Week 1 ended on a low note. I wasn't sure I could do Week 2. In fact, I thought I was going backwards. Then I came down with a heavy cold. Never mind! I'd like to say that were it not for the many encouraging comments on my last blog I would have thrown in the towel. That isn't quite true, but they did persuade me to push on to Week 2 rather than repeating Week 1. So with smhall's words ringing in my ears ("I apologize if this sounded like a lecture...but quite frankly, you needed one!!!") I ventured out...
One problem I had all last week was underperforming on the first run. I guess this is because of insufficient warm-up, so I doubled the walk, added some hills, and really took "brisk" literally. I could really feel the difference as I began my first interval... and promptly failed it by a whopping 25 seconds! My heart sank. I had been right, and all my well wishers had been wrong. Well, I thought, if I'm going down, I'll at least go down spectacularly, in a ball of flame. There'll be no backing down now. And a funny thing happened: I completed all five of the next 90s intervals.
Yes, I slowed my pace down to the slowest I could reasonably call running. One foot was always off the ground, but I felt more like an actor, giving the audience the sense of running in the knowledge that Stage Left was only an arm's length away. But I completed the time, and added distance on the previous week. I was exhausted coming back, but honestly no more so than W1R1, and I maintained a fast walking pace home.
Even the failed first run was still 65 seconds, up from 50 seconds the previous run. I just seem to have an issue with the warm-up: unless I've actually *run* it seems that I'm not warmed up. I'm going to keep my new warm-up time and route, but I'm not going to try to add to it again. Provided all my intervals are improving, I don't think it really matters if the first one goes for less time. Maybe if a 3 or 5 minuter drops to 1:30 and I only have 3 or 4 intervals in a session I will consider it a practice and repeat it, but I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.
One thing a commenter picked up on was my commitment to stick with the program for "at least 2 months", rather than, say, the 9 weeks actually written into the program. When I wrote that I was really thinking how long could I stand to keep re-doing a given week and not making any progress - I thought 8 times was a lot! Of course i would keep going so long as I was making progress; that went without saying. But now I will go one better: I'm going to run three times a week for as long as I'm able. It's going to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary program. And if for some mad reason I can never advance past Week 2 of C25k, so be it.
I also think it's good to have goals, so let me list mine, from the immediate to the speculative:
1. Complete the program (ie. jog for 30 minutes)
2. Run 5k in 30 minutes
3. Run 5k in under 25 minutes
I'm a young guy, not fat, just bearing the brunt of years of being sedentary, focused on education and work. These, I feel, are reasonable goals. I would like to complete the program roughly on schedule, and pencil in 3. for this time next year. Of course, that is just a wild guess. It could take less time than that, or much more. But it's something to aim for.
And thanks again to everyone who commented!
Week 3 run 1 - A little disappointed
W2R1. Against all Odds (and Stan)
W2R1 - did not go so well
Wk 9 Completed Ye Ha !
After much scepticism I managed w4 R1 + a little extra. Keep the faith people!
