C25k Podcasts

i just found this site (not affiliated with cool running i don't think) that has all sorts of good stuff on it: testimonies, podcasts with music and direction telling you when to walk and when to run and other assorted aides.

the whole site is dedicated to the c25k program. check it out . . .

http://www.c25k.com/

My last post as a 36 year old

Tomorrow I will be 37.

I walked today. The hrm continues to fascinate me. I did the same preset program I did on the treadmill 3 days ago but had a higher average hr and burned 20 more calories somehow. And now for the stats...

Max hr: 159
Avg hr: 138
In Zone: 21:21
Duration: 30:00
Distance: 1.77
Calories: 194

I actually burned more calories walking today than I did yesterday running. But then again, the running was only 20 minutes.

I really did not want to do this today, but figure there is a high possibility that I will not do anything tomorrow so didn't want to end up taking two days off. That would be bad. So I'm proud of myself for just doing it today.

Tonight of course there will be excessive imbibing. And I'm starving and feel like EATING. Something fried or a big burger. Yummy badness! We'll see...

W2W1

FYI: I actually did this yesterday, but am just posting it now

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i stayed with Jen last night so this morning we all went out for a nice little run/walk: me, hazel, and her two small children (one 4 years old and one 3 years old). it ended up not really working very well with the kids because they were really into walking hazel. so the kids went to the park and i did my program. it went well, but it was more difficult today with the 90 seconds run instead of the 60 seconds. i really didn't have any trouble with week 1. i was able to do it all, i was just more tired.

i used my watch today so i was able to see distance, pace and speed. i actually had to make sure i was running slow enough on the run parts because when i looked i would be going as fast as 5.6 or 6.0. i'm trying to keep the run parts to 5.0 right now. the good thing about not being on the treadmill is that its easier for me to walk at a faster pace. i walked from 3.5 to 3.8.

time: 0:39:45
calories: 359
average HR: 135 bpm
maximum HR: 185 bpm
distance: 2.1 miles
walk mph: 3.5
run mph: 5.0

W3W1 - woo hoo!

I did it! I am SUCH a dork but I kind of got a little weepy after the first 3 minute run because I DID IT! :) This was the first time my legs hurt. Felt it in the shins and calves and wondering if I'll be sore tomorrow. It was the legs that struggled and not the heart, which really surprised me. I thought my big challenge with this whole deal would be the cardio, but so far so good.

It's a shorter duration - the intervals totaled up to something like 17 minutes, and I cooled down for longer than 5. Here are the stats:

Max hr: 181
Avg hr: 140
In Zone: 15:00
Duration: 27:10
Distance: 1.69
Calories: 183

So this one really feels like an accomplishment. I RAN (jogged, whatever) for a quarter of a mile!

Can't do it

Supposed to start Week 3 today and I just can't. I am wiped out and think it will do more harm than good to run tonight. Up late late last night at Antone's, worked out with Lauren today, and I'm just beat.

Strength Stuff

I work out with a trainer who also happens to be one of my best friends. Basically, she destroys me once a week and has done so since July. This isn't your garden variety strength training workout. The program needs minimally 5 days of rest in between workouts - you really do work your muscles THAT hard. I say all this in response to your idea that I should do strength more often. Now, that said, I do think I am going to do the 100 push-ups thing. That should help. Anyway, I am now sitting at my desk with my arms trembling. Good times. Wore my heart rate monitor just because I was curious. Here are the stats:

Duration: 30:07
In zone: 8:18
Avg hr: 111
Max hr: 137
Calories: 125

My heart rate actually got up more than I thought it would. There is no cardio, just machines. Now, on top of this, I am going to attempt Week 3 Workout 1 tonight. We'll see how it goes!

W1W2, Begrudgingly

Well, I finally did my workout today, although it was begrudgingly. I was busy all day today and didn't make it to the gym until about 21 minutes before closing. As a result, I wasn't able to do the warmup or cooldown. Oh well. It's probably not as important on week one. Here are my stats:

time - 20:30
calories - 127.3
distance - 1.39
max hr - 174
walk mph - 3.5
run mph - 5.0

The 11th Day

11th day of exercising consistently. I'm irritated that weight isn't falling off of me in buckets. But it IS Christmas etc. so I'll assume this will happen once things like pie and stuffing aren't tempting me at every turn. It also doesn't help that I have dinner plans with people for two weeks in a row.

Just walked today, but did what I think is a very difficult 30 minute preset program on my treadmill. Here are the stats:

Max hr: 152
Avg hr: 130
In zone: 21:15
Duration: 30:03
Distance: 1.77
Calories: 175

Not bad for a slow day. I'm about to do some pushups - Allan turned me on to this -
http://hundredpushups.com/week1.html
I'm going to maybe do it. I am being a little compulsive about the exercise thing, which I don't think is a bad thing.

There will be lots of beer drinking today and tonight - Cowboys game then a show at Antone's. Ah well. In years past I would have been eating more, drinking more, and not exercising at all.

