No, that title is not a math problem. Well, hopefully not.
My first-ever race, the 4.01K, is coming up in just under 3 weeks! Mind you, I have only JUST started running. When I signed up for this thing, I figured I would power-walk it rather than actually dare to jog it. The problem with that now is that I have revealed to myself that I actually am capable of jogging the whole thing -- 4.01 kilometers is only 2.49 miles -- and my superego is not letting me off the hook for that. So, I somehow find myself training for this silly little "race."
I had always planned to switch from the elliptical to the treadmill at a certain point in my mission. I am NOT at that point, but my body doesn't seem to give a shit. It's all, "check me out, I'm healthy and limber and I can RUN now!" Show-off.
Well, it may think it's ready for this jelly, but it actually hasn't ever sustained a run outdoors of more than, oh, two minutes. Once. Five years ago.
Enter Couch to 5K.
I hatched this scheme at some point over the past 2 days that I could modify the popular C25K plan to my level and my very attainable goal, even in this compressed timeline. I can enter to the program at a more advanced step because I've trained up to a level of cardio that's far above "couch," so much to the pleasure of my over-achieving self, I fast-forwarded to week 4 (of 9), workout 3 (of 3). I successfully completed that workout tonight in my new gym (!):
Between now and October 4th, I have to knock out this series of workouts:
That'll be SUPER easy, considering I'm about to enter into a week of travel, almost all of which will be gymless. I'll be lucky if I even get all my steps in. Honestly, self, why do you?
The good news is that week 7 of the training program IS to run a 4.01K, so really, it's getting through weeks 5 and 6 before I'm all of a sudden ready (in theory).
What. The. Hell.
In a past life, I actually attempted this program, but I never even made it to week 4. In fact, I think I quit just before getting there. How does this program expect a bona fide couch potato to just get up and be running a quarter mile in one go within 4 weeks? It doesn't work that way. It's a totally intimidating regimen if you haven't actually been moving in some way for a while. Elliptical to 5K, sure. Couch to 5K, my ass.
That said, I think I might actually try to see this one through. After my "race," I might as well continue the whole way through week 9 and complete a 5K run, right? Maybe I'll even... do a 5K race.
WHO AM I?! (I'm Jean Valjean!)
By way of another mild update, I have somewhat returned to tracking. I'm not going to actually log my food every day, but I am using My Fitness Pal again to calculate the calories in my recipes for the week to help me plan my meals. There's no sense in spending the time with entering in my food every day when it's going to be the same thing every day until the next week, so as long as I know I'm in range heading into the week, I'm good. I am going to a wedding at the end of this week, hence the travel, so I'll sort of be in vacation mode for a week, but I still feel like I've got this on the food front.
It's the whole training for a weird public "race" I'm not as sure about.
Better get sure, huh??
Wish me luck!