The feeling of accomplishment, I feel …

… Can only mean one thing: My C25K challenge is completed!

It was the one that I was most hesitant to even start, because anybody that knows me, knows that I am just not made for long distance running. And yes, I am aware that I am using the term “long distance” quite loosely for 5km.

I have to admit, there might have been a few training sessions in the first 30 days of this, that I skipped, because it was much more appealing to stay on the couch, than to get up, get changed and get running. There was a point though, around the time, when the intervals became longer, that I knew I would not get away with skipping sessions anymore (apart from maybe possibly one, that I replaced with a long dog walk over some hills the next day but pshhht don’t tell anybody).

Then yesterday, the big day had come (way too soon), time to run 5km without stopping, no matter what. Luckily I had support in the form of my marathon-running friend who ran next to me the entire time and kept my mind busy by chatting away. There was that wonderful moment, at around 4.2km, when I had officially been running longer, than I had ever managed in one session. A little moment, that had to be celebrated … with running some more :).

 

 

A tiny bit slower than I had hoped, but I suppose I should be happy I finished, right?

 

For the first time I deviated from the training plan that C25k give you, in so far, as that I did not do a 5 minute brisk walk as warm up, but instead used a youTube video my fried suggested. It was so funny doing the exercises at home, because Liana decided, that she should be doing everything I did. So when I was hopping on the spot, so was she. And when I was standing on one leg, kicking the other back an forth, she was trying to do the same. Only lucky that the dogs were hiding at that moment, I am sure somebody would otherwise have gotten a random kick with all the legs flying through the air.

 

So now I am giving my body a few days to relax, in preparation to my next 30 Day challenge, which starts on Sunday. This time, I will be re-tackling the 30 Day Shred and am definitely planning to make it further than the first time I attempted the program. Back then, I made it to 4 days, and then decided that I did not want to be fit. That seems to be a thought I have a lot at the moment, particularly in the middle of a run, when my whole body is aching, but this time I am smarter and know that I feel great after the workout.

Slow Progress is still progress

I am making progress (albeit slow) with my 30 projects for this month. So today is a picture post for your enjoyment of the status of the projects that I am currently working on. If you click on the pictures, the link will take you to my the Ravelry project page for each item. (And while you’re there, how about you add me as a friend? My profile is here)

I have fallen victim to a knitting block! Everything I start, feels silly and gets frogged within a few rows. I just cannot decide, what to do for the rest of my 30 projects. Quite frustrating, especially because I usually have way too many projects in my head and in my queue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge No. 5

As you may, or may not know, I am starting my fifth challenge of 2014 today. This one is going to be a big different than the other challenges I have done so far, because instead of starting something new, that I haven’t done before, this time I am picking something up that I love doing, but commit to actually finish it. I am talking about my bad case of knitting startitis. I have gone through all the UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) in my storage and have compiled a list of of all that I want to finish. There are one or two that I will not finish, because they are waiting to be frogged.

Even though I have the startitis quite bad, I am not able to make up 30 projects to finish, not even close. So to make it a round number, and to make it properly challenging, in addition to the 10 projects that need finishing up, I will have 20 that I will start new and finish during the next 30 days.

The best way to follow my progress, apart from what I post on here of course, is through Ravelry. All 30 pieces will have their own project page, once they are cast on, and they are all tagged with “30fos-30days”. I will of course post picture updates of everything I finish.

For the moment, I will focus on doing some more knitting, as I need to go out and buy a few buttons for most of the items that need finishing. I cast on my first ever sock during the last week and I am looking forward to finishing the pair as part of this challenge. It is my first time knitting with yarn that thin, so my hands definitely need to get used to it.

I will leave you for today with a glimpse of some of the items that will be finished in the next 30 days, you will see them again with better pictures:

“Update Weekly”, She Said…

So much for my lovely Saturday posts, about my works in progress…Life doesn’t seem to want to play that way. But at the same time, I don’t really have any excuse why I didn’t post the last two Saturdays. I was not really busy as such, but I got sucked into the world of designing a knitted piece.  I am not anywhere near being able to show anything off for it, because I still have so much to figure out myself, but I have an idea and that is already a big step further than I have come before.

 

Our household for some reason cannot shake the sickness these last few weeks. While we are all better than the week before last, it seems that Liana just picks the most inconvenient moment, to decide that she is in fact still sick. Most of the time, this happens in the middle of the night, preferably just at a time that doesn’t allow me to fall back asleep before getting up at the ungodly hour that my alarms rings at the moment. Then I can only look on with jealousy how Stephen and Liana cuddle back into bed, and I have to go out into the cold morning, with the rest of our town likely only waking up 3 hours later.

Because I work for an international company, as part of a US based team, my work schedule depends on the time in our US office, rather than the local time here. Unfortunately in Spring, the clocks are turned backwards 3 weeks earlier in the US than they are in Ireland. (I am saying “the US” but have to admit I’m not even sure if the entire country switches the same day. Maybe there is parts that don’t change time at all?) That in itself would not be a problem, if it weren’t for the fact, that my normal working hours start at 6am. With the new time difference between the offices, until the end of March, I have to start my shift at 5am, which means I get out of my bed at 4am.