Cannot #2

Well, I was all ready to head up to the gym when my mom and sister asked what I was doing. When I told them I was headed up to the gym, they protested quite loudly. I was still running a fever this morning.

So c25k will have to wait another day. I will do W1W2 tomorrow, W1W3 on Monday, and then move into Week 2 on Wednesday.

Thus Ends Week 2

I decided to do this one on a little incline. I did the whole deal with the incline set to 1. So not much, but I felt like I wasn't really working as hard as I needed to be but didn't think bumping up the speed was a good idea. The good news is that it really did feel like a better workout. The bad news is that it did throw my heart into it's arrhythmia dance. My hrm freaked out and just showed my heart at 00 for awhile, and I can assure you that my heart was actually beating quite rapidly. So that all just means my average heart rate, time in the zone and calories burned aren't quite right but I'm not going to try to adjust. I figure this will happen with some regularity. That said, here are the not-quite-right stats. (avg hr should be higher as well as calories burned and time in zone)

Max hr 187
Avg hr 139
In zone 21:45
Duration 30:23
Distance 1.88
Calories 195

I didn't get on the scale this morning. Mostly because I wasn't at home but whatever. It's a good thing.

I think it will be too cold tomorrow to ride my bike which bums me out, so I guess I'll just walk. Monday is going to be a challenge. I start week 3 and I work out with Lauren. Yowzers. Looks like I will run for three full minutes which seems like a very long time, but I'm sure it will be fine. I'm a pretty big fan of this program so far and I trust that if I should be able to run three minutes at once, that I will be able to.

Love the Bike

I rode my bike today. If I could get a thirty minute ride in every day I would be golden! Here are the stats:

Time: 32:42
In zone: 28:38
Avg hr: 142
Max hr: 163
Calories: 221
Rode about 6 miles

So, burned more calories (kept my heart rate up better) on the bike. I'm thinking riding is a good supplement to the couch to 5k deal. I really enjoy it too. It's hard but more bearable for me. The problem is I can't just ride out of my driveway. The street I live on isn't exactly safe for riding, so I've got to load the bike up and go somewhere and it's kind of an ordeal. Riding consistently probably won't happen until daylight savings times returns. But, as long as the weather holds out, I'll ride again Sunday and then some at the end of next week when I'm off again.

After all of my exercising yesterday, I was still up a lb and a half today. Bummer. Hoping tomorrow looks better. I'm not going to have pie for dinner tonight I think. I feel great though and I've only been focused on the exercise bit for about a week and a half. My body may not show it yet but mentally I feel really good, which is just as important.

Cannot

Although I wanted to do my second workout yesterday, it just didn't work out due to time. I thought for sure I could go today. Cannot. Not that you want to know this, but I've just spent the last 10 hours being sicker than I can remember. And yes, the throwing up, etc. My neice got it the night before last and even though we banned her from our house, I didn't think about the fact that she had been over here a few days prior. What a misreable experience. The good news is that after about 3am onward my stomach stopped hurting and I stopped throwing up. Unfortunately now, my mom has it. I hope she is okay. I know it hits older people much harder.

No working out or eating will occur today. Hopefully I'll be okay after today.

Christmas Day, W2W2

I find all this fascinating. I did the exact same thing I did the day before yesterday, but look at the stats comparison (today is on the left side):

Max hr: 172 vs. 177
Avg hr: 134 vs. 145
Distance: 1.90 miles (no change)
Calories: 184 vs. 181
In zone: 21:09 vs. 18:20

This feels like improvement, but I am kind of surprised to be able to see it like this. It's encouraging.

Running on Christmas Day before Christmas lunch was a good idea. I am pretty sure I will eat less because I am motivated/inspired. The scale helped today too - 120.2. That's the lowest I've seen in a very long while. When I started grad school in 2006 I was 116 so I am getting close to that.

Sarah got a new bike this morning so we will be going for a ride after lunch too. Should be a good fitness day.

Fairly Easy Day

I think one of the things the hrm is going to do for me is keep me honest. I just did one of the 30 minute preset programs on my treadmill that I think is relatively challenging...but the hrm seems to disagree. Here are the stats:

Max hr: 143
Avg hr: 120
Distance: 1.72 miles
Calories: 151
Total time: 30:00
In zone: 17:44

It was yelling at me again but this time because I was out of the range the other way. I need to keep researching though. I'm not sure this was a bad workout for me. I think I might like my average hr to be a little bit higher than that on days I don't run, but probably not too much higher.

Tomorrow is a run, but on Friday I'll do this other preset that kills me. Curious to see what my stats will be on that.

Now on to bake pies. Seriously. I am going to try to practice a smidgeon of self control tomorrow though. We'll see.

Merry Christmas!

