FINISHED C25K!

well after a slow start to Week 9 (didn't manage to get to do run 2 until sunday) I'm done!
the Day 2 run wasn't too great, bad preparation over the day (not much food, and sporadic activity...) meant that i ran out of go somewhere about 25 mins in... really wasn't feeling it.

But Day 3 on tuesday went very well! ...kinda...

It's only kinda since on the run, my mp3 player died about 15 mins in (including the warmup) so i had no idea what the time was. It meant I was running for distance. problem with that was knowing how far i went since i already was doing a route different to my known 3 mile route.
So I guessed, and when i got to my guess target of the bridge at the end of my road, I still had energy left, but could do with a stop.

So according to MMR, I did almost exactly 3 miles! YAY!
So now i'm going to saty at 30 mins/3 miles for a week or 2 and start concentrating on going to the gym and build some upper body strength.
and on monday I did just that... not a great workout, but a workout nonetheless and just getting me going at using the gyms equipment.
I'll be back tonight and hopefully get some decent weights in.

On to Week 9

Ok I was on time for one post now have 2 runs to report.
thursday 21st: W8 D3 another 28 mins straight. no problems, but did forget water, - just ran, with a modification to my route to give a little variation. covered 2.8 miles so still on the 10:00/mile pace. a strange thing happened though... on the portion which is uphill coming out of the underpass at the end of the run, i got to the top and automatically came to a walk... and I didn't even notice! In my head I was still running. this only happened for a few seconds before i realised, so just pushed on and started running again. but it was a strange sensation.

bank holiday weekend then got in the way, which gave me a nice rest and some nice food.

the 26th: W9D1 - This is it! final week! 30 mins and/or 3 miles and D1 was exactly both. no liquid problems this time so beat out the run nicely

so by the end of the week, I'll be finished with the program in 11 1/2 weeks. not bad since some people take 4 months to do it. If I hadn't had the distractions, I probably would have done it on time too, which is nice!

on time for a change!

yes, today's update is actually on time... WOO HOO!!
W8D2 (or D2.5...) went nice and smoothly. nothing to report really apart from a little rain and i forgot to take water with me, so probably didn't do as well as I had hoped. 2.75 miles in the 28 mins. a little further than last time out but not a huge amount.
now to fix up that ipod...

more lateness....

well it's nearly 2 weeks since my 5K, and the program has really slacked off! well it's more that it's been a super busy 2 weeks with wedding preparations and other peoples weddings etc...
So down to the report!

after the 5K (3 miles in 30 mins) I thought that week 8 would be a breeze...
Uh huh...
just like in week 6 day 1, i was less able to run...
the 5K was on wednesday 6th aug, and i didn't really recover until about sunday, by which time i was at the future in-laws with a schedule so tight there wasn't room to breathe (meet the vicar, meet the photographer, meet the vidiographer, go to church, go to the reception venue and taste yummy food....)
so i didn't get to do the next run till tuesday 12th.
I went out to attempt W8D1 but only managed 25 out of 28 mins.... so i called this the real W7D3.
Then I wasn't able to get a run in for the rest of the week do to a series of mini crises which just sapped all time and energy up to the point where we had another wedding to go to, taking up the whole weekend. so the next run came in at sunday evening August 17th (Nothing like a bit of consistancy...) That was my real W8D1. and it went well! covered the full 28 mins over 2.7 miles.

How i managed 3 miles @ 30 mins I'll never know. I'm sure it'll take me a few more weeks to get to that level consistantly!

As an aside, looks like I'll have a new MP3 companion shortly in the form of a found iPod mini. needs a little fixing as it was chucked because of a fault, but it looks fixable so more on that later

5K completed!

Ok, another late post....
but a biggie,
On wednesday, 6th Aug, I completed the Portsmouth 2008 Promenade 5K race 3. and I did it in 30:14 (actual distance, 3 miles)

• Not last... (172nd out of 182)
  
• Not Last male... (but almost, 51st out of 52)
• Overtook people in the last mile, who had burned out, while I was just getting going
• never walked!

so better than expected on all accounts, esp finishing time as I estimated 34 mins.
So YAY!
although i did pick up a slight sore ankle doing it, but it's ok now

Long time no update...

Ok, it's been a while since my last update...
last one was week 5 day 3 and tomorrow will be week 8 day1 - except it won't...

anyway the runs went as follows:
23rd - W6D1. should have been easier than the 20 min run, 5 mins, 8 mins, 5 mins. But I think I over did the first stint, did the second stint in 2 parts, and 4 mins of the final stint.
25th - W6D2. managed this one successfully, just kept it slow for 2x 10 mins.
28th - W6D3. 25 mins straight. again, this went without a hitch. I finally found my pace, and according to mapmyrun, covered 2.4 miles. however, by not getting the run in on the 27th, I'm going to bugger up the schedule to do the 5K as W8D1.
30th - W7D1. back to constant runs for the whole week. 25 mins or 2.5 miles. I did 25 mins over 2.7 miles - result!
4th Aug, W7D2. did this run after a long weekend away geocaching, so got plenty of activity in, just not running. at the end of the 25 mins, i walked for about a minute, then ran a little again, with plenty of energy, so tomorrow's 5K run should go well. it will be tough but that's the idea right?

20 min run completed

I had the final run of W5 today and I'd just like to say that this was probably the worst conditions I've run in so far.

I started out the day intending to do Day 2 again since I didn't like the way i finished it the first time (i.e. not quite) but i plotted out the remainder of the program around some up-coming events with a possible attempt to do an actual 5K at the beginning of week 8 (unfortunately there are no more local 5K's for months after that, only 10K's, 8K's HM's etc until about Feb) and in order to make that, I'll have to not repeat anything....

which meant do the 20 mins tonight.... :(

as zero-hour approached, I started feeling quite queasy... this was not going to go well... I downloaded both podrunner and ullrey's casts and had a quick scan through - ullrey's was a more uplifting and he has a half way marker so i could turn around at the right time, so i went with that one.

I got outside and it was HOT (ok, not as hot as some of you stateside are getting right now, but the hottest i've run in so far) a slight breeze though so bearable. I had a big drink beforei left but i don't have a bottle to take with me right now, so no mid run swigs.

that was bad... i started feeling thirsty within 3 mins of the run starting... things started aching that haven't been aching so far at about 5 mins... this was going to end in disaster.

I pushed through. at the half way mark, i was as far is i got in 8 mins on day 2 - less than a mile in 10 mins.... i was going slow.

I turned around at the end of the park and kept going. when i came out of the park, the sun hit me full force on the face and chest. i kept pushing and got to the last street i'd have to run on (about 2 mins left) ullrey was giving out the tunes and the final one came on (a very uplifting trancey one) and all the messages various parts of my body were sending me got ignored (nothing threataning, just - 'are you sure you want to be doing this?' type things.

then on almost exactly the same spot i started running, 3 things happened simultaneously, the music hit a crecendo, ullrey announced the end of the run for the 20 minuters and i pretty much burst into tears - it was that emotional

I DID IT!

I said to myself before i started today, that if i didn't manage today's run, I wouldn't enter the 5K.
Guess I'm entering it now!