Oh, what the hell. I’ll preface this by saying I don’t have any interest in becomming a “runner,” per se (and I have generally always hated running). However, I am just shy of five months into the first serious effort in my life to lose weight, and I’m down 30 pounds (officially as of yesterday, woot!). And as my wife will attest to, I’ve been a little obsessive about looking at the scale every day — I need something else to focus on.
For the past three years or so, I’ve been playing tennis on a regular basis, and I’ve noticed in the last couple of months a fairly significant improvement in my stamina. In other words, I am spending far less time bent over or kneeling on the ground gasping for air, even after a couple of hours of playing. I mentioned this to my wife last night while I was on the treadmill, and she suggested that I might be interested in giving the Couch to 5K a shot. And the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of having a different goal other than just weight loss. I have never in my life imagined I’d ever have the stamina to do anything but the shortest distances (I struggled even running a mile way back in high school), so I would be really, really pleased if I somehow managed to pull this off.
So I’ve looked over the most recent related thread, and I’m planning to download an app and start tonight. I’m probably picking a poor day to start because I’ve got some travel planned in the next week, but the hotels probably have treadmills, too. If I wait to start, I probably won’t do it, so wish me luck.
And, as I understand is the custom around here, I invite you to please join me if you’re interested!
Good luck! I restarted the program this spring, after failing at it a couple years ago. Since I’ve been back in construction my stamina is much better. I actually had little trouble sticking with it this time and shocked myself by running 3 miles in week 6. I just felt like I had more in me and went for it. I topped out a couple weeks later at 4 miles, then life started to get in the way. I’m just about to start running again tomorrow after a 2 week break.
About five years ago I took up running as part of my effort to lose weight, but had no intention of becoming a “runner”. By the time I lost 50 lbs I started running a few 5Ks, and was able to run 6 miles. When I hit that point someone said “If you can run 6 you can run a half-marathon.” One thing led to another and I completed my first ultramarathon this summer. So be careful what you start.
Set aside time every day for exercise. Some will be running, some run/walk, some time in the gym, or tennis. I found that doing it first thing in the morning is better since there’s always the temptation to procrastinate at the end of the day. Have fun with it, you’re doing good.
Congratulations for taking that first step! I’m pulling for all of you who are trying this out.
I, too, was convinced that I wouldn’t enjoy running (and also strongly suspected that my knees wouldn’t endure it). I started with C25K three and a half years ago – while I didn’t need to drop a lot of weight, I did want to improve my overall fitness (I have Type 2 diabetes, and exercise can help with managing the disease).
While it took me longer to get up to 5K of running than the program suggests, I did pull it off, and fell in love with running in the process. I ran in my first 5K race in March of 2011. Since then, I’ve run a half-marathon, as well as about 25 5K to 15K races. My diabetes is now well under control – my endocrinologist says, “whatever you’re doing, don’t stop!” I’ve lost 15 pounds, and am now in better shape than I’ve ever been in.
For me, a big part of making it work is fellowship and accountability – I have a running partner who keeps me honest, encourages me when I run, and gently chides me when I get lazy (I do the same for her).
Congratulations! I just started running again myself. While I wouldn’t mind dropping a few pounds, I did it to reinforce my not smoking.
I used to run extensively, but that was 25 lbs, 7 years and countless cigarettes ago. I’m only doing 2-3 miles at a time now, and slow as hell. But it definitely feels good to be doing something!
Congrats again, and let’s keep each other invested!
Good luck, and congrats on the weight loss! I started C25K almost exactly 3 years ago. I hated running and couldn’t run more than about 1 minute. I am happy to say that I am still running 3x/week and am currently training for my second half-marathon.
I’m slow as molasses and I still don’t love running, but it’s become a good habit. I feel like something’s missing if I go more than three or four days without running.
