Tag: couch to 5k training

Feeling Like a Failure Today

I made the decision last night before going to bed. I was going to sleep a little late and skip today’s running. I just knew I didn’t have a 30 minute trot around the neighborhood in me. My legs were still sore from almost 48 hours before, I was stone dead tired all day yesterday, I just wanted to wake up an hour or so late and go down cellar and watch Star Trek Strange New Worlds and just not worry about running. I did the running in place thing (pronounced yogging) instead so my exercise ring is closed.

So in other words, I feel like a total failure today. That’s nice.

Where do we go from here? I am not sure. I should do a run tomorrow and get myself back on track. Instead, I might give myself another day and then get back to it on Saturday. I am also considering going back two trainings and instead of doing week three, run two, I would do week two, run three. Week three, run one kicked my ass so thoroughly I feel like I need to build back up to it and then try it again. We’ll see.

I don’t think I am ready to quit yet. I ain’t no quitter, but… maybe in a few days I will be. I don’t know. We will have to wait and see how complete a failure I end up being.

Week Three, Run One

Each time I got out for a run it is exponentially worse than all the times before combined. This morning was no different. To be blunt, that fucking sucked.

One minute walking followed by one minute running, repeated 15 times. Adding in a little cool down walk at the end where the coach lady wouldn’t shut the hell up, it worked out to 31 minutes and 17 seconds and a total of 2.29 miles burning 244 calories.

I was never feeling good about any of it at any point but it wasn’t until maybe the sixth repeat that I started feeling in really rough shape. After repeat number nine I was strongly considering just stopping and going home. After 12 I just said the hell with it and finished. The next run will be Thursday and it will be the same as today. I am wondering if I should repeat it a time or two more after that before moving on to the next thing. I wonder if building up a little extra stamina might be a good idea. We will see how I feel on Saturday when we get to the scheduled end of week three.

Until Thursday’s run then, I think I am going to sit on the couch and hope my legs start working again. I’m not feeling terribly optimistic about that just now.

Two Weeks Down

Wow, did that ever suck.

Today marked the third workout of the second week of the Runkeeper app’s My First 5K training. Each of the three trainings this week, and the last one from week one too, have found me increasingly convinced that I am not going to be able to finish this program. I know the whole point of this is to be challenging and to increase my endurance and all of that fun stuff, but each time I go outside and for one of these walks/runs I am questioning my sanity more and more.

Today was 10 rounds of walking for two minutes and running for one. I made it through six before I had any real difficulty, but I think it was after three that I started to doubt whether or not I was going to be able to finish. Eventually I got far enough along that I knew I would finish today but the doubt transfered to whether or not I would be able to finish the next run, or the one after that.

Is my endurance and stamina increasing? Yes. Absolutely. When I think ahead to the next run knowing that the format will change to one minute of walking followed by one minute of running repeated 15 times, do I feel like my endurance and stamina have increased enough that I can pull the next workout off? No. Not even a little bit.

This could just be me being a pessimist, but I really cannot see me being able to run 3.1 miles at a time without stopping. It just feels like an impossible ask. Am I saying that come Tuesday morning when it is time for me to go outside and try week three run one I am going to say no thank you? No, I don’t think I am there yet. I don’t think I am quitting. I just think that I can see myself quitting at some point in the near future. Maybe I’ll surprise myself but… maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll come up with something else.

We’ll see.

Week Two, Run Two

Two minutes walking, one minute running, repeat eight times. I cannot express how much that sucked. It was different than two days ago, somehow. It seemed tolerable until the last two rounds on Wednesday. Today it got harder much earlier, but at the end I don’t think it felt as tough as it did at the end last time. I’m not really sure how to describe it.

I took a slightly different route this time. Instead of just going around the circle I went down the road a ways. My map looks different and that’s something, at least. The next run will be on Sunday and that will be two minutes walking, one minute running, repeated 10 times. That is going to suck out loud.

