June 7, 2021

Couch to 5K : Week 2 Recap

It feels like much longer than two weeks ago that I began the Couch to 5K plan (again) and started participating in the DietBet. Like I mentioned, after seeing my initial weigh-in, I was so stunned and horrified that I immediately began the Couch to 5K plan and counting calories in my food.

I've stuck with the calorie counting right to a T. I can't even tell you how long it's been since I've done that! I'll write more about my diet/weight loss/DietBet stuff on Wednesday. For now, I just want to recap the Couch to 5K so far.

Each week of Couch to 5K has three workouts. The workout for this week (on all three days) was:

6 x (run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes)

On paper, that looks like a piece of cake! I've run full marathons, so getting back to running 90 seconds at a time? Easy peasy.

Well. I was in for a surprise.

I took Joey with me (it's so hard not to when he gets crazy excited to see me with my Garmin and getting my shoes on). He's actually gotten really good on the leash, so I don't mind having him run with me. Actually, on my third run of the first week, I sent a message to Roomba's "mom" (Roomba is a black German Shepherd that became Joey's best friend when we were walking every day). I told her that we'd be out for a walk if Roomba was free to play.

It was SO CUTE. I wish I'd taken a video of Joey when he saw Roomba (it was the first he'd seen her in months--ever since we stopped our daily five-mile walks). He lit up like a kid on Christmas morning and started jumping around. I let him off leash and he FLEW across the street to see Roomba. They immediately started running circles around Roomba's house--this always cracks me up because Joey will be chasing Roomba, but she's much faster, so eventually she comes up behind him. He gets so confused, haha!

Anyway, seeing their reunion was so fun. I'm going to make it a point to take him out there more often (it's only three miles round trip from my house).

For Couch to 5K Week 1, I had to run 60 seconds and walk 90 seconds (repeat 8 times). Even that felt really hard to me. Still, I figured that 90-second intervals this week couldn't be too bad. I don't know if it was the hot weather or just being really out of shape (probably both) but it was a struggle for sure. I am basically starting from scratch, and I had forgotten how hard it was to get started running.

I took this picture after my run to show how RED my face was--it looked even redder in person than in the picture. 


I know from experience that the answer is to run slower. I was always telling the kids on my cross country team, "If it feels too hard, slow down". My pace was slower this week (due to the longer intervals). And I imagine my pace will get slower each week as I run longer intervals.

My main goal at the end of this is to be able to run three miles at an easy pace. That's it! I remember feeling like an "easy three-miler" was nothing--I could do it in my sleep. Now, it seems like a big mountain in the distance. I know I can get there again if I do the work, though.

My second workout this week was really rough. I was super tired and I think that had something to do with it. And then my third one was on the treadmill (it was insanely hot outside, so I chose to run indoors). I don't love the treadmill, simply because I cannot get my Garmin to read correctly; I have to manually edit the distance later.

There isn't much info to gain from the intervals this week, because they are so short. But this is what Week 2 looked like (each workout--not counting the warm-up--is 21 minutes in Week 2):


Next week, the workouts are: 2 x (run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds; run 0.25 miles, walk 0.25 miles). This week, my running intervals were only about 1/8 of a mile, so jumping up to a quarter mile is going to feel so much longer. But I just have to remember to slow the pace, and I'll be able to finish!

4 comments:

  1. You are doing amazing! Those intervals are pretty quick so don't worry too much about pace especially as you build distance. I'm coming back (again) from a health event and really grateful just to be able to do this again. I keep reminding myself of that when my paces are not what I was used to. We are out there doing it and that's all that matters!

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  2. Good work!! So proud of you. I'm walking a lot more now. I still run, but with intervals all the time and no goal of running continuously. Thanks for continuing to inspire.

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  3. I love that red sweaty face and happy, big smile!

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