My New Chimerical Kit

Last year, Christina and I developed a blog meme that we called “Individually Collective Blogging” or ICB. We originally developed it in preparation for writing our Collective NaNovel for NaNoWriMo. And while collective noveling didn’t go as swimmingly as we had thought it would, collective blogging is still fantastic.

2010 should be a fun year of collective blogging. If you’re a new reader you can check out last year’s posts in the my ICB Archives and Christina’s ICB Archives.

Visit Christina’s blog to read about her take on C25K: here.

I can’t exactly remember when it was that I heard about #C25K, but I’m pretty sure it had to have been from Melissa. She is my hero. Just recently, she finished her very first marathon. I cried when I read her post. I don’t know why… other than that you could just feel the sense of accomplishment that she felt. Part of me wants to experience that too… that feeling that against any odds you did it!

I should take a moment to mention here that I have exercise induced asthma. I should also mention that I have never been able to run a day in my life. In school I was always the kid that was still on the track long after everyone else had finished their mile run. I repeat… I am not a runner. However… I want to be a runner. Maybe it’s just the fact that I can’t do something that makes me want it even more, or maybe it’s just that I love the idea of getting out there all by yourself and it’s just you and the road, but whatever it is, I want to run… like the wind.

So I’m pretty sure that on Melissa’s journey to becoming a marathoner I may have mentioned my desire to become a runner. And I’m pretty sure that she’s the person who first put the bug in my ear about Couch to 5K. But it wasn’t until Melissa’s friend Amy started posting some tweets about #C25K that I really got jazzed about the program. I was just about to resign myself to just take the plunge and do it when I saw this post from Christina:

I was thrilled to see that my best buddy (and best blogging buddy) was interested in the same training program that I was! What an opportunity this could be!!! Of course, there’s a bit of a distance issue in training together, seeing that we live nearly 300 miles apart. We certainly won’t actually be able to train together, but we can keep ourselves honest with our blogging updates!

Official Start Date = March 1

About the Training Program

The C25K is designed for non-runners to make it to their first 5K race safely and successfully. The program is broken down across 9 weeks, training three days a week. What’s three days? It’s not even the majority of the week! Directly from their site they say:

C25K, is a fantastic program that’s been designed to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometers or 30 minutes in just 9 weeks….Its secret is that it’s a gentle introduction to getting the body moving, starting off alternating between walking and running small distances, and slowly building up until after 8 weeks, you’re ready to run 5 kilometers or 30 minutes non stop.

It sounds easy. Although, I’m sure it’s not quite that easy. I expect to have challenging days and I expect that more than once I’m going to want to quit. But I’m not going to. And I challenge you, my faithful readers, to keep me motivated! Please feel free to post comments on my #C25K updates and keep me going. I’m going to shoot for weekly updates on my progress. Please, cheer me along, jeer me along (maybe), offer advice if you think I could do something better… anything. I welcome it all! Whenever you see the little “anti-couch potato” icon next to a post, you’ll know it’s a #C25K update.

Why #C25K?

So if I’m not a runner and have never been a runner why do I all of a sudden want to embark on a running training program? I have major reasons. In no particular order they are:

1. Christina’s getting married this year and I’m a bridesmaid. I’m so excited to be able to stand up for her at her wedding like she did for me at mine! But (or should I say BUTT?) I’m a perfect size 10 for the dress she picked out except for my hips. The top is already going to have to be altered a bit and I’ll be damned if I’m going to have to have it let out around the hips! So I’m about to say good-bye to at least 10 pounds!!
2. I already mentioned that I was so moved by Melissa’s marathon run that I want to experience even just a little bit of that… even if it is just a 5K. That will be so much more than I’ve ever accomplished before in my life.
3. I have a New Year’s Resolution to become in the best shape possible. After all, I’m at some point going to be biking 30 miles a day on that awesome trip I won from Ciclismo Classico! I figure a little running to strengthen my cardio routine can’t hurt.
4. The next time Bluemont Vineyards has their 951 5K & Uphill Time Trial I want the hardest part to be the uphill time trial. The last time I participated (back in 2008) I walked the entire thing. And to be quite honest I thought it might kill me; especially the uphill time trial. I’d love to not be the last person in the pack the next time I do it. I was so sad about my inability to really give it a good effort that I didn’t even do it last year. Now, the last two years they’ve had it in April so that will kind of be in the middle of my whole training program. It’s likely I won’t be up for making a real “go” of it this year. But if they have it I’ll enter and use it as part of my training. And then 2011… baby here we come!

The Tools

Since running has never been a top priority for me I know that I’ll only stay motivated if I have some great gadgets and gizmos to keep me interested. I think that these terrific tools, paired with your support, I’ll do just fine. So what am I using?

MapMyFitness.com

I’m going to start utilizing MapMyFitness.com more. They’ve got a ton of great tools available to members and I think they will help keep me on track. I really like the mapping feature that their iPhone app has, and I’ll likely use this app for my outdoor training sessions. Their training calendar integrates with lots of other systems, like Nike+, Garmin and others.

In addition to the regular training calendar, I created a C25K group to track our progress. You can follow along with our training progress on our MapMyFitness C25K training group. If you’re not already a member of MapMyFitness.com, you should join!! It’s awesome… and they have iPhone apps! Don’t get lost in your training, become a MapMyRun.com member and get access to free training plans and printed run routes.

Nike+

I’ve been a member of Nike+ for several years now. I originally joined to track my milage for my dog’s distance logging program (long story, maybe another blog post). It’s been a laughable adventure since I don’t run. Also there was a period of time that I completely boycotted Nike+ because they weren’t offering support for the iPhone. That has all changed now with the release of the iPhone 3GS and built in Nike+ support!! I’m so excited!! I’ll be using Nike+ for all my indoor runs.

C25K app

The C25K people have create an actual iPhone app to track your training. It looks pretty cool, but I’m kind of afraid to really play with it until our training session starts. So I’ll let you know more later how that interface is working for me.

Challenges I anticipate

I said that I thought I’d probably want to quit more than once… and that’s no lie. Here are a few of the challenges that I think I’ll have:

1. I hate to pay to sweat. However, our start date is going to be in the middle of what can potentially be our rainiest season in Virginia. So I’m going to buy a gym membership so that I have no excuse to skip a training session
2. I’m going to the Virginia DAR State Conference again this year. And it just happens to be March 11 – March 14, smack dab in the middle of Week 2. This is probably when I’ll want to quit the most. The Richmond Marriott and I have confirmed that they do have a fitness center. The question is whether or not I’ll be able to drag myself in there to do my training session after I’ve done a full day of paging duties.
3. My asthma and my feet are not my friends. I’m going to be trying to do the whole training program in my Vibrams and I will refill my prescription for my inhaler… just in case.

Related Posts

• April 17, 2010 -- Bluemont 5K, Check!
• March 30, 2010 -- [C25K] Challenges to Overcome
• March 19, 2010 -- Can it GET Worse?
• March 18, 2010 -- [C25K] Slight Setback…
• February 12, 2010 -- [C25K] Beginning of Week 2