Couch to 5k... with Zombies, RUN!: Week 1, Workout 1
First, a quick thing on methods of measurement (because, SCIENCE!): I weigh myself almost every day, first thing after waking up, before I drink or eat anything, after I go to the bathroom, and with as little clothes as possible, to get the most accurate weight that's not affected by things that are not me. My scale measures to 100g. I'll convert this to lbs because for reasons I can't understand still, despite that Canada had been using metric measurements since the 70s I was still raised to read weight in pounds, so this gives me a general idea as to where I am (I believe I was about 190 lbs when I moved to Israel). Immediately afterwards, I check my blood pressure. I have a spreadsheet that's been detailing this on and off since September last year when my blood pressure started to rise to about 150/90, which is Not GoodTM, especially for someone who's already had a heart attack. Basal heart rate means my pulse at resting conditions. The rest of my posts on this matter will follow this given layout.
Weight: 97.1 kg (214.1 lbs)
BMI: 31.70612245
Blood pressure: 149/92
Basal Heart rate: 70
The workout, as dictated by the app:
10 min walking at a quick pace
10 rounds of: 1 min walk, 15 sec slow run
10 min "free-form run" (running and walking, depending on how I feel I can do)
According to Zombies, RUN!, this workout registered:
Distance: 3.95 km
Duration: 36:25
Average Speed: 6.51 km/h
Average Pace: 9:13 min/km
Calories: 403
The route, and my speeds along the route:( Collapse )
My thoughts: Well, apparently I screwed up the first run. I wasn't really supposed to run at all, but rather walk at my own pace. The good news is I got a bit of the back story for the app; the bad news is days of pain and feeling like an idiot afterwards. It took me a while to get back to running because a) my parents were in town, b) motivation low, c) I'm really good at excuses, as is anyone who tries to do something to improve their health. One of the basic models we're taught in Public Health Nursing is Prochaska and DiClemente’s Stages of Change Model, a model that outlines the ups and downs of patients that wish to improve their health. The way we were taught the model was with the steps in an spiral slide - each level was another stage, and there was plenty of opportunity for the patient to slide back down. By this model, I'm currently in the Action phase, which lasts 3-6 months. It takes about this long to cement a new habit as part of one's lifestyle. Most couch to 5k programs take about 3 months to get the runner up to speed, then another three months to keep them on track. Zombies, RUN!'s couch to 5k involves 10 weeks of training to 5k, and the program says to redo runs if you feel it's necessary.
In terms of this workout itself, I liked that it had me starting this slowly. Walking is something that I've always been good at, both in terms of my ability to walk quickly and to walk distances over a long time without stopping. The app coached me along every few minutes, telling me what my progress was (3 mins into first walk, 5 mins into first walk, etc.), then gave me full instructions for the 1 min walk, 15 s run sets. By the time I hit about the fourth set, I was audibly cursing every time I had to start running, but I was able to keep it up well enough for the entire ten sets without needing to break down. After that, I did another ten minutes of combined running and walking as per my pace. You can see in the above graphic about where my runs were and how long they lasted. The initial ten minutes was about from the start to the bridge at Baram, the last ten minutes was a few hundred meters after the bridge at Dov Yosef (where I broke down last time) to Tzomet Pat (the end of the run). Almost the entire run was downhill until about the 3k mark. Notably, the path I took from after the bridge at Dov Yosef until Tzomet Pat was a path I discovered a week or two before my hospitalization a year ago, when I ran out of the house in a severe depressive state. It's somewhat symbolic for me to take that path now in an attempt to get healthy, I suppose.
At Tzomet Pat, I passed the Neeman's bakery, grateful that I didn't have money to buy an ice coffee or some pastries :) I walked to a bus stop because I didn't feel up to walking the rest of the way home, did some stretches, got bored waiting for the bus, then walked home. It took me a while to fall asleep, probably because my body was still sifting through the endorphins from the run, then way overslept this morning. Best news: I didn't wake up in excruciating pain like I did last time! Perhaps running at night isn't the greatest idea, but it's a much better solution than doing it during the heat of the day and getting horribly sunburned.
