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June C25K Starters

guest — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 05:10:26 GMT

Hi all I'm glad to see other checking in. I'm having a really hard time with this site and opening threads. I've tried to post several days and I just can't get logged on. So condensed. I've jogged 2 more times since I posted and then I had to get new shoes before I could jog again.

The 1st jog went OK not perfect and I had to walk once and only covered a tad over 2 miles but I was feeling good about it. The hill I'm jogging around and up and down has a lot of places that slow me down, but I figure I'm building up muscle. I was really sore after that one though and I took an extra day off to let my muscles heal.

I left my shoes on a chair and the dogs decided they were a chew toy and took them off. I tried jogging in them (they are the barefoot shoes and they chewed a strap off one so I thought they would be OK) but that jog was an epic fail. Not sure it was the shoes but I tripped twice and I didn't feel confident in them anymore. The whole thing started off bad when I went to start stretching and my husband headed out to the car to "wait." I asked him not to because it takes me about 15 minutes to be ready to go and it makes me feel rushed but he went anyway, so I rushed. We argued about my feeling rushed and rather it mattered that he didn't mean to rush me, if I felt still felt rushed. So I was out of sorts when I started and of course I knew I didn't hydrate or stretch as much as I should have. Not sure why my husband suddenly can't wait in the house while I finish getting ready to go instead of sitting in a running van and insisting he's not rushing me. Crazy the arguments we have sometimes. When I got to the hill the place was packed. Lots of runners passing me as I chugged along. The hills were harder than I remembered and even though I jogged up the hill I'd missed the 1st day, the jog was sinfully slow. Slow enough that near the top 2 people walking passed me. At 1st I told myself "You know you're slow and you are always joking about how people walking could pass you, so why are you letting it bother you." I know I sped up trying to keep them from pulling away so now I was jogging outside my comfort zone too and I was already tired, that's when I tripped the 2nd time. Stumbled would be more accurate I guess. I'd heard the phone announce the halfway point a short time before and I was way behind where I'd been the last jog, with the walkers pulling away to spite my increased speed... frustrated tears were forming in my eyes and as I hit the spot where I'd started I decided to take a short break and decide if I wanted to turn around and head back the other direction to finish. I slid the lock off the C25K app and hit the pause button without looking at my time or distance. When I took my drink out to tank up before I headed back the other way I hit that stupid button that backs the app up to the last segment. Since I had it on the 28 minute run it backed it all the way up to start over. That was all she wrote. I started crying in ernest. I walked away to hide my tears from the other joggers and to calm down. It took a few minutes to get myself together and I decided to jog another 10 minutes and call it a day. Before I could get back to the track I saw my husband driving toward me. I'd told him to wait at the bottom of the hill and I'd call him if I couldn't make it there, but he had to come check on me, which made me angry at him again. I just gave up and quit.

I was supposed to jog yesterday but my sister had a birthday party at The Melting Pot and the timing was off for a jog before. I was just too darn stuffed for a jog after. Today I was feeling awful so tomorrow my brand new shoes will get a workout. They are so much prettier than the old ones that I almost hate to get them dirty.

Hope to hear more updates.

Big Difference from W3 to W4

guest — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 01:46:27 GMT

Sounds like you are doing great. It's amazing what you can do when you try. Even if you don't believe you can. Honestly I've been doing the whole program with the idea that I can't do this day, but I do as much of it as I can. Half my jogs have been done with I'm going to have to quit but I can make it to that spot up ahead before I do. Then I pick another spot once I make it to the one I thought I'd be toast at and before I know it I've added minutes (up to 10 mintues) to my time when I thought I was done. I can't say it works every single time but more often than not. Today what worked for awhile was "There's a really fit guy running toward me and I'm not going to stop in front of him... Don't fall down, don't fall down, don't fall down and make him laugh any more than is going to seeing my slow jog." There were a lot of really fit guys on the hill I was attemping to jog on. I did have to walk up one hill when no one was looking, but another really fit guy (or maybe the same one for the 3rd time) came along just as I hit the top and told me what a great job I was doing which gave me willpower to run again when I thought I was toast. It is amazing how well this program works. But really don't focus on what you can't do, just what you can. Which might be what you are supposed to do that day but I'll bet just as many people who finished this program didn't ace every run as those who did. Maybe more. The trick is to just keep trying. So says the lady who is trying this for the 3rd time and just missed over 4 weeks on this 3rd attempt.

