registration to a 5K Mud Run! How perfect but also terrifying! (Do you know how EXPENSIVE those things are? I mean, I am totally aware of the strange irony that you’re paying a ridiculously high fee to basically torture yourself for an hour and get so dirty you need to burn your clothes.) So I got an awesome friend to join me and hopefully I will have tons of pics of me looking like Swamp Thing’s mistress to share with you!

Next week is the final week of the C25K App. D1 and D2 are 28 minutes, and D3 is 30 minutes solid. I’m not terribly worried about any of them except for the evening run, because I always seem to run worse in the afternoons/evenings. I genuinely prefer running on a mostly empty stomach.

Anyhoo, I’m wrapping it up here as my butt is going numb (note to self: more Donkey Kicks). Tchau!

C25K Week 6 and a Running Craft Project

Can you believe there are only two weeks left of the Couch to 5K program??? I’ve definitely surprised myself here. I CAN do this, I AM a runner!

W6D1

So after freaking out about running 20 minutes straight last week, the app dropped me back down for W6D1, which was Run 5 minutes, Walk for 3, Run 8 minutes, Walk for 3, Run 5 minutes. The weather was cool and damp, and after running 20 minutes solid the week before, I decided to head on my western path and take on the hills. Not much of an issue.

W6D2

Since I repeated a day last week with Josh, this week I ran W6D2 with him. The weather was MUCH cooler than it had been the previous week, so our Run 10 minutes, Walk 3 minutes, Run 10 minutes intervals were far easier to take. We went the opposite direction than we had previously as well, choosing to run down the long, shallow hill and up the steeper, shorter hill. This, I believe, worked to our advantage! We decided to take our selfie in front of a pretty Victorian home near work.

W6D3

For some reason I was under the impression that his was 22 1/2 minutes, but it was a flat 22 minutes solid run. I was less worried about this run than I had been about the previous week’s 20 minute run, and I was right to be less worried. I did, however, plan the hills around my neighborhood so I didn’t hit any really long ones. As I experienced on the previous longer run, the first half was harder: once I heard the words “You are halfway!” I got a renewed sense of energy. When I got the finally 1-minute warning, I worked on lengthening my stride to maybe gain a bit more distance. I finished the 22 minutes just as I was going to have to begin to climb a hill again, which worked out perfectly! I was so sweaty my pants felt like they were sticking to my skin and needed to be peeled off!

Week 7 is all 25 minutes solid runs. The only one I’m worried about is the one I’ll do with Josh, because it will be 2 pm and 90 degrees. I think I’ll wrap a damp towel around my neck and definitely bring water.

Now, I’ve been using an athletic headband to strap my phone to my arm. This is bad for 3 reasons: one, it cuts off my circulation, two, it gets my phone all sweaty, and three, it makes it hard to check the time or change the song. So I’ve been researching other ways to carry my phone without dropping a ton of cash. I came across the FlipBelt, perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve also noticed they want almost $30 for those things. But Pinterest has a wealth of information on how to make your own! Now, this is me we’re talking about, so I don’t need anything with fancy contrast edging or a zipper. I just need something functional. So I decided I would sew my own! I haven’t started yet, but I did buy some neon watermelon colored Lycra at Joann’s for less than $2, which should make me not one but TWO belts. I also nabbed some stretch needles. I’m going to try to get the belt done before my Adventure Run on Thursday night, wish me luck!

The Original FlipBelt.
https://flipbelt.com/

IMG_20150608_181732864 — The color isn’t right in the photo, it’s definitely more of a watermelon color than pink!