My one beef with the app at this point is that after closing the app, I can't seem to access the audio clips from the run, nor the bonus story that I got upon finishing the run. I'm still trying to figure out if there's at least a way to access the story without having to redo the run all over again.
Next scheduled run: Saturday night. Skipping today because you're supposed to leave one day between runs, and running on Friday is highly unlikely between the heatwave we're supposed to be having and that I can't run with my phone after sundown. At least it's a start.
Weight: 97.1 kg (214.1 lbs)
BMI: 31.70612245
Blood pressure: 149/92
Basal Heart rate: 70
The workout, as dictated by the app:
10 min walking at a quick pace
10 rounds of: 1 min walk, 15 sec slow run
10 min "free-form run" (running and walking, depending on how I feel I can do)
According to Zombies, RUN!, this workout registered:
Distance: 3.95 km
Duration: 36:25
Average Speed: 6.51 km/h
Average Pace: 9:13 min/km
Calories: 403
The route, and my speeds along the route:( Collapse )
My thoughts: Well, apparently I screwed up the first run. I wasn't really supposed to run at all, but rather walk at my own pace. The good news is I got a bit of the back story for the app; the bad news is days of pain and feeling like an idiot afterwards. It took me a while to get back to running because a) my parents were in town, b) motivation low, c) I'm really good at excuses, as is anyone who tries to do something to improve their health. One of the basic models we're taught in Public Health Nursing is Prochaska and DiClemente’s Stages of Change Model, a model that outlines the ups and downs of patients that wish to improve their health. The way we were taught the model was with the steps in an spiral slide - each level was another stage, and there was plenty of opportunity for the patient to slide back down. By this model, I'm currently in the Action phase, which lasts 3-6 months. It takes about this long to cement a new habit as part of one's lifestyle. Most couch to 5k programs take about 3 months to get the runner up to speed, then another three months to keep them on track. Zombies, RUN!'s couch to 5k involves 10 weeks of training to 5k, and the program says to redo runs if you feel it's necessary.
In terms of this workout itself, I liked that it had me starting this slowly. Walking is something that I've always been good at, both in terms of my ability to walk quickly and to walk distances over a long time without stopping. The app coached me along every few minutes, telling me what my progress was (3 mins into first walk, 5 mins into first walk, etc.), then gave me full instructions for the 1 min walk, 15 s run sets. By the time I hit about the fourth set, I was audibly cursing every time I had to start running, but I was able to keep it up well enough for the entire ten sets without needing to break down. After that, I did another ten minutes of combined running and walking as per my pace. You can see in the above graphic about where my runs were and how long they lasted. The initial ten minutes was about from the start to the bridge at Baram, the last ten minutes was a few hundred meters after the bridge at Dov Yosef (where I broke down last time) to Tzomet Pat (the end of the run). Almost the entire run was downhill until about the 3k mark. Notably, the path I took from after the bridge at Dov Yosef until Tzomet Pat was a path I discovered a week or two before my hospitalization a year ago, when I ran out of the house in a severe depressive state. It's somewhat symbolic for me to take that path now in an attempt to get healthy, I suppose.
At Tzomet Pat, I passed the Neeman's bakery, grateful that I didn't have money to buy an ice coffee or some pastries :) I walked to a bus stop because I didn't feel up to walking the rest of the way home, did some stretches, got bored waiting for the bus, then walked home. It took me a while to fall asleep, probably because my body was still sifting through the endorphins from the run, then way overslept this morning. Best news: I didn't wake up in excruciating pain like I did last time! Perhaps running at night isn't the greatest idea, but it's a much better solution than doing it during the heat of the day and getting horribly sunburned.
My one beef with the app at this point is that after closing the app, I can't seem to access the audio clips from the run, nor the bonus story that I got upon finishing the run. I'm still trying to figure out if there's at least a way to access the story without having to redo the run all over again.
Next scheduled run: Saturday night. Skipping today because you're supposed to leave one day between runs, and running on Friday is highly unlikely between the heatwave we're supposed to be having and that I can't run with my phone after sundown. At least it's a start.