June C25K Starters

guest — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 05:30:10 GMT

Well I'm finally back jogging, but I had to back up some on my weeks. Glad I put it on this day (W6D2) instead of the next because that is a 23 minute jog and I hit a hill at 11 minutes, that I could not have jogged up.

I went to park called Vista View so I could run on some trails instead of flat pavement and even though it was harder, I am glad I did. (W6D2 is a 10 min Jog - 3 min walk - 10 min jog) My plan was to skip the walk if I could but if not I'd forgive myself. For me the 8-12 minute point is hardest to push thru, but even at my best that hill was much steeper than anything I ever hit in my mostly flatlands regular jogging places. I jogged the afore mentioned 11 minutes and then walked about 3 before I started jogging again. I jogged 2 minutes into my cool down so at least 10 more minutes maybe another 11. Although I hit a lesser hill with 1.5 minutes on my countdown that I wasn’t sure I was going make and I’m not sure anyone but me would call my pace on it a jog when I’m pretty sure a baby could have crawled faster.

My App failed me as far as distance (and pace) so I have no idea how much ground I covered. I can’t figure out why it's not giving me a distance, I checked and the GPS is on. Maybe interference from all the trash I was jogging on. (The park I went to was a landfill that they covered up and made into a very nice “looking” park. But I certainly wouldn’t be digging in the dirt or eating any of the fish out their ponds.) Someone told me they thought the trail was about 1/4 miles. If that’s right I really tanked on my pace because I only made it around once and then maybe another ¼ of it. Still it was a nice view from parts of the trail and if I could have seen the sunset thru the clouds it would have been even better. Already looking forward to my next jog no matter what it brings. Oh the temps were pretty nice since I went in the evening shortly after hours of rain. A little humid, but that I’m used to.

Running in humid weather

guest — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 05:12:06 GMT

I'm new and slow so take it for what it's worth. So far great advice. I run in SE Texas (Usually I'm visiting in the Ft Laud area right now) and most of my runs are temps between 75 (heaven) and 85 with humidity that rarely drops below 90% but I'd guess almost all are above 97%. It's hard sometimes to even get going when both numbers are at the high end. (Last year when I tried this we were having lots of 100+ degrees days and rarely had a night that dropped below 85 by the time I took my midnight run. So I've done a lot of looking into this. The things for your neck or head (I'm thinking of trying one on both. LOL) do help me. I also wet my head with cool water before I start. Clothes that wick I'm not so sure about. They just can't wick that fast, but maybe I just sweat that much. I get thirsty even though I'm only up to about 2 miles in the time limit (W8) so I've always carried a small water bottle with me. I freeze half a bottle and then fill it right before I do my stretches. When I start to get really wilted feeling I pour some of the water on my head and sometimes my feet. But I wear barefoot running shoes so the feet thing likely won’t work for most people. I get hot feet. But mostly I accept that the heat and humidity means that if I want to go the distance I can’t push myself to run faster than it lets me comfortably. Everything I’ve read says that in hot humid weather you have to slow down. I look forward to seeing if it’s true that when the weather does break and cool down that I will naturally speed up some. Hope you get some help from all the wonderful advice you've gotten so far.

June C25K Starters

guest — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 02:26:50 GMT

I'm still making excuses. But I am not out. Tonight I really, really want to run for the 1st time in a week. Well that's not true I have wanted to run but it was hot and I was exhasted after our trip. Then I had a party to go to and I thought I'd run after but I ended up helping my aunt make favors for her 50th anniversary and by the time I got home my back was hurting. sigh. Let's see Tropical Storm. Headache that sent me the a Neuroligist, The ER and then a dentist for the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks. Simply awful. I had a wisdom tooth pulled today because this dentist said there was a chance it could be causeing the pain and when I pushed my dentist who said it was unlikely he said if my headache was that bad than he couldn't rule it out. Not sure if I can jog tomorrow night or not. But today the weather was beautiful and with all the brand new lakes around here (flooding) it would have been interesting to run. I had a hard time restraining myself. Not to mention euphoria from the relief of pain which may be from anything from the tooth removal, to still being numb, to the medicine that the neuroligist gave me for whatever it was he thought it might be. I am starving right now because I can't eat solids and I didn't feel like eating for days with that headache. I have never felt pain like that. Felt like someone drilling into my head. Honestly worried I was going to die.

