Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts

A Few Of My Favorite Things - For "Running" (Ok, so it's jogging, at best...)


Audiobooks on bluetooth
And Splitters on leashes
 Fake zombie chases and step competitions
Capri yoga pants with deep pockets & no strings
These are a few of my favorite things!

"When the dog bites, When the bee stings, When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things, And then I don't feel so bad"

LOL!  Trust me, when it comes to running, I always feel bad, until it's over, when I feel like I've conquered the world even if I only jogged 1/4 mile of my 2 mile walk.  But it's slightly less frustrating with a few apps, and yoga pants with pockets to hold my phone.  


The Quick Links:
After weeks of annoying everyone around me, on a search for exercise pants in something larger than a size xx small, with pockets, in material that is not see through ... I found them. This may be my biggest accomplishment of the year. :-)

They have pockets big enough to hold my cell phone. No more stupid arm band thingy when I am trying to run. Real, deep, side pockets. And they were only $10. (Ignore the size chart and order your "normal" size - I think they run just a tad big if anything) https://amzn.to/2VpKVNP

And my shirt to go with them.  :-)
If you use a cricut or silhouette, you can find the free svg for this shirt here:

(I bought these - then later discovered they make them with toes.  I don't know why toe-less socks are a thing... I wear regular socks over these.)

And to complete my ensemble - Plantar Fasciitis Socks.
After my 3rd massive flare of PF this year, I went to wal-mart and basically bought everything in the foot care aisle.  I was desperate.  And the things that help are not the things I expected to help - probably because I had no idea what I was doing.  But plantar fasciitis socks are a big deal for me now - they really help.  Those and the weird infomercial band things with the foam balls in the middle.. I love those ridiculous looking things - they really help! But not when I am running or hiking.


Years ago I started walking and running with a simple bluetooth (in one ear) headset.  I liked it a lot, because it left one ear free to better hear the traffic and people around me.  I don't know what happened to those old headsets...  but last year I picked up a simple pair of bluetooth headphones and they are working well for me.  Especially now that my phone is in a pocket on the side of my pants, I love not having a cord running from my ears to my phone.   I picked mine up at TJ Maxx for around $20 and they work well enough.  I occasionally have trouble with the signal cutting out and being crackly for a few seconds - it drives me nuts. I read up on specs, thinking I needed a stronger connection, or something with the "frequency" I see listed in some specs..  but from what I have read, it's simply because of an interference - probably something nearby the trail that interferes with my bluetooth signal.  Sure enough, I noticed it happens along the same basic section of the trail almost every time - so something in one of the homes nearby is likely the cause. 


I wear a fitbit blaze.  I have had one for years...  I just want very basic smart watch functions, so this has been plenty for me.  I always carry my phone, but my phone is always on silent.  Always.  I never turn my volume on.  The fitbit alerts me of messages and calls  - even those that come through telegram or Facebook messenger, I set which apps I get alerts from.  And it tracks my steps and my sleep.  Until they make a smart watch with a really good camera, I'm not going to stop carrying my phone on runs - so I don't need the music, or the ability to pay, etc.   (Check craigs list, sometimes you can find a decent deal - although often used seem to be almost expensive as new!)
Besides the excruciating pain, and inability to breath, my biggest issue with running is the boredom.  I know people who run to clear their heads.  I'm not one of those people.  My head spins in a dozen directions, mostly reminding me what all I could be accomplishing if I were not on that trail, and I feel even more defeated. I love my spotify playlists, but for running, I am extra odd, as I prefer audio-books.  They keep my mind occupied, sidetrack me from the aches and pains and general discouragement that I am still struggling to jog a solid 5k.  

My favorite independent audibook player is  Smart Audio Player
I need the ability to play the books at faster speeds - I think most books are recorded ridiculously slow!  This one is simple, free, and has a sleep timer too, if listening at bed time.

Libby is my go to for free audio-books.  It works with my library cards, I can borrow audio books from our local library.  https://meet.libbyapp.com/

Christian Audio also has a free audio-book each month - you listen to it through their app.

I'm kind of addicted to couch to 5k training programs.  I think they are less boring than a straight run, that might be the allure for me...  but even better than a straight couch to 5k program is the Zombie 5k.  I'm not really a zombie fan, I do not watch the Walking Dead..  this is not about the zombies for me, but the story line, and the extra exercises like lunges thrown into the work out make this my favorite program.  Once you complete the 8 week 5 k training, there is a second app, Zombies Run, with seasons of running missions.  No longer broken up into walk/run, but they do have some prompts to encourage you to run faster at times.  These apps both work around music or audio-books - they will interrupt your playlist (or audio-book) and then resume what you were listening to after their prompts.

