Monday, August 25, 2014

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

I don't mean to be bury the lead.  I hate when the Orioles text messages that I get from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network read "Jones hits two hits in 7-2 loss to cubs", but here I am doing the same thing.

After a great long weekend in Atlantic City, where I finished my first post-surgery 5K and just had probably the most fun weekend of the year, I'm going to write about how frustrated I am with myself and with the Couch to 5K program.  The "Chickie's & Pete's Boardwalk 5K" and the fun weekend in AC deserve their own blog post. I don't have time to write it and it deserves to be written when I'm feeling more positive.

Until Tuesday of last week (8/19), it seemed like everything was going well in the Couch to 5K program.  I'd repeated week 3, which is:

Brisk five-minute warmup 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)
But toward the end of the second week I was stretching the three minute runs into 5-minute runs and everything was going well.  

So, week 4:

Brisk five-minute warmup 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)
 I did one perfect version of this, on Sunday 8/17, with an extra 3-minute run tacked on the end to bring me back to my car.  I tried again on Tuesday, and was able to complete it, but just felt bad during the run and my legs felt awful for several days after. 

I rested the rest of the week, knowing that the 5K was coming on Saturday.

On Saturday, I completed the 5K, running half a mile walking a minute, repeat.  Legs were sore, but normal, good soreness.  My normal, pre-injury 5K time was around  27 minutes.  We finished the 5K in 45.

Today, I tried to do the same run/walk intervals as the 5K (intending only 2 miles, since I'm trying to train at my roughly my pre-injury training pace, which is closer to a 10:00/mile) and within the first 1/3 of a mile, I was wheezing as if I'd never run before in my life.  My legs felt fine, I just couldn't breathe.

I'm hoping it's just because I forgot my allergy medicine last night and because I tried to run this at the VERY hilly park near our house (I was wheezing way before I hit the big hills, though.)

Meanwhile, though, I think it's back to "Week 3" for a pretty frustrated me.  By the end of "Week 5", I'm supposed to be able to run 2 miles with no walk breaks.  Even before the bad runs last Tuesday and today, I feel like I'm more than a week away from being able to do that.

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