"Are we there yet?": My journey from the couch to a 1/2 marathon!

[J-2]

Hi everyone!

After reading so many other journals and being so inspired by them, I've decided to start my own so that I can have a record of my progress going from a couch potato to a half marathoner! I can't believe I just wrote "half marathoner". I have always HATED running up until April of this year. Something changed and it's been great!

A little bit of background about me. I'm 34 and married to my wonderful and supportive husband with a 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. I was very athletic growing up having played soccer and then basketball through high school. I went off to college and that's where my slacking off began. I would do 5K's here and there with family, but never truly enjoyed the experience. In college I took a running course to help satisfy my PE credits and we had to run a 10K as part of our "final". I was in no way prepared and cursed every step I took during that race. I pretty much gave up all forms of exercise after that.

After having my kids, and weighing more than I ever had, I decided it was time to finally get serious about being healthy and a good example to them. I tried all different things but could never stay motivated enough to follow through.

Well, in April 2011, while browsing the web about an upcoming Disney trip I had planned I stumbled across this forum and read about the Princess half marathon. I decided I wanted to experience it for myself (and have another excuse to go back to WDW) so I began reading about how to train for it. That's when I discovered the C25K program and decided to go for it! Because of the gradual building up of running on the program, I have actually enjoyed running and look forward to the days I get to run. It's so hard to believe that I feel that way about running now!

Currently, I have completed week 7 of C25K and just did a 5K this morning, a few weeks before finishing the program. I wanted to do the Race for the Cure with a friend and the timing was close enough. I had a goal of 36:00 and just missed it, but was still very happy with my 36:38 time! I will say that at this point with C25K, I'm supposed to be running the whole time, but have learned that about 20-22 minutes of straight running is about all I can do. I really like the Galloway method of run/walk intervals much better. I'm thinking I will probably stick with that.

So in a nutshell….

Started C25K in April 2011 (only missed one week of training while at Disney)
Typical week:
Mon- Yoga or strength training
Tues- Run
Wed- Strength training
Thur- Run/Yoga
Fri- Rest
Sat- Run
Sun- Rest

I will finish with C25K in two weeks and then we are off on vacation for a week. When we get back I plan to start getting ready for a 10K in August with the ultimate goal of the Princess half marathon in 2012!


Thanks for reading and your comments and support are appreciated!

 

[LeslieLou]

Jennifer - Congrats for starting your journal! I can't wait to hear about your progress. I started training with Galloway's program several weeks ago and started a journal at that time. It's been great to be able to have a record of my journey and the support of the DISers.

All the best on your running! -Leslie

 

[J-2]

Jennifer - Congrats for starting your journal! I can't wait to hear about your progress. I started training with Galloway's program several weeks ago and started a journal at that time. It's been great to be able to have a record of my journey and the support of the DISers.

All the best on your running! -Leslie

Thanks so much! I've enjoyed reading yours too. Good luck with your training!

 

[J-2]

My friend and I decided to stay at a hotel that was about a block away from the starting line of the race. Kind of silly when you think about it...a local race and I literally live about 10 minutes away from where the race was being held. Oh well, it gave us the opportunity to sleep in as late as possible and not deal with traffic. We rolled out of bed about 7:30 and the race started at 8am!

I wasn't very hungry when we were leaving so I decided to leave my little energy bar in the room. By the time we got down to the start line I was STARVING! Oops.

We were about middle to back of the group of runners at the start. Once we passed the start line it was about another 3 minutes before there was kind of a break to start running...and I was itching to get going. My friend was planning to walk most of it and she had another friend there that stayed with her. So, I went ahead and took off.

I decided I was going to try and run as much as possible and then go into doing run/walk intervals. Beyond that, I hadn't really given much thought to anything else. All was going fairly well until I got close to 2.5 miles. At that point I went to run/walk intervals of 5:1. It's what I had already set on my watch and at that point I was wishing I had set it to something more like 2:1 or 3:1. I know I didn't really follow it though and ended up walking more then. I'm sure if I had thought it thru better I would have not been to the point of exhaustion for the last part of the run.

I had a goal in my mind of 36:00 based on how my training runs were going even though I had yet to run 3 miles. I looked down at my watch on the last little stretch and realized I was 40 seconds away from not making my goal. I gave it all I had and ended up finishing at 36:38. I'll take it!

In the end, I'm very happy with how I did today and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Here are the stats from my nifty and awesome Garmin that I bought as sort of a reward to getting to this point.

Average pace overall: 11:38/mi
Mile 1: 11:26/mi
Mile 2: 11:13/mi
Mile 3: 12:29/mi


Looking forward to the next one!

 

[skinnieminnie123]

Hi everyone!

