C25K Weeks 1-4

I was feeling particularly inspired one evening and decided I would attempt the Couch to 5K (C25K) running program (I think my blood sugar was low at the time! ha!).  I did my first workout back at the start of April and have completed weeks 1 through 4 (including a 2nd round of week 4). Check out the version I'm doing!

The program focuses on building endurance over three workouts per week for nine weeks. The first week alternates between walking and jogging at intervals of 1:00 minute and increases from there to intervals of 5:00 minutes during week 4.

First things first, I was truly the definition of "couch" when I started this program. I didn't workout AT ALL and was walking about 4,000 steps a day (yeah, it was that bad!) I started the first workout and was surprised that I could do it with relative ease.

Week 2 ramped up to intervals of 1:30 minutes which was a little tougher just because my calves were really tight and my legs were sore from the increased exercise. I found that a foam roller was key in keeping soreness at bay allowing me to stay on track! Check out these handy foam roller stretches.  

Week 3 increased to intervals of 1:30 and 3:00 minutes. The first workout with the 3:00 minutes was challenging. I wanted to give up around the 2:00 minute mark, but I just focused in and told myself I could DO IT (just keep swimming, just keep swimming...). By the 3rd workout for the week, the 3:00 minutes actually (kinda) flew by and it was much easier! (yay!!).

Week 4 bumped up to intervals of 5:00 minutes. This was by the far the longest I have ran continuously since high school (no joke). The first workout of the week was super tough. I had to mentally get through those 5:00 minutes and every single second seems to drag on. I tried to distract myself with the TV, the birds outside, thinking about ice cream (damn, only 5 seconds has passed!!). That's how each of those 5:00 minutes was for me, but I  DID IT and when it was all done, I was like wow! I ran for 5:00 minutes!!!

At that point, I decided to repeat week 4 instead of moving onto week 5 to try and build some more endurance. I mean look at this crazy increase in run time in just three short workouts!!

I knew how tough the 5:00 minutes had been more during take 1 of week 4 (mentally for sure!) Increasing to 8:00 minutes intervals and eventually 20 minutes all during week 5 just didn't seem doable for me and I didn't want to fail and lose my motivation.

I'm happy to report that I completed take 2 of week 4 this past Saturday and it was much easier than the previous week. I'm going to move on to week 5 now and see how it goes. Maybe I'll get to 20 minutes by the end of the week, maybe I won't. If I have to repeat the first or second workouts of week 5, I will. I'm not doing this training program for anyone but me and I'm thrilled with my progress thus far (in awe to be quite honest!).

I know it's totally cliche, but "If I can do this, you can do this" is TOTALLY true in this case. When I started 5 weeks ago, I couldn't have gotten more sedentary if I tried! Just lace up them sneakers, put one foot in front of the other, take it one workout at a time and it will add up to success!!