Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Graduation Day

Well, I did it. I'm a Couch to 5K graduate. Again. For a third time, actually. Over the last 9 weeks I've seen the following changes:

1. My shirt collars fit more comfortably.
2. I had to switch to a smaller belt. My pants tend to fall down without a belt now.
3. I don't sweat as much when getting ready in the morning.
4. I don't feel the need to adjust the house thermostat down to sub-arctic temperatures all the time.
5. I dropped from 191 to 174 pounds.
6. I went from being able to run for 30 seconds to being able to run for 30 minutes.

Not too shabby. I didn't hit my goal weight of 167, but I'm not done yet. I'm going to continue on with "One Hour Runner" - the training for that is similar to C25k, with three runs a week, getting progressively longer over a 9 week period. It starts where C25k leaves off. The running schedule is as follows:

Week 1: Run 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes
Weekly total: 90 minutes
Week 2: Run 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes
Weekly total: 90 minutes
Week 3: Run 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes
Weekly total: 90 minutes
Week 4: Run 30 minutes, 29 minutes, 35 minutes
Weekly total: 94 minutes
Week 5: Run 30 minutes, 32 minutes, 38 minutes
Weekly total: 100 minutes
Week 6: Run 30 minutes, 33 minutes, 41 minutes
Weekly total: 104 minutes
Week 7: Run 30 minutes, 34 minutes, 45 minutes
Weekly total: 109 minutes
Week 8: Run 30 minutes, 36 minutes , 49 minutes
Weekly total: 115 minutes
Week 9: Run 30 minutes, 38 minutes, 54 minutes
Weekly total: 122 minutes
Week 10: Run 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes
Weekly total: 130 minutes


I'm also starting a "200 crunches" sit-up program that's similar to C25k. Yesterday I took a test to establish my baseline. Based on the number of sit-ups I can do at present (about 20), I'm supposed to start right at the beginning of the program. That's fine by me. I'm using CrunchFu to keep track of my progress.

As for today's graduation run, it was pretty typical: There was a beautiful full moon lighting my way. A black cat ran across my path. I ran into huge spider webs not once, but twice. The threads of the webs stuck to my clothes and skin and floated behind me as I ran, like a race finish-line ribbon. All pretty much par for the course.


3 comments:

  1. I just finished the c25k program too so I am going to tag along with your programs. Where is the information on the 200 crunch program?

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. The 200 Crunch program is an iPhone app I'm using, called CrunchFu. It's pretty nice.

    Congrats on your graduation!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great information you have hear. This is truly inspirational and I hope it inspires at least one more person to take their health and fitness more seriously. Thanks for Sharing this secret.
    Green Tea

    ReplyDelete