Thursday, June 30, 2011

Wunning

I am not a runner.  I have never been a runner.  To me, the only reason to run was if someone was chasing me.  BUT, I have always wanted to learn how to run.  I see people doing it and they make it look so easy!  I have friends talk about "going out for a run... and it just felt so good!"  In my head, I always reply with, "bull crap."  Naturally, the only thing to do was to add it to my Life List! 

14. Train and run in a race.

Like some of my fellow bloggers, I have started the Couch to 5K running program.  It is quite the challenge for me!  I am training with my BFF and we prefer to call what we do, WUNNING.  We walk and then we run and well, RALK sounds dumb.  So, we wun.  We wun every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening after the kiddos are in bed.  The only problem is, it's always after dinner and if you have ever wun after dinner, you know what I mean when I say that my food starts to eat me from the inside out!  It sucks.  One night was super busy so I didn't get a chance to eat dinner before my wun meet-up and you know what?  I felt great! I breezed through the wun and felt like I could go more!  Then I stopped at Subway on the way home and get a foot long veggie sub, ate the ENTIRE thing, and hated life.  Last night, I had chicken noodles and mashed potatoes two hours before our wun and my legs turned into knives that stabbed me with each stride.  Last night killed me.  Last night sucked.  But we did it!  Having each other for support makes it so much easier.  Had I been wunning on my own, I would have wun straight to Starbucks, had a venti iced non-fat raspberry latte, and wobbled home.  Actually, I mentioned that idea to Jennie and she just smiled... I think she was considering it a bit :o)

What?  After all that rambling and you're just NOW telling me that you're not familiar with C25K?  Well, allow me to educate you!  Basically it is an outlined running program that takes a couch potato and turns them into a 5K runner in two months.  Training is to be done three time a week.  We are now on week three.
  • Week 1, Day 1: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
  • Week 1, Day 2: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
  • Week 1, Day 3: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
  • Week 2, Day 1: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
  • Week 2, Day 2: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
  • Week 2, Day 3: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
  • Week 3, Day 1: Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes), Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
  • Week 3, Day 2: Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes), Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
  • Week 3, Day 3: Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes), Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
Those three-minute stretches make me want to wun in front of a twuck.  I don't know how I'll make it to (or survive) next week when we have to do this:
  • Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes), Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds), Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes), Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes), Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes), Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds), Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
We officially begin measuring our distance in miles.  Oh boy...  Luckily for us, our race isn't until September so we can stretch it out a little bit.  BUT, our race is not a 5K.  It is 4 miles.  I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...




Vote for me @ Top Mommy Blogs - Mom Blog Directory

7 comments:

Meg said...

You don't know me but I found your blog on another friend's blog - anyway- I am doing the same training!! I am on week 6 and it gets easier. I did recently find out that if you keep yoru fists relaxed while you run then it opens your diaphram and you breathe easier.

Kelly said...

I think I'm going to do something like this with Marissa. I need a jogging stroller first, though. Sounds like you're making great progress thus far! Keep us posted!

Kristen said...

you CAN!!!! If I could do it 30 lbs heavier last year than I have no doubt that you can do it! Plus you're training, even better! I'd love to try the C25K again... I made it to week 2 a couple of years ago and just gave up. Then I started signing up for 5K's and just going out and winging it... I did ok, but I was SORE! Good luck to you girl! Can't wait to hear how your race goes!

Dollface said...

Look at all of that!!!!! You are very dedicated girl! xxoo

Lala said...

C25K! I've done that a few times, but I only ever make it to week 5 or so before I go, "Why the hell can't I just run the whole gdmned thing like a normal person?!?!?" and then I don't finish weeks 6-9 ...also because I hate running too. It's great you have a running partner, though. Would seriously helps matters for me, I think. You will be surprised what you can do when you get to that race, girl! You'll see! It'll be easy peasy! Run, Shan, Run!

Spencerbst said...

Wow...you really inspire me and I know you can do this!!!

Lora said...

WTG Shannon!! I don't run that much either - I have run to catch the school bus or run back to the house to get back packs before the school bus gets there and that's hard work(more so with a big belly LOL). Oh and I would have stopped at Starbucks too. Thanks for the reminder of the Raspberry latte, I am going to try that next time I go to Starbucks.