Ackkkkk.. once again I’m disappointed. Last week I did well and lost 4 lb but no movement on the scales this week..
However my fitness continues to improve and my clothes definitely continue to get looser! I like that feeling…the downside is that my BUTT now gets sore when I’m sitting in one place for too long. I’ve rediscovered my coccyx…it sucks! Hee hee!
Yesterday I completed run 3 on Week 5 of my “Couch to 5K” program and ran a total of 20 full minutes (2.5 km) on the treadmill at 4 mph and set at a 2 incline (the theory is by adding a small incline it would be similar to the extra effort needed to run outside). Everything bounces, I’m not a pretty sight, BUTT (you see I did a play on words there) I can’t believe I can run again. I try and hit the treadmill 3 or 4 times a week now for at least 30 minutes and at weekends take some long walks or go for a hike. I LOVE challenges..
I’m fairly confident that I can reach my goal of running 5K by October 7th on the treadmill however running off the treadmill is so very different and much more difficult. At the moment I can’t even run 1/2 a km outside. I’m going to try and do more track work and just try and do my best
C xxxxx
PS Is anyone else doing or done the “Couch to 5K” or who jogs? I’d love to get your feedback….maybe you can share some tips. Did you have difficulty running off the treadmill when you had done most of your training on it?
I have done most of my training on the treadmill too. I just started the couch to five program a few weeks ago. While I do find it is easier to jog on the treadmill, I don’t find it that dramatic because I keep the incline at two or three. If I’m re-doing a day because I don’t feel ready to move on, I set it to three so there is more of a challenge, otherwise I always have the incline at two. I plan on doing most of the program on the treadmill this time around, and then re-running the program outside so I have some training before hand.
That sounds very wise… I am now doing all my running on a 2 incline and may move it up to 3 and then try and do some outside training during the week… if I just can’t do it outside I’ll start the program from the beginning again when I finish doing all the 9 weeks on the treadmill, but do it all outside second time around.. C xxx
I only want to encourage you because you have done so well – but here’s my experience: after training hard for a half marathon for 4 months I started to run outside – only to find the difference was huge (in my case) – it really was bone jarring. That was why I did some research and started to do Tabatha spurt training which I find the best weight loss method as it triggers the body to burn fat for an entire day afterward, cutting down how much time you have to spend running (which was great for me as I have a family, dogs and other interests!).
With an 8 minute training session 3x a week I made better weight loss gains than all the training I had done before.
Of course, I found I couldn’t run as far!
Anyway, just so you know it’s not all plain sailing switching from the tread…….
Good luck with the marathon! (well, 5k seems like a marathon to me!)
Thanks Scott… I feel exactly like you do in the fact that running OFF the treadmill is so much tougher on the body, my legs ache like crazy, everything painfully wobbles and its basically so different. I can run 20 + minutes on the treadmill but no more than 5 minutes on the track. I’m off to the track this morning to have another go…. Thanks for the tips and advice xxx
Do you have any wood chipped paths or large grass fields you could circle in your area Carolyn? I don’t ever run on anything other than pressed dirt, grass or woodchips. I have HORRIBLE knees, damaged by a fall when I was young, and they can’t take anything harder than the park trails. I even find that having the treadmill on an incline will make them ache sometimes. I was also told that just before the monthly torture women go through, your body will naturally feel more achy and delicate, so to ease up a bit then. My physiotherapist has told me to still jog but at a much slower pace to help with impact during that time.
The track at the sports centre is made of rubber so is quite shock absorbing so I try and use that occasionally but it still feels much much tougher on that than on the treadmill 🙂 Oh no on your knees- you must really have to take care to not over do it xxxxxxx
Roughly a year before I ran my 5K, I trained on the treadmill during the winter doing the Running Room programme of running then walking, working up to 10s and 1s. Then I started running for 20 minutes in a row, then 30. When spring came, I headed outside, and seemingly lost all my progress. I started running intervals outside (1 minute running, 1 minute walking then 1s, 2s and 1s, then 3s and 1s, all the way up to 10s and 1s.) One day, after 10 min I decided not to walk, and bit by bit, I increased my outside run to 7K continuously, which I thought would put me in good stead for my 5K race in September. Guess what happend on my race day? I couldn’t run continuously at all, and had to run the entire race in 10s and 1s. Not to belittle the achievement, I still can’t believe I did it, but it was surprising. Maybe it was nerves, or the new terrain, or the hard pavement of the Toronto Lakeshore Road, who knows? 🙂
Also, I had trouble finding the technique listed by one of the previous posters. For any other people wanting to try it, I found it listed as Tabata Sprints. Here’s the wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training
Best of luck Carolyn! It is hard, but I know you can do it. 🙂