Andrew is getting fit

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Yesterday, I completed the Couch to 5K program. I started the program in mid January and now, in Mid March, I can run 5 km in a row.

Along the way I’ve done the following:

1. I ran at least 46.5 km. I didn’t start recording my distance until I got up to20 minute runs so I have actually run a little more.
2. I got bronchitis and didn’t let it derail me! In many respects this was the biggest change for the improvement for me. In the past whenever I’ve gotten sick I’ve used it as an excuse to return to my old habits i.e. overindulging in comfort food, giving up on the gym etc. I’m very pleased that I did not give up on everything when it happened this time. I really think that having this blog helped me stay on track and focused.
3. I’ve lost about 20 pounds.
4. I’ve been called a bastard. (Sorry Marshie, couldn’t resist!)
5. I’ve been called an inspiration.
6. I posed with a lot of butter!
7. I attracted a lot of strange people who are doing google searches for “naked fit men in the gym” with this post.
8. I’ve entered my first 5K race. Less than 2 weeks to go!
9. I’ve amazed myself and a few others I think. I never believed that I would be able to run and now I can.

I still find it really incredible how quickly our bodies can adapt to the various stresses we put upon them. I’ve learnt quite a bit about myself over the last few weeks and have a better appreciation of what I am capable of now.

I’d like to thank all of you who read my blog and have offered such great supportive comments and helpful bits of advice. I don’t think I could have done it without you. I’d especially like to thank my ever suffering wife who has had to put up with me being a bit obsessed and single minded about things lately. She has supported me in all my decisions and darling, if you read this, I love you.

Next week I start the One Hour Runner program!

Tags: C25K, Life, Milestones, fitness by AndrewE
19 Comments »

I went for a run in the Auckland Domain earlier today.

The Auckland Domain is the oldest park in Auckland and is a great place to go for a lunchtime run. There are quite a few tree lined tracks that are ideal for running along. As an added bonus it is a two and a half minute walk from my workplace, which makes me wonder why I didn’t think about running there before.

You may recall that I had expressed some paranoia a few anxieties about going out and running outside with a partner. Turns out that it was a lot of fun. My running partner is from Hawaii and had a lot of interesting things to say about it. Running outside is nice and not nearly as boring as running on the treadmill.

We ran about 5.2 km in about 36 minutes which is slower than my treadmill pace but I noticed that it was a lot easier at that pace. I think I will try and go slightly faster for my next one but I was taking it easy today as it was my first outdoor run of this distance.

I used the Google Pedometer to work out how far we went:

It was good and I’m looking forward to my next run. Incidentally, that is week 8 day 3 of C25K completed.

Tags: C25K, Uncategorized, running by AndrewE
11 Comments »

Running is tough. More so mentally than physically I think. I’ve noticed that if I spend the same amount of time on the elliptical crosstrainer then I burn almost as many calories but I feel fine afterwards. After my run I’m pretty buggered and take a good twenty minutes or so to start thinking like a normal human being again.

I have this problem in that I try to do too much. Take today’s run. My rational mind said you’ve already proven that you can do 5 km so take it easy and just build up a good base. Of course, super competitive inner Andrew takes over and says I WILL SET A NEW PR and sets the treadmill at a fast pace. Of course after about 18 minutes I felt absolutely buggered and had to slow down a lot for a while in the middle. I still managed to finish the 5 km and funnily enough I set exactly the same time as I did on Monday (29:36) which was really weird.

I bumped into one of my colleagues in the gym on Monday and yesterday he asked me if I would be keen to go running in the Domain one day.

I immediately thought OH MY GOD I’ll be too slow and am too fat and started to think how I could get out of it so I started to make an excuse, but then stopped and thought why not? So to cut a long story short we are going running on Friday and I reckon it should be fun. I want to transition to running more outside now that I am running longer distances so this should be a good start.

Tags: C25K, running by AndrewE
15 Comments »

Seeing as I ran 5K on Monday I have decided to treat this as my final week on C25K. On Friday I should finish the program so I need to decide what I will do next. One of the goals I have set myself is to do the Quarter marathon at the Auckland Marathon this year. The quarter is 10.2 km so I need to train myself up to run 10K. Fortunately this is in November so I have some time to get there but I think it would be good to start training for it early.