Back in 2014 I blogged about my workouts with the Zombie 5k App - 
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2014/07/zombie-5k.html

Run for charity.  Simply download this app, use it to record your runs, and choose the charity you want to donate to.  From their page - "We’re supported by corporate sponsors like Johnson & Johnson, Del Monte Fresh, Brooks Running, Blueprint for Athletes and others. These companies are repurposing their media budgets (money that otherwise would have been spent on other advertising like banner ads) for social good."


And now that I am taking not one, but TWO dogs with me...  this is helpful.  I love this particular design, because it comes apart and can be used as two leashes.  For the first half of our run, Max the puppy does really well.  But about half way through, his puppy tendencies tend to take over.  If that happens, I move well trained Molly to the bungee portion of this (It means I am holing a hook, not a handle - Molly is 6lbs and well trained, so this is not really an issue), and put Max on the solid top part where I have a bit more control over how he walks.  It's nice to not have two leashes tangling, and I think walking in tandem with Molly helps Max to learn what we expect.  

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Zombie 5k Week Five

See My Experience with All The Weeks Here:


Day One

PROGRESS!!!
I jogged the entire first 5 minute free run.  And I did 2 minutes and 3 minutes respectively in the first 15 minute free run, followed by a full five minutes again in the last 15 minute free run.

I know it's not really enough at this stage, but it's major progress for me.

But oh my - those first heel lifts about killed me.  And it didn't get much better by the last set - they HURT today!

I did a full 3 miles today too.  My time wasn't great -- but keep in mind that there is 5 minutes of stretching in the middle here... not that that makes it look much better, but it's something.  :-)


Compared To the C25k Plan:
Day One
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Day Two
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

Day Three
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.


Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight

Zombie 5k Week Four

See My Experience with All The Weeks Here:


This week takes more time - plan accordingly!  With the C25k workouts were all about the same length - around 30 minutes.  With Zombie 5k, you need to leave yourself about an hour for some of the work outs.  47 minutes for today.

The walking surprised me, as well as only 30 second run drills.  I'm not complaining - I don't know that I could do much more than this at this point, and I'm certainly not running the entire 15 minutes - not even half of that - at the end.  The two sets of drills do make this work out feel a lot longer, and it IS longer, but it's still not tedious.  I love this format.

It's amazing how difficult the walk fast drills are.  I'm using different muscles when doing this, and I'm feeling it.

Adding knee lifts, instead of heel lifts, this week:


Check out the temperature!  61 degrees in July.  I love it.
Pace is 18.3 by math, I still don't know how the pace is figured in this app.

Day One
Loving the lower temps and lack of real humidity this week.
But I need to carry my inhaler with me.
Today I had some blurred vision, light headedness...  I kept hearing the voice from the WiiFit - "Don't hold your breath, or you may raise your blood pressure".  I think that is what was happening.  I wasn't holding my breath, but I wasn't getting enough oxygen - I was wheezing like mad and having a lot of trouble getting air into my lungs.
I've been thinking I may need to make an appointment and see about a different prescription?  I have used this same brand inhaler for  a couple of years, maybe it's less effective?  Or maybe if I carried it with me and used it along the way....  I know, I know, it's just a pain to carry things!
  

Day Two
I did it!  I "run" the same path almost all of the time.  I have for a few years now.  In my head, I have the path broken into sections.  Today, for the first time, I jogged an entire section.  It's been a goal for me, but I just have not been able to do it until this morning.  This is a super short section.  I'm guessing it's about 1/5 of a mile.  Less than 1/4 of a mile.  But I did it.  The humidity is MUCH lower, and the temps are also lower, which help.

I still walked most of the free run session, but I jogged a bit at least, at the end.  I try to jog at least one full song, and then the chorus of any other songs that play, in this last 15 minutes.  For the first 3 minutes today though, I walked to catch my breath from the 30 second run drills.  

Today the program takes you out with Sam for the first part.  My husband is doing this program with me, but he's usually following me on the path, not where I am watching him.  Today when Sam was making fun of the knee lifts, Dan was laughing out loud..  and then for the last set I could see Dan doing them and I got it - it really does look funny.  :-)

Took my arm band off today at the end of this work out and thought once again that I really need to sew my own.  This one isn't quite big enough for my fat arms, and if I made my own I could add a pocket to carry my inhaler beside my phone.