W1W1

it has begun.

i finally made it to the gym tonight. and surprisingly, my mom came with me. i've been trying to get my mom to start going to the gym, with little luck. there is a ginormous baptist church within 2 minutes of my parents house. it also has a gym, so that it's members can grow both "physically and spiritually". but tonight she concented to go because she was sad i was going by myself. whatever works . . .

it wasn't too bad for the first workout. i didn't use the machines or anything because i knew my mom would want to leave after 30 minutes. not counting the warmup/cooldown i walked at 3.5 and ran at 5. it felt pretty good although i was a little tired at the end. looking forward to more! i think i will try to do more than the 3x a week prescribed by c25k. since my cardiac aptitude is so poor right now, i think it wouldn't hurt to repeat the workout once or twice more during the week. we'll see though.

i wasn't wearing my watch, but here are the basic stats:

time: 30 minutes
distance: 1.85 miles
max hr: 182

Week 2, Workout 1. That was interesting.

Okay, first of all, I did it. I didn't end up on the treadmill until almost 10:00 tonight. Didn't sleep last night, so that nixes morning run. Had lunch plans so that nixes lunch run. Left work and drove to Round Rock to pick up Sarah and her stepsister. From there to Whole Foods, from there to Allan's to pick up a plant (Christmas stuff, whatever), from there to home, where I cooked dinner for the next hour (and it was damn good). Dinner at 8:00, then dishes, then wrapped the few remaining gifts. Then sit for a second because my feet hurt from being in heels all day. And then, the run. But I digress.

So yes, that was harder. And I wore my heart rate monitor for the first time which was interesting. It kept yelling at me and I'm not completely sure why. I think it was saying - FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SLOW DOWN BEFORE YOU HAVE A HEART ATTACK WOMAN! Here are the stats, although I really don't know what any of it means yet:

Duration: 31 minutes 25 seconds
In zone: 18:20
Average heart rate: 145
Max heart rate: 177
Calories: 181
Distance: 1.90 miles

So workout 2 will be on Christmas Day, which is fine. That will keep me from drinking too much. Unless of course I run in the morning. Which I probably should. So the good thing about jogging for a minute and half and walking for two minutes is that it feels like it gets done faster because you are knocking it out in bigger chunks.

Tomorrow I will minimally do 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill, and ideally I will do a little bit of strength stuff too because I'm not working out with Lauren again until next Monday. Maybe some lunges and squats, push ups, etc. Homework is to figure out the heart rate monitor business.

Peace out.

Week 1 Done

I did Week 1 Workout 3 today so I guess I've kind of graduated. And I celebrated by cooking. Chicken and biscuits (chicken pot pie, basically), parmesan mashed potatoes, and asparagus. And of course wine. And maybe a little brownie/cookie dessert. (and yeah, it was brownie/cookie. It was cookies baked on top of a brownie. Really.) I think I may skip the scale tomorrow morning.

So it all goes right back to eating. The exercise I'm kind of digging. But I love the cook and sorry but F cooking healthy. It's no fun! So I think...I've got to seriously work on portion size. And I can cook this stuff...but I can't eat very much of it.

I've been relatively serious about this fitness thing for a week now and the scale has gone...up. What is that? I can't be eating MORE...and I've definitely been exercising more...so what gives? I probably need to not weigh every day because I know the whole water weight thing etc., but I am full on addicted to the scale. So perhaps I just need to try to keep a good perspective on the whole thing.

Meanwhile, all the cooking was really for Allan, the not boyfriend. But that's a whole other issue. Judah, it's the guy you met way back when. I refuse to let it end for some silly reason that I probably need my therapist for.

I'm hungry.

I've learned numerous times that it's 80% diet when the goal is to lose weight. And I really hate that because I really love food. So, I don't do anything unhealthy or bad to my bod but I have found that if I just stay a little bit hungry...the weight comes off.

Today I worked out an hour with my old trainer George. It was tough but satisfying. I try to do fairly intense strength training once a week. I usually work out with my friend Lauren. She does the super slow thing. We do incredibly heavy weight at a very slow pace. The point is to get to muscle failure because you build muscle mass by tearing down the muscles that way. Muscle at rest burns more calories than fat, my legs look great, etc. It is absolutely brutal but I have seen great results. I am in the best shape I've probably ever been in, yet I still have some extra weight on me...hence the Couch to 5k deal.

Tomorrow I'll do Week 1 Workout 3. It hasn't been bad but I am going so so slow. I'm not even sure what I do counts as jogging. But I read a lot and the biggest mistake beginner runners make seems to be not starting slow enough. I have taken that to heart. I may end up repeating this week. We'll see how the first Week 2 workout goes.

So, my goal is to get back to 115 lbs, which is a good weight for me. This morning I weighed in at 121.6. And no, I don't think you guys have to post your weight if you don't want to! I gained a TON of weight this summer - got up to about 130+ which is really heavy for me. I got home from 2 weeks in China HUNGRY and proceeded to eat mexican food for 2 months straight and one day my clothes didn't fit. It really was just like that. I've dropped a lot of that but have a ways to go. Hence to 5k in the spring. I think that will do it.

I ordered a heart rate monitor...very excited to get that so I can manage my arrhythmia which will make this a little more pleasant.

For the record, I hate running. I think it is too much wear and tear on the body and walking is much better for you. But the fact of the matter is that I am antsy to shed this weight and I think this is the answer.

Thus ends Clare's first post.