The C25K program consists of three workouts per week for nine weeks. This is the results of the workout for week seven, day two, third attempt.

Program: 25 minute run.

Result: I completed the workout as planned. My heart rate averaged 149 bpm and peaked at 167 bpm. I did 1.69 miles in 25:20 for an average speed of 4.0 mph (15:00 minute/mile).

I was still running a couple degree fever, but needed to run anyway.  It had been too long since I ran last and the urge to run again was strong.  I also didn’t want to wait too long as I might lose some conditioning and would then have to restart at a lower level.  I definitely did not want to regress.  So, I ran.  But, this time, I had some pointers to follow.

I had been doing some research on various running techniques such as POSE and ChiRunning.  I liked the gradual progress of the ChiRunning and finally decided to try it.  I picked up Danny Dreyer’s ChiRunning book and have started to read it.  This provided many things I could think about while running.  For this run, I tried to focus mostly on BodySensing.  Am I landing with even pressure on my feet, left/right and front/back?  Am I maintaining my column, keeping my dots, head, hip, and ankles, in a line when landing?  When I first started, I could feel tension starting in my shins; time to lessen my lean.  About a third of the way into the run, I could feel tension starting in my achilles.  I tried to keep the foot relaxed, though I wasn’t too successful at it.  Later, I practiced focusing on a point of the sidewalk and keeping my eyes on it while running towards it.  Some time after that, I noticed the calf and achilles tension had reduced.  Perhaps focusing on the point released tension in my legs and let them do what they needed to.  I also did a rough check of my cadence, though I don’t have a metronome yet.  I kept an eye on my watch for when the seconds hit zero and started counting the landings of my right foot.  In one minute, it landed 82 times.  This is fairly close to the optimum cadence range of 85-90 strides per minute.

In addition to the above checking, for this run in my slightly degraded condition, I also needed an edge.  I needed to make sure I started slow so I would not burn out too quickly.  Something else must have clicked because this worked out also.  For the first mile, I averaged a nice, slow 3.9mph.  I ran out for 13:00 minutes before my turn around and increased my speed a little on the way back.  The 0.69 miles was done at an average of 4.2mph.  I am surprised I was able to keep it relatively steady.  But, it worked.  I made it through the workout and am back on track.

The C25K program consists of three workouts per week for nine weeks. This is the results of the workout for week seven, day two, second attempt.

Program: 25 minute run.

Result: I did not complete the workout as planned. My heart rate averaged 145 bpm and peaked at 160 bpm. I did 1.49 miles in 22:37 for an average speed of 3.9 mph (15:12 minute/mile).

I woke up this morning, debated going, and went.  I’m only a few days into my antibiotics, but decided to see what would happen.  The run started out well enough.  I did the first mile in 13:48 (4.3 mph).  Then, at 18:01, the boiler went dry, I ran out of steam, and began to walk.  I knew the run was over.  Though I did not complete the workout, my goal was still a success.  My goal today was to not wait too long before running again.  Though I am not feeling well, I am afraid that if I keep not running, I’ll stay not running.  I definitely do not want that to happen.  So, I ran anyway just to be running and doing something, anything, other than nothing.  I knew I probably wouldn’t complete it, but I wanted to go as far as I could.  I did just that.  Goal achieved.  I’ll keep repeating W7D2 until it is successful and then move on.  For now, I’m going back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep.

The C25K program consists of three workouts per week for nine weeks. This is the results of the workout for week seven, day two, first attempt.

Program: 25 minute run.

Result: I did not complete the workout as planned. My heart rate averaged 136 bpm and peaked at 165 bpm. I did 1.03 miles in 16:37 for an average speed of 3.7 mph (16:07 minute/mile).

I woke up this morning planning to go for a run.  I didn’t make it.  I had been running a slight fever for the last couple of days and a GI bug, new this morning, told me not to try; mustn’t stray far from the little room.  So, I decided to try it again in the evening when it had cooled down some.  The two extra hours of sleep were certainly welcome.  By 7:30pm, it had only cooled down a little bit, but I tried it any way.  A couple of minutes into the run, I had problems catching my breath.  There wasn’t any pain.  I just felt like I had trouble breathing.  I stopped running, started to turn around, and then decided to try and push on.  Five minutes later, I was having more trouble breathing.  I walked for a little and tried to run again.  Not good.  This wasn’t going to work today.  I turned around and walked back home, run aborted.  This is my first failed workout since my week one retries.  It wasn’t a complete failure as I did get a little exercise.  But, I did not do what I had planned to do.

