Week 1 Day 3, Week 1 Complete

I continue to be overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and inspiration from you, my friends and readers. Many of you have told me that, because of my blog, you're going to start the C25k program too. Others have shared success stories of completing the program and continuing to run on your own. Some of you have wished me good luck and told me, "You can do it!" To all of you, thank you! It means a lot to me to know that you care. Your words inspire me to be successful.

I plan on posting my weights weekly now, as I believe this will show my loss better, instead of the subtle day-to-day changes. I'm going to shoot for Monday mornings. I'll do my best to remember. I realize that I am behind on the spreadsheets, but that information is mostly helpful to me. I doubt any of you really get much out of them. If any of you are sad that they aren't up to date, let me know and I can try to keep up. They add a lot of time to my night.

On to tonight's run.

For the third time this week, I ran on a different treadmill. I did another pre-warmup warmup, this time for about four minutes. I took it slow. All day I've felt very prepared for tonight's run, mentally, but not physically. I had more energy today at work than any day so far this summer. If I didn't tread carefully though, my calves sure let me know they were there.

Despite the leg pain, I looked forward to running. That's a good feeling to have. I honestly didn't think I would be where I am today when I began all of this just one week ago. I assumed I would dread running, but would simply do it because I had to. That's not the case, and it's awesome.

The run itself went much like last night's. The first 60 seconds felt great. I was breathing well again and still had more run in me by the time the lady with the ever so pleasant voice told me to begin walking.

It was run 2 that induced that leg pain once again. This time it was worse. Again, for a split second, I considered just walking for 30 minutes and doing Week 1 Day 3 on Saturday. Not an option. I ran. You can't lose the weight of the average 9 year old by giving up.

I did forget to take a bottle of water with me this time, and my mouth got pretty dry around the 20 minute mark. I can't do that again. Those of you that know me well know that I drink tons of water.

Notwithstanding the pain below my knees, I felt pretty good while running. I wasn't having nearly as much trouble breathing and I felt that my heart rate was lower, if only by a small amount. I've got to figure this pain out, though. Maybe it's simply the fact that I haven't run in years and my legs just have to get used to it. Maybe it's the fact that I ran last night.

Regardless, I'm going to push through it. If I have to switch up my schedule a little bit, so be it. If I have to run the Week 1 program a few more times before moving on to Week 2, so be it. That's not a problem. I've already done the hardest part by deciding to change my life and actually do something about it. The rest is easy. I just have to run.

Week 1 Day 2 and A Thank You

Wow! I can't get over how well my blog has been received. So many of you have contacted me with words of encouragement, compliments, or stories of your own. I cannot describe to you what that means to me. Thank you!

Tonight's run was a little disappointing. I'm not going to get discouraged though - that will only lead to failure. When I first walked into the gym, there was a guy running on the far left treadmill and my treadmill in the corner was unoccupied. They had obviously fixed the treadmill he was on, as it had been inoperable on Monday.

The first letdown of the night occurred when I tried to start it up my treadmill and it wouldn't respond. The guy running took out a headphone and informed me that it had broken and parts had been ordered for it. Nice guy. Alas, I moved on to the treadmill in the middle with little hope that it had been fixed as well. It was! Yeah! Time to get my run on!

My plan from Monday, of doing a pre-warmup warmup, was a good idea I thought until the treadmill timed out after 40 minutes and I almost ate some rubber and plastic. So tonight, I only walked for about 2 minutes before starting Week 1 Day 2.

I read some info on controlling your breathing while running and I tried to concentrate on that during my warmup. The first run came, and I stuck with the same breathing pattern instead of taking faster, shallower breaths. For the first time, I ran for 60 seconds straight with the feeling that I could continue running. I was breathing well. I began the first 90 second walk. I was onto the second 60 second run and my calves and shins both tightened up. It hurt.

