I have never been good at running. I have never enjoyed running. In fact, I've never been even slightly athletic. I had always wanted to play sports when I was in elementary school, but for whatever reason, my parents didn't want me to. In high school, I sat out as many gym classes as I could sit out and still be able to pass. I just barely passed my entire high school gym class career. Whenever it was time that we had to run the mile, I was always the last one to finish. Even in elementary school (maybe it was only a half mile in elementary school?) I was in the back. I sucked at running. I was out of shape. Always. In high school, I was 100% convinced that I had asthma because I was that out of shape.
I was blessed with a really good metabolism, and I've never been overweight. So I never believed it when my dad told me I was just out of shape. I'd say, "but I'm skinny. You're wrong. There's something wrong with me." Nope. He was right. I may be skinny, but my heart and my lungs are super weak.
I guess about a year and a half ago, Josh was having chest pains. He went to the doctor, who put him on blood pressure medication and told him he needs to exercise - get in shape and shed a few pounds in the process. I found a couch to 5k program (which I had never heard of at the time) and resolved that we were going to start running.
It wasn't fun, and it wasn't easy, but we did it. We went really strong for several weeks, and then life and nature got in the way. At this point, I can't even tell you how many times we've restarted c25k. And I swear it's more difficult each time we start over. We've learned the hard way that the cookie cutter c25k programs aren't for everyone. The first program we tried had really reasonable transitions between the weeks, but it had you running every single day. Our bodies never had time to heal, and it hurt. A lot. I pulled my inner thigh muscle (whatever it's called; I never took anatomy) twice. The program we are currently using (the run double app) has you run three times a week, but I feel like the transitions between weeks are pretty drastic.
Now we're on our own schedule. We run every other day instead of Monday, Wednesday, Friday because this way, if you miss a day for some reason, it's not as bad. If you're on MWF and then you miss Monday or Friday, then that's four days off, and it's no good. We're also moving on as we feel comfortable, so we're going with phases instead of weeks. Right now, we're on our fourth week, but we're still only on phase three. I don't like to push myself. I don't like to "feel the burn." I hate it. I hate running.
But I'm addicted to it. I still suck at it. We don't improve every run. In fact, sometimes we do worse than the previous run. Sometimes way worse. Sometimes I hate it so much that I just say, "I'm out here, and I'm trying, but I'm not going to do my best today because I just don't want to." But I want to run. I feel guilty when we miss a day. I feel really good about the fact that we are doing this for our bodies, and I hope that we can stick it out and eventually be able to run the entire 5k.
Here's what we've done so far:
Phase One: 8 repetitions of 60sec running and 90sec brisk walking.
Day 1: Distance: 1.26 miles Pace: 14:39 min/mile
Day 2: Distance: 1.30 miles Pace: 14:12 min/mile
Day 3: Distance: 1.32 miles Pace: 14:00 min/mile
Day 4: Distance: 1.34 miles Pace: 13:46 min/mile
Phase Two: 6 repetitions of 90sec running and 2min brisk walking.
Day 5: Distance: 1.33 miles Pace: 14:19 min/mile
Day 6: Distance: 1.29 miles Pace: 14:45 min/mile
Day 7: Distance: 1.31 miles Pace: 14:30 min/mile
Day 8: Distance: 1.33 miles Pace: 14:20 min/mile
Day 9: Distance: 1.39 miles Pace: 13:37 min/mile
Phase Three: 90sec running, then 90sec walking. 3min running, then 3 min walking. Repeat.
Day 10: Distance: 1.16 miles Pace: 12:55 min/mile
Day 11: Distance: 1.06 miles Pace: 14:09 min/mile
Day 12: Distance: 1.12 miles Pace: 13:23 min/mile
The third phase has less overall run time, which is why the distance is shorter. To be honest, I don't care that much about improving our pace. The ability to run longer distances as one time is what really matters to me, and we're doing that. I think we'll probably be on phase three for at least three more days because the next jump is pretty big. It's where we got stuck the last time and ended up having to take a step back. (3min running, then 90sec walking; 5min running and 2m30s walking. Repeat.)
So here's to getting in shape!
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