Weekly check-in

[vyola]

"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."
-Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder

What did you accomplish this week? What was your favorite running experience?

What are your goals for next week?

Comments

[yvi]

I actually thought the progressions in the first weeks sounded more more impressive than those in the later weeks. I mean, you now run 150% intervals of the ones last week! And in week 3, you will do 200% longer intervals than the week before!

28 minutes -> 30 minutes doesn't sound that impressive, in contrast :)

[vyola]

And in week 3, you will do 200% longer intervals than the week before!


I will? O_o

I haven't looked too closely at the program, because it looks difficult. But then again today was not difficult, and I trust the program to progress at a good pace most people can stick with.

Do those two minutes from 28 to 30 minutes feel like more? I mean, can you tell the difference when you're running them, that you're doing more than you used to do?

[yvi]

Yeah, week 3 has 3-minute intervals. I hope I didn't scare you - they really are doable. After all, you only have 60 seconds of walking between the 90 seconds running intervals right now.

Do those two minutes from 28 to 30 minutes feel like more? I mean, can you tell the difference when you're running them, that you're doing more than you used to do?

Not by much. I think once I hit 25 minutes and did that three times, I could have also done 30 minutes right away. The difference doesn't feel huge anymore.

[vyola]

No, you aren't scaring me, don't worry. It sounds like a lot, but I did w2d2 today, and I can really feel the difference from Monday, so I trust the program. They wouldn't tell us to run for three minutes if the average beginning runner couldn't handle that increase :-)

No, I suppose it doesn't! Many people probably push themselves to run for 30 minutes before they maybe ought to, because it's not that much of a difference.

I was wondering about something. You said that you run slowly, and I was thinking about my own jogging pace - it's pretty slow too. I did overtake an elderly man who was taking a leisurely stroll, and I think my jogging is slightly faster than my brisk walking, but not by much... So do you think it might be a good idea to do the c25k program again from w1d1, only jogging during the walking intervals, and running at a faster pace during the running intervals?

I'm really getting ahead of myself here, since I still have seven weeks to go if I complete the program on time, but since you're at the end of it, I thought you would have a more realistic idea if that would be a good thing to do?

[yvi]

Heh, when I say slow I mean it - I jog at the same speed as I walk, pretty much. I asked a smiliar question a while back: http://runners.dreamwidth.org/11289.html Well, not too similar, but there is some interesting discussion in the comments and there's this really great post on how to get faster: http://runners.dreamwidth.org/10130.html

I think the consensus seems to be that if you run for longer you automatically get faster, so one shouldn't worry about it, while interval training at that level of training could potentially hurt the bones (since I have a chronic disorder of the joints I have to be really careful about that). Maybe I can tell you how that works for me when I start to run more :)

[vyola]

Thank you for the links :-)

I won't worry about it then. It makes sense that just practicing more will increase one's speed, and you're right, we definitely should be careful of our bones and joints.