I find I tend to do well when I can follow a program so I’ve decided that I will follow another training program to get me to 10 km.

There seem to be two major programs recommended to take you to 10K (or one hour of running).

The first is Hal Higdon’s Spring Training. This takes 12 weeks to get you to 6 miles (approx 10K) but it involves running most days and that might be a bit awkward.

The second is Cool Running’s The One Hour Runner. This takes a minimum of ten weeks (depending on how you go you can add weeks in) and involves running 3 times a week.

I quite like the routine of running 3 times a week only so I’ve decided to go with that.

The One Hour Runner program is as follows:

Weeks 1 - 3: Right now you are running 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Your weekly commitment of time is 90 minutes. Continue doing this for three weeks.

Week 4: Run 30 minutes, 29 minutes, 35 minutes. Weekly total: 94 minutes

Week 5: Run 30 minutes, 32 minutes, 38 minutes Weekly total: 100 minutes

Week 6: Run 30 minutes, 33 minutes, 41 minutes Weekly total: 104 minutes

Week 7: Run 30 minutes, 34 minutes, 45 minutes Weekly total: 109 minutes

Week 8: Run 30 minutes, 36 minutes , 49 minute Weekly total: 115 minutes

Week 9: Run 30 minutes, 38 minutes, 54 minutes Weekly total: 122 minutes

Week 10: Run 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes Weekly total: 130 minutes

So what I will do is finish C25K this week and then launch straight into OHR as the first 3 weeks of OHR are the same as the last week of C25K.

I’m also going to run all of the Run Auckland series races (circumstances permitting). These are 5K or 10K races so I will aim to run them on my 30 minute days as I’m planning on doing them as 5K races. Having said that I may do the last one as a 10K if I have managed to run 10 km by then. Of course, this all assumes that I enjoy the 1st 5K event which is about 3 weeks away

Boy, times have changed for me. A few months ago I would have said you were nuts if you told me I’d be pondering which running program to take.

Tags: C25K, OHR, fitness, running by AndrewE
9 Comments »

Well, I gave out a loud and proud “Hell yeah!” today when I RAN 5KM!

This was a tough, tough run. I started off thinking it would be nice to run the full 5K today so I thought I would start out a little faster than normal and started off at 10.5kph. I kept this up till halfway and truth be told up until then it wasn’t too bad. However, the second half was really tough. I kept on thinking one more minute and by the time the last 5 minutes rolled up I had abandoned all pretensions of completing the 5K. I was thinking …today’s run is only supposed to be 28 minutes I’ll stop then… However, 28 minutes arrived and I had done 4.6 km so I thought…one more lap…I can do this. So I ran a bit more. And I made it. 5KM in 29:36.

C25K rocks!

Tags: C25K, Milestones, fitness, running by AndrewE
18 Comments »

Today was my 3rd 25 minute run and Week 07 Day 02 of C25K. I work at a University and classes have started again so I’ve started to do my runs in the afternoon rather than the morning. I don’t know why but I’ve been itching to do my run all day. Luckily for me, I had a guest lecturer in today so all I had to do was introduce her. I then went to the gym to do my run. I’m lucky in that there is a gym on campus which is really convenient for me. It’s not fancy and it’s pretty grotty compared to some gyms truth be told but it’s cheap and convenient - two properties that are close to my heart.

Today’s run was mentally quite tough. I’ve been having visions of upping the pace and setting a new PR but instead I went slower than in my previous session as I felt that maybe I was trying to push things a bit too much. I listened to a great podcast (warning the link opens the podcast) by Steve Runner about doing the C25K program and one of the things he emphasises is that you should NOT try to do more than the program suggests. He says that this is the biggest mistake that newbies like myself make and it leads to injuries.

So I listened and backed off a tiny bit. I did 4.25 km in 25 minutes today which is still a little faster than the program suggests (4kms in 25 mins) but I think it’s a comfortable pace for me. I’ve been tracking my runs here if anyone is interested in having a look.

I’ve given up on the podcasts by Steve Ullrey now that I’m doing continuous runs rather than interval runs. Instead I’ve been listening to audio books on my ipod. Just to prove I’m a geek I’ve been listening to the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series. I think on Friday I will try going back to the podcasts as they provide quite a good beat for running. The book is great for my walks home but doesn’t have quite enough oomph! for my runs. When I get some time I’ll try and make myself a good running playlist. Anyone got any suggestions for great running songs?

