Always keep on running

[davidn]

I'm really glad that I started keeping this graph now, because in addition to the reward of being able to just add to the curve every time I come back from the gym, it gives me a permanent reminder of where I was before I started all of this. Experiencing such gradual improvement over time, it's easy to forget how much I've improved... it's hard to imagine that having to alternate running and walking for minute-long stretches used to be too difficult for me to keep up for twenty minutes.

I feel the difference on every tier of the plan, though. Week 3 started off as pretty much identical in difficulty to week 2 (or it felt like it - now I look at it, it was obviously a steady increase), but introduced running for longer periods of time. When I took a further step up to week 4 and did the first workout where I was running for five straight minutes twice during a session, I actually felt that that was my peak and that it was more painful than enjoyable now - but after extending the week slightly and gradually trying to extend the periods where I was running, I absolutely snoozed through the fifth workout this afternoon without even the power of metal to keep me going.

I'm seeing distances of over two miles pop up on the display for the first time now in my half-hour sessions, and am capable of running for eight minutes non-stop at a stretch. Perhaps on Sunday I'll allow myself to move up a level again and start the cycle once more.

I still weigh one hundred and seventy-one pounds.

Comments

[kjorteo]

The number on the scale shouldn't be your primary objective just yet. I didn't actually lose significant amounts of weight until after I had fully graduated the entirety of the Couch to 5K plan and then moved on to HIIT tables, another procedural workout chart with a more advanced method of alternating "thirty seconds moderate jogging, thirty seconds sprinting like the axe murderer is right behind you" for an ever-increasing amount of repetitions as the weeks go on. This obviously assumes a level of fitness such that jogging more slowly (which, again, slower jogging is around 5.5 mph for me but I'm like ten feet tall and 90% legs) actually recovers energy.

It sounds discouraging when I put it like that, like that's how insane you'll have to be if you want to actually lose weight or something, but that's not my point at all. My point is that your current objective is to improve your stamina/endurance/etc. and you have clearly noticed by now how well that's going for you without my even having to say it. This is the same process I went through, and It is nothing short of beautiful to observe your own progression, to do things you didn't used to be able to do, and to look back and marvel at how you used to not be able to do them. It used to be just as hard for me to fathom "wait, now they want me to go eight whole minutes uninterrupted? Surely they're joking" and then somehow I ran a 13.1-mile half-marathon, running the entire thing and never breaking into a walk despite crippling foot injuries for the entire last three miles. And I'm not some sort of physically-gifted superhero! (Well, okay, I'm tall and leggy, but that just affects how fast my speeds at various how-hard-I'm-working levels actually are, not how exhausting it may or may not be to actually work at said levels.) "If I can do it, anyone can" is kind of a cliched phrase, but it's true, and you're proving it by being just as capable so far as I was (just at an earlier point in your progression.)

Anyway, my point is that you are getting fit, which is a remarkable thing and you should absolutely see it through. Once you reach the level where you're just regularly active and so long as your eating habits aren't too atrocious, your actual weight will eventually get the hint and take care of itself. (Weight training can actually help with this, but, you know, one thing at a time.)