C25K

Cute cartoon from Everyday People Cartoons.

I’ve really slacked off in the running department during the past fortnight. Most of it can be attributed to Life, and it’s uncanny ability to get in the way of Stuff I Should Do, but there have been a few missed opportunities because I’ve just been feeling blah about it all.

It’s all a bit stupid, considering that I only have a few more runs to go before I can cross another thingo off my list. So what’s wrong with me?

You might remember my ridiculously dramatic post last week, where I compared my post-run state to that of a dying fly. Today’s run was almost as bad, and I’m sick of feeling so crap when I’m actually really enjoying the act of running itself!

The problem seems to be stitches. It’s strange that I am suddenly developing such horrible cramps when I run, as it’s something I didn’t experience at all until just a couple of weeks ago. Today’s was so bad that it felt like a broken rib was digging into my stomach every time I took a step. Even running up and down a low traffic island was excruciating, to the point where I had trouble breathing for 15 seconds afterwards. It’s like a horrible bruise that’s getting pounded with a stick every time I move. Unsurprisingly, it is most unenjoyable.

The most frustrating part is that I didn’t feel physically tired, but had to “protect” my stupid injury by reducing my pace and pushing through it. I felt like I otherwise had the strength and stamina to run really well today. The will was there, but my diaphragm didn’t get the memo.

Has anyone beaten the battle against these cramps? I’ve read plenty of theories about what causes them, and the most likely scenario in my case is that my asthma is causing me to breathe unnaturally. I’ve been conscious of all the flowering stuff in my neighbourhood during the past few weeks, and the unavoidable way in which I suck in all their lovely pollen as I run past. I’m sure this isn’t helping my lung capacity when I need it most.

I’ve heard other theories too, such as too much salt (or too little salt), or too much water (or too little water). With advice like this is it any wonder I’m confused?

Please discuss any theories, advice, experiences or laments in the comments. I’m off for some recovery sleep!

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Click to see the full-size chart.

Today I began Week 8 of Couch to 5K! I ran my longest time and distance yet – 4.6km (2.9 miles) in 28 minutes. It’s hardly a record-breaking pace, but I did it.

And I only have five runs to go before I can cross this one off my list!

Today I chose a new route, and seriously overestimated the time I expected the course to take. I found myself very close to home with 13 minutes still to run – it was devastating! Digging up the motivation to keep running for that long was really difficult because I’d already fallen into “home stretch” headspace.

I dealt with it by setting small short-term goals, and used a long uphill stretch of road to take my mind off the clock. I discovered that lungburn will take your mind off almost any problem.

It was a beautiful afternoon to be out running; the sun was out, and there was a beautiful cool breeze. There were a lot of other runners on the road, and I couldn’t help but make some observations. First of all, drivers will almost always wave you across the road if you run “on the spot” at an intersection. The sight of an impending cardiac arrest seems to bring out the charitable side of most people! Secondly, most other runners will acknowledge you with a nod or a smile as you pass. It’s like a secret club.

(Thirdly, those runners who choose to ignore your very existance are always – without exception – women. Women who suddenly run taller and faster until they’re out of your line of sight!)

My iphone buzzed in my hand about 800m from home to let me know that my 28 minutes was up. Despite the fact that I felt physically spent, I decided to see how long I could sprint at full pace. I was amazed to discover that I was able to sprint an entire block, more than 60 seconds, after my 28 minute run! It really blows my mind that I have come so far, given that 60 seconds of jogging was the absolute limit of my stamina in Week 1.

There’s really no denying that interval training programs such as C25K can produce incredible, measurable results.

It’s hard to believe that this time next week I will be running my last week of the program. I’d better hurry up and figure out what I’m going to do once it’s finished – you can bet that I won’t be undoing any of my hard work!

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Couch to 5K is part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.

I have a confession to make.

Today I really did not want to go for a run. I was feeling dehydrated (thanks for the heatwave, Melbourne!), and the sudden explosion of pollen in the air had transformed me into a walking snot factory for the day. To say that I was feeling unmotivated is an understatement.