I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. Failure on my third time out was out of the question. I trekked on. The second 90 second walk came and my legs had not relaxed by the end of it as they had from my previous two workouts. It was at this point that I decided to slow my pace. Finishing the run was more important to me than keeping up with my previous pace. When I first started the program, I thought I would bump up my speeds with each workout. It had worked well from Day 1 to the Day 1 repeat. It would not work well today.

After some consideration, I decided that it was probably a bad idea to try to run faster so soon. I mean, geeze, I just started running six days ago. Take it easy, man.

Slowing down eased the leg pain a little bit, but it was definitely still there. I did notice as I went on that I felt like I had better endurance tonight than I had before, excluding the leg pain that is. My breathing and whole upper body in general felt better than it had. At least I had improved in that area.

After run 6 or 7 my legs were in pretty bad shape. It didn't feel like something I could injure from continuing to run, but just something I had to push through and maybe warmup/stretch a little better before my next run.

Having been a drummer in marching band for four years, I am extremely used to moving my feet in sync with music. I found myself altering the length of my stride when running to keep with the music. This has to stop. With the tempo of each song in my playlist varying so much from song to song, I'll end up hurting myself if I don't. I blame you, Gordon Couch and Don Mellon.

I finished the last run and a wave of accomplishment rushed over me. Pushing through that leg pain was pretty rough. I was happy with myself. I didn't give up. The cooldown walk afterward felt like a gift and I was a glad recipient.

Once again, after the treadmill had ceased movement, my legs still felt like they were going forward. As I stepped off, my feet fell to the floor like the anchor of a large boat. It took some work to start walking out of the gym. I was walking as if my legs were asleep and I was trying to avoid that bittersweet tickling sensation to the best of my ability.

I made it outside, squinted into the sky, and enjoyed the nice cool breeze. It was a great feeling. I can tell that, compared to last Wednesday, I am a happier person. It's not that I was depressed or anything. Far from it actually. I've always been blessed to have a great family, friends, and life. It's just that I feel happier about myself. I look forward to the time ahead of me. I no longer feel like a lazy slouch. I got tired of my lifestyle and I'm doing something about it. If you've done it, you know the feeling. If you haven't, you're missing out.

Even though I yawned more today at work than I have in a couple of weeks, I still looked forward to tonight's run all day. I hope that trend continues.

I realize that this is still only the beginning, but I can't help to be proud of myself and be more self-motivated by what I've already done.

Week 1 Day 1, Part 2

A lot has gone down since last Thursday, merely four days ago. On Saturday, my parents came to town to help me accomplish some things I've been wanting to do to my apartment. I cannot thank them enough for everything they have done and do for me and I am really lucky to have such a great family! They have always supported me in everything I have done. Also, congrats to my sister who just earned a teaching job straight out of college. I know she's put a lot of work into her education and she deserves everything she's earned. I know she'll be a great teacher!

Not only am I starting to run, but I am eating as healthy as possible too. I am continuing with Nutrisystem and making smart choices when I go out to eat. I met my parents at Toast on Market Saturday morning - which is my favorite restaurant in Louisville - and ordered a turkey omelette and fruit cup instead of my usual peanut butter french toast and hashbrown casserole. This meal was insane as always. Go to Toast, people.

We then proceeded to work on my apartment all day and I got some natural exercise from doing a lot of  physical activity. I considered running Saturday night, but my calves were hurting quite a bit still from Thursday's run. Not running in years will cause that.

Sunday I traveled to Indianapolis and spent some time with some great friends. I ate a healthy egg flatbread sandwich from Subway for breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed a Pad Thai + Shrimp dish at Noodles and Company for dinner, thanks to the recommendation of the super nice girl behind the counter. Last night I came home and finished the book I was reading, Edge by Jefferey Deaver (my favorite author), and began reading Fight Club. I didn't make it to chapter three before I fell asleep and dropped the book on my face.

