So on March 13, 2012 I officially started my c25k program. I told myself that I had to finish it, it didn't matter how many weeks I spent on each training week. I was hoping that I would just do each week twice and then move on to the next. That was the best case scenario in my head.
Week one is just 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking over and over for 20 minutes. Easy enough, I thought. I wore a stop watch and headed out the door. Lucky for me there is a beautiful paved trail about a half mile from my house. I used that half mile as a warm up. I didn't want to jog on the main road in case anyone saw me. I got to the trail, hit start on my stopwatch and started running. I looked down when I thought it was getting close to 60 seconds. The watch said about 20 seconds had passed! Ugh, this was not going to be as easy as I thought. I did manage to finish though and felt quite accomplished.
When I finished week one, I decided that I would just run week one again. Week two involved 90 seconds of running followed by 2 minute walks for 20 minutes. I didn't think 90 seconds was an option for me yet. I hit the trail and started running. As 60 seconds approached, I was about to have a group of runners run past me. I couldn't just stop in front of them! So I figured I would keep going until they passed. Once they passed, I looked down. It had been almost 80 seconds of running so I stuck it out for 90 seconds. When I realized I survived, I decided I was officially on week 2!
The first day of week 3, my husband decided that he wanted to run with me too. That day had 90 second runs and three minute runs, with walking breaks. I thought I would die during the 3 minute runs. I remember telling him, near tears, "I just can't do this." My husband seemed to think I was crazy, but reminded me that I could. And I did. I swear that day was still the hardest day of c25k for me. I don't know what it was. It may have been having my husband there which made me try to run faster or perhaps trying to talk and run for the first time. Either way, I didn't quit there even though I really, really wanted to. I rested one day and tackled the rest of week 3.
Everything else progressed without any big events. I did end up downloading a free c25k app so that it would just beep when I needed to switch from running to walking. The times weren't as constant as the first few weeks so it was getting harder to remember the increments and I thought it would be helpful to not just stare at the watch.
Week 5, day 3 is always the most dreaded day. The program expects you to go from running the longest time of 10 minutes, to a solid 20 minute run. Did I read that right? That was the first run that I did not want to take little lady on. I waited until my husband came home and went out alone. I did it! The was such an amazing feeling. You would have thought I just ran a marathon. I think I texted all of my friends, "I just ran for 20 minutes!" Haha, I am lame.
From that moment on, I knew I would finish the program.I finished it on May 4 and was so proud! I was bummed that my first official 5k wasn't until August.
Throughout my c25k I wasn't really focusing on my diet. However, I did manage to drop about ten pounds. This was the first time I realized that I was losing weight without focusing on it. I had never found any workout that I really enjoyed or managed to stick to it for 2 months. This felt like the beginning of a journey to a healthy weight. A weight I could be happy at and maintain.
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