Still running 25 minutes!

No, that doesn't mean I'm running a 5K in 25 minutes. Not at all. I'm still not even sure that I'm ready to attempt a 5k yet, but I can manage to actually run 25 minutes without getting winded. It's still a very, very slow pace, but I'm doing it! I've done it every day this week so far. It hasn't been easy. I find the first 10 minute mark the worse. I want to quit about the 8 minute mark but once I over come that I'm okay. Still only doing it by doing laps in my rec room yet and still doing it bare feet.

I'm not sure if I told you about the bare feet factor before. :) I hate wearing anything on my feet and I haven't actually been fitted for runners yet. Maybe this weekend. We'll see. I haven't worried about it because I'm just running in my rec room but I'm going to need to get runners to actually get outside. I'm a little worried about the adjustment it will be for me to actually wear runners. I'd like to be able to find something that feels like nothing on your feet. I wonder is there anything out there like that?

Besides my regular inside runs I have actually had some outside walks this week. I have a pair of comfy shoes that I wear for that. I walked Monday and yesterday and I would have walked Tuesday but it was pouring rain and I don't have rain gear. I improved my distance and kept my speed up for both walks, though last night's walk was faster than Monday's. Last night I went for a walk with my long legged daughter and that helped me pick up my speed - I had no choice. :) We walked for 2.57km at a speed of 4.67km/hr!

I am still enjoying watching my total distance increase on my workout calendar on MapMyRun.com. I'm up to 25.70km total now.

So excited!

I am now an official member of a running club! You have no idea how excited that makes me. I have been following the Corner Brook Running Club blog for a while now and when I read today's post I sent off an email saying I was interested in being a member even though I didn't live in the area. There are no running clubs in my community and this is the closest one that I know of to where I live. I got an email back telling me that I was now an official member of the Corner Brook Running club! Yeah!! I don't know if I'll ever get to actually run in an event they put off but I'm hoping some day I might.

Another thing that has me excited today is seeing the top of my training calendar at MapMyRun.com say that I now have done a total distance of 10.62km! I only started logging my activity on Thursday. I am loving seeing that number go up. It's a real motivater.

I did another outside walk today and I was thrilled that I did it without getting winded and without any pain. I also increased my speed and distance! I still only managed to do 3.17km and my speed was only 4.76 but it is an improvement of my last distance and speed and for that I am happy.

One other thing - I realized why my outdoor walking speed is slower than my indoor walk/run speed. I am doing my indoor walk/run in my rec room, with only about a 16 x 8 foot space to do laps in, so I don't really get to build up much speed before I have to slow to turn. I'm confident that my running speed will be better once I actually start running outside.

Update and neat site

I've managed to run for 25 minutes straight, in between the walking warm up and cool down, every day this week. I'm so proud of me! I even did something extra today - I went for a 35 minute walk outside this morning, beside the regular 40-50 minute walk/run in the rec room in the afternoon.

I also finally tried out this really neat site that I came across a while back - MapMyRun.com . When I came back from my walk this morning I was curious about how far I went, I remembered that with this site you could map your route out and they would tell you how far you went. I had tried it out before and knew you could do that without signing up to be a member. I was pretty excited to find out that I walked almost 2.5 km. After checking out the other features available on the site I decided to sign up for the free membership option. This allowed me to make a log of my activity. When I did that I found out that based on the information you enter they calculate your speed in km/hr. I thought that was pretty neat.

This afternoon while I was doing my regular walk/run in the wreck room I decided to actually count the laps and use the measurements of the room to figure out approximately how far I walked/ran and to enter that in the log for today too. I was surprised to find that my walk/run speed was slower than my outdoor walk speed!

