Thank you, fisha. Don’t believe the hype - Mom and I ran yesterday when it was about 42 and windy, and we sucked. I mean SUCKED. That “both keep running out of pride and shame” thing totally broke down.
I keep trying to convince her that what she REALLY needs to do at age 67 is run a marathon. I’ve lent her a really inspirational documentary about it, but with my luck it’ll just inspire her to make signs that say “Go Zsofia Go!”
So consensus is; cotton sucks, don’t be a cheapskate on the fabrics (wahhh!) and use layers. I’m going to try for Friday with layers (they’ll still be cotton though. If I can run in the 30s, I figure I don’t have any excuse for going on subsequent runs.
And fisha, I have noticed that once you get down to a certain point (about 5 to 10 lbs above your target weight, for me), it’s extremely difficult to lose more. You’re probably to the point where muscle toning is going on. On the plus side, since you’ve got those fat-burning enzymes going, gaining weight is going to be pretty hard for you to do, too.
If you have a Target nearby, they have very good quality and prices…
Or get thee to a TJMaxx or Marshall’s or Value City–they ALL sell athletic stuff for cheap. Look for Gortex or Cool Max.
I had a completely suck ass run this morning. I barely managed 5:1s and I did a 2:1. Blech. I know what it is, but hesitate to share it with you all. Suffice to say my digestive system is not my friend. I’ve also noticed a pattern in that I tend to alternate sucky runs with good ones, so perhaps this is just the way I roll. Whatever. I only did 1.4 again (see digestive system). I am going to do 1.9 on Saturday, even if I have to walk the whole way. Ha!
Also, my left foot is my bad foot (bone spur), but now I’m having pain in the medial (inner) aspect of my right knee. :rolleyes:
Two possible causes: crown of the road or you’re favoring your bad foot and putting extra pressure on your right leg.
I may be stressing it, but that’s the leg with the HUGE (and I do mean huge) honking varicose vein, so I tend to NOT stress it because if I do, then my left foot feels better, but my whole right leg aches from the vein. It’s worse when I climb stairs. It just started and seems to be better now after my run (did I run the kinks out?) so we’ll see.
Isn’t middle age fun? (insurance won’t cover my having surgery on the right leg, so I wear support hose when I work because I tend to stand a lot at work). My podiatrist refuses to do surgery on my left foot, so here I am.
The camber of the road is interesting–mine is a one way lane (no sidewalks). The golf course across the street, having no interest in salt run-off and a major tax payer had the road laid so that the entire thing tilts towards our side. I tend to not run on the house side because of this (it’s uneven for even walking). I tend to run on the golf course side, but there probably still some unevenness.
Aren’t you glad you asked? 
Woohoo! W3d2 is done! Today was rough. I’m starting to get the impression that every day will be rough. How depressing. I know that part of my problem today was that I increased the incline. I had started this whole shebang with no incline. Last Wednesday, I decided that I should probably have my treadmill routine mimic regular walking/running a little more, so I bumped it up to .5 (actually, I bumped it up to 1, but after almost falling off of the treadmill, I put it down to .5). Today, I set it at 1. Eventually, I’ll move it to 1.5 and probably leave it there. I vaguely remember that having it around 1.5 most closely mimicked flat road.
I learned an important lesson while running today. Keep my eyes opened. I like to close my eyes when I exercise because it makes it easier to imagine I’m doing just about anything else. I tried that a couple of times today and each time I came closer than I’d like to the end of the treadmill.
I made the mistake of peeking at week four. It looks like the opposite of fun. I’m going to start telling myself now that if I can run three minutes, then I can run five. The decrease in walking times bums me out though. How bad is it?
Yeah, they have all this Champion stuff now that’s pretty decent.
From week 3 to week 4 was probably the hardest transition for me. I had to repeat week 3, and even then week 4 wasn’t a walk in the park. Then again, like you, none of them are really a walk in the park for me. I haven’t got the “running is fun, whee!” mentality down, but I’m grateful I am at least sticking with it and dragging myself out even when I can’t completely finish.
