Misty

I took the dog for a 5k run this morning. We managed to shave 2 minutes off of our time. (43 minutes today) Another couple weeks of this kind of progress and we might be able to do an under 30 minute 5k. It certainly seemed easier for both of us today, at no point was I dragging the dog behind me and every time I asked if she was ready to run she would speed up without hesitation.

I ran my regular route backwards today for a change of pace and it felt easier this way. Oddly, it felt like I descended more than I climbed.

As for my other goals for the week...

I fasted twice this past week and paid very good attention to what I was eating at all other times. Yesterday I made myself proud by choosing to have a salad with my dinner rather than the fries that my fiancé had fried up. I know it sounds like a minor victory there but healthy dietary choices are a new thing for me.

I can't honestly recall the last time I had a soda and even my before dinner drink is on it's way out. Most days lately I drink water all day long except for one Pastis with dinner. A few times in the past week I've had a glass of chilled coffee with my breakfast but that's the exception more than the rule. I'm definitely kicking butt at that goal.

Yesterday I practiced driving the car. I hate stick shifts with a passion. I've been driving for nearly 15 years, it doesn't HAVE to be this difficult! Unfortunately, automatics are incredibly rare over here and I really need to get past my hatred of manual transmissions. I don't like how they die at the slightest provocation. I don't like how they roll backwards before they go forward. I don't like how my attention is diverted from the pedestrians and the cars around me by the extra pedal and gear shifter that I need to screw around with. I don't feel safe. But, I don't have a choice and honestly, when I see some of the idiots around here who manage to drive every day with a manual transmission I just feel ashamed of the fact that I haven't yet gotten the hang of it.

Last week was a wash as far as this challenge goes. I was feeling some severe muscle fatigue and that on top of bad allergies and a huge blister on the pad of one of my feet kept me from being very active. I didn't do any fast days partly because I was concerned that my muscle fatigue might be from my anemia and I concentrated on getting my iron level back up. I did, however, manage to avoid snacks for the most part and was mindful of what I ate.

This week is going better already. Monday I fasted, yesterday I started weaning myself off of my breakfast cereal habit by cutting by serving size in half and eating a banana with it, lunch was apple slices dipped in a little peanut butter. So far today I've eaten a breadless peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast (the banana WAS the bread) with a fresh egg from the neighbor's chickens.

Today was my first day to hit the pavement and the dog and I managed to cut our 5k down to 45:30 , ok it's still not marathon material but it's nearly 5 minutes faster than two weeks ago. I tried to motivate myself by loading up my Mp3 player with super fast Gogol Bordello songs and trying to run for the entirety of each song. If I had to walk, I was only allowed to walk until the next song started. This worked perfectly until my player died two songs into my run. I tried a few of the Couch to 5k week two intervals but got annoyed with myself for watching the time tick past and whining about it almost from the moment I began running. So I stopped looking at my watch altogether except for when I had to stop to let a car pass me and then it was only so I could see how I was doing for time and urge myself to run more. Each stretch of running after that point was so much easier. I would pick a far away point and try my hardest to keep running until I reached it. Usually I had to walk about 3/4 of the way there and once I reached that landmark, I'd pick another and start running again.

I really wish I had a smart phone so that I could take my mind entirely off of remembering how much time I spend running versus walking. I think that as far as the couch to 5k plan goes, it's too watch obsessive and I would prefer to train myself to enjoy the running, not stare at the watch to see when I can finally walk again. My little change of technique today was enough of a difference to make the dog lag behind me for a good portion of the home stretch, poor thing was too overheated and exhausted. When we got home, I gave her some good cool water and poured some on her to help her cool down.

As for me, my face is red, my thighs are chaffed, my ponytail is plastered to my neck with sweat, my neck is sore (I guess I hold it too stiffly when I run) and my leg muscles are twitching as though I just went through electroshock therapy. And thanks to all that, I can't wait for Friday morning so I can try to beat today's time.

Thanks for that, it's not like I really need any extra help to be confused but I appreciate the effort!

Ooops! I didn't even see the google doc forms...not since signing up for the 6 week challenge one at least. I'll be more observant.