I am a really, really slow runner and I knew that but I didn't realize how slow until I went searching for some comparisons. My speed for the walk this morning was 4.17 km/hr, whereas my speed during my walk/run session this afternoon was 3.3 km/hr . According to activity classifications on the site my speed, even when I run, is actually considered a slow walk. I refuse to be discouraged by that or to put much thought into it. I am proud that I am actually moving, even if it is slow, and I will celebrate that, rather than bemoan my lack of speed. I will plod on. I may get faster and I may not, but I will not quit!

I am also quite proud to look at my training calendar on the site now and see posted across the top that I did a total distance of 4.97 km today. That is very encouraging!

Be sure to let me know if you try the site out and let me know what you think of it.

Happy walking/running!

Faithful in training but not in blogging

I have been totally unfaithful in blogging here. To be truthful, I was disappointed in the lack of participation from those that had expressed interest in joining us in the challenge and I started to look on this blog as a waste of time and effort. Add to that my sister, who has been helping me with this blog and is the only one that I know for sure is still interested in doing this challenge with me, has been plagued by injuries and has had to take a rest from running. Sooooooo....the blog has been on the back burner for a while.

I've been arguing with myself lately about keeping up with this blog or just sharing about my journey on my personal blog. I have decided to try, at least for a while, keeping this on the go and we'll see what happens. The format of the blog posts here, however, will change. We had been trying to do 2 posts a week with the first post of the week being a posting giving the goals to shoot for that week, according to where we were in the Couch to 5k training program, and the second post of the week being a kind of report in/encouraging post. I've decided to forget the goal giving posts and just do updates of how I am doing, hoping that it will encourage someone else. While I liked the goal posts I really want to encourage everyone to set their own goals, whatever they may be. Hopefully when my sister gets back on track she'll join in with some posts too. Hopefully we'll also hear from you as to how you are doing.

Thankfully, even though I've been slack with blogging, I have been doing great with training! The whole month of March and April, and continuing into this month, I have been steadily working on setting a routine and goals that work for me. From 12:30 - 1:30 every weekday my rec room turns into my gym. I don't always start right on at 12:30 because sometimes I have to clear away the toys before I can start but I have been managing to get in at least 40 minutes of walking/running every weekday. I start off with just slow walking for at least 5 minutes and then a little faster for at least 5 minutes, and then I break into my running, which would probably be considered fast walking by most people but it's the pace I can handle right now. I've managed to slowly and steadily work my way up so that today I actually ran for 25 minutes straight! After that I slow the pace but keep walking for at least 10 minutes as a cool down. I find the warm ups and cool downs are very, very important to me because it helps me not end totally worn out.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about managing to run for 25 minutes straight today, and I didn't even feel winded. I don't know if I'll manage that again tomorrow or not but I am hoping too. We'll see what happens. I've been managing to do 20 minutes straight most days for almost two weeks now.

Soooooo, how are you doing? I'd love to hear about it.

What week and what month is it anyway?

Just in case anyone is wondering...I've reverted to being a couch potatoe. I was doing very well but started having a lot of pain in my right heel. Plantar fasciitis... and it is NOT fun. I haven't ran and was having a lot of pain walking but not so much now. I'm waiting for some orthotics...and then I am hoping to get back on track.

Month 3 Week 3 - 12 minutes of running

Well, according to the schedule the goal this week is to try to include 12 minutes of running in your 30 minutes set aside for training. So, at least three times this week set aside 30 minutes of time where you run for at least 12 of the 30 minutes and walk for the other 18.

Personally, I'm not up to that much running yet, but I'm working on it. As I told you a couple of weeks ago, I had to start over again because I was out of commission for couple of weeks because of a bug and then struggled to get back at it. The last two weeks, however, have been going great! I've actually worked out every day of the week, except Sunday the first week and except Saturday and Sunday last week. I've managed to work up to doing 8 minutes of running and this week I'm hoping to maybe get to the 12 minutes, we'll have to see how it goes.

