djplong

Wednesday was W12D2 and another success despite my increasing worries about my hip injury flaring up. I honestly can't figure out what's going on in there so I made a doctor's appointment but he had no openings until the 30th! When I walk, it sometimes hurts, sometimes doesn't. When I start jogging, after a couple of minutes, there's NO pain and I can't feel much in the way of pain there even when I'm TRYING to feel for it! Life and weather have been getting in the way lately but today will be W12D3, with any luck.. And my times seem to be getting better. For the first time ever, when including the warmup/cooldown walks, I did a session averaging LESS than 7 minutes per kilometer - ok, it was 6:59 but, still, that's a milestone for me considering my averages started in the 9:25 range... I'm going to try compression sleeves on my legs today for the first time in the hopes that some of the "day after soreness and stiffness" might be alleviated.

I dislike running. But I dislike being a couch potato more. Running is a means to an end, for me. I've cut back my diet, stuck to the C25K program (now into C10K) and my goals are in sight. What are those goals? Well, I've dropped a little more than 20 of the 47 pounds I wanted to lose. I'm on track to run in a pair of races in Florida next month - and the finisher medals for those races have extra meaning to me as I was told, as a child, I'd never walk again. Something I never expected - my wife commenting on the definition of my legs when running. Before a couple of weeks ago, NOBODY had EVER used the word "definition" when referring to a part of my body... There are things I want in life. Running is a means to those ends.

W12D1 - another success. But it wasn't easy. I felt like this was the hardest one yet. So many thoughts of quitting that I had to keep forcing myself to NOT listen to... I mean, I know it wasn't the hardest session ever - there were plenty of times when I started that *couldn't* finish a session so, logically speaking, any session I actually finish makes it impossible for it to be the hardest one ever. In two weeks, it's going to want me to do 60-minutes straight jogging. I haven't really felt like this since I was looking at the 20 minutes of, if memory serves, W5D3...

Anne - yes, I'm following a plan. However, that got interrupted when my tracking app crashed 2/3 of the way through my Thursday workout. It's like when your car breaks down for something minor in the middle of a road trip. I wanted to do SOMEthing to get myself back on track. I'd never run 2 consecutive days and I hadn't run NEARLY to my potential on Thursday so I thought I'd try something easy that I could bail out of it it turned out to be too much. Little did I know that I'd be able to go 10K without pushing TOO hard. Today I'm feeling it - sore back - but it's not a sharp injury-like pain. Just something I need to rest. On January 7 & 8 my wife and I are in the Walt Disney World 5K and 10K races and I viewed this as *slight* preview. My sessions have been going up into the 8KM range and when Thursday was aborted after a little more than 5K, well, that's what gave me the idea. Today's a day of rest and Sunday I'll be on Week 12, Day 1 with three 18-minute intervals spaced by one-minute walk breaks. That'll be challenging. The goal is, apparently 60-minute all-jogging sessions by Week 14. Right now, I have a personal benchmark for 10K at 7:08/km. Week 13 is difficult with each day increasing the interval time (22, 25, then 30 minutes each) before the whole-hog 60-minutes of Week 14. I view this as a slight detour on the plan - and I'm anxious to get BACK on the plan because it's worked so well for me up to this point (July's injury notwithstanding). Another interesting thing I learned. I just got new glasses and they actually help my running posture. They're gradual bifocals (I'm nearsighted). If I look down, the ground is blurry. If I look up or ahead, the vista is in perfect focus. Helps keep my head up

I ran 10K. I can't believe I just typed those words. I kept doing the 4/1 intervals and, after a while I started thinking about how far I wanted to go with this. I didn't want to go to exhaustion - but 10K started to seem "doable". That distance does NOT include warmup or cooldown intervals - that's all 'meat'... In the next few weeks, in theory, I'm supposed to be able to jog for an hour straight. This 10K with the walking intervals took me 71:40 to finish. I think I need time to process this... Couch potatoes just don't DO 10K - especially not after 5K the day before!