I knew this was going to be a tough challenge, but it’s difficult enough that I would not be surprised if I abandon this little quest at some point. I don’t know if I have running a 5k in me. I am not ready to give up, I just won’t be upset with myself if I get further along in this process and come to the conclusion that I am just not a runner.

Maybe if that happens I’ll take up bike riding. Probably not.

When I got back to the house, this scene was waiting for me.

How much is that kitty in the window? Meow Meow

The Streak is Over and What About Tomorrow?

My guitar playing streak is over. I lost count of how many days in a row I played for at least a few minutes. It was almost three weeks, I think. I failed to get any playing in yesterday. Oh well.

This morning before leaving for the doctors appointment I was able to get some work done though. Jen is in the office today so I had some quiet time in the house alone and I used it to record some vocals. I put them onto the 10th and final June song and two more May songs. I think I have six May songs still waiting for lyrics and vocals. I have decided to extend the deadline for the May songs to July 3rd. I am not extending the deadline for the June songs. Those need to be wrapped up by Friday. I only have one guitar part to add and then mix the final five and that’s it. No problem, he said with false confidence that probably wasn’t really that false.

I thought I was going to get back onto the photography bus today. Film, to be specific. As I was getting my shit together to go to the doctors appointment I looked out the window and saw sun gleaming into the back yard. Right. I grabbed Dad’s camera. I didn’t know where I was going to go after the appointment, but I was going somewhere. Then when I actually got outside and got in the car, the sky was clouded over and ugly and sad. Oh well. The day is coming. It’s summer now. Film photography. Digital photography. All over the place in Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire and maybe even more places than that. I want Boston. I want light houses. I want to go shootin’. Ideally I want to go shootin’ with other folks, but if I have to do it alone at the crack of dawn then that’s what I am going to do. You heard it here first, folks.

What should I do tomorrow? Tomorrow is my work from the office day. I will start the day in Foxborough, which is about a million and a half miles away from my house. I will need to be on the road by 7:30am.

Should I try to get my couch to 5k training in? Tomorrow is the day that it should happen, as I am trying to do this every other day, but I was planning on pushing it off until the day after. If I get up at 5:00am and get right the hell out the door and start, then I should be done by 5:30. That would give me more than enough time to do everything I want to do, including recover from the exercise and watch episode two of Marvel’s Secret Invasion.

I am undecided. If I am out of bed by, let’s say, 5:05am then I will do it. Tomorrow’s plan is to switch from walk for three minutes and run for one minute, repeating eight times to walk for two minutes and run for one minute, repeated eight times. I fully expect my legs to fall off. It’s going to be freakin’ brutal, but it should also take less time than yesterday did. We’ll see.

Okay. That’s enough for now. Back to work, Robert.

That Sucked

There were a number of possible titles for this post. Hills. Don’t Get Cocky. The App Crashed. The App Lied to Me. In the end I summarized them all by just going with That Sucked.

I tried to get a little creative with today’s couch to 5k thing. I varied my route a little. That was a mistake. That put my running times right onto the worst hilly spots in the neighborhood. Uphill, every time I was on a run. Yeah, that sucked. Way to be an arrogant ass, Robert. Add to that the app crashing twice as I was starting. That lead to my watch not tracking things, which lead to me trying to get the watch to work which lead to the phone not tracking anymore, though the voice over continued. That means the app doesn’t think I finished workout number three, and it doesn’t have about half of the workout’s stats, including my much varied map. Stupid app. Add to that the app telling me, as the voice over was finishing, that workout number three is the last free workout and now I have to subscribe. It didn’t tell me how much a subscription costs, but thanks a lot for the bait and switch, you lying asswipes.

I guess the upside is that I did workout number three, which is eight minutes longer than numbers one and two. Walk for three minutes, run for one, repeat eight times instead of six times. That means I closed my workout ring for the day. That’s nice. I have to do this workout again in order for it to track in the app, but I was thinking of doing that anyway because I had such a tough time with it.

Also, I visited the stone state line marker and took a picture with my phone. This thing is on the short list of things to shoot on film. Someday.

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