I probably should mention that I don't do all my running together, in other words when I say I did 8 minutes of running it doesn't mean I was running for 8 minutes straight. I break my running up with walking. I am finding right now that I can only manage 1 minute of running at a time. I do a warm up walk of about 5 - 10 minutes and then I run for one minute and walk for one, and keep repeating until I reach my 8 minutes of running, then I just walk the rest of the time. Last week I tried running for 2 and walking for 2 but I found my calf muscles really tensing up and getting painful so I went back to 1 and 1. I am looking forward to the day when I can run the whole time and taking it slow and steady this way I know I will eventually reach that goal.

I'd love to hear how you are doing

Month 3 Week 2 - 10 minutes of running

This week the goal is to try to include 10 minutes of running in your 30 minutes set aside for training. So, at least three times this week set aside 30 minutes of time where you run for at least 10 of the 30 minutes and walk for the other 20.

Are you getting excited about the 5k yet? We are! We're actually starting to think about trying one earlier than we first thought! Keep yours eyes on the blog, cause ya never know when we're going to give it a try.

How are you doing?

5 and 10K runs in St. John's

I have just been browsing thru the runs coming up and thought I would post some of them:

April 10, 2009
Tely 10 practice run

April 26, 2009
Nautilus Mundy Pond 5K

May 3
Burton's Pond 5K

May 17, 2009
Nautilus Harbour Front 10K

June 6, 2009
Olivers Pond Sprint

July 12, 2009
Mews 8K

July 26, 2009
Tely 10

September 13, 2009
Nautilus Provincial 5K

I'm really starting to get this running bug (I think)...don't know if I'll be ready for a 10K this year but I will certainly be ready for a 5K...and may even try one sooner than expected!

How about you?

Month 3 Week 1

Yikes! I forgot to post the weekly goals! Sorry about that. Luckily my darling sister, and partner in this endeavor, was playing with the blog design this week and added a neat monthly goal feature to the side panel of the blog so you weren't left without knowing what this week's goals are.

This week we are to try to add 2 more minutes of running, that means our 30 minute workouts should now consist of 8 minutes of running and 22 minutes of walking. The easiest way to do this is to spread the running minutes out between the walking minutes, but it's really up to you how you do it.

Personally, I have had to start over again. I had a bug that knocked me off track for many weeks and I have decided that I need to slowly work at getting back on track rather than trying to jump in where we are. If you haven't started yet, or if you have been struggling too, it's not to late to start out fresh. This week I'm back to just walking and slowly getting a little faster at it. It feels good to be getting back on track.

So.....how are you doing? We'd love to hear from you.

Month 2 Week 4!

This week the program calls for 6 minutes of running in each 30 minute stint. It's hard to believe that this is the end of month two of training already! I plan on ending this month on a positive note. I just finished my first 30 minute activity this week. I bumped up the running just a little. I ran in 4 one minute intervals and 2 two minute intervals!!! It's so nice to see that I have progressed a little from the beginning already!! When I first started this I thought I was going to die at the 45 second mark of running and tonight I could run for two minutes and still felt somewhat normal (apart from a stitch in my right side...which settled quickly when I was walking)

Anyway...how is everyone else doing at the end of month two?

Month 2 Week 3 - Adding a Little More Running

We are to attempt to do at least 6 minutes of running in two 30 minute sessions this week and 4 minutes of running in the other 30 minute session for this week.

Have fun, and please let us know how you are doing.

Month 2 Week 2 - 4 minutes of walking in each session

The overall goal for this week is to do at least 12 minutes of running and 78 minutes of walking. The plan suggests that this time be spread out over three workouts, each one being at least 26 minutes of walking with at least 4 minutes of running.

What are your plans?

Month: 2 Week: 1 Almost over

How do you find the training so far?

This is the first week that we had running involved in our activity stints. Six minutes of running was suggested out of the 90 minutes of activity. I have just completed my 90 minutes of activity. I have managed to do 5 minutes of running with each 30 minute activity.