I suspect several contributing factors were involved.  The temperature was higher than I was used to; mornings are much cooler.  I was low on energy, probably from fighting off whatever infection I had.  The GI bug left me drained, literally.  I was not sufficiently hydrated.  I should have drank a lot more water throughout the day than I did.  Lessons learned; maybe I’ll remember it.  Of course, being 70 pounds overweight didn’t help either.  I hope to do better next time.

The C25K program consists of three workouts per week for nine weeks. This is the results of the workout for week seven, day one.

Program: Brisk five-minute warmup walk.  25 minute run.  Five-minute cool-down walk.

Result: I completed the workout as planned, sort of. My heart rate averaged 149 bpm and peaked at 165 bpm. For the run segment, I did 1.79 miles in 25:11 for an average speed of 4.3 mph (14:03 minute/mile).

For this workout, I skipped the warm-up and cool-down walks and only did the run segment.  I wanted to find out if it made any difference.  It doesn’t seem to have had an effect.  The run segment performance was almost identical to W6D3.  I started at about the overall average pace and just kept going.  I wonder, though, whether this was overall a better run than on W6D3.  That run was done in the afternoon, after having had breakfast and lunch and caffeine with both.  This run was done first thing in the morning with only a little water and a piece of hard candy for fuel.  I am a little surprised the performance was the same.  Perhaps saving the warm-up energy for the run helped after all.

Just a caveat:  I would caution anyone else that skipping the warm-up walk may not work for them and could possibly result in injury.  It is possible that my style of running, an aggressive shuffle in minimalist footwear, may allow this more easily than more traditional techniques in regular running shoes.  Also, currently, my average running speed is not much faster than my walking speed.  This may further reduce my risk of injury compared with a faster runner.  If you want to try running without a warm-up walk, make sure to start slow so the early part of the run is the warm-up.

This workout and the prior provide a good, consistent baseline for me to work on improving over the next few weeks.  For future workouts, I will probably skip the warm-up and cool-down walks as I did with this workout.  I like how this one turned out.  Besides, my goal is to become a runner, not a walker.

The C25K program consists of three workouts per week for nine weeks. This is the results of the workout for week six, day three.

Program: Brisk five-minute warmup walk.  25 minute run.  Five-minute cool-down walk.

Result: I completed the workout as planned. My heart rate averaged 149 bpm and peaked at 168 bpm. Including the warm-up and cool-down walks, I did 2.42 miles in 37:43 for an average speed of 3.86 mph (15:33 minute/mile).

For this workout, I had to make a trade off.  I could skip the day of rest between workouts or I could do the workout in the much hotter temperatures that are due this weekend.  I don’t much care for hot, humid weather.  I certainly did not want to be doing this workout with a heat index approaching 105F.  So, I decided to do the workout early.  W6D2 was only yesterday.  For my workout, the temperature was 67F and it was rainy.  It has been raining most of the day and there was a steady rain throughout the workout.  But, that’s okay.  It helped keep me cool.

As this workout and the remainder are just running and do not have intervals, I will not need reminders of when to run and when to walk.  So, I am skipping the podcasts.  With the podcasts, there was always some pre-walk talking that let me extend the warm-up walk a little further.  Going strictly by time today, my five minutes ended before I got to my normal run start location.  So, I started running early.  Perhaps to make up for starting before my normal location, I also started at a little quicker pace.  I seem to always start at a pace faster than average and then gradually slow down.  Perhaps I should just sprint when I first start running.  I am just going to push at the end anyway.

I knew from prior workouts on this same out and back route roughly where I should be and when.  This helped me not need to look at the watch as much.  But, as I started before my normal location, I also started checking the watch before the turnout point, only to find I still needed to add a few minutes more.  On the way back, I began checking the watch more often.  Maybe being tired makes me more hopeful that it’s almost over.  With the ending corner in sight and over a minute remaining, I switched over to running the distance instead of the time.  This gave me an extra twenty-seven seconds of running.  The little victories are what this program is made of.  Overall, I ran 1.81 miles in 25:27 for a 14:03 average pace (4.3 mph).  Now, I will get a couple of days rest before the next workout.  The heat is coming, but I hope it cools off again by then.