For the 10 years, before Liana was born, I was overwhelmingly more likely to see 4am by staying up, instead of getting out of bed at that time. And I am pretty sure that there have been a lot of times that I stayed awake that late. Through my teenage years, I was definitely a nightowl, sleeping as much of the day as I could and then staying up as long as I could. Even once I started my work life during college, i had a job working nights, where I’d finish around 6-7am.

Somebody needs to invent time travel, just so I could see my own face when I tell my younger self the hours I work now and how much I actually enjoy them. Nothing beats coming home early and having free time to spend playing with Liana or whatever other tasks are accumulating at home. To be quite honest as well, I sometimes feel like I am still half asleep the first few hours at work, and once my brain fully wakes up, a good portion of the day is already over.

 

For good news I can announce that I am finished with the first half of my C25K Challenge. You can always follow up on my current status here. There have been some injury delays, and there were days when I couldn’t face running due to being sick, but I made up those days and I am now all caught up. The next big challenge is going to be Friday, I have to run 20 minutes, without any walking in between. Right now I feel like there is no way I am ever going to be able to do that, but I am getting support from my friend, who trains for her marathon. She will run with me and try her best to motivate me.

It’s that time again ..

… and no, I don’t mean Valentine’s Day. I am actually one of those people that don’t really celebrate Valentine’s at all. We don’t have any dinner plans, I am sure I am not going to come home from work to any flowers/gift and I have not thought of any special ways to tell Stephen I love him. I prefer making an effort every day, instead of choosing one “random” day a year, to make up for the last 364.

What I actually mean is, it’s time to start a new challenge.  In fact, from tomorrow on, I will be doing the Couch to 5K Challenge (or C25K), by Cool Running. Since the program is actually planned out for 9 weeks, I have made the decision to use 2 of my 15 30 day challenges for this. In the process I noticed that the last week of C25K, you run 5km or 30 min on every “action” day,  so I was able to actually condense it into the 60 days that I will have available. As a result, I had to shift my other challenges around a bit, I am sure there will be more of that further into the year. To get a feel for what I have planned this year, you can have a look here.

My version of C25K

You can see below my timetable of how I am planning to tackle this challenge. I know, I know, I am starting the challenge with a Rest day, which is probably not the most common thing to do. I needed to make sure that I was able to put rest days on Wednesday and Thursday every week, because I already have activities planned (Aqua Aerobics and Power Yoga) so it would just be overload if I went jogging that day as well.

I am also going to add this to the new fancy page I have for my current challenge(s) (which is perfect for today’s Zero to Hero Challenge – Add a new page.) On that page I will mark every completed day, so you I am completely accountable on my progress. I’ll have to do a bit more playing around with different options as it seems the table is not showing us as nicely as I designed it.

C25K – Part 1
Day 1-6	Rest	Alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Rest	Alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes	Rest	Rest
Day 7-12	Alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Rest	Alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Rest	Alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Rest
Day 13-18	Rest	Alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.	Rest	Two repetitions of the following: • Jog 90 seconds • Walk 90 seconds • Jog or 3 minutes • Walk or 3 minutes	Rest	Two repetitions of the following: • Jog 90 seconds • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 3 minutes • Walk 3 minutes
Day 19-24	Rest	Rest	• Jog 90 seconds • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 3 minutes • Walk 3 minutes	Rest	• Jog 3 minutes • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 5 minutes • Walk 2-1/2 minutes • Jog 3 minutes • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 5 minutes	Rest
Day 25-30	• Jog 3 minutes • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 5 minutes • Walk 2-1/2 minutes • Jog 3 minutes • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 5 minutes	Rest	Rest	• Jog 3 minutes • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 5 minutes • Walk 2-1/2 minutes • Jog 3 minutes • Walk 90 seconds • Jog 5 minutes	Rest	• Jog 5 minutes • Walk 3 minutes • Jog 5 minutes • Walk 3 minutes • Jog 5 minutes
C25K – Part 2
Day 1-6	Rest	• Jog 8 minutes • Walk 5 minutes • Jog 8 minutes	Rest	Rest	Jog 20 minutes with no walking	Rest
Day 7-12	• Jog  5 minutes • Walk 3 minutes • Jog 8 minutes • Walk or 3 minutes • Jog 5 minutes	Rest	• Jog 10 minutes • Walk 3 minutes • Jog 10 minutes	Rest	Rest	Jog 22 minutes with no walking.
Day 13-18	Rest	Jog 25 minutes.	Rest	Jog 25 minutes.	Rest	Rest
Day 19-24	Jog 25 minutes.	Rest	Jog  28 minutes.	Rest	Jog  28 minutes.	Rest
Day 25-30	Rest	Jog  28 minutes.	Rest	Jog 30 minutes.	Rest	Jog 5k.

Anybody out there who is starting this challenge as well, or has completed it? Any tips, tricks, hints on how best to do it?