Today I woke up feeling well rested and made it through my day at work, knowing that I would be running tonight. I decided to start with Week 1 Day 1 again to get on a normal schedule of Mon/Wed/Thurs, as the program is three days per week. Through reading the Couch to 5k website and some forums, I learned that it's okay to repeat days until you're comfortable moving up to the next level. I decided repeating Week 1 Day 1 would help me get used to running as well, so that's what I did.

My legs felt good before the warmup, but I decided to walk a little longer before starting the program. After about 9 minutes of walking, I began. The first few runs were much easier than I remember from Thursday, but it got harder the longer I went. I noticed having a little more trouble getting a good breath tonight, but I'm pretty sure I have acute asthma. Part of it, I believe, was due to my mouth and throat getting pretty dry. I need to take a bottle of water with me when I run on the treadmill from now on.

The gym at my apartment complex has three treadmills. Tonight, I hopped on the one in the corner. The same one I had used Thursday. Apparently, the other two do not work, because two people tonight tried to use them to no avail. I felt kind of bad, but I feel like they understood it wasn't my fault that I was using the only working treadmill. I don't think they expected me to get off. I wouldn't expect them to had roles been reversed. I hope they get those fixed soon though. It's kind of awkward.

I finished Run 9 - the last run - and was walking the cooldown at a brisk pace when suddenly the treadmill just stopped. I didn't realize what had happened very quickly and I was still walking and almost face-planted. My best guess is that the treadmill auto shuts off after 40 minutes. I'll have to remember that. The last time I looked at my duration it was 38 something minutes. When it wouldn't turn back on, I grabbed my stuff and just walked outside to finish my cooldown plus a little more walking.

I feel good. I got pretty tired today at work, but I knew I had to run tonight. Being able to persevere and actually do it is a great feeling. I could have very easily just gone to sleep two hours ago. If I were the me from two weeks ago, I would have.

I got home tonight and decided to do some more work on the blog before writing this post. I've had some administrative stuff to take care of and finally got my own domain working today. This should be the permanent home of the blog. I added a couple of pages since Thursday: About Me and Stats.

The About Me page is self-explanatory and the Stats page contains an embedded spreadsheet containing all the details of each run and a list of my weight on each running day. The past two times I've weighed right after running, which is probably bad because I'm down a bunch of water weight. From now on, I'll try to weigh the morning of each running day. This should provide more consistent and accurate results. I doubt I've lost 5.8lbs since Thursday. This may end up being a weekly weight depending on how this goes.

It's time for me to head to bed so I can get up for work. Maybe I can read some Fight Club without getting in a fight with my book. The next run is scheduled for Wednesday, so expect the next post then.

If you find something wrong with the site, please let me know. I'm still in the process of getting everything looking and working as I want, so please excuse it. Thanks for reading!

Blog Comes to Life and C25k Begins

I am Phillip Green and this is my blog. This all began tonight after work when I was perusing the web. I found out about a program called C25k (Couch to 5k) that helps you start running. Having battled with my weight for the past few years and finally growing tired of being overweight, I decided to start it.

Right after returning from my very first run ever, I bought a domain and started this blog. Hopefully this will give me motivation to continue running and meet my weight loss goals. Maybe I'll continue to blog about other things alongside C25k or after it. We'll have to see how it goes. This first post is pretty long, so bear with me. I predict that future posts will be much shorter.

I'm not trying to write eloquently. I'm writing as things come to my mind. I'll use contractions. I might favor certain words on specific days. It'll be free flowing.

I'll go in a little further detail about the whole situation for you. About two years ago, June 2009 to be exact, I was a Junior at UofL studying Computer Engineering, I had an awesome relationship with the girl of my dreams, and awesome family, and I was really enjoying life except for one thing...I was severely overweight.

