Finished week 3. I’m coping okay, but it’s a bit daunting to think that in just 2 weeks time I’ll be doing a 20 minute run.
I’ve also finished week 1 of the pushups, which I’m doing on the off days.
PS - Well done Hockey Monkey!
Did you get the monitor yet?
To everyone: Great job! You’re all making excellent progress. 
25 minutes today. It just wasn’t a good run - for some reason my body and brain just weren’t on board with me today. I ended up walking a little bit, you know, “from here to that telephone pole” or whatever, and I think that was just my brain allowing me to puss out. I don’t think I walked for more than 3 minutes or so, though, and I do feel like even my slowest running is getting better. I went 1.7 miles this time.
I did make it to my old high school, which is a new distance mark, and could see the field in which the gym teacher had to stay into lunch so I could finish running the goddamned mile. I think it took me something like 45 minutes then, when I was 15 and a size 0. Life is funny sometimes.
Week 7 day 1 in the bag. 25 minutes and I could have kept running. Unless someone tells me this is a horrible, terrible, no-good idea, I think I’m going to keep running next time if I can and feel like it.
By this time you’ve built enough of a base to extend yourself a little beyond a fixed schedule if you feel up to it. Just be careful, you still don’t want to pile on too much too soon.
I haven’t had any soreness or even shaky legs for a while, and my heart rate is staying low enough that it feels like I can sustain my (very slow) pace for a long time.
I am having a hard time finding time to run. I managed to run today: only 1.4. I did it in 13 minutes, though, so there is that. I did a 9:1, then a 4:1. I probably could have gone longer (probably should have).
In a weird way, I felt like this was only my warm up to really running, but I stopped anyway. I have a horrid sinus headache today. This week is bad for running. I am shooting for Wednesday (day off). I am seriously overtired; I may be coming down with something. My sleep cycle is all whacked due to my erratic work schedule.
I don’t mean these to be excuses. I’m keeping at it, but find that so far, I can’t just run MWF or similar. C’est la vie.
I look back at all the progress we’ve made and it makes me feel good. Well done, everyone!
All 211 pounds of me just ran 20 minutes. 4.8 mph was my happy (or rather, I should say my tolerable) place today; total running distance was 1.67 miles. The last time I remember attempting to run a mile was freshman gym in high school, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t succeed.
I started grinning a little when I hit the mile mark.
Then I got back to panting and chanting and keep going keep going keep going.
I ordered the Polar RS100 from Amazon along with a few nutrition books. I got an email that they all shipped today, so I’ll probably get them Tuesday. Maybe Wednesday. Thanks for your advice. I’m looking forward to running tomorrow. I like the new me I’m becoming.
Hockey Monkey; great choice!
Week 7 day 1 is done. God there’s a lot of running this week, huh?
jsgoddess, like you, I feel like I didn’t have to stop after 25 minutes. It’s not that I still feel good after 25 minutes of running. No, I feel awful. But I feel awful after 10 minutes of running, and it doesn’t really get any worse after 25. And it does seem that I could keep on going to 30 or even 40 minutes and still maintain the same level of bearable awful. But I don’t, because awful is still awful, and the sooner it’s over the better.
Then I went and watched the NYC Marathon. Just think - next year, that’ll be all of us!
A couple of minutes into today’s run, I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to finish.
I just kept tricking myself into finishing this one interval… okay now the next one…
I’ve run 3 days in a row to get caught up, though, and my body hasn’t appreciated it one bit. I’m back on schedule now, so no more running for me until Wednesday, thankyouverymuch!
I started Week 6 tonight. Not easy, but not that bad. If it was easy everyone would do it right? I used my new heart rate monitor tonight and it said I burned 435 calories. Woooo! I think it’s pretty accurate too (not all of those were on the dreadmill, I hopped on the recumbent bike after the run). Now I still have just over 1000 calories to eat for the day and it’s nearly 10pm! Oh well, I guess I have to eat 2 hamburgers. Darn!
Tried to do week 5 day 1 yesterday… didn’t quite get it done. So I tried again today. Made it through, although I had to do most of the last 5 min at 5.4 instead of 5.6.
Two 8 minute runs on day 2 is not looking very likely. If I don’t I’ll just do my usual and keep doing it over and over until I get through it.
I’ve been out of town for a while and didn’t run for about a week. So I re-did wk5d1 last night to get back on track, but I am going to skip to the 20 minute run either today or tomorrow just to see if I can do it.
Also, I am finally noticing a size difference! I can fit into my pre-summer pants again, and while I have just a tiny bit more before they are perfect, it’s still a great encouragement to keep going!
Good luck everyone!
I did week 7 day 1 today, sort of. I decided to just map out a 2 mile course, which is shorter than the prescribed distance but much longer for me than the time. It took me 30 minutes.
The thing is, ever since I ran that “run 20 minutes” watershed day, I haven’t been able to force myself to keep running and not next-telephone-pole walk. I ran steadily the first half (planned it to go by my old high school to point and laugh at the athletic field of all my adolescent tribulations) but kept dropping to a walk after that. It’s mental, I know - what I don’t know is how to fix it. It’s a good thing I’ll have an extra month after the official program before my 5K, because right now there’s no way I could go the distance.
It was funny - as I passed the high school I kept hearing this enormous racket - election-related riot? Brawl? I got closer and realized I just haven’t heard a few hundred teenagers congregating on the steps of a building in a long time.
ETA - when I say 30 minutes, I’m not including the ten minute walking before and after. So 40 total.
Try running a different route strictly by time, no measuring the distance. You’ve formed a habit of stopping at a certain point and now your body(mind) gets to that point and says “stop now” and you “feel a need” to stop.
As far as the race goes, you do have plenty of time plus when you get in that crowd it will pull you along.
Stay tough.
I’ve been running by time, not distance, until today.
ETA - actually, I’ve not even been running by time, I’ve been running by songs. So last time, I knew I was supposed to turn around halfway through “A Little Less Conversation”. I try not to even know how long I have left.
Same thing, you’ve set a point. Try a different set of songs or no music at all. (I’m old school, I never ran with music. )
Set your watch… put playlist on shuffle. Run until you run the time you said you would. 
Easy for me because I just look at the big chronometers next to the track.