The good news is my back is fine. Had about 4 days of pain but once we got out of the car after 3 long days on the road it only took a day or so to stop hurting. I don't know if anyone is still here or if we having any backsliders who need support. If no one answers this I'll look for a new group to join. Maybe the August one if they will have me.

June C25K Starters

guest — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:08:32 GMT

I'm still here. Sort of. I just realized it's been 10 days since I jogged. Or since I finished a jog, might be more fair. I also thought I'd done W8D2 but I can't find any record of it. Strange. I was thinking it was a week today and that was bad enough, now I'm down right depressed. Lots of excuses. Daniel was sick. Then I was so busy getting ready for our trip. Last week I started having all this pain in my joints and muscles and I have no idea what was causing it. Went to the Doctor on Monday and he did some blood tests and put me on Prednisone. I still haven’t gotten the test results back and I can’t tell how my pain from that is doing because the next night Daniel accidently hurt my back. It’s not awful like it was after the car accident, but I was doing last minute packing and didn’t give it a chance to rest, then I hopped into the van for a long drive and my sciatica (I think that’s the nerve I mean.) has been screaming pain down my flank. It really has been off. Tonight I decided to jog since I discovered the hotel has a treadmill and I figured it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy (as Daniel would say) inside, cool air, on even ground… NOPE! It was not good at all. Didn’t even make it 10 minutes and I hated pretty much every second. The “ground” felt unstable. I was looking in a mirror at the person I least want to look at when I’m running. (Totally ruins my image of myself when I can see what I really look like jogging) I can’t even explain how odd it felt trying to run on the darn thing. Almost backwards. Instead of pushing forward with my foot to propel myself, it felt like I was having to stop myself from going off the back by lifting my foot with no forward motion. Nope can’t explain it at all and I didn’t like the way it felt. My legs were cramping the same way they were in the early weeks, by the time 5 minutes was up. A couple of more minutes and I decided “This is for the birds, I’m going to try again when I can run outside where God intended me to do it.” I tried out the bike thing which was broken and then some sort of machine that you move your feet up and down while you row or move these huge sticks back and forth. Needless to say I had no idea how I was supposed to make that one move. I tried it out and did it forward and then backward (or backward and then forward) for about 2 or 3 minutes and it helped my leg cramps but I just wasn’t into it. So I jumped back onto the treadmill to see how long I could go this time. HATED it even more so after about a minute I just hit the stop button and quit! I wasn’t breathing heavy and hadn’t really even broken a sweat, but my legs were screaming at me. I’m not sure if I’ll try to jog outside tomorrow or wait till I get to my parents the next day. The weather was bad here in Mississippi today so even if I’d looked for a place outside I don’t think it would have been super safe. Hoping I do better next time.

I wish I had time to respond but I’m exhausted and we have to get up early to travel. One reason I didn’t update sooner is I’ve been having troubling getting to the threads on this site. I can open the lists under newbie café but not the posts. I keep getting errors. Once out of every 15 or 20 times I try it will suddenly open. Keep up the good work even if you aren’t doing as well as you wish. Thank you so much to anyone who is still here with me.

