First 5K Forks, Washington

So I made it! Here's my results: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/108323699
I ran my first 5K today in the rain in Forks, Washington. I got soaked, but it counteracted the heat I was generating, so it was okay. The run was a fundraiser for Relay for Life and it looks like an idea we might want to do at home for our own Relay for Life team. The nice lady coordinating everything shared her sources with us, and it might be something we could do with lots of help. Looks like it made lots of money for minimal output, and that's what you want in charity fundraisers, right?

There were about 100 or so entrants total for the three events (1 mile, 5K, and 10K). They all started at the same time, following the same path, and turn-back signs were posted to tell each event when to loop back to the starting point. There was a drawing before starting. I won one of those things you put chunks of good smelling stuff into and plug it in to scent a room. Felt nice to win something. =)

We didn't get in until after midnight last night, and the rain on the camper roof kept us from sleeping deeply. The night before that had been taken up with taking My Beloved's mom to the redeye at the airport in Tacoma and The Short One having screaming growing pains, so we were all pretty tired. My Beloved brought The Short One and Hipster Girl over in the camper and they parked along the route a few places to take pictures and cheer me on. I gave them all kisses at the turnaround point. Lost a few seconds there because Hipster Girl made me go back across the street and pose at the turnaround sign...I guess 15 year olds are perfectionists, lol. It was really great to have them there.
There was a tiny girl, maybe 3 years old, along the route trying to give away water bottles, but it was pretty wet already with no bathrooms in sight, so I didn't see any takers. There should DEFINITELY be bathrooms along running routes, because once you get going, you pretty much always have to go. The wee munchkin had a bell to ring as we came by on the return route. She was adorable, and I appreciated the encouragement.
I had the usual storm of voices in my head telling me to give up running and walk, this is too hard, I'm dying, yadda yadda, but Mama just kept going. At one point toward the end, I desperately beseeched my three-years-departed father-in-law, who was a great lover of Relay for Life, to help me along because I was about to give up. I credit his influence with my energy spurt at the very last segment.

A few cool things I've discovered lately that might help other folks working on 5K training:

I discovered mapmyride.com, where you can choose what activity you're doing (biking, walk/job, etc), and map a route ahead of time (it uses a Google maps sort of interface) or, as it took me a week to figure out, download it on your phone and have it track you with GPS so you know how far you've run and how fast you're going.
At first I ran the free Breast Cancer C25K app on my phone at the same time as mapmyride GPS tracker so I could hear the prompts, ignore them, and get an idea how much more I needed to run to actually do a 5K. After a while I turned off the C25K app and just ran the mapmyride while playing a running playlist on my music file thingy.
I carry the phone in my hand most of the time, just because it's nice to be able to look down and see how far I've run now & then, and if a song on the playlist isn't motivating me enough I can click to the next one. I got an mp3 ringtone generator to download the music to my music file thingy, where I could set up playlists. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have a way to change the order of songs once they're in a playlist, and I'd like the playlist to tally up minutes so when I add or delete a song I know how long the full list is without having to add it up myself. Anyone got a free app that can do these things? Send me some ideas in the comments, please.
Also, Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" are great for keeping the running motivation going. I also discovered a hiphop version of Queen's "We Will Rock You" by Five that's REALLY good when the energy lags.

So, going to keep up with training every other day for the next two weeks, and I'll check back in July 15th when I'm running another 5K in Ocean Shores, Washington. It sounds like the 5K will be the wimpy event there, they've got some hard core triathlons going on. We'll see how that goes...

C25K Week 7 Day 1

Since the day 3 week 6 narration on Robert Ullrey's podcast had said that today's workout would be easier, I thought it meant that it would be like week 5 day 3 was a long run, then week 6 day 1 was shorter runs. Nope. It was a 25-minute continuous run today and will be the same all week.
He was right, though, it was easier. It felt good. It helped that I had a pretty good idea of the distance I could count on. When I hit where I thought the mid-point should be and my ipod announced half way, I could tell my estimate was correct and I knew I had this. About a minute before the "one more minute" announcement came up, I got a wonderful rush and started doing more of a run instead of my usual just-barely-faster-than-walking Mardi Gras shuffle. When the time was over, I actually felt like I could run more. How weird is that?
It is a lot more pleasant temperature-wise running at night, but a bit earlier than tonight would be good.  Many of the streetlights don't work around here, and it's hard to tell where the cracks in the sidewalk are.
Thanks so much to all you wonderful folks who have been helping me along with your kind words of encouragement. I can't believe how far I'm come. I'm still bemused that I haven't seen any weight loss, but I'm definitely in better shape, which is what really matters.

