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Training update

zuzu

So I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I signed up to do a fun run on November 3. I figured I’d keep myself honest by reporting my training progress.

I’ve just completed Week 1 of the Cool Running Couch-to-5K program. Why week 1 and not week 2? Some knee trouble last week, which took a little time to work out via stretching and lots of painful poking around at tight bits on my hamstring, calf, quads and ITB. It’s still bothering me, but not enough that I feel like I can’t run. I got new shoes yesterday, which made a big difference, too.

Fall weather is also a big help, as is the fact that I can now wear a light jacket with pocketses. No more trying to juggle keys, poop bags and the leash at once!

Amusingly, Junebug punks out before I do, and she’s just trotting along. Of course, she perks up just fine when a squirrel crosses her path, especially the ones who go halfway up the tree trunk and then mock her from just out of reach.

14 thoughts on Training update

  1. Hooray! I took up Couch to 5k recently myself, and have just finished Week 2 as of Friday.

    I spent two years trying to convince myself to just suck up the fact that the gym made me feel horrible about myself because I don’t have a “perfect” model-thin body. Couldn’t ever do it. Just too many bad vibes in there. Couch to 5k is such a relief to me.

    Are you using the Couch to 5k podcast?

  2. Yay!

    I just started Week 4 which means I can now keep running for 5 minutes straight without wanting to die (and even enjoy myself!), which is something I couldn’t do a month ago, so I third the Couch to 5k love.

  3. I keep trying to start this program and then putting it off. I think I need a running buddy to help me get off my ass.

  4. Good luck! 🙂 Keep in mind that running can be quite addictive. I started a few years ago and plan to run my first marathon in January. If you asked me five years ago, I never would have thought I could run a mile.

  5. CONGRATS!!! There are some knee wraps out there that really helped me when I first started running and was having problems. Running is addictive, but it took a long time for it to get that way for me, so don’t get down if you’re not having the “this is great!!” feeling yet.. For the first 6 months it kinda sucked—but I was pretty out of shape. It took me 13 minutes to run a single mile (and I thought I had a collapsed lung afterwards). I just today (3 1/2 years later) ran 9 miles at a 9 minute mile pace!! Be sure to cross train when the aches and pains get to be annoying or else they will only get worse!

  6. Good on you for getting up and doing it! It feels great every time you go a little farther and yes, it does become addicting.

    I just ran my first half marathon and I still can’t believe I did it. I started running many years ago but became really serious this summer while training for this half marathon. Running buddies definitely help out. Now I have a partner who I have started running in shorter runs around town with.

    Oh, and yes… good shoes are most important.

    Run on!

  7. Oh, fine, make me feel guilty for saying every week that I’m going to start going to the gym again and not doing it. 🙁

    If I could just figure out how to knit on the exercise bike without (a) feeling conspicuous and (b) getting the yarn all nasty and sweaty, I would so be there. Really. I swear.

  8. cheers from Kiev, a city of girls who are astonishingly beautiful, smart, and athletic. the sight of a chubby one like you plodding along in her comfortable new running shoes for a 1k jog is a sight I do not miss. oh, and although Ukraine is a relatively poor country, people here are far too sophisticated for the kind of non-sense you peddle. “Ta,” as you would say, you smug dumb bunny. and yes, there is a difference between a size 2 dress and size 18. I wish you luck in someday squeezing into a size 14.

  9. Wow. I haven´t felt sorrier for Russia since Chernobyl.

    Zuzu: congratulations on training going so well–I know how hard it can be to create a program and stick with it early on, particularly if it´s one that you´re not used to. I can´t run more than a couple hundred feet anymore, thanks to my murdered knees, but I know how great it feels to get exercise in the fresh air. You´re making me miss my long bike rides.

    And good for you for stretching regularly. I´m terrible at that, and my body knows it.

  10. Zuzu, good for you! I remember when I first started running, age 20, after 20 years of essential inactivity and a lot of disordered eating patterns. Pushing myself and getting to that “hell yeah!” part of running was what really taught me to love my body for the first time ever.

    It does suck a bit, at first, but soon you’re going to be feeling awesome. The thing that really inspired me was reading (probably in Runner’s World or something) that, from the first time you lace up your shoes and hit the pavement, you’re a RUNNER. How cool is that? How unlike the way you conceived of yourself yesterday is that? It got me, at any rate.

    Anyway, yes, congrats, and well done so far.

  11. I hear y’all on the addictiveness. I had been a runner for a while — got started in law school, and continued thereafter, but about 7 years ago I took a nasty spill while running and fucked up my ankle. Like, bone chips in the joint fucked up. And because of the limping, that fucked up my knees over the long term.

    I’ve really been missing it. I got surgery on my ankle, and got my knee figured out in terms of what sets it off, and I’ve been lifting weights seriously for about a year. So this is a good time to do this. And my goal for next year is to do all five boroughs’ half-marathons.

  12. Damn, now you’ve made me want to do it again. I love walking, I just don’t give myself the time to do it. So healthy, yet I feel so guilty taking time for myself when I have so many other demands on my time. The summer before last I realized that I liked running, too, when I started playing with jogging on the downhill part of my daily walk. Got to where I could jog about a half of a mile straight, but then the cold weather and school hit and I decided I didn’t have time for it. I hate being so guilt-laden that I won’t even take care of myself.

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  14. hee hee, I love running with my dog for this same reason. She’s just a stubby little girl so she starts to beg off after the second block or so, but then she spies a squirrel or a cat and cries wee wee wee wee all the way through the next mile and a half. It is hilarious and awesome.

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