Get there when you can!

guest — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 10:53:57 GMT

Have you gotten to the point where you realize that you are not going to run 5K in only 30 minutes? Does it seem like everyone is passing you by? Do you plan on persevering! Did the group you joined speed past you while you repeated weeks or missed time for some other reason? As I buzzed, um make that slogged thru week 7 while most of my group finished the program or were at least knocking on the 5K door, I realized that they were moving on and I was still working toward my goal. It occurred to me I have never seen a thread for those of us who are near the end of or finished with the timed part of C25K, but still need to increase time or add weeks to go the distance. So I’m hoping to round up the strugglers, stragglers, slow pokes, cow pokes… oh wait wrong genre on that last one. What the heck come on in everyone is welcome. Just don’t come in here telling us how you are doing an 8 minute mile and not expect to get tripped on the trail. If you are running that fast and struggling “SLOW DOWN!” LOL Whew who knew I had so much built up frustration for those who were blessed to be faster than I. Really I am happy for them, I just wish it was me. I know that there are a lot of us out there who feel the same way. So let’s keep each other motivated and moving. When you compare where we were a few short weeks or even months ago, we are doing awesome!

My story: 3^rd attempt at C25K. - 1. W9 Car Accident – 2. W8 Sheep Accident – 3. W8D1 – 2.19 miles. Not thinking adding a couple of minutes is going to add over ¾ of a mile and that distance includes my very slow warm up and cool down walks. Struggles = Old – Overweight – Health issues. Positives = Determined – Proud of myself - Desire to get healthy for my 4 (almost 5) year old – Enjoying this.

Anyone want to join me?

June C25K Starters

guest — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:00:04 GMT

Finished W8D1 this morning. I'm so exhausted. It was super hard and I was way slow the 2nd half of the jog but I did it. The neighbors stupid dog followed me and I kept having to call him out of traffic and to stop marking every thing along the way. Grrrrr It was not good for my run or my mood that he stood in front of 2 cars just staring at them with me yelling "come he Jasper." It wasn't that hot when I left 75 with 95% humidity but OMG it felt hot and getting hotter. Only 77 when I got home, but I was soaked. My foot was totally numb again with 4 minutes left and nothing I tried my last jog worked. I thought I had it figured out, as being tight straps from my feet swelling, but I guess not. Still I kept my feet moving in a jogging motion the whole time. (Except for a couple of seconds when I was waving like crazy at car when the dog wouldn't move.) I was doing my "I'll just make it to that spot" trick for most of the 2nd half. When I finally decided that I just couldn't go any further and I looked at the timer it was 6 seconds into the cool down. I never heard the cue. I think because a truck was passing. Total distance was only 2.19 miles. My warm up walk was a little short because I stopped to get something out of my shoe so that takes up the .19 The cool down with the numb foot was less than that I think. At any rate I know I jogged at least 1.75 miles. More likey at least 1.85. I need to remind myself how awesome that is compared to when I started.

June C25K Starters

guest — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:37:14 GMT

Yadyad: You can certainly do that 20 minute jog. Just slow down a bit if you start to get tired and focus on doing just a little bit more if you get to where you feel like stopping. At least that's how I did it. Pick a spot up ahead that I can make it that much further and when I get there pick another one and keep doing that as many times as you can. Do you belong to the July group too? Love having you here so don't think I'm suggesting you leave. LOL

I did W7D3 tonight. I actually added a little extra time to my jog, but I'm not sure how long. Somewhere between 1 and 3 minutes I'd guess. I cannot jog and work that screen properly to save my life. LOL I locked the screen until it said walk and then because I wanted to see how much further I could comfortably go and I didn’t want to mess up and miss my cool down distance I unlocked it and hit the back button planning to hit forward when I got tired. Somehow I hit the pause button when I put it away. I didn’t realize that until Joe called out and said “how much longer?” It must have been more than 25 minutes. I pulled out the phone and it read 24:54 or :45 and I thought oh crud (ok maybe it was a bit more colorful) I paused the app. I un paused it deciding to go ahead and cool down and I must have hit the forward button twice and skipped over that. The distance I had on the app was 1.98 miles. Looking at the map I’d say between a ¼ and maybe 3/8 more. The thing is I’m not sure the app wasn’t adding distance while it was paused because I was just barely past the 1 mile mark when it said ½ way. (Including warm up.) and yet I was almost at 2 miles without the cool down. So confusing. I’m actually looking forward to my next 2 weeks. I was feeling pretty good this time. I didn’t start out too fast. I did have some leg cramps before the ½ way point but I ran on my toes a few seconds about 3 times and worked them out. I felt like my foot was getting numb a little later and I remembered that I’d read that it could be caused by your feet swelling making your laces too tight so I paused long enough to loosen the Velcro straps (I think I said before that I wear barefoot running shoes) and then I did a couple more reps of toe running. Each time I thought I might be feeling any numbness I did a short toe run. (Maybe 3 more.) Worked great. My breathing stayed good until the end and even then it wasn’t awful. If Joe hadn’t butted in I know I could have made it another minute or 2 without having to pick spots that I could make it to.