Thank God for new shoes, and my inability to resist them!

I had imagined that my new running shoes might transform my running experience into something angelic and cloud-like, perhaps increasing my stride threefold with their trampolinesque properties. I mean, they can’t charge a couple of hundred dollars for shoes that don’t possess superpowers, right?

Right!

So I threw on some lycra, laced up my new shoes, and blew my nose a few hundred times. Despite the heat, and despite the severe respiratory distress, I was determined to glide through the streets of Melbourne with the finesse of a seasoned runner. A seasoned runner, that is, with new shoes.

Maybe I should have bought the $300 shoes.

I mean, all things considered I did pretty well. To have run 25 minutes (again!) without walking, and while I was feeling less than physically fantastic, is a pretty huge sign that I am improving. Remember when all C25K asked of me was 60 second bursts of jogging? Those 60 second runs represented the absolute limit of my capabilities six weeks ago, so to be running for 25 minutes is nothing less than incredible. I think it’s important to look at the big picture occasionally, because it provides much-needed perspective.

Having said that, last week’s 25-minute run felt so much better than today’s. I felt more fatigued this time, lost a lot more sweat, and yet felt as though I was travelling so much slower. I still managed to cover 4km in that time, so I think I’m on track to achieve 5km in Week 9 without too much trouble.

While running this afternoon I thought back over some of the little lessons I’ve learned since beginning this thing. I know I wrote some of these down in the past, but here are some new tips that might help other runners at this stage of the program:

• My Couch to 5K iphone app continues to be a major motivator when I run. However, here’s a new tip! When you reach the end of Week 6, and you’re down to single running sessions, switch your phone to mute. Your music will continue to play, and the app will buzz in your hand when it is time to start and time to stop. Muting the phone prevents the audio prompt from telling you when you hit the halfway point, which is a major advantage in my case! There’s nothing worse than thinking that you’re on the home stretch, only to find out that you have another 12 minutes to go.
• Belly breathing is something that I have always done naturally, perhaps because of my background as a singer. It is the opposite of shallow breathing, and necessitates the use of your diaphragm. Last week I had some excrutiating stitches that I now attribute directly to my breathing. I think I was trying to improve my posture by keeping my belly in, and it resulted in spasms in my diaphragm. Google it, it’s apparently a common rookie mistake!
• Don’t forget: the first half is ALWAYS so much worse than the second half of any run. Get into a good rhythm, breathe, and remind yourself that the rhythm will come and the discomfort will lessen. And at the end of it all, you’ll be one session closer to Week 9!

Is anyone else out there still doing this thing? Tell me how you’re going!

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Last time I wrote about Couch to 5k was about a week ago, and I had just completed Week 5 with a bang. That post was written after my first 20-min run which, despite my concerns, was not a fatal experience.

And then I had to go and jinx myself with the final sentence:

“My greatest hope is that my body remains injury-free, and continues to adapt to this foreign sensation!”

Well… way to go, me! I’m sure you can guess what happened next.

Last Monday I began Week 6 feeling fantastic. I was looking forward to a much easier session than the one before it, with three runs (5, 8 and 5 minutes) and two 3-minute walks in between them. It should have been an easy 25 minutes, but a few minutes in I was feeling terrible. I suddenly felt lethargic, my legs felt like lead and I had to concentrate really hard on putting one foot in front of the other.

I finished the session, but by the time I got home I was miserable. My neck felt a little out, and I was dripping with sweat for the first time since beginning the program. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, but rather than let it psych me out I decided to put it behind me and just get a good night’s rest.

The next morning I couldn’t turn my head to the left. Like Zoolander, I had ceased to be an ambi-turner.

In hindsight, I’m pretty sure that I came down with some sort of bug last week. I felt a bit “off” for a few days, slept really hard every night, and woke up each morning not feeling refreshed. My theory is that I held my body differently during my run to compensate for the sudden fatigue, which led to some sort of pinched nerve in my neck. I kept it in check with anti-inflammatories and a wheat pack for about 5 days until it was mostly back to normal.