Hmmm, k. I only asked because I've done both challenges now and my name hasn't appeared on either list. I figured my runs must have been too slow to qualify.

May I ask how the point winners are determined? Is it the top X times or how's-a-what's-it? I'm curious because I really want to earn a challenge point and wanna have an idea of how long it will take me to win one. Thanks!

Yeah, I did my best to keep to the week 2 intervals, unfortunately most of the roads that I had to cross came up while I was running. I did my best to keep running in place instead of just standing there waiting for the cars to clear out. Unlike the Week 1 plan, Week 2 is awfully challenging for me, who'd have ever thought that 90 seconds could seem so long! Hopefully by the end of this next week, those 90 second intervals are a breeze and I can start thinking about week 3.

This is the same message from the week 2 challenge thread. I was thrilled at myself for finishing my five kilometer run... until I looked at the time. How the hell did I run so slowly?!

I just extended my local running route to 5k today. I'm still working on the Couch to 5k plan and week 2 is kicking my ass, so I wasn't able to fully run every interval. My timing is embarrassingly pathetic compared to nearly everybody else but I did not stop moving for a single second so I feel I've earned the right to say that at least I completed a 5k. It took me just over 50 minutes however so I'm worried that something isn't right with my mapping or something.

A ten minute kilometer is most people's walking speed and I was honest to god running for those intervals. My walk isn't that ridiculously slow, either, so I don't know where I messed up, any help figuring out my problem would be greatly appreciated. I mean, hell I got home wheezing and red in the face, nobody can say I didn't exert myself but my god, 6km/hr?! That's pretty freaking pathetic, isn't it?

Here's the link to my run on mapmyrun, please take a look and see if you can figure out why my time was so awful. I know I did walk a lot with the intervals but sheesh.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/124111627

I just extended my local running route to 5k today. I'm still working on the Couch to 5k plan and week 2 is kicking my ass, so I wasn't able to fully run every interval. My timing is embarrassingly pathetic compared to nearly everybody else but I did not stop moving for a single second so I feel I've earned the right to say that at least I completed a 5k. It took me just over 50 minutes however so I'm worried that something isn't right with my mapping or something.

A ten minute kilometer is most people's walking speed and I was honest to god running for those intervals. My walk isn't that ridiculously slow, either, so I don't know where I messed up, any help figuring out my problem would be greatly appreciated. I mean, hell I got home wheezing and red in the face, nobody can say I didn't exert myself but my god, 6km/hr?! That's pretty freaking pathetic, isn't it?

Here's the link to my run on mapmyrun, please take a look and see if you can figure out why my time was so awful. I know I did walk a lot with the intervals but sheesh.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/124111627

Well, I dunno just how big of a geek you are but if you're a video game nerd, maybe this will help.

Right now I'm playing the Avengers game on Facebook. I have to buy my heroes, get them enough XP and then save up money until I can pay for their training to level up. THEN, after all that waiting, I have to wait anywhere up to a full day to a week for their training to finish so they're at the next level.

I know for a fact that I've played games with that system before. It's so exciting when you finally get them ready to level up... then you have to wait and even if you use them in a fight, it does nothing because their XP bar is already full. You have to do the boring work of saving up money and once you can afford it you still have to wait for their training to finish. You see what I'm trying to say? At the end of their levels, before they can train up, there is almost always a plateau. It can by trying on your patience to get them through it so they can start training up but then one day you come back to the game and that training that you saved up for is finally finished and you can get back to the process of making your hero even cooler.

If you're not a game nerd, I might have lost you. All that was just to say that a plateau isn't what you get when you stop making progress. It's what you get while your body saves up the resources necessary to level you up!

I've been kinda strict with mine since the beginning and it helps that she's a shepherd mix, her entire life revolves around doing whatever she has to do to earn praise.

Last week when I ran with her, she was right there at heel but I was frustrated that I couldn't swing my arms and that I had to stop and wait for her to do her business. We came home along a fairly empty stretch of residential road and I let her off leash just to see what would happen. When we're walking, she tries to stay at heel but gets super distracted by all the things to smell and walls to climb and you have to remind her every thirty seconds or so that she's too far ahead. When you run with her, however, she's apparently so intent on not letting you out of her sight that she stays right beside you and ignores the distractions.