Week 6 Day 2 C25K

So that's what I look like tired, sweaty, and relieved. 
Last night's when I was supposed to run, but after a few nights of not sleeping well, and one all-nighter to finish grading my students' notebooks, I gave myself a break and had a glass of wine instead, promising to run in the morning. 
Of course, in the morning, it was Saturday! Not to mention My Beloved's first weekend of summer vacation, and I slept in. I was getting my excuses lined up to get another day off when my friend Julie in New York posted about her day's run on facebook. Aw heck, how can I have excuses, here in the dry California heat, when there she is going twice as hard in the New York humidity running up and down hills...so off I went. 
I came around one corner and the homeowner was working in his garden with his back to me. He didn't see his little black lab puppy run out into the street to visit me...cute little guy wagging his whole self, jumping all over my black tights with his muddy paws...I wanted to stay and play, but had to keep going, so I pet him a bit and and he ran back to his yard.
Today was two ten-minute runs with a walk in between. It felt like a really long time, and I almost gave up about a million times. Paused the podcast for about two minutes for a potty stop at the park, splashed my face and the top of my head with cool water and got a drink, felt some better after that. Since I started doing this, I hadn't had any nausea like I used to years ago running, but today I felt it just a little before I got to the final five-minute walk. Maybe it was the heat.
This was the first run I've done in the daytime, in the heat, but luckily there was a steady breeze. A warm one, but a breeze nonetheless. It was weird to have so many people around. Usually I run at twilight, and it's pretty solitary. 
I think the lesson here is that I should have run last night, or at least much earlier this morning. Running when it's cool is a LOT nicer.

Week 6 Day 1

I actually felt excited about doing my run this evening, and I expected it to be really easy both because I was excited and because after the big 20 minute run at the end of week 5, I only had to do a 5min, 8 min, 5 min run interval pattern today. Nope, it wasn't easy. For a little while I recounted what day it was, because I felt so weak I thought I must have miscounted and run on a rest day...
After the five minute walk, the running started and I headed for our main drag, but there was an ambulance, firetruck, and lots of shady-looking people about, so I decided to head the other direction down the irrigation canal bank. One can go for miles along the canals in this valley. It was wonderfully serene along the canal, there was no one else there but me, and it felt like I was running a long way. I kept thinking of that Ray Bradbury story "The Pedestrian" where no one is outside except the main character...everyone is inside watching tv. I'd never been along the canal before, even though we've lived here forever, and it was cool to see all the gateways to go off on other streets...potential running paths for future runs.
Towards the end of the 8 minute interval I started feeling strong...but still had the brain going back and forth between continuing to run and thinking I couldn't go farther. It felt best when I could just turn off my brain and wallow in the rhythm and senseless moving...like a meditative state.
If you're thinking you might like to try this yourself, take a look at coolrunning.com for more information.

Week 5 Day 3 C25K

Twenty minutes is a looooongg time...but I've had five babies, so I tried to think of it as labor and kept going. Hard to believe that 90 seconds seemed impossible and I was awake at night worrying about it just a few weeks ago. The first half of twenty minutes felt pretty awful, and I almost stopped about a million times, but the halfway mark announcement came sooner than I expected, and then some Mardi Gras style music came on, and I was just about dancing for a while there. The buzz passed, but gave way to a sort of Zen-like concentration that was like meditation and I kept going. I'm glad to see that week 6 works in a similar pattern of a much easier run on the first day, a bit harder on the second day, and the somewhat-less-intimidating-than-it-was-before 25 minute run on the third day.

