Starting C25K 19/11

[golemmings]

Anyone want to join me? It means we should start 2012 being able to run 5k - now there's an incentive to stick with it.

W5r2 done.

Now, if you lot are lying around eating the last Ferreros then that's fine, but you'd better be running between times. I mean it.

Shall we take a moment to shine our prefect badges bugrit? They'll be back......eventually...
No partying for me on NYE my younger two are in competition as to who can keep mummy up the longest at nighttime so just can't be arsed with the late night.
Didn't think I'd get out today as weather was so dreadful but brightened up this aft so I've finished week 7. Still finding first 10 mins tough but fine thereafter. Am still astonished that I can run for nearly half hour. Am covering about 4.3km so nearly there!

Yeah yeah... I've been away so long this fell off 'threads I'm on'. Didn't realise I had to keep posting, I thought it would reappear if anyone was posting so I assumed everyone was still eating their way through a chocolate mountain. DS has just fed for an hour over the last hour and a half (screamed if I put him down) so I've spent an hour listening to the howling wind getting worse. Going now. Wonder if I can run with the wind to ky back and walk into the wind... Wish me luck...

I'm with you in spirit golemmimgs atta girl

Go lemmings!

4.3 is fab, tidy, well done you!

Sympathies to you both on the small children front. Mine have coughs/colds just now and littlest is doing a sleep regression. Urgh.

survived!!! W5r1 was OK. Managed a faster interval than any in week 4 but slower overall than the last couple of runs so was quite pleased after a week off.

I had a running partner this evening for the first time too. At the end of the first runs something brushed against the back of my legs. I was quite concerned; it was so windy I stopped to check thjat somebody's rabbit hadn't been blown out of its hutch and down the road but it was a dog. A very friendly dog who joined me for the rest of the outbound leg. The company was lovely and I'm sure I ran faster trying to keep up with the mutt. He left me when I turned around although I had varied my route to keep as close to the point I'd found him to try and ensure he made his way home again. Hope he joins me again although dogs out on their own usually worry me and I've had to take several home in the past.

Did anyone get any running stuff for Christmas? I had a armband phone holder thing plus vouchers for running shoes on my wish list. Didn't get either but got a copy of The Idle Parent - all about making kids self sufficient by doing sod all. The approach seems to be working on dd who decided one night last week that it was supper time. She opened the freezer, took out the tortellini, closed the freezer and had just got the saucepan out before she was intercepted... She's not 2 1/2 yet. If she carries on like this I'll have more time to go running!

Thanks for your message bugrit; it was much appreciated. Dad is still in hospital but is doing fine. Next week hopefully they will decide whether or not he needs surgery and if he doesn't, then we can start to arrange some kind of exit strategy but that might stop me running again since if I have to go down and stay with him I'll take ds but leave dd and dh at home and I don't think its fair to leave a convalescent dad in charge of a small baby who may or may not settle and sleeps erratically - unless of course I take ds with me for a run...)

Mind you, now the cat is ill. Took him to the vet today, they have let him home overnight but want him back in in the morning. he's grounded so we've given him a litter tray and he's gone to sleep in it. I don't think he's used it. Possibly he's going senile as well as having an infection of some kind.

Oh well...

you know you two have really motivated me to stick with this over the last pretty crappy months

Thank you!!

Well done go!

Good news about your dad, I hope he continues to do well. Your DD sounds awesome. She's welcome here anytime :) I love tortellini!

I think you probably ought to get the credit for sticking with this yourself, because I think you've done brilliantly to keep it up with everything else going on - but it's nice to know that it helps!

What bugrit said. I think you're doing brilliantly just keeping it all together Go. Hoping 2012 brings you better fortune x

See thanks ladies. W5r2 done. Made the mistake of playing with the pace alarm on the app I use and set it for 6 minute kms which meant it bleeped at me the whole way round because I wasn't going fast enough. And I've never clocked a sub 6 minute pace. I did however manage an average of 6.47 and a top speed of 6.11. I also made the mistake of not checking the distances. 8 mins is a long way when you're expecting 5!
Won't be able to run now until after the weekend. Dad is coming out of hospital tomorrow and DH is going down to keep him company for a couple of days so I'm grounded with 2 children. Looking forward to the 20 mins run though!

Great news about your dad getting out :)

Well done on w5r2 - how did you find it compared to the previous few runs? I thought it was tough but it was cold and I think my inhaler is running out because it was just shortness of breath troubling me.