I only jog in 1 minute intervals...and I find that very hard right at this point. I am quite winded by the 45 second mark. Today instead of running in place I decided to run around the house (sounds weird...looks even weirder). I did find that doing this was actually easier than running in place.

Ready for the new goals of next week?

Month 2 Week 1 - include at least 2 minutes of running in each session

The overall goal for this week is to do at least 6 minutes of running and 84 minutes of walking. The plan suggests that this time be spread out over three workouts, each one being at least 28 minutes of walking with at least 2 minutes of running.

Here's one may to do it - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday set aside 30 minutes for a workout. At each workout, walk the first 10 minutes, for the next 4 minutes walk for thirty seconds and then run for thirty seconds and repeat 4 times, after that walk til the 30 minutes is up.

This is just a suggestion and you are free to adjust it to suit your needs. We'd love to hear what you do to meet, or exceed the goal this week. Keep up the good work!

Month Two - we're starting to run, a little

The first month of the program called for just walking, and we've made it through, some of us have even managed to add some running in the past month. This month the program suggests that we continue to do mostly walking, but that we do our best to add a little running in as well.

Remember that it is important to add the running slowly. If you are willing to give it a try you will be surprised at how effective it is to just run for 30 seconds and then walk for 30 seconds, and gradually increase the running time over the weeks. It really helps build up your stamina so that you are better able to handle longer periods of running.

So, get your running shoes on and let's start running!

Don't forget to take a minute to leave us a note and let us know how you are doing.

The first month of the program is almost over...

can you believe it?? This week I have been walking 5 min and running 1 minute throughout my 20 minutes of activity. The running is killing me...especially when I get to the 45 second mark...but I've managed to do this three times so far this week. Plan on doing the same tonite or tomorrow.

Next week the program calls for 30 minutes of activity three times a week. That'll be a challenge for some of us for sure...going from exercising for twenty minutes to thirty minutes. I gotta get some music to add to my exercise routine this week...right Madeline? Apparently that can help. :0)

Hope everyone had a good week! Let us know how you are doing!

Week 4...Started Yesterday!

This week the program suggests 20 minutes of walking 4 times this week. I think I will be using the free run feature on Wii Fit this week to do this. I would like to be able to go outside and walk but I refuse to do that with the temperatures and ice.
This is a short post but I am a person of few words...and I have to go run. :0) October will be here before you know it and I sooooooooooo want to be able to say that I ran a 5k race!

Week 3 is almost over...21 more to go!! :0)

How did everyone do this week? I have managed my 2-20 minute walks so far this week...now I have to do 2-15's today and tomorrow. I am hoping that I may get out and go for a walk with my dog today (if the temperature rises, -9 right now...hopefully going to 5 but we may have freezing rain...that would definitely be a deterrent for me walking outside!...in reality it doesn't take much to deter me from walking outside in the winter!) Anyway, if I don't go outside I am going to do my normal run/jog inside.

One thing I am not doing before and after my walk/jog is stretching and I guess I really need to start incorporating that into my routine. Does everyone do this??? It just seems so unnecessary at this stage of the game.

We need more comments for more motivation people!! There are lots of names to the left there...let us all know how you are doing this. With regards to posting a comment, I know that some have tried to comment and the comments didn't post. Whenever I have commented on a post I always have to publish it twice before it actually posted...have no clue why.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Week 3 - walk at least a total of 70 minutes this week

Don't let that goal scare you. It's actually less than the goal I posted last week. Let me explain.

I've been posting goals that don't really follow the plan I said we would be following. The goals I posted were more than called for in the plan. Some people were probably finding that daunting and were getting discouraged.

My sister and I chatted about this and I decided to change the way I post the goals for the week. I will now be posting the total minute goals according to the plan we are supposed to be following. It's up to you how you break those minutes up in the week. You can also, of course, set your own goal to do more or less as you deem appropriate for you.

That said, the goal for this week is to walk at least a total of 70 minutes. The plan suggests 15 minutes one day, 20 another, 15 another, and 20 another, but you can meet the goal anyway you like.