So just go into it open-minded, but if you have to repeat a couple of days, don’t worry! You’ll get it eventually.
I got a new incentive for running this week. Next week, I’m going to do a short trip to NYC.
What started as a weekend by myself in the city has changed… Now I want to look my best. 
Especially since they’ve asked me if I’m taking a swimsuit with me! :eek:
<<bump>> What? Did everyone give up? Or is everyone done and I’m just a slacker. I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been stuck on week 5 day 3 for the last 3 weeks. That 20 minutes is/was a killer. But I’m bumping to say I finally freakin’ did it!! (Ok, I cheated once taking a 15 second break for a drink of water, but I’m still calling it mission accomplished).
So how you all doing?
I cut my run short yesterday because I just couldn’t get into it, and then I found myself locked out of the house after I told my boyfriend ten times “do not lock the door”. Just haven’t been doing very well lately. I’m starting to feel like I’m not making any progress anymore.
Like I said, I’m doing week 9 for the… somewhat week (I’ve finished the program). I’m going to keep it, especially since I have some motivation (see post above).
What week are you in, Zsofia?
Technically week 8, but I’ve completely failed to ever run 28 minutes with no walking. I’ve kind of devolved into “do the best I can on my own and then run with my mom once a week” - she’s about a week behind.
I’m still here. I’m trying out different things to see if I can relieve some of my foot issues without either stopping running or getting surgery.
I finished out week three today. I probably shouldn’t have done it. I’m getting into this weird all-I-want-to-do-is-sleep phase that I get before I get sick. Yesterday I had two naps, one lasting an hour and one lasting three hours, went to bed at 8:30 and still felt like a zombie when my alarm went off this morning. Anywho, I dragged my butt down to the exercise room today and did w3d3.
I started listening to the podcast, which was a first, but couldn’t stand the music, so I made an on the go play list during my walking bits. There’s a part of me that is seriously considering balancing my laptop on top of the treadmill and watching Scrubs while I run. There’s a TV and DVD player in the exercise room, but I can’t hear it over the sound of the treadmill and I need something to keep my mind off of the loathsome activity I am doing.
Today’s run wasn’t bad, I suppose. During the first three minute run, I realized that it wasn’t hard so much as entirely unenjoyable. I attribute that to the fact that I felt like vomiting for the first half of today’s treadmill time. Like I said, I probably should have skipped today. I had sipped a small amount of lukewarm water before I got on the treadmill, something I’ve done in the past with no problem, and it felt like it was sloshing about in my belly during most of the run. That sucked.
The very last minute and a half of running was absolutely horrible. I just wanted to be upstairs, in my bed, and fast asleep. I kept telling myself that stopping wouldn’t mean I was a failure, it would just mean that I was taking care of my body when it might be getting sick. Unfortunately, I didn’t believe a word of what I was saying. I pushed myself through the end of the running.
What I’ve been doing this week because the run/walk segments only total to 18 minutes is adding two minutes extra cool down walking to the end. I haven’t quite been doing it as slow as the cool down that the treadmill does on its own, but it also hasn’t been brisk. I started that a minute early today and it only lasted a minute. Then I sat on the floor, glared at the cup of water waiting for me, and thought really hard about stretching, hoping that thinking about it would be almost as good as doing it.
Today was a rough day. I have faith that next week will be better (provided I rest over the weekend). Someone please tell me that next week will be better.
Eh… Two weeks from now, next week will be better!
sorry!
I hate you a little bit right now. I hope that’s not a problem.
Finished Week 6 Day 3, the 25 minute run. I was track running again and after time was up I decided to go an extra 1+1/2 laps and so…
I managed to run a full 5k, for the first time ever!
Time was 29:53. It was the worst running conditions I’ve had so far, with some occasional drizzling rain and blustery wind. At least the wind was warm (it’s spring here!)
I’m a bit surprised that I managed to run 5k. It was this thread that got me started, so there are 2 big thanks yous:
WOO-HOO! Congrats Captain Klutz. That’s a pretty good time too. Only 3 more weeks but it seriously gets easier.