For instance, on part of our run today there was an old man walking towards us and I could tell that she was tempted to run ahead to greet him. I told her no and reminded her to heel. She still kept her eyes glued on him as we passed but didn't try anything. I was so amazingly proud of her for that. I've had two running buddy dogs in my past and one was far too independent to ever listen to a command given in anything but the most respectful tone and the other was batshit crazy.

This is really the first dog I've ever had that I can take off leash, but only if I'm moving fast enough so far. I wouldn't dream of trying to walk her off leash in the city, far too many distractions and at least in the countryside I can hear the cars coming from far enough away to make sure she doesn't go out into the street.

You said spiffy. I can't remember the last time I've heard 'spiffy' I missed it so much and you just made my day.

I'm actually rather inspired by the time you're finding for all of these workouts. I've got two part-time kids and a freelance job, so much more time than you have and yet I keep finding excuses to stay on my ass. I just followed you on Fitocracy so that seeing YOUR workouts might make me get off of my own ass and do one as well.

Keep up the good work, sounds to me like you're already off to a great start!

I ran a slightly longer than 4k route today. Had I thought to check the weekly challenge first, I would have expanded it to 5 but oh well. I got home at seconds past the thirty minute mark. The second week of the couch to 5k seems much more my level. It was hard but do-able. I'll do it again this weekend.

This past week I have been working 12 hour days and fighting off a persistent migraine so I haven't been able to do much exercise. I did manage to teach my boys to run stairs one night since it was too rainy to walk the dog. We have a flight and a half of stairs from the basement to the upstairs hallway so we made a line in the basement and did a bit of a relay race. You see, there was a Super-villain at the top of the stairs and we had to take turns running up the stares, hitting him and then getting back to our team-mates as quickly as possible. We ran for about five minutes and all three of us were sweaty. The best part was that for once in their lives they were more concentrated on the fun they were having than on how much it hurt or competing with one another and throwing tantrums when they thought they were going to 'lose'. Our oldest even allowed his little brother to switch places with him in line before the final run up the stairs so that the little one could get the killing blow. I was THRILLED to see that happy, sweaty boy doing karate and boxing moves as he finished off the bad guy.

I fasted on Sunday and am doing it again today. It's getting easier to ignore those hunger pains and just have some water.

I am a bit disappointed, however, that I've been too busy and too sick to work on either of my life goals. Perhaps I'll try driving us to the city on Saturday, so long as my fiancé allows me the option of trading places with him before we get downtown. The thought of the car dying while in a busy intersection nearly paralyzes me with fear.

Best progress however... even though my headache was still sticking around and the weather was muggy and sprinkling through the run...I got off my ass and did it anyway!

I also attempted a new step in the training of my running buddy. As soon as I start running, I let her off the leash but she has to stay right beside me. She snuck away during one running stretch to try to say hi to some cows and got surprised by a new string of electric fencing. As much as it tore my heart out to hear her cry, I was somewhat thrilled that the result of her misadventure was that she glued herself to my ankles for the rest of the run. No more having to stop so she can pee! I can just keep running and she can now catch up when she's done. She even remembered that she's supposed to sit at intersections before crossing... Best Running Buddy Ever

Thanks Hammlin. To be fair, I could probably have done better. I forgot to take into consideration the fact that I started with a 5 minute warm-up walk and since I was running through residential areas, I had to stop a handful of times to wait for cars before crossing the road. Add to that the fact that I was lugging my purse along and thus had pretty bad form. Also, I was saving some of my energy for the hill just before the dentist's.

Yeah, not even considering the 'if I weighed less' or 'if I were more fit', but if I had a track to run on instead of streets with traffic, if I'd not been doing intervals, if I hadn't warmed up with that 5 minute walk, if I had been running only one mile and thus didn't need to save my energy and if I hadn't had to stop once to let the dog relieve herself I would surely have made that mile in better time. At least I managed to jog my intervals rather than having to walk the whole sucker. (And yes, I know that jogging is nowhere near as fast as running but it's my fastest speed atm.)