The hardest part was accepting that I would have to take some time off running. Obviously it would have been pretty stupid to compound the problem by pushing through it, so I decided to take a week off.

Today I re-started Week 6. Once again, I found this particular session pretty difficult, but that can almost definitely be attributed to the fact that I took a break. It was nowhere near as hard as it was a week ago, which sort of confirms my theory that I was fighting off some sort of bug last week.

I guess the most interesting part of this experience was the way I coped with not running. It’s become such a big part of my life now, even though I’m still a beginner, that it was noticeably absent from my routine last week. There was a small degree of anxiety over how well I would pick it up again this week, but mostly I just missed hitting the streets and feeling healthy. I really look forward to the stage where I can run for 20 minutes without any apprehension, just for that feeling, a few times a week. That’s freedom right there – using your own body to cover a stack of ground, and feeling even better on the other side of it.

My medium-term goal is to reach that place. In the short-term I still have a month of C25K to finish, but if all goes well I can wrap this baby up by the end of November!

(That wasn’t an invitation, jinx gods.)

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Yesterday I finished Week 5 of the Couch to 5K (C25K) – a nine week interval training program that promises to have you running for 30 minutes, or 5k, by the end.

Last week’s program had me pretty worried, so I thought it might be worthwhile writing something short about the way it turned out for me. There must be other people out there who are googling the hell out of C25K to see how others are handling it – so here is another person’s account!

Week 5 is traditionally the week when most people drop out of C25K, for reasons I completely understand. On paper it looks unachievable to the beginning runner, as it sets a goal that is far beyond anything we’ve had to achieve up until that point. Here’s what I mean:

Week 5, Day 1: Three 5-minute runs, with 3-minute walks in between.
Week 5, Day 2: Two 8-minute runs, with one 5-minute walk in the middle.
Week 5, Day 3: Run for 20 minutes with no walking.

At this stage in the program the longest interval we’ve ever had to run without walking is 8 minutes. How was I ever going to run for more than double this time?

I didn’t actually believe that I could do the 20-minute run. In truth, I never feel completely physically spent after each running segment in my sessions, but I have come to rely on those short “rest” periods of walking to prepare my lungs for the next burst of punishment. The prospect of cutting out the walks completely scared the crap out of me!

All I can say is that I attempted it with the best possible attitude I could muster. I assured myself that if I didn’t make it this time, it was okay to try it again until I met the goal. I reminded myself that plenty of other people repeat entire weeks until they are ready to move on with the program, and that it was okay to be one of them.

I fired up the music, started my C25K app, and turned the screen of my iphone off. I decided to forget about the clock, and just run.

20 minutes later I stopped!

I won’t lie – there were times when I wanted to walk. I didn’t get any of that euphoria that I wrote about on Monday, and that made every step a little bit harder. However, I don’t think that it was any more difficult than the first time I ran for 5 minutes, or 8 minutes – or even the first time I ran for 90 seconds! I remain amazed at the way that my body continually adapts to the new challenges I put in front of it.

The key, I guess, is making sure that you pace yourself. I kept a good steady pace throughout the entire 20 minutes, but this time I didn’t go out of my way to choose lots of hilly streets or force myself to extend my stride. The challenge of running for 20 minutes was enough, I saw no need to overachieve.

I covered 3.2km yesterday, which included a 4-minute cool-down walk. Tim commented that I didn’t seem out of breath when I got home, and it’s true – my recovery time was pretty much contained to those 4 minutes. My biggest challenge during the run was to manage my asthma, as I have become quite reliant on my inhaler halfway through my sessions. I couldn’t have used my inhaler without stopping momentarily yesterday, so I managed it with my pace instead.

So – with Week 5 out of the way I have one month of running to go. I am bracing myself for some fairly big challenges over the coming week, including four 25-minute runs, three 28-minute runs, and finally three 30-minute runs. My greatest hope is that my body remains injury-free, and continues to adapt to this foreign sensation!

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