Week 4/5

I've gotten behind on blogging with it being the end of the school year and all, but I've still been doing the runs. Week four day three was probably the hardest...I guess it was just an off day, because I kept waiting for the part where you get the adrenaline rush and feel good, but it just never came. I felt good that I was done, but the whole run just felt terrible. Most of the runs have had a moment when I felt better if I just stuck with it...
I've been really lucky on weather, it's been chilly enough to need a jacket most evenings, but warm enough that I take it off after the first interval or so. Since it's pretty often over 100 degrees here in the summer, that's a good thing.
I've done two of the week 5 runs so far. The Robert Ullrey podcasts I'm using put them all together even though each day has different intervals, which is kind of weird when you're in the midst of an 8 minute interval and the voice tells the invisible other runners who are still on day 1 that they can stop running now. Not so bad when I realized that the voice was also telling me I just had three minutes left. That used to feel like an impossibly long time, but now it's a relief..."just three minutes left? I got this..."
So today is supposed to be the first 20 minute run. Bleagh...how the heck am I gonna do this?
Stay tuned...

Week 4 Day 1 C25K

It's a video blog today, friends...right here
All about the messing that happens in your head, and the delight of unexpected encouragement...

Mama Keeps Going Week 3 Day 1

I'm a bit behind schedule. The Urgent Care doctor last Sunday told me I should take a couple days off work to recuperate from the sinus infection he treated me for. I saw in his bio online that he was a runner, so I trusted his judgement...sorta...I still went to work, there's only three weeks left in the school year, but I didn't do my run and I took a nap or two when I got home from work.
Sinus infection is gone, still a wee bit of productive cough, but I think the running will help heal that. 
I kept running, before the doctor visit, in spite of the sinus infection because I'd read that running in the fresh air is one of the best ways to naturally cure sinus congestion. One day I almost didn't run, the headache, coughing,  and fatigue were so bad, but while I ran the headache went away. Also, the coughing continued until about the 4th interval of 60 second running, 90 seconds walking but then it stopped completely and didn't reappear until the end of the workout. If I just could have run all day, I would have felt fine, lol.
So today was the delayed beginning of Week 3. I was really surprised at how easy it was. My biggest problem with doing C25K is in my head, so having only 4 intervals to get my doubting brain through was simple. I also didn't think I could get through a 3 minute run, but when it started to feel too long, I remember that 3 minutes in how long songs on the radio were when I was a kid, and I knew at that moment that if I could dance through a whole song, I could do this interval. Piece of cake. The anticipation was much worse than the actual thing. Of course, I learned from the one episode of being cocky last week that part of the secret is keeping the jogging slow and methodical. I stopped thinking "am I there yet, am I almost to the end of the interval?" and just let my brain turn off while my feet mindlessly pumped...

Couch 2 5K Week 2 is FINISHED!!!

This week we're going with the video blog...in my Vespa shirt...with a cameo appearance by The Shortest One. Take a look right here.

Today was a rest day for the run training, and I accompanied Sweet Man to the gym to do a non-running workout. Kids stayed home, so it counts as a date, right? We haven't been to the gym consistently in months, so we're trying to get that habit going again. He ran like a crazy man on the treadmill while I played around on the weight machines. I did all the arm machines, the ab machines, and the back machines, three sets of 10-12 reps. My favorite was the ab machine that works kinda like kneeling on an office chair and swiveling to work your waist. It was actually fun, and I had to keep count to prevent myself from doing too much and risking regrets of soreness tomorrow.
Since I didn't need a pumping soundtrack to keep me going, I had my NPR podcast of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me playing in the ipod. I fear some of my gym-mates must have though me a bit crazy, as I grinned and sometimes laughed out loud during my workout...

So now I've done the full first week of C25K, plus the first run of the second week.

Somehow, according to my scale, I've gained SIX POUNDS!!! Yep, you read that right I GAINED weight. I don't think I've been eating more, the only thing that's changed is the weather warming up, so I have no explanation. We've joked about my being pregnant, having the crazy-fast-growing baby like in Breaking Dawn, but at my age, probably not. Lots of folks have tried to console me with the "muscle is heavier than fat" thing, but this much heavier?

