Couch to 5k?

[tracilicious]

Tomorrow morning Michael and I will be starting the couch to 5k (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml) running program. Basically, you follow their program three times a week and in two months you can run three miles.

Assuming you don't have heart problems etc, a person of any fitness level can do this program. Heck, if I can do it, you can probably do it. Anyone wanna join me?

[Matterhorn Fan]

I'd love to try that someday. Now is not the time, but one day...

Good luck! Is there an event that you're planning for?

[Kevy Baby]

Anyone wanna join me?No.

But I hope you do well in it!

[Alex]

Half marathon is my distance but good for you! I know a few people who have successfully done the Couch to 5K program. If you haven't already I do encourage you to line up several 5K races. For most people, running (or waddling, or whatever is your speed) is like learning a foreign language. If you don't have anything encouraging to you to keep using it, it fades away.

The Runner's World Race Finder (http://www.runnersworld.com/channel/0,7119,s6-239-0-0-0,00.html?location=_*topnav*) is a good tool for finding events in your area.

[RStar]

I had just started a running program when I had my neck discs gave out and I had to quit. I'm still recovering from surgery, but hope to start back in soon. Of course I have been spending more time on the couch than I use to, so I'm in worse shape than before! So I'll have to take it slow. I advise that for anyone starting cold.

Good luck to you, and hope you can keep it up!!

[Stan4dSteph]

Awesome! I'm already doing the marathon training. There's a link to my blog in my sig! I hope you can get some people to join and all sign up for a race to do together. :)

[scaeagles]

I like cardio workouts, but I got to a point where I couldn't take the impact of running. I daily do 5+ miles in 30 minutes on my elliptical. I realize this has no correlation at all to running. I could not do 5 miles in 30 minutes out on the street. But it's all about cardio health, and I have a resting heart rate under 50.

[tracilicious]

Thanks for the encouragement all! We went running this morning and I'm alot more out of shape then I thought! I think we're going to try to run five times a week instead of three because I totally need remedial running help. :p I really love running when my endurance is higher. Poor Michael had to work hard to go slow enough to keep up with me.

I don't have any event in mind, but perhaps I'll take Alex's advice and sign up for something. The fact that Disneyworld has marathons is good motivation to run farther. ;)

[Alex]

If you're really starting from scratch, I wouldn't bump it up to 5 days a week immediately. You're going to experience soreness and tweaks and pushing too hard to get into shape because of how much you're out of it is an almost sure recipe to do some actual damage to yourself and then you won't be running at all.

Disneyworld and Disneyland do have long events but each also has a 5K the day before the main events.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I suppose I don't really count as starting from scratch since I'm never entirely sedentary, but I do find that when I've laid off running for a while and get back into it, it's best if I at least do some light jogging 5 days a week to start. You might want to alternate with a very light version on the in between days, but I agree that at the beginning, taking a day off tends to impeed my initial progress.

Painting and moving has been my preferred method of exercise for a while. Hopefully once that's settled I'll be switching to regular swimming as we now have a swimming pool mere steps away from our front door.

[katiesue]

I'm going to try this. I need to get up off the couch. I'll start tonight.

[Frogberto]

After six years of no running, I joined a marathon training program (not Team in Training) last year to run the OC Marathon. Both my wife and I ended up finishing the marathon, which was quite an accomplishment!

[tracilicious]

I suppose I don't really count as starting from scratch since I'm never entirely sedentary, but I do find that when I've laid off running for a while and get back into it, it's best if I at least do some light jogging 5 days a week to start. You might want to alternate with a very light version on the in between days, but I agree that at the beginning, taking a day off tends to impeed my initial progress.



I'm only really starting from scratch as far as running goes. We've been swimming all summer and we walk a lot all year. Plus I'm up and about with the kids a lot. Even when I was dancing 20+ hours a week running was still difficult to start. It seems that any of the muscles I've ever used are opposite from the muscles you need to run.

We're walking (briskly!) on the days we aren't scheduled to run, so I suppose we'll just see if we feel like jogging on those days. Today my shins are a bit splinty, so walking it is!

[Matterhorn Fan]

Please please please let your shins heal before running again. You will get stress fractures if you're not careful.

[tracilicious]

Hah! Stress fractures are no match for me! I've run with worse. :p

I'm kidding (well I really have run with worse, but I paid the price with super long healing time), my shins really aren't that bad. I'm upping the achilles stretching and toe taps though.