C25K Weeks 4 & 5

When we last left our running heroine, she was curious about what foods are good to eat before running. The general consensus all around was banana: easy to digest and easy on the stomach for a quick burst of energy. This turned out to be a fabulous success. Unfortunately I also developed an “injury”. When I’m barefoot or in cheap flipflops (my two favorite types of footwear) there’s a clicking sensation inside the ball of my left foot. A little Googling (yes, yes, I know, never research your health on the internet) suggested I could possibly have a Morton’s Neuroma. From http://www.foothealthfacts.org/ :

A neuroma is a thickening of nerve tissue that may develop in various parts of the body. The most common neuroma in the foot is a Morton’s neuroma, which occurs between the third and fourth toes. It is sometimes referred to as an intermetatarsal neuroma. “Intermetatarsal” describes its location in the ball of the foot between the metatarsal bones. Neuromas may also occur in other locations in the foot.

Tingling, burning, or numbness

Pain

A feeling that something is inside the ball of the foot

A feeling that there’s something in the shoe or a sock is bunched up

It definitely felt like there was a rock in my shoe, or like I was walking on a tiny piece of bubble wrap that would POP and refill. So I took a few days off from running, and ordered a pair of inserts for my running shoes. And during my hiatus? I found I missed running. More than I miss yoga now that I’m not doing it. So after the delivery of my inserts, I got back on the saddle, and my foot is improving, especially since I’m not wearing crappy flipflops anymore! So here’s the recap:

W4D1 – Run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 2.5 min, run 3 min, walk 90 secs, run 5 min. Not much trouble here. I was out and about around 7 am.

W4D2 – Run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 2.5 min, run 3 min, walk 90 secs, run 5 min. About the same as D1, not much trouble.

W4D3 – Run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 2.5 min, run 3 min, walk 90 secs, run 5 min. *sigh* Josh and I run together on Saturdays, and it’s always in the afternoons. This works against me. It wasn’t terribly hot, and it was far less hilly than where I usually run, but I struggled with my breathing. It felt like a chore. I ate a protein bar about an hour before the run, but it was almost 4 pm, and I’d eaten 2 meals plus snacks by then, and worked half a day. This is apparently not good for me. I felt a wee bit nauseous towards the end, but I made it through.

IMG_20150523_162052237_HDR — Not our most badass pic. Don’t judge!

W5D1 – Run 5 min, walk 3 min, run 5 min, walk 3 min, run 5 min. I don’t remember this run, so I’m assuming it went fine.

W5D2 – Run 8 min or 3/4 mile, walk 5 min or 1/2 mile, run 8 min or 3/4 mile. Okay C25K, way to ramp it up. Jerkface. I was nervous about this one. I played music. Jay Z, Rihanna and Kanye saved me with “Run This Town”, which came on near the end of my second 8 minute run. “Victory’s within the mile, almost there don’t give up now.”

For my run with Josh, we repeated W5D2, because W5D3 was a solid 20 minute run. Again, afternoons are NOT my time, and it was 85 degrees and very sunny. I had to walk a minute of the second 8 minute stint, and MAN was I sweaty!

Look at Josh looking all suave while I look like I belong in a 90s Budweiser commercial.

It felt so good standing in front of a fan this sweaty!

Totally treated myself to a giant iced coffee with skim milk after that!

W5D3 – RUN FOR 20 FREAKING MINUTES. I admit, I was pretty nervous after not being able to complete my second 8 minute run with Josh. How could I possibly run 20 minutes all at once if I couldn’t run 16 minutes in 2 segments? It was misting when I started, and I cranked up my music and just decided to go for it. I chose to go east from my apartment, which had a smaller elevation change than west. By the time I heard the apps voice telling me I was halfway there, I just smiled and kept going. I made it! Yes, the mental game was hard in the first half, but once I was halfway done the second half was easier. By the time I was done it was raining lightly but it felt SO GOOD.

I think I really look like my mom in this photo. I swear I'm not angry! — I think I really look like my mom in this photo. I swear I’m not angry!

Looking forward to Week 6! The good news is W6D3 is a 22.5 min run, but that will be a solo day, and I’ll have shorter stints with my co-run with Josh, since I won’t be able to convince him to run in the morning.

Did you surprise yourself this week with anything you thought you couldn’t do? Let me know in the comments!

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