The Healthy Tales

Archive for the ‘exercise’ Category

So last week I totally slacked off. After going to see my doctor and telling her about how I was starting the Couch to 5K program to get back into shape as well as to give myself something to drag myself out of the house and into the gym, I totally whiffed and didn’t make it to the gym once.

So after a week of missing the gym and ordering in at work for an entire week (bleh!), I went back Friday night with Mike and finished week 1 of the couch to 5k program. Just like the previous 2 sessions, it was easy going for the first 2 intervals and then it got harder. I did push through and finish but after taking a week off, I think I am going to do one more week 1 session before jumping into week 2. I think I owe it to my body especially since I went back to the gym yesterday and lifted weights for the first time in what feels like forever. It was definitely a shocker in how out of shape I got so quickly. I learned though and will not be letting this happen again.

So yesterday was Session 2 of the Couch to 5k program. I didn’t do anything special or different than from the first night to prepare. I just grabbed my workout clothes, iPod, a towel, and a water bottle and drug my butt downstairs to the apartment gym and hopped on a treadmill. I would love to tell you that I felt a thousand times better and stronger than the first session but that would be a lie. LOL

I will say though that I felt I started out stronger than last time. I was able to go to a brisk 3.8mph walk to start things off within 2 minutes of starting the session. After that the first two 5 minute intervals of walking/jogging went by really fast and I was feeling really good. Then, once that timer turned past 15 minutes in, I started feeling it and noticing how out of shape I am. I didn’t give up and I didn’t turn the treadmill down but I did think about it a few times.

So by the end of the 25 minutes required by the program I had covered 1.74 miles (up .01 miles from session 1) and burned 170 calories. I also bumped my walking up to 3.8mph vs. 3.7mph and kept my jogging flat at 5.0mph.

I also pressed forward and did another 5 minute walk at 3.8mph, one 5 minuter interval, and then another 5 minute walk before cooling down for the night. I definitely felt like I had pushed myself but in a good way. We’ll see in the morning though what happens. I am hoping to finish week 1 tomorrow before jumping into the car and heading to Baton Rouge for the weekend. It will probably be rough as I am not too sleepy right now and then still up typing in this blog post and I need to wake up early for a doctor’s appointment. Riding an exercise bike for 40 minutes tonight didn’t help either. Oh well. No pain no gain right?

I’ve read about the Couch to 5k program a few times before. I’ve never given it a try as I am not a runner and the few times in my exercise life where I have become a runner, I didn’t need to rotate walking and running. Rather, I would just push myself and start running as I was in moderately good shape. This time around though I am more out of shape than I have been before or at least I feel that way and pushing has been leaving me tired and in pain.

So I decided to revisit the Couch to 5k program. If you are unfamiliar with it the link is here.  Everything seems very easy and straightforward.  You follow the program 3 times a week for 9 weeks and before you know it you are running a full 5k (3.3 miles roughly).  Week 1 requires a brisk walk/jog combination.  At first glance, warming up via a walk for 5 minutes and then alternating 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes sounds like nothing bad.  It actually seems easy and kind of wussy when you are use to running for 20-30 minutes (a year ago of course).

Off I went down to the treadmill and I started up my 5 minute walk – 2.5 minutes at 3.6mph and 2.5 minutes at 3.7mph.  Felt really nice and easy.  Then I started the interval portion.  The first 5 minutes were great, second 5 minutes and I’m feeling a nice sweat, the last 10 minutes I couldn’t believe this program was kicking my butt but I kept going.  I finished off pretty strongly but I’m curious to see how I progress as I was no where near 3.3 miles tonight.

Here are my final stats:

Day 1, Week 1

1.73 Miles

168 calories burned

25 minutes

Day 2, Week 1- Tuesday night!

Good grief! I will admit that for the past month I have been fairly lazy. I think in the month of September I went to the gym all of 3 times which is translated to be approximately 10%. There was no real good reason I skipped the gym other than I was being lazy and had absolutely no drive to go.

I didn’t think skipping for a month would be a big deal. I mean look at this past summer, I skipped most of July due to the wedding and then exercised off and on between January and June. Each time I picked myself back up and went to the gym, it was fairly easy to get into the swing of things and there was no revolution from my body. Rather, everything felt good, the stress was going away, and I felt re-energized.

This time around has been a whole ‘nother story as I like to say. I am tense, achy, and quite tired these past two days from exercising. I thought possibly that I just overdid things yesterday by spending an hour on the elliptical machine after taking the month off so I turned things down a small notch tonight – 35 minutes on the treadmill. I hate to say but I’m still not feeling much better about this whole exercise thing. I’m hoping that once I start lifting weights and take some of the focus away from cardio workouts that I’ll start feeling better and re-energized.

I think I’m going to pop an IB Profin and then take a warm bath so I can rest up and do it all over again tomorrow. The results are worth it, it is just a battle to get there!

I realize I’ve been a tad lazy around here.  Ooops!  I keep finding ideas on things to write about and then midnight hits and it is time to go to bed and I haven’t even started a draft.  Tonight though I am up because my feet are killing me.  I went to a friend of mine’s wedding on Saturday and my friend who was driving decided to park in a garage that wasn’t as close to the church as we originally thought.  I can’t remember how many blocks we actually walked but it seemed to be at least 8 city blocks in my 3.5 inch brand new heels with absolutely no padding on the soles.  Talk about some painful and huge blisters.  I am so glad I brought a pair of gladiator sandals with padding along for the ride as I was able to slip into them between the ceremony and the reception.

So why the ouch?  Well, last night Mike and I went to the gym and I did a session of light weights and a little cardio on the eliptical machine.  I thought my feet were in better shape so I decided tonight to jump onto the treadmill for 50 minutes – 25 running, 25 walking – and by the time I got off I think I reaggrevated the blisters on the balls of my feet.  Ouch!  I hope the light pain goes away by morning and I can just go back to light weights and some light cardio on the eliptical tomorrow night.  I need my gym time and these blisters are in my way! LOL.