I'll just have to find time next week to set up the ideal conditions for running a mile since my conditions today weren't very good. Then I can have a better idea of what my official mile run time would be.

Understandable. I know it's painfully slow for your average runner. This was only my second run in the past two months, and before that I'd run a teeny wheeny bit every now and then. I'm trying to work my way up using interval training but at my level right now a solid mile is just about impossible, hell I can't make it around the block without being ready to vomit. Maybe it doesn't count for the challenge but I'm a beginner and it was the best I could do.

And to be fair, I'd consider a slow walking pace to be about half an hour per mile. That's usually what it takes when I'm taking the kids for a walk through the neighborhood.

Well, today's the first day I've really put any work into this. I ran 2.3 kilometers in 25 minutes this morning following the first day of the Couch to 5k plan. I was hoping to turn around and run back but since my destination was the dentist office...I wasn't really in a good condition to run back with my mouth still numb and drooly so I walked home in about 35 min. I'm also doing a day of fasting today and I feel great. It's great once in a while to actually feel hungry, I think I'm so used to snacking all day long that I'd nearly forgotten what hunger felt like.

And ok, you guys are right...I can try the plastic bags on my feet trick but if I don't like it...I guess I'll just have to toughen up and run with wet feet. Sheesh I'm a wuss... or should I say 'I WAS a wuss!'?

Oh yeah! I nearly forgot... the 60 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking felt way too easy today and I was even dragging the dog and carrying my purse. SO, I've decided that this suffices for the first week of the couch to 5k. I'm starting the second week's plan on Monday of next week so that I can feel more challenged.

I decided to run on my way to the dentist this morning. The total distance was 2.3 kilometers but I checked after I'd finished the mile and I'd come in at just under 18 minutes. That's actually really good for me as I haven't done any time trials for years and I think my fastest mile ever was about 16 minutes.

I know that my biggest issue regarding running in cold weather is that I don't have good control of my breathing yet. Even a slightly cool weather run leaves me wheezing and hacking for the rest of the day.

Here's a question, how do all of you keep your feet dry if you're running in the rain? I have a great pair of running shoes but they've got mesh on three sides and the water just seeps right in.

I'm pretty stinking new to Nerd Fitness so my challenge might not be as well thought out as some but that's no reason to sit it out, right? We're leaving in July for a month long vacation in Spain and I really want to be able to wear that bikini with confidence!

Character Attributes

Race: Half-Elf (a bit too pudgy to be a pureblood)

Profession: Scout

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 165 lbs

Waist: 32"

Attribute Points:

Strength (STR) - 3

Dexterity (DEX) - 2

Stamina (STA) - 2

Constitution (CON) - 1 (clumsy as all hell, constantly feeling rather blah, and I bruise at the slightest tap)

Wisdom (WIS) - 3

Charisma (CHA) - 4

Diet and Fitness Goals:

- Move my ass for the Cool Running Couch to 5k plan, 3 days per week do the scheduled workout with no whining. (5 points to STA)

Examples of forbidden whining:

- I can't run today, it's too cold (it's Belgium, get used to it) !

- I can't run today, it's too rainy (it's Belgium, get used to it) !

- I can't run today, it's too nice and I have other outside things to do (do them afterwards) !

- I can't run today, I don't have time (for anything but screwing around on the computer) !

- I can't run anymore, I'll just slow down and retry this workout next time.

(30 seconds more is NOTHING, stop whining and move it, lady. )

- Drink nothing but water from after breakfast to my pre-dinner apéritif (2 CON)

(If I don't have my pre-dinner drink, the Belgians will know I'm an invader.)

- Practice Intermittent Fasting 1 or 2 days per week (I did it one day last week and it felt wonderful, I need to keep it up.) (3 CON)

Life Goals: (I know we're supposed to choose one but I can't choose between these two so I'm taking both)

- Learn to drive a stick shift (so that I can drive whatever car we end up finding for me) (3 WIS)

- Write at least 1 journal entry per week (trying to revive an old habit) (2 WIS)

Since this is my first challenge, any advice on where to move the attribute points around to would be greatly appreciated. Also, are there any other starting measurements that I should take? I'll take a starting photo as soon as my guy is home and able to help out with the camera.

