Family Fitness

This is my family and I at my brother’s bar mitzvah in May. Tonight I was going to start the 30 Day Shred (since my finger is finally mostly useable), but my mom told me that she was interested in doing Couch to 5K. I had started C25K a bit over a month ago, but I had to stop after 3 rounds of antibiotics made me too weak. I decided to get back into it and run with my mom. My dad and my brother decided to join, too. The whole family was able to hit the first day’s target!

Walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes, walk 5 minutes.

I am so proud of my family. We will be keeping up the program together for the time that I’m in Florida, then they’ll continue without me when I go back. My mom wants to sign up for a breast cancer 5K at the end of January that they’ll walk together. Wish I could be here for it, but hey, Cali calls. I’m looking for my own to do in California around March. :)

Couch to 5K: Day 5

That’s right! I’m back on the schedule days!

Scheduled: walk 5 minutes, jog 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes

Anticipated (because I thought I was still working up to this schedule day): walk 5 minutes, jog 2.5 minutes, walk 5 minutes

Accomplished: walk 5 minutes, jog 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes

I MADE IT TO THE 3 MINUTE MARKER!

Last I ran (Tuesday), I jogged 2 minutes 15 seconds. So I was working up another 15 seconds, but I caught a second wind and pushed it another 45 seconds! I am so happy and so excited. I don’t care if the scale says I’m up this week because I can FEEL that my health is finally getting on track. I’ll probably see results next week instead cuz I have one of those bodies that does that. (It’s actually a lot of people. We show workout results like a full week or two after it’s happened. Cuz results from working out occur in the resting stages.)

But AH!!!!! So happy.

For my Couch to 5K schedule, click here.

Couch to 5K: Extra Day #2

Goal: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes 10 seconds, walk 5 minutes

Accomplished: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes 15 seconds, walk 6 minutes

Fuck. Yeah. It may not seem like a lot to some, but it’s a big deal for me. And I hope that today’s anon continues to follow me so that every time I make progress, I can rub it in her face.

This is how I work. When you tell me I can’t do something, I do everything in my power to shut you fucking down. (I played oboe for 8 years because of this. Don’t think I won’t go that extreme again.)

Couch to 5K: Extra Day #1

Guess who finally worked up to the 2 minute jog? This chick. I feel fucking unstoppable.

Goal: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes, walk 5 minutes

Accomplished: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes, walk 5 minutes

I am so damn proud of myself. I channeled negative energy into a positive outcome, and it’s amazing. I’ll do this again on Tuesday before I move up to the 3 minute jog and get back on the Couch to 5K schedule.

Expect to see this gif a lot:

I’d like to talk a bit about pacing.

So I realized why my running time went down on my last run compared to my first. Pacing. Our natural instinct when we run is to go fast. Quickest distance in shortest time. But when we run for exercise, we need to run for a period of time, not for speed or distance. The goal is simply to keep our heart rates up. The first time I ran, I made note of this in advance and really paced myself. The second time, I just… ran. I didn’t think about it. And that’s why I couldn’t run as long as before. I need to pace myself. I hope this also helps someone else in their running. Run for time, not for speed, and not for distance. I hope I get to run today when it stops raining….

Couch to 5K: Day 3

Scheduled training: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes, walk 5 minutes.

Anticipated training: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes, walk 7 minutes.

Completed training: walk 5 minutes, jog 70 seconds, walk 7 minutes.

Reflections: Okay, I guess I expected a bit much thinking I’d hit the full 2 minutes this time. But I definitely didn’t expect to be able to run LESS than last time. Possible explanations: dehydration, the hit from my inhaler beforehand actually hindered instead of helped, didn’t stretch enough to get my blood flowing. I started feeling lightheaded and had to stop. I’m not gonna lie: I do feel a little defeated. But still, thinking about it more, it is more than I would have thought I could do a week ago. I think I’m just going to hold off on moving to the three minute marker. I’ll add a couple more 2-minute days first.

Perpetual note to self: running feels really good afterwards!

Tomorrow’s schedule dictates rest, so I’ll be doing this again on Day 5! If you want to see the schedule I’m using, click here.

Couch to 5K: Day 1

Scheduled training: walk 5 minutes, jog 2 minutes, walk 5 minutes.

Anticipated training: walk 5 minutes, jog 20 seconds, walk 7 minutes.

Completed training: walk 5 minutes, jog 1.5 minutes, walk 6 minutes.

Reflections: I may not have met the scheduled training, but I did about 5 times better than I thought I could! I’m going to try taking a hit of my inhaler beforehand next time to see if that helps with my breathing.

Note to self: running feels really good afterwards!

Tomorrow’s schedule dictates rest, so I’ll be doing this again on Day 3! If you want to see the schedule I’m using, click here.

Couch to 5K starts TONIGHT.

Been talking to Taylor. I’m starting my Couch to 5K tonight since I couldn’t do it yesterday or this morning. Knees are still purple but in no pain, so I’m giving this a go. Will post about it afterwards.