I still have an earache and my tooth is still sensitive but I don’t seem to have a full blown cold, which I’m thankful for. I am a bit stuffy and had to keep clearing my throat and nose, but not too bad. I wish Daniel was doing as well. He kept me up most of the night sniffling and snorting every time he moved so he wasn’t propped up. By morning I was too exhausted to make my class and forget about jogging when I could barely stand. It was late when I jogged and might even have been after 1 am when I left. It’s just so hot and it’s not cooling down like it was. Hoping for some late afternoon rain soon to give us some respite. We are hoping to leave for FL at the end of next week if Daniel is feeling better. It is no fun traveling when someone is ill so I don’t plan to start off that way. I haven’t even asked what the weather is like there. Man I can’t wait for fall and winter. Wish me luck in week 8.

June C25K Starters

guest — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 13:43:13 GMT

Hi everyone. You are all doing so great. I actually love jogging so much that I really miss it on the days I don't go. That is outside of feeling guilty. But I'm still in a holding pattern. I worked on cleaning out both freezers yesterday and I caulked the tub when I was up with Daniel in the wee hours the night before last. I figured I was so exhausted I'd sleep great last night and it just didn't happen. I think I'm getting Daniel's cold. I have an ear ache and a stuffy nose. But it might be that I'm just beyond exhausted and I feel like crying because of it.

I’m supposed to be at a concealed weapons class right now but I’m so exhausted. Daniel didn’t sleep well for the 2^nd night in a row. He was OK as long as he stayed on the pillows I have propped up, but he kept getting off them and then his nose would stop up and he’d start snorting and groaning and it would wake me up. I woke up intending to go, but Joe saw how awful I was doing and he called and canceled. I should have just fell back into bed to sleep, but I feel bad about it. It will be months before I can take the class now and he didn’t ask how much it will cost. (My neighbor just got certified and he was giving his first class free to some friends) Now I’m worried about rather he will charge me and I can’t afford the class and the money the state wants for the license. Joe says he doesn’t think he will charge me, but I’m peeved at him because I told him to ask and if he said it was going to be over $100 I’d just drag myself over no matter how awful I feel. Plus I was looking forward to this for weeks and I wanted to go. Maybe I can feel better about missing it this time if I find someone who wants to take the class with me next time. I think it will be around Nov. before he gets another one together.

So now I’m failing on everything I had planned for this week. The fridge half isn’t cleaned. I have a dishwasher sitting in my living room that needs to be installed. The van still needs to be cleaned out and taken to get the window fixed for our trip. I need to rent a carpet cleaner and do those now that the dog is (please God) house broken. And about a 100 other things including packing for our trip. But yeah I have to find 2 suitcases to replace the ones that are broken. (The puppy chewed the zipper on one back in Feb and the other is just old.) Plus I still haven’t jogged. It took way longer to defrost the deep freezer than I thought it would and by the time that was done it was too late to cook and nothing near us was open to pick up something to eat. (No way was I cooking.) We made the long drive into town to get a bite and by the time we got back it was almost midnight and I was zoning out. Then my sister called and we talked for about an hour. Much as I wanted to jog I knew it wasn’t safe for me to try. If I had fallen asleep right away instead of having this list of everything I needed to do and the whole watching Daniel breath to make sure he was OK keeping me up, I was thinking I’d get up and go before the class this morning. It would have been much cooler then.

I’m hoping I can go back to sleep now and if I can breathe at all once it cools off tonight I’m going. “For me. For my son. For my health and sanity.” Ooo maybe I should have that put on a T-shirt. LOL It might sound crazy when I read it once I’m actually rested. I let you know what happens. Anyone else still working toward 5K? Where are you week and mileage wise. OK I’m gone… Zzzzzzzzzz