Yesterday the weather finally broke and was supposed to do W11D3. I was well on my way to completing it - just about to finish the 2nd interval when my tracking program crashed (MapMyRun+). The music stopped, I checked my watch and it was saying "Saving", my phone was syncing... By the time I got everything back under control, I was at a loss as to what I should do to try and finish things properly. In my frustration I walked back to the parking lot and headed home. Didn't want to screw up my schedule so much but I wanted to get back on track. Then I came up with an idea. Just for the heck of it, I'd been looking at some of the schedules for the half-marathon and marathon trainers in the last few days. I noticed a lot of the training runs were 4:00/1:00 intervals, repeated a LOT. So that's what I'm going to do today. Even though I'm still "feeling" yesterday's run, I'm going out again today and see how many 4/1 intervals I can do. After all, I've signed up for races on consecutive days - a 5K and 10K - and I did just over 5K yesterday. Then I'll return to my regular schedule on Sunday and probably start Week 12 since it's so close to Week 11 - it only bumps up to 18 minute intervals from 17 minutes. At least.. That's the *plan*.... So far....

Early on, the dietary changes are easy to figure out. Eliminate the pop tarts and buy more apples - that sort of thing. But I was raised on a "meat and potatoes" diet and that's what makes me salivate. Kale? Feed it to the rabbits. I seem to remember kale being practically unwanted and akin to a weed many years ago. Things like zucchini or squash or eggplant are revolting to me. Heck, I'm working on being able to take *tomatoes* - in ketchup, marinara or pizza sauce, they're fine but the texture of a tomato on my tongue is unpleasant. George Carlin used to have a routine about them. Tomatoes look WONDERFUL on the outside! But, cut them open, and clearly something has gone wrong! All the jelly and seeds in there - it's still in the larval stage! Evolution isn't yet done with a tomato! But, as far as the yoga idea goes, I definitely think I have to see someone. I got off my ass to start the C25K program so I can get off my ass to do this...

I've cut back on some dietary excesses. Last year I gave up the diet sodas (and I drank a LOT of those). This year it's been more about portion control and just trying to scale things back. Now that the weather isn't terribly conducive to bike riding, I haven't been doing that on the 'off' days and I think I'm seeing the result. My wife is a tribute to what dancing can do for your endurance - out of nowhere she was able to do a 20 minute jog when she was just coming along with me. The bar brawls? Well, reducing the risk of injury was paramount when I started this odyssey so the bar brawls will have to find someone else to participate.... Now I just have to figure out where to start if I'm going to take a walk down Yoga Boulevard...

The past week has been ... Well, I can't find the right words... W10D3 - last Wednesday - was chilly and I learned some new lessons. Don't take a mile and a half walk just a couple hours before doing the run. I was wanting to quit plenty of times but I was determined to finish successfully. W11D1 - Black Friday - in the 60s and the new intervals (3x17:00) had me in bad shape early. I made mistakes, didn't *fully* prepare and ended up "borrowing" or "relocating" one minute of my cooldown to the middle of interval 3 but I *did* get in 51 minutes of jogging. I called it a 'qualified success'. W11D2 - yesterday - chillier but it got up to 50F at the end. This time, the intervals were MUCH easier. The back pains that were SO bad in W11D1 were "just aching" this time around. Far fewer thoughts of quitting. Once I got past halfway, it was much easier to get into the right frame of mind. My only real frustration is that my weight is pretty much 'stuck' where it's at - this after dropping just over 20 pounds over the course of a few months. It's beginning to become clear to me that I have to do something on the off days. I have a couple of cousins and other recommending yoga - something that, quite frankly, would never come to my mind on it's own. I don't know if I can lose some more weight with yoga, but it's easy for me to see how yoga could help with my back pains.

I second the motion on how good proper shoes are. When I first started the program, I couldn't believe the difference in how it felt when I was wearing proper running shoes.

...and, as a followup, W10D2 is now in the books. Didn't have time to head to the park as it would be closing before I'd finished so I tried running around the neighborhood. MUCH hillier terrain there but I still managed to do the session successfully. I really feel like I'm stretching myself. If I keep this up, I'll finish W14 just before heading to Florida for the races.

The weather and a friend's sudden need to move furniture have gotten in the way of my 'normal' schedule but there's still progress being made. Last week I polished off Week 9 (Wednesday) and started Week 10 (Friday). Both of them were a success. I'm still getting the lower back pain but even in the 1-minute walking segments, I'm noticing it going away faster. The stuff that starts bothering me after a couple of minutes of jogging is also recovering quicker. My calf muscles stop complaining sooner, the same for my ankles and my right Achilles tendon loosens up better. Week 10 now has me doing three 15-minute intervals - 45 minutes of jogging which was simply inconceivable earlier this year. My legs look like they're in the best shape of my entire life. the only negative is that my weight is kinda stuck bouncing above and below 175 pounds but I'm certainly feeling better. These days, with the warmup and cooldowns included, I'm doing over 8km in a session. The last one was over 7km worth of real jogging. The idea of me jogging over 4 miles? Pure fantasy... But now it's reality and I'm almost not believing it except I have the evidence.