One tip I have is to try to run slowly at first. I used the podrunner podcast, where you run along to the music. I found it much easier to increase my distance when I was running slowly. Eventually I got faster, although I am still comparatively slow and probably always will be.
Doing C25K was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. I also struggled to run a mile in high school and had decided that I just wasn’t built for running. I felt so proud of myself when I finished the program, though.
I did the program 3 or 4 or years… or wow, maybe even longer ago and felt really proud of myself when I finished. But running never became a habit. Still, since I encouraged Asimovian to do it, I figured I should give it another try. I’ve been fighting knee tendinitis, though, so we’ll see how it goes. I did W1/D1 a few minutes ago. Whew!
Speaking more specifically about speed, though, do people have any thoughts about targets? I’m using a treadmill, as opposed to the grand-and-scary outdoors, so I have some liberty about nailing down a specific speed. For my first night, I did the warm up walk at 2.0mph, the brisk walk at 3.5mph, and the run at 4.5mph. I was breathing harder at times during the run, and I managed to work up a good sweat, but I wasn’t dying.
Set the treadmill to 1% incline, that will better simulate running outside. Don’t worry about a specific speed, it should be comfortable but at an effort you can feel which it appears you’re found.
The whole point of C25K is to establish(safely) the habit of exercising. If you want to ramp up the effort and work hard, you can do that later. You will also be in better shape to handle the harder effort.
I did C25K earlier this year. I was 32 at the time and hadn’t really exercised in quite awhile. I was able to skip some of the early steps and some of the repeats later on to keep challenging myself, but a time or two I probably repeated a day to take it easy…but all in all I reached my goal of running 5k sooner than expected. I was really impressed that it worked as well as it did – when you get partway through the program, running for 5 or 10 minutes at a stretch seems like a real challenge, but soon 30 minutes non-stop is no big deal.
My biggest issue was when I was done, I felt like I was just running 5k a few times a week over and over and it wasn’t as much fun as working toward a goal. So I might suggest immediately working on a 10k plan when you complete the C25K, or thinking about a half marathon down the road…whatever it takes to keep you motivated and working toward a goal.
Or you might be happy running 5k a few times a week, which is definitely a good thing. But in any case, the program is a great way to push yourself and reach a goal that might be really hard to do otherwise. Good luck!
Right now, don’t even think about speed. You should be concentrating on how many minutes you can run without taking a break - speed and distance is secondary. Just remember that you’re passing every person who’s lying on the couch.
Treadmills are great for getting started, and for days with nasty weather. But I’d really recommend getting outside and running for real. It’s a bit scary at first, and it feels like everyone is staring at you, but that goes away pretty quickly. Distance on the ground feels very different than distance on the dreadmill, and it engages your brain and body in a different way. Movement through space is more than just exercise, it’s the journey.
jsgoddess mentioned the 1% thing to me last night, and I did that. I will just use that setting for all of my treadmill work.
Understood, and I’m not all that self-conscious about it, but the times I am free to exercise are not times that I generally want to be running around my neighborhood. What you say makes sense, but again, this is a very goal-oriented activity for me (at least for now) rather than an intent to turn running into a habit. Should I change my mind about that (and I have certainly changed my mind about other things during this journey), I will need to revisit finding a way to get outside comfortably.
When you do start running outside try to avoid running purely on asphalt. Can be hard on the knees for beginners. It was for me at least. Any dirt road is good.
That sounds about right based on my experience, or you could consider slowing down just a bit. In the beginning I ran at a comfortable pace. Nowadays I push my speed more because I like improving, but when I first started my runs were much better when I ran reeeeally slooooowly. I run outside so I don’t know the exact speed I was running at. I ran my first 5k, just after finishing C25k, at about 5.5mph, and I was considerably faster then compared to when I started.
I’m using the same motivation. I had finished with week 9 (NHS C25K on iTunes) a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been logging my runs on facebook, and telling people my goal of doing a triathlon next summer.
I hope people start giving me shit if I start to slack off.
