Friday, January 21, 2011

Hard Choices

The Couch to 5K program is designed for people who want to ease into a running program.  This is exaclty what I am wanting to do.  I have no running back ground, except after the the ice cream truck.  World record time! I thought for sure I would be able to rock every week of the program and be ready for my 5k on 3/5 at the very end of the 9 week program, but now I am realizing I am going to have to repeat weeks.  "If you find the program too strenuous, just stretch it out. Don't feel pressured to continue faster than you're able. Repeat weeks if needed and move ahead only when you feel you're ready."

So I am going to redo week three.  I had such a hard time doing it, I feel like I need to do it again.  I am reminding myself I am not doing this for the 5k, I am doing this for a life change.  I need to go at the pace best for me.  If I get to my 5k on 3/5 and I have to walk some of it...  that is okay.  I just need to keep going and I feel like if I force myself to just do week 4 and fail at it all week, I will just become more discouraged.  I know that if I move on when I can succesfuly finish a whole week, I will be that much better off.  Its not a race... Its a marathon and I will pace myself.

If you all want to try the "Couch to 5k" program here is the link.  Steven took some pics of me running today and I will upload them Saturday morning.  Here is a pic that best represents what I looked like running today.

6 comments:

Jim said...

Soon you are going to have to find different pictures for your blog. Keep on rocking it Chris. Week 3 may not have been up to what you wanted, but it beats the hell out of what you did on Week 0. It sounds like a good choice to redo Week 3 and save the frustration in later weeks. It takes alot of heart to recognize and admit that.

Paul Rone said...

Your sounding like a real athlete, Chris. Listen to what your body tells you - it's a good habit. You may not like what it's saying, but listen anyway.
Someday you'll look back at this post and smile, remembering when you felt like Week three of the couch to 5k was tough.

Unknown said...

I can totally relate to this. I decided to slightly change my workout routine yesterday and it didn't go over well. I wasn't able to finish the 15 minute workout I had set out to do. It was discouraging at first, but I'm starting to realize that I need to listen to my body. It will tell me how far I can push. Keep up the great work! You're awesome! Love you lots! ^_^

Perpetual Beginner said...

I love C25K, but most people will absolutely need to add weeks. If I had blasted straight through, I would have finished week 9 the first week of December. Instead, through a combination of needing to slow it up, and winter weather/icy roads limiting how much I can run, I'm currently on about my third repetition of week 7. I expect to finish pretty much as soon as the weather warms up though. I don't care, I just think it rocks that I can run 25 minutes straight, when I couldn't do 2 minutes straight without gasping like a bellows back in September.

Chris @ Heavy Steps said...

I cannot wait to be able to say that. I have issues still with three minutes!

Chris @ Heavy Steps said...

Re did week 3 and rocked it!