Tags: C25K, running by AndrewE
10 Comments »

I completed Week 07 Day 01 today. This entailed a 5 minute warm up walk followed by a 25 minute run followed by a 5 minute cooldown walk. Astute observers may notice that this is the same as week 06 day 3. The difference is that you are supposed to kick up the pace a bit. The program calls for 3.6 km on w6d3 and 4km on w7d1.

I did 4.1 km in my last run which means I’ve been going a little faster than the program calls for. As such, I decided I would try running quite quickly and see if I could run 5K in 25 minutes! I worked it out and it meant that I would have to set my treadmill to 12 kph which is faster than my normal 10 kph. But nothing ventured nothing gained so I did it.

Five long minutes later I thought…let’s try 11 kph. One minute later I was down to my normal 10 kph. And ten minutes later I was down to 9.5 kph.

Needless to say I did not make 5K today. Having said that, I did achieve a personal best and end up with 4.3 kilometres run after 25 minutes. I’m happy with that and am fairly convinced that I could run 5k now if I had to.

Today’s run was tough but not nearly as tough as my last one and I went further so progress is being made.

Tags: C25K, running by AndrewE
14 Comments »

I had this great idea that I would go and run along the beach at Mission Bay this morning but when I woke up today it was absolutely pouring down with rain.  I don’t know about you my loyal readers, but the idea of running in monsoon like conditions just does not appeal to me.

So, I did the next best thing and went to the gym to visit the treadmill instead.  On the drive in to the gym I passed a bunch of hardy souls out running and I must admit I did feel a little soft.

Today’s run called for 25 minutes on non stop running.  No mucking about with intervals or what not.  I started off thinking “I can do this!”  Halfway through I was thinking “I’m going to die.” But I refused to give up and I didn’t die.

Today’s run was the longest non stop run I have done in my life. I covered 4.1 km in 25 minutes.  I’m fairly proud of that even though its not particularly fast.  The fact remains that I did it.

Tags: Uncategorized by AndrewE
28 Comments »

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, which means that it is a public holiday (yay!). The downside of this is that my gym is shut today so I had to go running out in public - the horror!

I decided I would go and do my session along the Auckland waterfront as it is relatively flat and the view is outstanding. My route map is here.

I took my camera along to get some shots of the sunrise but unfortunately I’ve suffered a camera malfunction and all my photos have disappeared off of it. This is a photo of where I was off flickr.Week 4 has a lot more running than in week 03. In fact the shortest run this week is as long as the longest run from last week.As always, it starts off with a 5 min brisk walk to walk up. This was easy.

The next phase was an easy three minute run. This was followed by a very short ninety second walk. Then came the longest run so far - five minutes. Now five minutes doesn’t seem particularly long, but boy, by the end of it I was shuffling along like an arthritic old man. I was very glad that there was a two and a half minute walk after it. The next three minute run seemed easy by comparison although the ninety second walk after it flashed by. The last five minutes were tough. After running for what seemed like half an hour my podcast buddy said: “You’re doing great - one more minute to go! Step it up!” So I did, and I survived.

And I showed myself that I could do week 04.

Running outside is quite different to running on the treadmill. For one thing, it’s harder to pace yourself. On the treadmill, you have to keep to a certain pace or you fall off the back. On the road there is no such pressure. Another thing I noticed was that the air is damn nippy before sunrise. And, a nice thing I noticed is the cameraderie amongst the exercisers. There were a lot of runners and walkers along the route I choose. Almost everyone gives you a smile and a nod.

I’m already looking forward to the next workout on Friday, although I’ll be heading back to the gym for this one. I think once I can do the full 5 km I will be running outside more. I’m starting to get addicted to this.

Tags: Uncategorized by AndrewE
3 Comments »

I’ve completed week 01 of the Couch to 5K program.

This week I have had to do 3 sessions of:

Firstly, a brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then 8 rounds of alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking. Then a five-minute cooldown walk.

So far it has been relatively easy. The podcasts I mentioned in my previous post really help.

I’m hoping to stick with it for the whole nine weeks and actually manage to do the 5km. Actually, I’m not hoping. I WILL stick with it.

Tags: Uncategorized by AndrewE
5 Comments »