Thanks for the tip, that definitely helps out. I’ve lost count as to how many times I’ve made my legs sore after a day of running with the mindset of “well if I can go hardcore on an elliptical, running should be no problem!” Ouch! I’ve noticed that it’s the same when my running friends try to switch to the elliptical, heh.
I’ll join you! I’ve taken to jogging occasionally over the past few years, and I remember once about 3 years ago running the better part of a mile without stopping or dying from heart failure. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter I injured myself and haven’t been able to get back into it like I was.
I actually bought myself a great pair of running shoes this January with the intention of starting up again, but they’ve sat mostly unused.
Any tips for doing this without the podcasts? I don’t have an iPod and refuse to buy one, so it’s just my trusty Sony mp3 player and a stopwatch if necessary.
This is going to sound like the stupidest question in the history of ever, but, um… does your mp3 player…uh…play mp3s? The podcasts I have been listening to, and I think the Ullrey ones also, are just mp3 downloads. They are not in a iPod proprietary format, or anything. I don’t actually have an iPod myself, just a Creative Zen media player.
Oredigger77, I can’t really say so far, since I’m only on the first day of the second week. 
But definitely, the beginning of this week was much easier than the beginning of last week! After week 1 day 1, I thought I was seriously going to keel over, or possibly have my lungs explode. Today was much, much better than that.
I don’t run with an iPod or any other type of mp3 player. When I was doing the early parts of the C25K I just counted my steps, ten groups of a certain number of steps was consistantly within a second of a minute. Once I got beyond 5 minute runs I began to lose count so then I just used my stop watch. Later on I started running a specific distance rather than time and used Google Earth and MapMyRun to measure the runs.
It’s good to see so many new runners. I’m a graduate of the previous c25k thread, and I’m still running and still improving. But my weight isn’t really dropping any further (oh well, I’m only a few kilos over).
Don’t worry if you think you’re running too slowly: it’s a lot better than trying to go too fast and hurting yourself in the process. The pace will eventually improve as you continue to run. My own pace is still steadily improving, although I’m not exactly setting the running world on fire (wow, I finished in the top 80%).
I suggest keeping a running log. I don’t bother with any of the fancy ones, I just use a spreadsheet with 3 columns: date, what I was doing (eg “week 3 day 1”, “40 min”, “7k”) and comments. Comments can be things like route, thoughts of the run, any interesting achievements etc (I even noted the first time I overtook another runner).
Happy running…
All you really need is a watch with a second hand, or a stopwatch. I’m so low-tech at the moment that I just write the intervals on my hand (J 10 MIN, W 3 MIN, for example) and go from there.
Ya that makes sense, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to which week you were on. Personally I was really surprised how easy day 2 week 1 was after how much trouble I had on day 1.
I want to do this, but on my last attempt, I ended up with a knee injury. 
Can you describe your injury? Knee problems are not unknown and most can be easily solved.
Oh I figured podcasts required itunes, which I refuse to download for my own reasons, so I decided after checking out the program that I have a lot of music that will work nicely with the intervals. Stiff Little Fingers’ Here We Are Nowhere clocks in at exactly 60 seconds, and I’ve got plenty of other music that’s roughly 60 or 90 seconds, so I’m just making myself a playlist as we speak which will only require me to switch from running to walking at each song change. I think I’ll stay away from the techno.
So we’ll say I’ll start Week 1 Day 1 tomorrow. wish me luck!
Nice work.
I’ve got Day 2 of week 3 tonight but the weather is starting to roll in so I may be running in the rain. Oh well, it’s only 18 odd minutes plus stretching.
Week 6, Day 2 down (jog 10 minutes, walk 3 minutes, jog 10 minutes). I covered 1.93 miles, and the first 10 minutes felt great! Running in the light rain was also rather fun. I have my first 5K at the end of the month, and I actually feel like I won’t keel over at the finish line.
