Couch to 5K Update

The last time I updated you all on my Couch to 5K progress I was in the middle of week 4 of 9 and progressing nicely in my running. Well, one of the things I was doing was avoiding looking ahead to the coming weeks so that I couldn't try to talk myself out of going on days when the workouts were going to be especially challenging. Week 5 is when the runs that were scaring me started, but as it turned out they weren't that bad!

I just finished week 7 today and I'm still feeling pretty good about my progress. Now, if you do the math you'll see that I should be further than week 7 by now if I stuck to my 3 days a week running schedule. Well, the state fair, weddings, and an ingrown toenail (eew) interfered with my running and set me behind a little bit. I'm still going okay tho! I didn't run for 5 days this week and then picked right back up with my 25min run tonight. My pace was a little slower than I'd like, but really....when you consider I hadn't run for 5 days and my toe was still a little sore....I did pretty well! So, my goal for the coming 2 weeks worth of runs is to really stay on schedule and not let life interfere as much.

As was the case in the last post about my running endeavors, the podcasts and Runner+ have been instrumental in my success! The community on Runner+ has been awesome as ever and I even have a new Facebook friend out of it! I even have their iPhone app as one of my shortcuts so I can access my stats anytime (now that they've blocked the site at work...grrrrr).

I've had a lot of good feedback from this blog and from my Jog Log on Runner+ so I'm going to try and be better about posting updates more frequently than every 4 weeks! I figure I'll give an update at the end of the last week which should be 2 weeks from now and then keep you posted as I just keep on running 5K in preparation for my races.

As always, thanks for reading and wish me luck on the running! Good luck to those of you that are also working through the Couch to 5K program or any other fitness program!

Running...Running....

The Couch to 5K training is going well, I think! I'll be starting on the week 4 workout this week so I'm almost half-way through the program. If I stick with it and make sure that I keep my workouts consistent I think I'll be able to do it.

I bought one of those Nike+ SportBand thingies to help me track my progress. Sure, I can get on MapMyRun after my runs to figure out how far I went but that's kind of annoying and it doesn't keep a history. The Nike+ thingie will allow me to upload my runs so that I can keep track of progress online. I also synced up my Nike+ profile with Runner+ which gives a little better tracking than the Nike+ apparently. At least that's what my friend Kris says! So, hopefully with the tracking, consistent workouts, etc I'll be able to easily meet my goal.

I'm also super excited because I can once again fit into the jeans that I was fitting into before I gained weight again! Sure, they're a little snug around the waist, but that'll change soon I hope! It's really a great measurement of my progress that I can fit into them again. I'm seeing my hips and thighs shrink which makes me very happy. Apparently I wasn't imagining the weight loss afterall!

It's probably not hurting that I'm also taking adult swimming lessons. I took lessons when I was a kid to get me to the point where I wouldn't drown, but I kept getting fried in the sun so I quit. Now I want to be able to do lap swim for a workout and it wouldn't hurt to have a stronger stroke in general. So, I decided to take adult swimming lessons. I feel like I've already improved a great deal in the 2 one-hour sessions I've had. If I keep that up and am able to add swimming to my workout I'll be in great shape.

I'm excited! Tune in later for more updates!