After C25K - have not ran a mile

I have not been doing any running after graduating. No running at all!

I have been fighting a bad cold for two weeks now and I've been terribly busy at work and in the rest of my personal life. And for the next few weeks to come, it doesn't look like I can squeeze it in at all. Plus it's starting to get chilly up here. I am absolutely broke for the next few months, so no money to spend on decent running clothes.

So it looks like I'm going to have restart C25K all over again when it is all over. I'm not happy with how it has been going, but I keep telling myself I at least graduated it once and that there is hope for me for the future.

I wish I could have written that everything rocks and I'm going strong. But hey I need to prioritize and right now getting my life in order is higher up on the list than losing a few pounds.

New me - additional thought

Could it just be that this weight is my body's happy weight? I have always been padded (I'm not even considered chubby) and have never been lighter than this after puberty.

New me

So today I was thinking about the differences between the old and the new me.

Even though I went from no exercise to running three times a week and staying on the healthy diet I've had for years now, I have not lost a single pound. I even gained three pounds.

It's something I'm not really happy about, since I started the running experiment to lose those last few pounds around the thighes and ass. I'm not overweight, my BMI is considered 'normal', though in the higher range, but I really want to get rid of the 'jiggly' bits.

So far no good.

I still mostly look the same, my posture is slightly better and I swear my tummy is slightly flatter. But my legs. Some big sighs of frustration there. They're the same, they just look a little bigger even because I've developed muscles underneath the jiggly stuff.

It makes me miserable to not see any progress there (even though I've probably made some).

Other than that, I physically feel better. I feel better about myself and about my body. Hey at least now I have the excuse of "well I DO run 15 km a week!" I radiate more confidence. I feel sexier.

But it is still frustrating that I have only gotten heavier.

W9D3 - I graduated

I was so happy yesterday, I stuck it out, I finally completed a program I started. I have been jogging for almost three months, I can't believe how time flies!

The run went okay, I was really tired and almost couldn't keep it up, but I kept chanting "Come on, you can do it, it's graduation day, come on, you gotta blog about this later'. That kept me going, I even kept going for a minute after the BEEP.

I had some other things eating up my time yesterday, so sorry I didn't let you all know right away. Big thanks to everyone who gave me encouragement and support, you can find links to their blogs in my fellow runner's section on the right (I'm coming down with a bad bad cold and am a lazy blogwriter for not linking inline I know I know). Thanks Richard, Gary, Melly, Batman (wow, that sure sounds funny in there), CMB and anyone I may have missed. Couldn't have done it without you.

Plans for now is a one week break. Mostly because I'll be really really busy at work and this cold is becoming quite the nuisance.

After that I'm going to do two interval days a week and one "long run". I love doing the intervals. I haven't exactly thought how to divide them yet, I might make them 'natural' and do what my body feels like doing. The first three weeks I'm holding on to my regular route for timing and distance purposes, after that I'm going to try to increase my mileage.

Thanks again everyone -toasts cheap wine to celebrate-

W9D2 - I tried to be a morning runner

Well wishfully I had set my alarm to 5am this morning to try and do my run in the morning. I got up grumbling after two snoozes, had a quick cup of tea and a banana. Changed into my running clothes and got out of the door by 5.25am. Enough time for warmup, 30 minute run, cooldown, stretching and a hot shower.

It was hard! I had a lot of trouble keeping my pace steady and ended up running two intervals one of 12 minutes and one of 15 minutes. I was exhausted when I got home. I cooked up some breakfast right away because I was starving. Had some oatmeal and an apple, only after that did I feel energetic enough to hop into the shower.

Being a morning-before-breakfast runner really isn't for me, my energy levels are way off in the morning, I need a good breakfast and I need my food to settle before I run.

Nice attempt to rearrange my schedule, though it failed.

W9D1 - Yay!

I'm a 30 minute runner now!

I figured with the week break that I'd have trouble today, but I didn't. With the help of music and lovely though cold weather I was fine. It's actually easier to run when it's only 45F out than I thought. I was worried I'd get cold, but no where near that.

The main advantage was that I didn't need to stop running because I got too hot. I had that problem a few runs when it was around 80F, I just had to stop running because my body was just overheating.

One down, two more to go!

Life's looking up

After a good long talk with my parents and my brother they've decided to loan me and Steve the money for plane ticket. I'm gonna see him at Christmas and New Years, I'm going to Florida for two weeks!

I can't express in words how incredibly happy and grateful I am to my family. They are awesome, my life would probably be at rock bottom without their love and support. My parents and brother don't know about this blog, but if they happen to run across this, thank you, for everything!

My abcess is calming down nicely and is no longer painful, so I'm gonna try to do a run on Saturday. Just a repeat of W8, unless I can of course keep it up two minutes extra. I'll keep you posted.

And thank you all too for the support in running, the comments always cheer me on and keep up my spirits