Congrats on the distance! I'm about to have the same problem with daylight and the lack of it thereof at my favorite park.

Just got in from what I'll call W9D2 (still not sure I can call D1 finished but we'll see how it goes) and I nailed it. Was a little overdressed as the weather got warmer REAL fast without the wind I was expecting - dressed for 40s but, by the time I left the park it was almost 60 - the hoodie I was wearing was a bit much and weighed me down, I think. Didn't have ANY of the troubles from 2 days ago except the lower back ache - where the glutes attach and that seems to be the next set of muscles needed to rebuild themselves stronger. Felt a lot better at the end today (now) than I did on Friday. I didn't even glance at my phone ONCE.. Ok, that's omitting a truth - I bought the Apple Watch yesterday and was looking at that to see how much time I had left at various intervals If I can repeat this performance on Tuesday, I'll call that W9D3 and move on to Week 10.

Well, I went for it and didn't QUITE make it but tried to make up for it... I set up for W9D1 (4x10-minute jogs, 1-minute walks). Too many things barking at me in the 4th interval so I took a break, walked a few minutes and resumed. Altogether I did about 6km in the intervals, totalling 7.7km with the warmup, cooldown and the extra break in the middle. I know everything I did wrong. Ran too early after eating a sandwich (was trying, successfully, to beat the incoming rain), didn't drink enough water during the day and wasn't exactly eating the right things. I was running out of gas, getting a cramp in my side and feeling a little nauseous. I'll be far better prepared on my next attempt Sunday.

Monday I set the app up for W8D3 to see if I could repeat my performance from Friday. SUCCESS! Now it's getting predictable.. I minute or two when I first start, the calves bark a little bit with a "Wait, you're doing this AGAIN?" kind of attitude. That calms down and the next hard part is leading up to half-way when the demons creep into my head and start squawking "Oh come on! We're not even half-way yet!". At times like those, it's a mind over matter thing. I *know* I've done more and better so I just try to concentrate on that and let the music take me. Once I get a little past half-way, it starts getting easier. Even though the fatigue will start to settle into my lower back (where the glutes attach) it's different. First, I have the anticipation of finishing. Second, I know that kind of pain and it's the "you'll heal stronger" kind of pain. I'm supposed to run today but I'm waiting for the rain to let up. Then again, when going 3 times a week, there's usually one 2-day non-running stretch in there and I've been going every other day now since I restarted the program in early October. It won't be a crime if I can't get to the run until tomorrow - but wither way I have to decide on going either with one more W8D3 or taking the plunge into W9D1 and it's 4x10-minute intervals.

I've known from the start that she'd be able to finish the 5K - didn't know how she'd do on the 10K. But when I found out that the required pace on the races was 16:00/mile (10:00/km), that meant that you could finish the races with a brisk or power walk pace. She'll finish. But the time is unpredictable because there are photo-ops all along the course with all kinds of Disney characters.

She doesn't run at all. She joined me on two early session - around the W2 schedule.. But she's been doing Scottish Country Dance for over 20 years so she's got some pop in those legs She *did* ask to be entered in the two races in January that I was going into so she's going to be there with me - at least at the starting line

Today was W6D3 but that's not what I ended up doing. My wife decided to come along to spend some time in the park before getting down to chores today. Once the 5 minute warmup was done, she kept up with me for quite a while - knocking off after approximately 21 minutes of jogging. W6D3 says one 22-minute interval. Again, I wanted to see how far I could go. In a manner of speaking, I finished the program. I did 30 minutes of jogging - about 4.7km in the jogging segment, 5.58km with the warmup/cooldown included. I'm astonished. I went in thinking W6D3 (plus a little) and came out with W8D3 results... It's hard to stop when you get the 'begin your cooldown' message but the Doobie Brothers are singing "you've got to keep on moving" during "Long Train Running" and that's followed up by "Life is a Highway". Now I'm thinking of doing a few more 30 minute runs to see if my time improves a bit and then move on to the 10K schedule. Right now, I can't process the fact that I actually did it....