After reading so many other journals and being so inspired by them, I've decided to start my own so that I can have a record of my progress going from a couch potato to a half marathoner! I can't believe I just wrote "half marathoner". I have always HATED running up until April of this year. Something changed and it's been great!

A little bit of background about me. I'm 34 and married to my wonderful and supportive husband with a 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. I was very athletic growing up having played soccer and then basketball through high school. I went off to college and that's where my slacking off began. I would do 5K's here and there with family, but never truly enjoyed the experience. In college I took a running course to help satisfy my PE credits and we had to run a 10K as part of our "final". I was in no way prepared and cursed every step I took during that race. I pretty much gave up all forms of exercise after that.

After having my kids, and weighing more than I ever had, I decided it was time to finally get serious about being healthy and a good example to them. I tried all different things but could never stay motivated enough to follow through.

Well, in April 2011, while browsing the web about an upcoming Disney trip I had planned I stumbled across this forum and read about the Princess half marathon. I decided I wanted to experience it for myself (and have another excuse to go back to WDW) so I began reading about how to train for it. That's when I discovered the C25K program and decided to go for it! Because of the gradual building up of running on the program, I have actually enjoyed running and look forward to the days I get to run. It's so hard to believe that I feel that way about running now!

Currently, I have completed week 7 of C25K and just did a 5K this morning, a few weeks before finishing the program. I wanted to do the Race for the Cure with a friend and the timing was close enough. I had a goal of 36:00 and just missed it, but was still very happy with my 36:38 time! I will say that at this point with C25K, I'm supposed to be running the whole time, but have learned that about 20-22 minutes of straight running is about all I can do. I really like the Galloway method of run/walk intervals much better. I'm thinking I will probably stick with that.

So in a nutshell….

Started C25K in April 2011 (only missed one week of training while at Disney)
Typical week:
Mon- Yoga or strength training
Tues- Run
Wed- Strength training
Thur- Run/Yoga
Fri- Rest
Sat- Run
Sun- Rest

I will finish with C25K in two weeks and then we are off on vacation for a week. When we get back I plan to start getting ready for a 10K in August with the ultimate goal of the Princess half marathon in 2012!


Thanks for reading and your comments and support are appreciated!

I am impressed! Thanks for listing your schedule of training. I think I'll try that and look up the Galloway method, too. Congratulations on a great race! I'm planning on doing the Princess 1/2 marathon in 2013-can't get there any sooner unfortunately, so I have plenty of time to get in shape. Good luck with your training!!

 

[Retye81]

Great job on your 5k time! You'll be ready for the 1/2 in no time.

What type of Garmin do you have? I'm thinking about getting one.

 

[J-2]

Great job on your 5k time! You'll be ready for the 1/2 in no time.

What type of Garmin do you have? I'm thinking about getting one.

Thanks!

I just bought the Forerunner 610...the one that came out not too long ago. It came with a hefty price tag but I really wanted the vibration alert feature for the run/walk intervals since I run while listening to music. It also is VERY easy to set up the run/walk intervals since that is already built into the menu. The others may have that but I'm not sure. Lastly, it's not so big like some of the other models I tried on.

 

[Retye81]

Awesome, I'm going to check that out. It seems like just what I need to help me along my way! Keep up the good work.

 

[J-2]

Completed W8D1 today! Supposed to run for 28 minutes, but I decided to do 2:1 run/walk intervals since I had to run on the treadmill. Overall, I felt SO much better at the end of the run by doing intervals instead of trying to run the whole time.

Stats:
2.2 miles for 28 minutes
Avg pace 12:43
Run speed set to 5.0 mph
Walk speed set to 4.0 mph
2:1 interval


Going to try and increase the run speed on Thursday's run and see how that feels.

 

[J-2]

W8D2 done! I tried increasing the treadmill speed on the runs, but it felt harder so I dropped it back down halfway thru. For some reason my legs felt tired and heavy the whole workout. Hadn't really done anything different beforehand so I'm not sure what was up!

Stats:
2.24 miles for 28 minutes

Average pace 12:29
Run speed on treadmill set to 5.3mph (for first half) and 5.0mph (for the second half)
Walk speed on treadmill set to 4.0mph
2:1 intervals

I finally bought a little fan to put on the treadmill to keep cool. The ceiling fan in that room I have the treadmill set up in was not cutting it!

I'll complete week 8 this Saturday and will get to run outside. Yay!

I also signed up yesterday for a 10K race in August in Texas! Yea, it's going to be hot.

 

[Retye81]

I also signed up yesterday for a 10K race in August in Texas! Yea, it's going to be hot.

Oh man, good luck with that! Make sure you hydrate really well before and during that race. Congrats on taking the plunge to a 10k, I'll be excited when I do a couple 5ks and can move up to that.

