Oh Boy, What Was I Thinking?

I’ve been steadily progressing on the Couch to 5K training plan, and finished Week 3 on Saturday.  You know, without stopping midway through the workout to gasp and wheeze and curse myself for a fool.  A fat fool who will never lose the 8 or so kilos I’d like to shed.  Well I’d be happy with 5kg lost, but I’d be ecstatic with 8.  No more than that, though; with my build (I inherited my mother’s broad shoulders and hips) I’d start looking anorexic.  And that’s not a good look, despite what the moronic fashion designers out there seem to think.

 

By the way, I just discovered this podcast which is really helpful at keeping track of the changes between walking and running, and the music is better than the garbage my gym plays, and means less staring at the treadmill display waiting for the counter to click over to whatever particular magic number I’m waiting for to change speed.

 

ANYWAY (I do waffle on once I get started), I figured I was ready to move onto Week 4.

 

Oooh boy.  That was a lot tougher.  I had to stop for a moment during the second 3 minute run to catch my breath and have a drink of water, and what was meant to be the second 5 minute run got broken up as follows: 1 min @ 8.5kph, 1 min @ 6kph, 1 min @ 9.5kph, 1 min @6.5kph, 1 min @ 9.5kph.

 

I’m debating with myself whether to go back to Week 3 and build up my strength a bit more, or continue on with the Week 4 workouts and work on getting through the runs without stopping or breaking it up with more walking.  Knowing me though, I won’t want to go backwards to the week 3 workouts.  Ah dilemmas.

 

As I am a sponge and constantly drinking water, the gradually increasing time spent running rather than walking presents another dilemma.  My walking/drinking breaks are getting shorter and further apart.  I tried training myself to drink on the run but felt like I was about to knock my front teeth out.  I really am going to have to learn how to absorb water from the atmosphere via osmosis.

 

I also did some weights yesterday for the first time in a loooong time.  I decided to drop the weights by one level from where I had been (so depending on the machine, the difference was anywhere from 2kg to 10kg) to get an idea of where I was up to.  I came out alright with that; my legs and arms today are a little tight, but not too sore.  So I’ve decided that next week, I’ll put the weight back up again, but with a smaller number of reps (2 sets of 10 instead of 15), and gradually work back up to 2 sets of 15 reps.

 

The journey continues!

Back to the Gym, Day 1

Well technically it’s actually day 4, given I first went back on Saturday.  But this blog didn’t exist then, and it wouldn’t make sense to have my first gym report of this blog starting on day 4.  So deal.

I got sick some time in August, which meant that I couldn’t go to the gym anymore.  Boo.  After 8 weeks or so of coughing my guts up, I’d fallen behind in uni work and so everything got pushed aside to get through it all.  And I noticed at my cousin’s wedding that I’d porked up a bit in that time (when your fat uncle tells you you’re overweight, you know there’s a problem lol).

And so I’ve gone back.  I decided to start running again.  Before the great Flu of 2008, I was halfway through a program to get me up to 30 minute runs without stopping, and I decided to start at the beginning again, but a little bit faster.  I walk for 5 minutes at 6.5kph (I love the treadmill because I’m incapable of running in the real world without going too fast, too soon), then for the next 20 minutes alternating between 60 seconds of 9kph and 90 seconds of 6.5kph.

I then did some weights, using the level I was at before the Flu.  Wow.  Either the weights got heavier when I wasn’t looking or I got unfitter.  I know, that’s not a word .

So the journey begins again.  We shall see where it leads.