I've also been thinking that it would be a good idea to keep a journal of your progress each week. If you have a blog you could post to your blog, if you have a facebook account you could make a note about your progress, or you could just do an actual pen and paper journal. You can also, of course, report in here. We love reading about how you are doing.

Speaking about that, I am delighted to watch your list of participants grow. If you are joining us and haven't let us know yet, please do so that we can add your name to the list.

Anyway, I'm really late posting this today and need to get it posted so that I can go to bed. Can't wait to read all about your progress!

End of Week 2!

I actually did 60 minutes of walking this week!! So proud of me! Who needs a gym membership or a treadmill?? (read: I'm soooooooooooooo jealous that Aunt Renee has a treadmill!!!!) I did manage to walk/jog for 15 minutes ON THE SPOT, because I don't have a treadmill (see italized text), four times this week. I just jump off the couch without much thought and start walking. I make sure that I'm keeping my knees high and move my arms so it gets my heart rate on the go. Don't know how motivated I will be when I have to do longer stints of exercise...so I plan on taking it SLOWLY. I plan to do 17 minutes of walking/jogging 4 times this week. Hoping the motivation will continue!

Week 2 - Walk for 30 minutes at least 3 days

Same goal as last week. Actually, the goal will be the same for the whole month of January.

I don't know about you, but I didn't do great in meeting the goal last week. I did good the first day, but had trouble getting the second and third days in.

The second day for me was Thursday last week and I didn't actually walk the whole time. I did a warm up walk for 5 minutes using the free run feature of the wii and then I played on the wii. I did some step, both the normal and advanced. I also tried the normal run feature. I didn't actually run for it but walked instead. I was checking it out to see how it worked because it had been a while since I used it. It actually had me walking for about 3 minutes. Added in with the beginning walk I did, plus both step sessions and I ended up with a total of about 12 minutes exercise. Then I did another cool down walk of 5 minutes before I played some of the balance games. While all this probably wasn't as good as actually just walking for the 30 minutes it was better than doing nothing.

The third day for me ended up being Saturday. I was visiting my sister and kept saying that we had to get our walking in but we couldn't quite seem to bring ourselves to do it. We finally decided that we would fit some kind of moving in while we watched Mama Mia. We put the movie on and set to moving. We walked in place during the talking parts and danced and sang to the singing parts - at least for the first 10-15 minutes. At that point my little did something that I had to attend to and spoiled the mood so that was it. Being at my sister's, however, meant that I had to climb the hill to get into her place every time we went out so I figure that made up for the time I missed. :)

This week I have to get serious. I'm going to try to work on some kind of schedule to make sure it gets done. Sure hope I have more success than last week.

How did you do last week?

Reporting in :)

Well, I missed doing my planned walking yesterday. I was planning to go to the walking program in a local school gym last night but another meeting came up and I missed doing that and then when I got home I just got caught up doing other things and couldn't bring myself to stop and do the walking. I must do it today to make up for it!!

I did walk Monday. I cleared away the rec room and used toys to set up a bit of a course for myself so I wouldn't be too bored walking in one spot. I turned on the free run feature of the WiiFit, set it to 30 minutes, put the remote in my pocket and started walking. Keeping on eye on the timer in the right hand corner of the screen, I walked in out and around the toys for 10 minutes, then for the next 10 minutes I did a 30 second run followed by 30 second walk pattern. After that I walked again for the last 10 minutes. Little One (my 3 year old daughter) was walking/running with me and almost got run over a few times as we weaved in out and around the toys, but it was fun. She quit before I did, so that's a good sign. :)

Our goal for this week is simply to walk for 30 minutes at least three days this week, but you can change that to suit you. Walk a little less if you need too, add some running if you feel ready for it, but take it slow. Remember that if you do a little less than you are capable of, rather than more, you will achieve more because you'll feel successful, rather than defeated.