W5r3 on the cards for tomorrow ... Yikes!

W5r3 *DONE!

I just ran for 20 minutes solid. I even managed a last burst at the end. Feel a bit emotional

Yay!! Go you. That's fantastic. What's it like? I'm doing it on Sunday when DH comes home.

Nice work girls. W8 started today and covered 4.7 km. starting to think about what's next after C25K?

Oooooooooooh what about a race musttidy, or maybe work towards 10k?

go, I found it really OK actually. I just took it really slowly, consciously kept myself running slower than my legs wanted to go (I seem to naturally want to run faster than I am able to sustain )

I won't have time to run on Sunday (DH gets in from work at 4am and leaves again at 1pm so can't really abandon him to feed two children while I go out running!) so I'll take it as an extra, deserved, rest day and start w6 on Monday. I'm also signing up to the leisure centre's new year 6 week weight loss challenge thingy next week, so I must buckle down to better eating.

Must must must do that.

Hmm. Maybe I'll be running on Monday instead. Dd has spent the night throwing up and I was so freaked about the idea of waking up covered in vomit that I've sat up all night and dozed for a couple of hours tops. At this rate the only place I'm going on sunday evenin.g is bed.

See. Shouldn't have been happy about dad, the cat or DS having a a fabulous review with his consultant. A happy lemming brings forth another pile of shite from the heavens. Bored now. Is it not someone else's turn ffs?

Aw no :(

It is really hard not to feel like the world is kicking you when you're down, sometimes. I think with kids it's definitely worse because there's always something around the corner, be it teething or illness or injury. It probably won't cheer you up at all to know that I was at the doctor's twice with mine yesterday - DS is now on steroids for his cough, and i had to rush DD back there at teatime after I crushed her fingers in the door by accident and thought I'd fractured one :(. Trying to think positive, it was an extra 2 miles walked yesterday.

If I could I'd bring you a bottle of wine and lots of chocolate I would, but have some instead. Hope DD us feeling better soon and you manage a bit of a catch up nap today. Hang on in there, better times coming :)

Thx bugrit. Dd appears fine now but slept loads yesterday which meant I had to watch 101 dalmations buried under a sleeping girl, sleeping boy and sleeping cat. It wad such a dreadful afternoon :)
Today has been lovely and DH is home.

Ran w5r3. 3.1km. 3.1km. I'm quite proud of that. Set the pace alarm on my watch for 6.20 mins/km 'cos my 8 min intervals were 6.11 and 6.18. Didn't manage 6.20 for more than the occasional short burst - to the nest tree is whatever but did average at 6.27 so not too much slower.

It felt ok too. Not sure I could have gone much faster but could have gone further.

Discovered on Saturday when a friend dropped in to see of that there's a group of trail runners which meet in the village at 8.30 on a Saturday morning. I have no idea how far they run but my friend was able to tell me the first part of past week's route so I might try it and see how I get on with that much.

Now that I can run 3k I'm wondering about paddling duathlons. The midlands series is.only 1 race in and its a 2k run, 4k paddle and 1k run. For the first time ever the run doesn't scare me... But I've not raced my boat since may. Can't remember if I've paddled it since and I'm not too sure where it is just at the moment...

There is a local 5k race here next month though which I thought I might have a crack at. Anyone else got any plans?

Hi - I've just started doing this - have done the first 2 workouts.

I've always absolutely loathed running - it's boring & every bit of me hurts. But loads of people at my work seem to run & I really need to get fitter, so I thought I'd give it one more go.

I've always felt that I was crap at it, but then one of my friends told me her speed, and I've obviously tried doing too much too soon. Now that I know that, and am going slowly, I feel a lot more confident.

However, in my 40s, obesely overweight, and have a huge list of injuries/accidents to just about every joint & bone in my body. None of them serious, but all of them get stiff/ache, so I need to be careful.

The good news is that I have a good treadmill & a 'gym' playlist to keep me going. I don't know that I could ever run on the pavement - my knees & back can just about cope with the treadmill, which is a lot softer.

But I would love to do a 5k with some of my work friends, so I shall keep at it until I get too stiff to walk.

Any hints on the kind of support I could use for knees? Do those tube things work at all?

Glad things are better today go - sounds like a nice chilled out afternoon for you :). Great to hear you sounding so keen re duathlons etc - why not go for it?