Anyway, it's been a weird week, and I've not exactly followed the plan. I wanted to do a WiiFit workout whenever I wasn't doing a run day, and I've done that half the amount I thought I would. I have gotten in all the runs, but sometimes not on the day I thought they would happen. This week has included The Shortest One's fifth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Hipster Girl's final swim meet of the school year was Saturday, at which she won her heat twice. Sweet Man's field trip to Yosemite gone wrong was also Saturday, during which a student stole a bottle of alcohol and poisoned herself chugging it on the sly. This caused an ambulance trip and Sweet Man spending a late evening ensuring her safety and providing support to her family. Also this week, a very sad event, the drowning death of one of my dear students. Found out about that one last night, and today at school was exhausting. Two kids were with him and tried unsuccessfully to save him, those poor boys were understandably a mess today, but they came to school. Lots of tears and hugs were shared. Good kids. Sad times.

I'm also fighting off a wicked cold, so I had every excuse not to run today, but I got my shoes on and went. The weather is perfect, and the evening light has extended just far enough with the changing seasons that despite a late start I didn't have to run in the dark. Changing from a 60 to a 90 second running interval was mentally challenging more than physical, although a few of the intervals hurt a bit. The trance music has a beat that makes mindless plodding easier. Not graceful or pretty, but relentless, and that works for me.

So I'm hoping sometime this week to see a little weight loss, but I'm going to stick with it one way or the other because I really want to get stronger. I found out the run they used to have in Forks, Washington, where I spend some time every summer, no longer exists, but I looked up some 1 milers and a 5K or two around here for later, so I've still got a plan.

2nd C25K run

The original plan was to alternate WiiFit workouts with C25K, but yesterday was just too busy, so it was this week's day off. Today I did the second run, from my house to Graceda Park, sort of a figure 8 around Graceda and Enslen Parks, then home. If you saw the Dr. Phil episode with that tragic 18yo girl who ran off with her high school teacher, this park is where they were. Just another joy of living in Modesto, lol.

I expected to be almost too sore to walk after the first workout. The last two days were ones where I had to hurry across campus a few times to take classes to the computer lab, so I got some walking in at work and had a moment to take stock of sore spots. Seems like the places where my fat jiggles it jiggles the muscles below and causes a bit of soreness. Weird but true. Just enough soreness that it reminds me I exercised, which kind of makes me happy, but not sore enough to complain.

The biggest battles I'm fighting are between my ears. I thought about making dinner before heading out, folding the laundry, playing some Bejeweled, there's a million just-another-minute things, and I ignored them and went out FIRST. Definitely a lot more energy spent coming up with reasons not to run than it actually took to just do it.



I'll try to post a video now and then...I'm hoping there will be a little bit of physical difference to document. http://youtu.be/GwmBOgTDISk

Couch to 5K begins today...

After reading the posts of several people who have had great success with C25K, including several who didn't seem like natural athletes, I decided to try it out. I'm planning on alternating C25K 1/2 hour workouts every other day with Wii Fit 1/2 hour workouts, with one day off per week. Today was the first run. I spent a lot more energy being concerned about it than I did actually doing it. It was hard, but the hardest part was in my head. I wasn't happy with the sensation of heat radiating from within me, at times it was almost unbearable, and a couple times one muscle in my back felt like it might give me trouble, but I kept going. That's mostly what it took, just the thoughtless one-foot-other-foot and ignoring the pestering voice telling me to stop. I didn't have any nausea or side "stitch" like has sometimes stopped me from exercising. Wii Fit tomorrow and we'll see how the running goes the next day.

The scale says 176.4lbs today, that's down from a high of 187 about a year ago (not counting pregnancies, that high would be more like 215), but up from something like 159 six months ago or so. I'd love to see 145 again, 135 would be even better. It would also be nice to keep up with my five year old daughter a little better. I'm using the Ullrey podcasts that have the prompts in them, with sorta trance music. I like that I just have to put the earbuds in and go, no timing or measuring distance, so I can change paths at a moments notice without getting messed up on the distance. The music works for me, kinda like I'm working up to going disco dancing...