If you checked out the Couch to 5K Conservative Run Plan you noticed that it suggests you walk 4 times this week - 10 minutes the first time, 15 the next, 10 the next, and 15 the next. They also, however, stress the important of having at least a 5 minute slow walking warm up and at least a 5 minutes slow walking cool down, so I just decided to make it simple and walk for 30 minutes - the warm up and cool down are in there and by doing it three times a week instead of 4 you end up with about the same actual total walking time.

I'm thinking I'd like to add a list of names of people that are planning on joining us in this adventure in the side bar of the blog, so leave a comment or drop me a line if you are. I'll only use your first name. We'd love to hear from you.

Boot camp

There is a 6 week boot camp just starting at Canadian Living. I just tried to do some of the exercises for week one and THEY are tough(...for this couch potatoe anyway!) A friend of mine and I are going to try and do this for the duration. I only managed about 10 minutes of exercise tonite though.

Tomorrow I plan on completing day two of 'the running plan'. I am making sure I inform any of my running friends at work that I plan on doing a 5k in September...I figure this way I'll be pressured to follow through with this. I am struggling with it already though because when I come home from work all I want to do is surf and sleep!

Week 1 - Walk for 30 minutes at least three days of the week

We will be attempting to walk 30 minutes at least three days this week. I will actually be doing walking in place using the free run section of my WiiFit. I may even try to do it every day this week. We'll see. What are you going to do?

Month One - We're off and Running!

Well, not really. We'll get to the running eventually but we need to work up to it.

First Things First

See your doctor. Tell him/her what you are planning and get an okay first.

If you don't already have a good quality, proper fitting pair of running shoes, you need to get some. I don't have any yet, but I am going to get some.

Remember to take it slow. I love this quote from The Beginner's Running Page,

"You'll enjoy running more if you try to do less than you're capable of accomplishing. You'll also achieve more, since the most important factor in achieving success is consistency."

The Couch to 5K Conservative Run Program suggests that you do nothing but walk for the first month. If you feel you want to add some running in, that is completely up to you. I suggest, however, that you if you do decide to add some running that you do it in a walk/run combination. The Beginner's Running Page 30/30 plan suggests that you run for only 30 seconds at a time in the beginning. After 30 seconds of running you walk until you feel recovered from the run and then you run another 30 seconds, then walk until you feel recovered, etc.

Remember to do a slow walking warm up before and a cool down after of at least 5 minutes, preferably more.

If you decide to join us, we'd love to hear from you. We've already had some family and friends say they are going to give it a try. We'd love to hear how you are doing and how you are adapting the plan for you, because that is important. We are all individuals and we each need to work out what works for ourselves.

Okay, are you ready? Let's get started!

How this blog came about

January 1st, 2009, a totally out of shape and overweight 40 plus female was thinking about goals for the new year. One of the goals she wanted to work towards was to be more physically fit and she needed to come up with a plan. A few years back a friend had introduced her to a walk/run program that she tried for a little while and loved, but then stopped for some reason. Last year another friend ran her first road race. In November she got a WiiFit and recently opened up the free run portion of the game. These facts rolled around in her head and an idea started to form. After doing some research into different training programs and for running events in her province, she shared the idea with her sister and the idea grew even more, a plan was started, family and friends were invited to join in, and then this blog was created.

This year we are working towards transforming from the inactive couch potatoes that we presently are into Road Runners that will participate in a 5k run in September 2009. We will be using a "Couch to 5K Conservative Running Program" available online as a guide for our initial training. It is a very slow growing training program that we should be able to handle. Each week we will post the plan for the upcoming week and at the end of the week will report on how we are doing. As this time of the year is not great for outdoor running where we live, most of our training, especially at the beginning, will be indoors and may include a lot of simple walking/running on the spot, possibly using the WiiFit, but we figure anything is better than nothing.

You are welcome to join us. The more the merrier. :)