No persona yet, just never got around to making one. I was the A&S officer for my home shire for nearly 2 years in the Middle Kingdom. I first got involved about 6 or 7 years ago. If I did have a persona, she'd be late period as I'm a glutton for punishment and love making Elizabethan and Tudor outfits from the chemise out.

I didn't fight, not quite the most graceful person on the planet, you see. But I was active in the A&S side and LOVE me some Scadian dancing.

I haven't been active over here yet. There's not a single shire in the whole of Belgium. If I want to join one I have to drive to Amsterdam or Paris, about 6 hours each way. I'm hoping that once I've got a better mastery of the language over here I can find some like-minded people and create a shire from the ground up. I'm a big fan of small, obtainable goals like that.

Sewing? Sword fighting? Home-brewing?

Do I sense the presence a fellow Scadian?

But it'd be so much easier if someone could just force me! I don't wanna be in charge of myself.

Fortunately, I can't sit on my butt too many days in a row anymore. I've got a ten month old dog who will not hesitate to destroy the house if she goes too long without a walk.

Part of the problem for me is that our little village is out in the middle of nowhere here. The community center has athletic classes but only for children and seniors. I can't afford even a cheapo membership at the closest thing to a gym either, it'd be nearly half my paycheck. Not to mention that between work and chasing after the family I have to squeeze my workouts in wherever I can fit them and can't really afford to devote an hour or so to the gym.

Thanks for the welcome and no worries about the rambling, it's an art form that I highly appreciate.

I've spent today screwing around on these forums and blogs and I think this just might work for me. I grew up as one of 6 girls and was always the odd duck. While nearly all of my sisters were and are beanpoles, I was the 'chubby one'. Looking at my pictures from the time, I have a hard time calling myself chubby because I'm back at that same weight now. I've never been fat, per se, but I've spent most of my life around the higher end of a healthy BMI. While I hid myself with baggy tees and jeans when I was this size before, I embrace my curves now and have an increasingly positive body image. I just wish I was more fit!

When I was a teen, I walked a paper route 3 hours a day, 6 days a week with about 40 pounds of papers hanging off of my shoulders all year round. I'd ride my bike ten miles just to go visit a friend and never thought anything of it. Once I left the home, those activities vanished in the face of college studies, an early marriage, housewife duties and just general grown-up life.

I'm nearly 30 now and have been working for the past 6 years to try to get rid of my belly rolls and thin my thighs and arms. I started around 175 lbs and have been as low as 130 (though that wasn't a healthy 130 and you could certainly tell.) I'm not sure what my weight is right now, I haven't looked at the scale in weeks. I was trying (for the umpteenth time) to start an exercise regimen on the Wii and after two weeks of watching my weight inch up even though I was working up a sweat every day caused a chasm between the two of us and the Wii and I are not talking at the moment.

I've not been legally able to work for the past year and a half so I've (unfortunately) spent most of that time hovering around the computers trying to research how to improve my life. Phase 1, right? In the meantime, my weight has been sneaking back up.

I have even more motivation to get fit now because one of my step-sons has become slightly overweight. You need a crowbar to pry that kid's butt out of his computer chair and even a walk around the block makes him complain about how much his legs hurt and how thirsty he is. (The whining is mostly habit, however as he recently did a 5k walk for charity with his classmates and smiled the whole time.) Both of my step-sons are little geeks like their father and me, so I'm hoping that something like this would help me create missions for them to earn points and level up themselves too.

My biggest hurdle has always been a bit of ADD regarding exercise. I love it when I'm doing it but if I take one day off... because it's too cold or I don't have time or any other reason... months will fly by before I remember that I was supposed to go running. My partner and I have tried to encourage one another but are distracted by the same things so it only lasts for a couple days. I still catch myself thinking sometimes that I don't really need to exercise because I used to be able to ride bike for hours and hardly break a sweat, part of my mind doesn't understand that those times were nearly 15 years ago.

I'm hoping that this group will be able to act like AA sponsors for me. If I don't check in for a week, I need someone to smack me upside the head, at least until I can learn to smack myself!

Thanks for creating this community, I hope I can add to it!