I just finished day 2 of week 3. All in all it was a pretty good run, in fact during both of the long walks I wanted to start running early or add an extra run to the end. I didn’t because of all of the warning about over training and getting hurt.
Saturday is my next run and it is the fun one, because I get away from the track and run up the mountain by my house.
Whoo! Just finished my very first run, Day 1 of Week 1. It was actually not bad at all, even though I haven’t run a single step in months. The first run, I made it to the end of the song and thought, “That’s it?” but by the last run I was thinking to myself, “Don’t let the next song be ‘Memories of Tomorrow’ … Don’t be- damnit! One more time?”
All in all, though, pretty good. I like the playlist I made for myself, the intervals are perfect, and the 60 second Stiff Little Fingers song goes by much faster for some reason than the aforementioned Suicidal Tendencies song. I already have a playlist made up for next week, and I’m looking forward to running some more.
I got myself an armband case for my mp3 player and was delighted to see that there’s enough extra room in it to fit my house key and a couple of other tiny essentials.
I need to map out a good route, though. I didn’t have one planned, and was talked out of running around the lake around the corner because of its reputation as a haven for bums. I settled on running down the avenue next to my house, but 5 minutes into it I was coming up on a part of the street swarming with pedestrians and turned back, so I spent most of my time walking/running in circles around the block.
I was thinking about walking down to the waterfront to do the actual intervals, but that would tack on an extra 15 or 20 minutes on to the beginning and the end. Would that count as overtraining?
Well, I have crappy joints in general, but specifically, I think I have bursitis, and it flared up on me. I also think I have some sort of old damage in the knee area from a period of time where my knee would hyper-extend at the drop of a hat. It clicks/grinds when I flex it sometimes.
I want to try it again…
Article on Runner’s Knee
Factors you can control and need to check:
- Shoes that are suited to your running mechanics.
- Shoes that are not worn out(300-500 mile lifespan) or no more than 1 year.
- Crown of the road.
- Weak quads-do squats and leg extensions(NOT to full lock out)
- You may need orthotics
Your knees may not allow you to run, cycling, swimming or other aerobic exercise will be just as effective as running.
Good luck.
As a brisk five-minute walk kicks off the majority of the workouts, I don’t think 15 minutes at the beginning would hurt. I also think 15-20 minutes at the end would be fine, too. I’ve found that walking home from wherever I stop jogging helps cool down my legs and reduce the chances of any cramping. So while I will bow to the greater expertise of more seasoned runners, I suspect that it’s probably not overtraining.
Walking generally does not cause enough stress to the body to put you into an overtrained state.
I’m glad there’s a new current thread on this topic! I just decided this week to give Couch to 5k a try and last night was my 3rd workout in the first week. The jogging was exhausting but doable and it was easier than I thought it would be. I got a few side cramps but managed to work through them during the walking portion. Right now I’m doing this at the gym on the treadmill so it’s easy to time my walks/jogs and still be able to listen to the music I want to hear. I’m out of town this weekend so I’ll be starting week 2 day 1 on Monday. I’m a little intimidated by 90 seconds of running but I can always go back to week 1 again if need be.
fizzestothetop, I seem to be having less trouble with side cramps in week 2 than I did in week 1. I hope this trend continues. I am careful not to eat anything 2 hours before running, so maybe that is helping.
RedRosesForMe, I’ve been going to a local metro park about 10 minutes from my house to run, basically because otherwise I’d have the same problem with getting trapped going in a small circle over and over again in my neighborhood. Also, everybody in my neighborhood has a dog and not everyone is good about always having the dog locked up, and I really don’t want to get chased. Or even barked at a lot. I have a thing about dogs.
I’m posting this at 6:10 am because for scheduling purposes, the only time I could fit a run in today was at 6:30, so I’m up at fricking 6 AM on a Saturday morning…to run?! WTF is going on with me!?
Will check back in after W2D1 is complete.