 

[J-2]

Finished up W8D3 last Saturday. Got to run outside which was a nice change even though it was hot and very windy!

Stats:
2.46 miles for 28 min

Avg pace 11:23
Avg speed 5.3mph
2:1 interval


I began W9D1 (last week yay!) today and ran on the treadmill again.

Stats:
2.33 miles for 30 min

Avg pace 12:52
Run speed on treadmill 5.0mph
Walk speed 4.0mph
2:1 interval


I'm so proud at what I have accomplished with C25K and can't believe I'm almost finished with it! We leave for our cruise next week and I was planning to take the week off, but will now continue running while on the cruise since I will be training for the 10K coming up in August!

 

[gudrench3]

Oh man, good luck with that! Make sure you hydrate really well before and during that race. Congrats on taking the plunge to a 10k, I'll be excited when I do a couple 5ks and can move up to that.

J-2...I'm enjoying your journal thus far. I have just started the c25k...and hope to do a 5k in October in Odessa, Texas. Good luck on the 10k...that's very exciting!!! Where is the 10k?

 

[J-2]

J-2...I'm enjoying your journal thus far. I have just started the c25k...and hope to do a 5k in October in Odessa, Texas. Good luck on the 10k...that's very exciting!!! Where is the 10k?

Thank you! Good luck with your 5K! The 10K is in Dallas in August. I must be losing my mind to want to do this in the unbearable heat. It should be interesting.

 

[J-2]

Ran on the treadmill this morning and decided to change up the intervals I was doing to 45s:30s instead of the 2:1. I also thought I should run faster...not sure why I thought this was a good idea. I realized it was too much halfway through the workout so I switched my intervals to 30s:45s (run/walk).

Stats:
2.4 miles for 30 min

Avg pace 12:30
Run speed set to 6.0mph, then 5.5mph for 2nd half
Walk speed set to 4.0mph
45s:30s intervals then switched to 30s:45s

Looking back at some other days, I seem to have a better avg pace when running outside versus the treadmill and I don't feel like it's nearly as hard as the treadmill either. I'm wondering if the distance on my treadmill is not very accurate or something. I don't have a foot pod for my Garmin, but I'm thinking about getting one later just to see if there really is a difference. I also feel like I'm running faster on the treadmill than outside, yet I seem to be slower overall with my time.

In the end however, I'm not looking to set some record time for the half or even the 10K, I just want to finish!

 

[J-2]

I'm so proud of myself for sticking to this workout goal. I usually never make it this far when trying to get going with a new workout routine. I think it really helped to have a concrete goal (run a 5K) versus setting a goal like "I want to stick to an exercise routine just to be healthy, so I'm going to workout 3 days a week", which is good, but not enough of a motivator for me I guess.

Now my next concrete goal is to train for and finish a 10K in August.

Stats:
2.33 for 30 min on treadmill

Avg pace 12:52
5.0mph run speed
4.0mph walk speed
2:1 interval

I also did some ab work afterwards:
50 crunches on stability ball
50 bicycle crunches
planks

It's amazing to look back at week 1 and at how much of a struggle it was to run for 60 seconds! I tell everyone about the C25K program because I really think it's so awesome!

Well, we set sail tomorrow on our family cruise. I'm planning to get in a few runs while there and try not to blow it on all the food!

 

[J-2]

Got home yesterday from our week long cruise and had a wonderful time! I ran twice on the ship and learned that running on a moving ship in a headwind is not that easy. But, I got it done! However, I did NOT eat well the whole week. I think I had A vegetable once the whole trip. Oh well, it's vacation.

Today at home I ran outside in hot and humid weather. It was miserable and was a good reminder of what that 10K in August is going to feel like.
These 30 minute runs are about to get a whole lot longer.

Oh, and I registered today for the Princess half. I'm so excited!!!

Tomorrow will be a strength training day and then a run on Thursday and Saturday or Sunday.

 

[J-2]

Well, I obviously have neglected my journal here. But I'm happy to say I have not been neglecting my journey to a 1/2 marathon!

I did run my 10K back in August that I mentioned before. Here is a little recap of that:
http://thevintagechain.blogspot.com/2011/08/10k-recap.html

I also just completed another one over the weekend with cooler temps!

http://thevintagechain.blogspot.com/2011/09/race-recap-tour-des-fleurs-10k.html


I'm planning to run a couple of 5Ks in the next several weeks. And then training officially starts in October for the Princess!!!

I'm still running 3 times per week and doing the Galloway method using 2:1 intervals currently.

 

[gudrench3]

WAY TO GO!!!! Keep up the good work! I'm headed over to read your blog now too!

 

[J-2]

WAY TO GO!!!! Keep up the good work! I'm headed over to read your blog now too!

Thanks gudrench!