It’s the final week of C25K!

Below will be my reports for this week’s runs, in chronological order, as they are posted on those days. To see what the Couch to 5K program is about, along with links to other resources and podcasts, check out the C25K site. To see my prior weeks’ reports, you can navigate to their individual pages either to the right or at the top of the page. Thanks for coming by!

Shannan

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Week 9, Day 1 -or- “I’m sailing! I’m a sailor!”

October 28, 2008

Do you remember in the movie, What About Bob, when Bob Wiley goes out on the sailboat with the girl and her friends on Lake Winnepesaukee? They’ve tied him to the mast, and he’s just up there, so happy about it. He’s shouting out, “I’m sailing! I’m sailing!” Later, he says to Dr. Leo Marvin, “I sail! I’m a sailor! I sail! On a boat, on a lake, way, far away from the dock!” Well, that’s kind of how I felt today after finishing my first 30-minute run. I reached the longest time there is to reach on the C25K program, and it felt good. I had no problems with any pain or anything. Though it’s a short time by most runners’ standards, I felt like I had entered a club. I felt like I could finally say, “I run! I’m a runner!”

Mentally, the transition from 28 minutes last week to 30 this week is a huge step for me. Physically, I knew that if I could do 28 minutes, I could certainly do 30. But to know that when I graduate this week — in just 2 runs — I’ll be doing the same time as today, and that makes me feel like I’ve gone over this huge hurdle, and all I have to do now is run.

Today I had my Nike+ going during the run only and not the walking before and after, which is how I always do it now, and I sped up the treadmill a bit just to see what I could do. I went a while at a full 1.0mph faster, then slowed down so I wouldn’t tire myself out or get winded. I did it again in my last minute, just because it was a momentous minute for me, and I felt that extra surge of energy. It all felt so good. I even seem to have settled on a slightly faster pace overall, since my old pace was getting too slow to stay there. This might be one of my best days yet on this program.

Oh, so, I’ve been slowly getting myself prepared to get outside and run (though it was 32 degrees this morning here), but one obstacle I’ve had is not wanting to run where others can see me, for fear of looking awkward or tired or not being able to do as well as on the treadmill. I ran in public for a short time (literally, about 20 seconds LOL) in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, on Sunday. We drove up there on a whim and walked around on the beach and a cute little walkway along the lake. We were on the sand, and I gave hubby my purse and without stretching and while wearing a big jacket and regular gym shoes, I just took off. I went as far as the end of the beach and turned around and waited for hubby. I could have gone further, but this was not the time nor the place, and I didn’t want to leave hubby behind. We weren’t there to run.  🙂 But I realized that other people could see me if they wanted to, and it was okay. I was awkward on the sand and took off too fast, but I didn’t care. It was fun!

My next scheduled run is on Thursday. That means I’ll graduate on Saturday. I’m planning on having hubby take a picture of me when I finish, and if it’s not too dorky, I’ll post it here.  😛

I’ll post a poll on Thursday…Have a good week!

Shannan

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Week 9, Day 2 – One More to Go!

October 30, 2008

I’ll keep it short today. Today’s run was one of my earliest, at 7am. I’m kind of sleepy now, like it took up all my energy, but I took it nice and steady today at just 0.2 mph faster than I had been going in prior weeks, without increasing my speed again during the run. My feet want to move faster now, so I’ve had to set the treadmill at a faster speed to keep up with my feet. I think it’s just that I’ve adapted to one speed, and now it’s time to move forward a little at a time. I hope that makes sense.  :-\

So about this week’s question. I’m going to make it open-ended, so you all be nice. 🙂 I want you to think about something that you’ve either always wanted to do and never did, or something that you used to do that you loved but stopped doing. It can be a hobby or a talent, a job or a dream. Then I’d like you to think about whether you’d like to take it up again, and how you’d go about doing that (which doesn’t have to be part of your response – just something to think about). Is there anything that comes to mind?

One of my answers, since there are a few, would be that I used to love writing. I loved writing stories and poetry. I’m going to take it up again in the form of two avenues, one being the NaNoWriMo project in November, which I mentioned on the home page. I’m also going to be taking two free online MIT courses in short story writing and poetry writing. They have a site (MIT OpenCourseWare) where you download all the course materials in one zip file, and you only have to buy the required reading, which for these came out to one book that was $15 and one that was $10 on half.com. I’m not sure how they will go, but the syllabi look interesting and challenging.

Please enter your answer below as a comment. You may remain anonymous if you’d like. If so, just leave the name, email and website fields blank, and enter your answer in the comment box. No one will be able to see your information (not sure what happens if you’re logged into WordPress, though! I think you’d have to log out first. )

The next time I report back will be as a C25K graduate! 😀

Shannan

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I Graduated on 11-1-08!

November 5, 2008

I finished the C25K last Saturday. It was a pretty normal run. I had already done two 30-minute runs that week, and this was the third, to finish off the program. I asked hubby to take some pictures of me as I finished, and he took a lot. Here are a few gems.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck by me on my blog and the RA boards and WW forum. Your support and interest were always in the back of my mind when I had rough runs when I wanted to just stop and walk. Please stick with me as I report on my progress as a runner. I might even talk more about things that don’t have anything to do with running…we’ll see what happens.  🙂

Here are the pics:

Running my final 5 minutes of the C25K!

Just about to finish

Those muscles worked hard!

Cool-down walk

 Shannan