There are a couple of 5ks local-ish to me, but not until March, although there's a Parkrun 40 miles away. At the current rate I think I would be on track to finish the whole programme before the end of February so perhaps I should register ... hmmm ....

kickassangel, I don't know much about knee supports, but good shoes will help I think. Have you any trails or paths you could use to run on if you fancy a change of scenery?

I remember the first duathlon I did after dd was born nearly killed me. It wad either very ambitious or very stupid. As one of the national paddle coaches pointed out... They're very similar sometimes!

Bugrit, I'm only a day behind you now. Enjoy w6 tomorrow. I think you should think about entering a 5k. You're 3 weeks away from being able to run the distance. How pamazing does that feel?! I'm torn between going on to improvets 5k and starting the 10k programme. I was all set to enter the great Manchester run in may with zz but she's fallen off the thread somewhere and even a pm doesn't raise her.

Tidy - how on earth did you get to w8? You're bloody brilliant. How does it feel to be on the cusp of 5k?

Kickassangel congraTulations on starting. I think c25k is awesome. It's not too challenging but it really works and you can keep repeating weeks until you are ready to move on.

This thread is great for moral support but we're not so hot on useful advice cos we're only 6-8 weeks ahead of you. There is a proper runners' thread - they can probably answer questions. Whilst they run scary distances at scary speeds they do seem friendly and they know LOADS.

lemmings - only just read the whole thread & seen what a hard time you've had. My commiserations. You sound like you've been pretty fit previously, whereas I have never been fit.

Unlikely to run outside for a while as a) people would see me and b)it gets down to -25C here in winter.

At that temp, the inside of nose/mouth freezes as you breathe in! The treadmill is pointed at the TV, so I can do this & watch TV or listen to ipod. The gym I go to also has TVs so I shouldn't get bored (I hope)

Too scared to go on any of the REAL running boards - that implies that I am actually some kind of a runner. I may lurk a little.

Tomorrow is the big test - school starts, so I need to hit the treadmill at 6.30 to get up & out on time. No way will I do any running after working all day, so it has to be the morning.

But this is my New Year's Resolution, so I have to do it.

Kickass, where are you? -25 sounds a bit parky. Treadmill definitely the way to go. I much prefer being outside, personally, as it comes with advantages like seeing how much further you can run each time, and allowing you to run slightly quicker intervals to the next tree. When does spring arrive in your part or the world?

I found a thread here the other day which claimed to be full of people who were overweight, over forty, and just starting out on fitness programmes. I'm on my phone so can't easily link to it but they might be good people to talk to too.

Thx. Life has been q bit tough just recently but we've all survived and are moving onwards and along a bit.
I was quite fit once, but only because at 32 I had the insane notion of doing a 126 mile canoe race. I worked hard for it, trained 4 times a week and got reasonably fit and did the race twice. Until then I didn't really do exercise. Infact I really didn't do exercise and was a short, fat, spotty child with glasses who couldn't run for a bus! Lost the fat as a student but didnt do any regular exercise until I was in my 30s. One thing I found was that paddle training became a habit and then it became much easier and it got me fit enough to even consider running.

Welcome kickass feel free to lurk and post. We don't take ourselves too seriously here . I agree re outdoors - you get much more of a buzz with the wind whistling past your ears. Plus you can do house envy . Maybe when you are more confident and it's not so sodding cold where you are you can try.
I'm still in shock that I'm nearly there - the body is an amazing thing, I am/ was so out of shape and I can see the difference. My legs are looking better than they ever have. Now need to tone up my huge 3-babies- in - 3 1/2 years belly and upper body. Thinking of doing a Zumba class once a week.
Re knees- mine is starting to bother me, my brother who is a real runner says its the cartilage and needs to be strapped up before a run. Says don't buy cheap tube thing, need to pay out for a decent one.
kickass it's so worth it. Give it a bash.

Right - got up at 6.30 & did day 3.

I'm in northern USA - close to Canada, hence the cold winters. As I said, loads of my work seem to do running & there are lots of 5 k races in spring/autumn, so I think there are things I can aim for.

Thanks for the encouragement. I have never really been fit, but I think I'm dangerously close to tipping over the edge into never being able to recover. Because of the various (minor but long-lasting )injuries, I've gradually done less & less until I'm practically sedentary. Someone I work with is a year older than me, overweight (but not as much as me) and ran the Chicago half marathon this summer. If she can do it, so can I - eventually.