[Prudence]

How do you prevent/minimize shin splints? That's been my major issue. They don't seem interested in permitting me to make any progress.

[Alex]

Wear good shoes and be aware of the mileage you're putting on them. Many beginning runners are used to measuring the life of shoes in time and outer wear rather than distance. You probably shouldn't be running in shoes with more than a few hundred miles on them (and maybe less if, like me, you are significantly overweight).

Try to run on dirt surfaces or rubberized tracks while building up a regular regimen of running. The impact is much less. Don't try to run through shin splints, they'll just get worse. Stretch a lot.

I would say consider building up to it a bit with a fair of amount of time on an eliptical machine. This, to a degree, put your legs through the range of motion for running without the impact. Part of the process is slowly acclimating your legs to the beating they take.

If they are persistent, you might see an orthopedist about orthotic inserts for your shoes. Lani has these and found they helped quite a bit (once she got them from a non-idiot doctor).

[Prudence]

I do not have access to an eliptical and my shoes are new. Alas. I just have to keep taking it slow, I guess. Maybe some day I'll be able to actually do something.

[Alex]

Don't you work for the University of Washington (or am I misremembering)? Does that still come with access to the IAC? I know that is a bit of a trek, but it probably has ellipticals in the gym, and the pool would also provide opportunity for low-impact water jogging (which looks stupid but is good exercise).

But yeah, ultimately it is just a case of go slow and built up durability. Press it every once in a while but don't be afraid to pull back, just don't stop or give up altogether.

[Prudence]

I'm not available at a time when it's reasonable to use the IAC and it costs money I don't have. Home treadmill is paid off, available 24/7 without waiting, and comes without public mocking. The treadmill has a program which gradually cycles from slow walk to jog in 10 second intervals that I've been alternating with steady mid-speed walk for a much longer duration. I guess that's my version of the couch to 5K, except it will take me 10 years to get to the 5K point. I added a minute to the cycling one yesterday (still too short to specify) and it burned like hell for the last minute, but it doesn't hurt to walk today, which it usually does if I've overdone it.

[Alex]

That's the way to do it. Stick at it and it will come eventually.

It alwayd did suck that the IAC was in such an extreme location, especially since I was at the dorms on the complete wrong side of campus. I thought employees had free access too, too bad that's not true any more (or I just completely misremember).

One thing I want to address is this:

and comes without public mocking.

This is something that kept me out of gyms for a very long time. And then when I did finally go it was because I hired a personal trainer and felt shielded by that. But what I learned over the next few years is that hardly anybody cares about the other people in the gym and certainly not the big gym rats. They just want to get in, get out, and not have people get in their way.

To the extent that they notice the unfit people coming to the gym it is to think "good for them, hope they stick with it." The only person I ever heard or saw mocked was this guy who would show up for aerobics wearing the skimpiest wrestling uniform I've ever seen.

So if you ever do have a gym available to you easily and you want to do use it, do try to overcome the feeling that people are watching you. I'm sure it happens but it is rare.

[Prudence]

IAC is now the IMA and it's $200 membership for staff (or $60/on a quarterly basis, $5 single use). It's not gobs of money over the course of the year, but it's a lot for me to shell out now for a place that's inconvenient. Plus, if I forget to wash my workout duds no one cares except the cats, and they just give me the stinkface while they watch me plod along.

What's the most frustrating right now is that my shins won't even let me start out at the beginning of any program - I'd be thrilled just to get to the "starting line". I suppose the good news is that the rest of me is ready and eager to do more, it's just the shins that are being difficult, and they've never been the same since I injured them learning a dance routine in high school. (It involved cossack kicks while "playing" a faux violin. In 2 inch heels.)

[Alex]

Do they hurt even if you just take walks or is it only attempting to jog?

[Prudence]

Attempting to jog, for the most part. Or if I try to walk really really fast for a long time.

[Alex]

Then I would say to focus on walking as much as will allow. I don't know how much you weigh, but losing weight can help with it so it may be necessary to focus on other methods of exercise first before you can really move on to the physical demands of running.

If it is feasible, a consultation with an orthopedist might be helpful for professional advice and confirmation that it is shin splints and not some other problem.

[tracilicious]

My Sports Medicine teacher in high school recommended toe taps for shin splints. The track team used to do them. They seem to work.