W6D2 yesterday. It's supposed to be a pair of 10-minute jogs with a 3-minute walk in between. It didn't go that way. I decided to 'up' the interval count by 1 so it was three 10-minute jogs - and I still made it! I won't lie, for the first time since I re-started the program, I had some real thoughts about quitting before that last jogging interval was over. But the pain was only in my lower back and I knew where all that was coming from and that, if I finished this, it would get better and stronger. I'm now really starting to push up to and beyond where I got before the injury hit. So it tells me that I totalled 6.1KM in 46:07. Doing a little math says that it was just over 5K if I take out the warmup/cooldown sections. It's a little hard for me to contain my excitement now. This is almost where I was when it all fell apart back in July. The next few sessions are really going to be telling. Since they're single-interval session, it'll be interesting to see how much I have left in the tank when I'm done with the 'scheduled' time...

W6D1 and it's like I do the session and then it's "Improvise Time". All together, with the warmup and cooldown, I did 6.75km - and if my math is right, that's over 5.5km in the intervals and the 'extra' that I tacked on at the end. I did the 5/8/5 minute intervals and just as I was about to head out on the cooldown, a really good song came on and I decided to see if I could last that long (about 7 minutes) - and I did.. Then as I started to cool down, it was another inspiring, driving song and 15 seconds into it, I decided to try jogging that one as well - which was about another 6 minutes. The whole session lasted over 50 minutes instead of the ~30 minutes that most of the others have (with one 38:30 session in there when I was, again, tacking on more time at the end). It makes me wonder where I should really be in 'the schedule' as I'm very often adding jogging segments at the end. If I stay on schedule, Thursday it'll be time to do W6D2 with 2x10 minute jogs and 3-minute walks in-between. I'm thinking of throwing a third interval in there. After that, it's the single intervals going from 22:00 to 30:00 to finishing this part of the program. The last time I was at this point, I would be *so* happy when that final notification would come. Now, at the end, I'm finding I have more gas left in the tank. I haven't had to repeat a single session this time around. It does wonders for one's confidence.

I shoot for the interval time first. I'll worry about speed later.

Born in Rhode Island, lived in Boston, Miami, San Francisco, New York City and back to Boston before settling in Southern New Hampshire for 40+ years.

When I first went through the program I was shuffling along at about 7+ minutes per KM. After my injury healed enough, I'm now averaging around 6 minutes (while jogging) per KM. I'm honestly not trying harder or anything like that - BUT - the real difference seems to be coming from my gait and posture. In other words, I'm trying SMARTER. I made it clear to my doctor (sports medicine specialist) and physical therapist that getting back to running was important to me. They analyzed how I was running and pointed out many faults that, when combined with things that literally started with a birth defect, most likely caused my injury. So it then became a task to educate me in what NOT to do. I was looking down and leaning forward with my torso too much - putting stress on my hip flexor. I wasn't standing straight so my completely undeveloped core muscles weren't doing the job they would ordinarily do. Sometimes my toes were pointed inward which caused stresses on my right knee. Throwing my shoulders back helped straighten me out as did looking UP and FORWARD instead of down. With all those corrections, I believe I'm getting more "spring" out of my arch and Achilles tendon - they're doing what they were designed to do now that I'm using them properly and I'm seeing the results in the MapMyRun stats. You may want to get checked out and see what a professional has to say.

Yesterday was W5D3 - the 20 minute interval that I figured would be the real test as to whether or not I could continue. SUCCESS! Getting the weather to cooperate was no easy task but I found a not-raining window that actually turned into a pleasant afternoon session. I still have the strange symptoms - an area at my old hip injury starts out as a dime-sized nugget of slight pain and is completely gone a few minutes into the run. My Achilles tendon was sore before I started but it cooperated all the way through. My pace was fast at the beginning and I had to concentrate to slow down to make sure I'd have enough to go the distance - and I did. More than enough. I could have gone a few more minutes at the end but, again, I didn't want to push it since it's back to real intervals for W6. Really the only disappointment is that I seem to have stabilized at my current weight (down 20 pounds from when I started) and I'm not losing more. I think I have to focus more on portion control again. The most encouraging part is that I have not had to repeat ANY of the sessions. I've managed to knock off each one as it came or been able to skip a few entirely (early on). By this time, when I first went through this, I was struggling and many of the sessions took up to a week or maybe more before I finally got through them successfully. At this rate, I'll be into the 10K program by Thanksgiving. Not enough time to really finish it by the time I have the races - a 5K on 1/7 and a 10K the next day - but I'm not looking for speed. I'm looking just to finish.