Couch to 5K - Day 1

After a particularly trying day at work, (I'm not sure anyone other than myself will ever understand the frustrations of building 13 versions of a html email.) I didn't even hesitate heading to the gym afterwards - proud of myself for that one.

I go to the free employee gym, which is a nice perk. However, with over 22,000 employees and only approximately 9 tredmills this poses issues at times. Today was one of those times. Every. single. machine. was. occupied. I had to wait about 10 minutes for a tredmill and wait I did. Have I mentioned I don't particularly like the employee gym? Only skinny, fit people go to the employee gym. People that like to work out. I don't fit in there. I like the Y alot better, however, the budget just isn't allowing for an extra $45 a month bill. So, to the employee gym I go.

My main point is, I completed all of the week 1, day 1 time committment - 30 minutes of run/walking for a total of around 1.45 miles.

Here's how it broke down:

5 minute warm up at a 2 incline and around a 3.0 pace.

3 intervals of 60 secs running, 90 seconds walking, done at a 4.1/2.7 pace (still at the 2 incline)

4 intervals of 60 secs running, 2 min walking, done at a 3.9/2.7 pace (decreasing the incline by half each time until the last interval was 0 incline)

5 minute cool down at 2.7

So I didn't complete day 1 as prescribed by the program, but I DID complete 30 minutes of run/walking! My speed isn't ground breaking, but I just listened to my body. When I felt like I couldn't go further, I took my recovery walks to 2 minutes instead of 90 seconds, but I never walked longer than 2 minutes in between runs.

Previous C25K attempt

Not sure if I mentioned this but around January of this year I tried Couch to 5K for the first time. I did week 1 twice and fell off after doing week 2. So after 3 weeks, I quit. This time I am only planning on repeating the week if I don't feel like I have accomplished that week's intervals. If I get to my 3rd run this week and cannot keep the 60/90 second pace, then I will repeat week 1. My main goal is to not quit.

Unfortunately, I haven't built that much time into my training schedule, I only have 10 weeks until my race, so this may mean I run/walk the 5K in October and then fully run another 5K in November or December. We'll see.

Has anyone else tried the Couch to 5K program? What were your results?