I was unhappy with myself and the way I felt, physically and mentally. My clothes were tighter than I liked. I had trouble breathing. I was always hot. I just never felt good physically. I went through high school hearing the occasional fat joke and was able to brush it off fairly well. I knew I was fat and people were just inconsiderate. The jokes never really bothered me. What I had problems with was being shirtless. I didn't think I looked THAT fat with a shirt on, but when I took it off, I hated the way I looked. When I got to this point, I knew it was time for a change.

My wonderful mother had previously done the Nutrisystem diet with some success, so I looked it up. They send you monthly shipments of food that you simply microwave and eat. You're responsible for some veggies, fruit, and other edible accessories, but the main meals are provided. The cost wasn't outrageous when considering how much my meal plan at UofL was (I was able to get my meal plan waived once I started) and this would be a better substitute in more ways than one. I placed my first order.

I began the diet on July 7th, 2009. On that day, I weighed 318lbs. I stuck to the diet pretty well for a long time. I was losing weight quite rapidly with minimal exercise outside of the occasional round of golf with my dad. Over the course of the next nearly 11 months I had lost over 60lbs. I was feeling good. My belt was on the last hole before I had to buy a new one. I had new shorts that were no longer baggy. My shirts fit comfortably. I could breathe freely. I actually got cold a few times. I was happy with myself.

Then disaster struck. My girlfriend of almost two years ended our relationship in June 2010. It boarded me onto the biggest emotional roller coaster of my life. I hate roller coasters. I wasn't taking this very well. I didn't eat a thing for literally 6 days. When I finally ate something, I ate, and I ate, and I ate. The comfort the food provided me was unreal. I didn't know what to do with myself, so I ate. All the time.

I began to gain weight back, but I didn't care. The food "felt" good. Once I finally got over the whole girlfriend thing, I didn't really stop. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I knew I had lost over 60lbs. I didn't notice the pounds packing back on. Then my new clothes didn't fit anymore. I was back to wearing my old clothes and they were tighter than I remembered. I put up with this for a few weeks once I realized I had gained almost all of my weight back, continually telling myself that I had to do something about it.

I got back on Nutrisystem, but it somehow seemed much harder to stick to than before. I found myself deviating for a nice dessert, indulging in sweets I knew I wasn't supposed to eat. I kept telling myself I would work out that night to make up for it. Well, guess what...I didn't.

That all changed tonight after work. I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed, catching up on the events of the past few hours. A friend of mine posted a status: "Just did week 1, day 5 of #c25k with @couch5k!" I googled it. That's the best thing I've done for myself in over a year. It seemed perfect. The plan was good for beginning runners and you could go at your own pace. Then, I watched this video:

It was the inspiration I needed. Ben Davis had already done what I wanted to do. He was heavier than I've ever been. After following this program and losing 120 lbs, he looked like a new man. I want to know what I look like minus 100 lbs. I found out there is an iPhone app for C25k. I bought it with no second thoughts. I added 100 songs to its playlist. I went to the gym.

I got on the treadmill and started Week 1 Day 1. It consists of a 5 minute walking warm-up, then alternating between a 1 minute run and 1.5 minute walk, concluding with a 5 minute walking cool-down. This makes for an approximate 30 minute session in total. Through the first 10 minutes, I was worried. I hadn't run since Mr. Sandifer made us run for 12 minutes in high school. It felt hard at first. My shins hurt. Then I got the the 90 second walk and by the time I had to run again the pain was mostly gone. This cycle continued eight times in total.

All of the sudden, Week 1 Day 1 was complete. I was still alive. I did it. It wasn't that bad, although I did still feel like I was running after the treadmill stopped, and that was pretty weird.

I came back to my apartment and started this blog. I spent an hour or so registering a domain and doing administrative stuff, but after that I just began typing. Here we are. I weigh 315lbs today. That number is about to start dropping.

I feel good. Better than I have felt in awhile. It feels good knowing that I just ran. I hate running. I hope that will change after this. I'm happy. I'm doing something for myself. I want to feel better, in the long run.

This is the start of my journey. I'm not backing down. All it took was a little inspiration.