W2R1 - Oh, ye of little faith

[mdec]

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!

[Jeddahpm Graduate]

Brilliant! Sounds very positive. You will soon get into the flow. It's never easy but that doesn't mean it won't be wonderful. All you have to do is turn up and do your best. Like the rest of us you will then be amazed at your success. Best of Luck with your future runs

[Wybrook Graduate]

Reminds me of a Japanese proverb :

"A plan with no action is a daydream, action with no plan is a nightmare"

Sounds like you've got a plan and action, so go for it!

[greenlegs Graduate]

Encouraging to read about someone else still at the early stages and not finding it easy (I didn't manage day 2 of week 1, but I was wearing new shoes). We *will* do it!

[oona Graduate]

Good for you mdec! You've made a commitment to the programme and to yourself! Go for it - there'll always be lots of people on here supporting end encouraging you.

[shakylegs]

That is orgainsed and postive - great! Believe me you will get past week 2 - just keep focussed and don't beat yourself up when you have a not so good run.