The First 5K!

A few weeks ago I completed my first 5K! It was an amazing experience and I enjoyed it every step of the way. My time was approximately 33:00 minutes which was the fastest I have ever run a 5K distance! Here are some of the things I learned my first 5K:

• Water during a run is really nice to have. I might hide a bottle during my normal runs to duplicate the experience.
• You have to pinch the paper cups in order to pour the water in your mouth while running... otherwise you just add more water on your shirt :)
• DO NOT start at the beginning of the pack if you can not run a 25 minute 5K of if this is your first 5K.
  
• DO NOT start with the walkers if they are a part of your 5K. I spent 1 mile running hard to pass about 4,000 walkers.
  
• Go at your own pace. In my 10,000 participant 5K, I found some old friends along the way that I could not catch up to... which slowed me down overall.
• DO NOT start your final run to the finish unless you have the energy. I tried to race a half a block to the finish and I started to get light-headed before the finish.
• DO have fun!
• DO sign up for a 5K and run it. If you are doing the C25K, you are missing out on a big part if you only do the the C2 part. Make sure you run that 5K!

I'm sure I can think of many other things to discuss, but that's all I have for now. I'm still trying to work on my weight issues, but more of that to come. For now, I am proud of my feat and hope to get back into the 3 time a week 30 minute runs shortly.

4 Days to 5K and losing all the way!

Today is the beginning of a great week! I completed two 30 minute runs last week, lost 6.5 lbs by being diligent on my weight loss efforts, and I will run my first 5K. I hate doing updates after the fact, so I will do my best to get the details out to everyone faster than the current snails pace!

Overall, I will say that blogging is a LOT hard that I thought it would be. It is more of an art than it is a science and I think I need to dedicate a specific amount of time each day to it for my blog to blossom. The original thought was to have something to look back on if I stopped running or to help out others that think exercise is not an option for them. I think I have enough posts to accomplish both of those feats, so I think the blog will have to transition to the weight loss portion along with the C25K stuff. I have 25 or so pounds to go, so I will definitely have enough material for a while :)

Missing posts and beyond the C25K

I swear that I put up a post last week about my rough run, but it is obviously not here :) With that being said, I've been doing pretty well so far with my runs. Last week I ran two 30 minute runs that were close to 5K distance and this Monday I ran for 30 minutes with a fartlet in the middle. I tried to run all out on my second lap around my block and my body rebelled against me. I don't suggest running all out in the middle of a 30 minute run if you are not in great shape, but I think that little middle section pushed me to do a 5K in 30 minutes.

I also started to count my points again. I realize that I can eat a LOT of food when I do not regulate myself (i.e. 20 lbs on a 3 week honeymoon), so I went back to what I know works. From Monday morning to this morning I dropped about 5 lbs. I know I should weigh myself until Monday morning again, but it's nice to know that I can still do WW informally an lose weight. We'll see the results next Monday and work from there.

Since I am a novice writing about how to start running, I hoped that I can get some insight from the long time runners that visit JalopyJosh. I am going to start posting some questions for you guys and gals and hopefully it can bring some great knowledge to both me and anyone else that stumbles upon this blog. Let's see how it works!

C25K - W9D3 - Move, Get out the way

Sometimes you can only put your body through so much in a weekend. For me, my W9D3 coincided with moving an entire apartment. Since I am posting this a few days late, you can guess where my energy was spent this weekend.

I probably walked 3 miles while putting away boxes and burned more calories moving furniture than I would have in my 30 minute run, but I still didn't get to it. Furthermore, this weekend is even more exercise adverse with a ton of traveling and an uncertain schedule. With all of this going on, here are my goals for the week:

1) Do 3 - 30 minute runs sometime during the week. Maybe not MWF, but I want to do them sometime during this week.

2) Lose 2 lbs this week. I've done it before and I can do it again. Due to holidays and birthdays during the last few weeks, I've gained most of the weight back since I started this. I will be going back to my paid weight routine if I can't start to work this out by the end of April.

3) Learn more about blogging. I like putting my information out there for others to digest, but I'm sure there is more to it than that. I will do some research and find out how to be a better blogger within the blogging community.

C25K - W8D1a - Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

For the first time in two months, I did not do my C25K run on my normal schedule. After Friday's weird shoulder pain and feeling some pain in my knee yesterday, I decided to give my body a break. I might run tonight, but I think I will go on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule for this week.

On the positive note, I weighed myself in this morning and I was about 1.2 down from last week. I will be happy if I can go down another 3.2 for this month, so I am going to work hard to do that.

Stay tuned for some more fun times with the C25K... after the break.

C25K - W6D2 - 20 is the new 50!

The C25K program is now a part of my daily routine, but the exercise itself is still hard to do. I woke up this morning, got my water and bananna, and went of for 30 minutes of walking and running.



After a quick warmup, I started on my first 10 minute run... and almost tripped in the process. I never knew that sticks and small branches on a side walk would be so menacing. After the 3 minute cool down walk, there was another 10 mintue run in my future. Two laps around the block and one barking dog later, I was done. I can say for certain that my 20 minutes of running felt like 50 minutes of exercise.

Food is still an issue for me right now, but I have taken the first step to help me get back on track. I took my left over "The Big Game" snacks and threw them out, and I will start to throw out or donate any trigger foods that cause me to eat more than I should. It's ironic that I lost so much weight with a controled calorie count and little exercise, and now I can exercise 3 days a week and I can't control my caloric intake without a fight. I need to put these two together to get back down to my weight goal!

C25K - W6D1 - Take it to the limit one more time

I don't look ahead at the C25K schedule, so I was not sure what I was going to run this morning. After starting the podcast, I come to realize that this is the "25 minute week" where we come very close to running a 5K on Day 3. I'm pretty excited about it, but I learned a few things from my 1st run this morning:

1. Do not run on an empty tank. Although I ran for a longer distance today than normal, I was physically drained very early into the run.
2. Get a good night of sleep before a long run. I'm not sure what I will do on the day of my first 5k, but I do know that 5 hours of sleep will not cut it.
3. I have to have a headband on my runs :)

It was a good overall run minus those issues, so I feel I am ready for the two 10 minute runs on Wednesday.

On the weight side of life, I am satisfied with my calorie intake this week with all of the events that I attended (Two fancy event dinners and Valentine's Day). Since the exercise part of JalopyJosh is doing well, I need to have a renewed vision to lower my current weight. I think I would be a MUCH better runner when I am back at my weight goal, so here's my personal plan to get back on track:

1. Revisit the habits that I learned during my previous weight loss efforts.
2. Plan a goal of 5 lbs. weight loss per month over the next 6 months.
3. If I am not close to reaching these goals within the first few months, I will pay the money and go back to my previous weight loss method until I am where I need to be.

Since everything within the exercise and diet part of my life will be publicly available, I'll start blogging about the C25K as well as the weight loss progress starting on March 1st. In the next few weeks, I will test out some food plans and methods that will help me get the weight down and we'll see how this works!