Day Three

When I headed out to start day 3, I was having a miserable morning.  Then when I got to the canal, my bluetooth battery was dead and my headphones were not in the car.  I started about 2 minutes, and just turned around and went home.  I had so much to do that day, I was already overwhelmed and irritable.

It was Monday when I finished Week four.  And I started week five on Tuesday.  Back to back is not really a good idea for me, but it worked this week.

I loved how after meeting Runner 6 and having her do some of the work out with me, this installment was about saving her.  This app is SO well done, I'm continually impressed.


Compared To the C25K Program

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
  • Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
  • Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
  • Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
  • Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
  • Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
  • Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
  • Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
At no point have I ever been able to jog half a mile in 5 minutes.  Ever.  I certainly couldn't now.  But I am curious to try this and see how well I could do at this point..  I think the most I have jogged on a free run in the Zombie 5k program is 3 minutes straight.


Week Four
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight



Zombie 5k Week Three

See My Experience with All The Weeks Here:




I need to figure out how to use google voice to record my thoughts on my drive home, and convert them to text.  I'm working on that.  It's so insanely busy around here, getting ready for football season, and our sons wedding, I am not making the time to write down my thoughts after a work out as frequently as I would like.  
I don't know what is up with the pace?
Using a calculator, I come up with 18.50 a mile.  Better than week two!

44.33 divided by 2.31 is 19.28 - not 23.26?  
I'm not sure why the pace is not calculating correctly.  Unless that's my pace when I hit stop mission?

Overall, I am truly loving this program.  So much.  
I don't like to pay for apps.  I paid $1.99 for this one, and honestly, it is worth so much more.  This is like a $10 app.  Really.  It's worth it.


Two and 1/4 miles in 43 minutes?  I walk faster than that.  It is frustrating for me - last year I was jogging this entire path, this year I can't even jog full sections of the exact same path.  Mostly I am having trouble breathing, but today my muscles hurt too.  I'm starting to think I should start the program over.  I feel like i"m just to the point of fitness where if I did this again now I could maybe do it "right"?  I worry that I walk WAY too much of the free run portions.  I'm feeling certain that at the end of eight weeks there is no way I will be running 3 miles.

But every step in this program is so much better than nothing at all - even if I don't do it well enough, at least I'm trying.  I can always start again once I finish it.  I won't give up - but I do hope I can do better.

Compared to the C25K Program:
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:
  • Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
  • Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
  • Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
  • Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
(at this point, I don't think I could complete the training above.)


Week Three
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight

Zombie 5k Week Two

See My Experience with All The Weeks Here:

Week Two
Week 2 of Zombie5k adds heel lifts after 30 second runs. 

Roughly 1.9 miles today. 




I'm really loving this program.
After this run, I was walking back into the house and dropped my phone, shattering the screen.  It broke before this run synced so I am glad I had uploaded this pic to facebook before I drove home.  However, this run is now not marked as complete on my new phone - that will drive me nuts, and I'm likely to go back and redo it.


Notice my distances are shorter and shorter..  partly due to the very high humidity, but also because the longer I "run" the slower my overall time.  


We missed one of our regular work out days, because of schedule issues, and then major storms in our area.  I'm off schedule, and it makes me a little nuts.

Had a rough time this morning. Forgot my inhaler. Super humid. But loved the "extras" in the story today - it stays interesting. I wasn't prepared for the extra long run at the end though- I thought my phone had stopped working.  


I don't always catch what they are giving me at the end of the broadcasts.  Probably in part because I'm breathing so hard it's hard to hear anything.  :-)  It's nice that a picture of the gift is shown on the board when the workout is complete.  It's the little details like that that make me REALLY love this program.  Although I'm still not exactly sure what the point is in collecting all of this stuff..  maybe after I listen to the intro that I missed at the beginning, that will make a bit more sense?

Missed another work out day.  This means I am now TWO work outs behind, & when I switched to a temporary phone while my phone was broken, I forgot to sync the app before I switched back to my new phone.  So I'm 2 work outs behind, and my phone shows another 2 as incomplete.  I'm torn between doing this every day to catch up, and just starting over... 





I'm really worried that I am not working quite hard enough.  I'm pretty sure the Zombie would have gotten me.  In the free runs, I am mostly walking.

Compared To The C25K Program:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk. 
Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.



Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight

Zombie 5k Week One

See My Experience with All The Weeks Here:

Week One

First morning running the zombie 5 k training.  It's  a lot different  than the coutch to 5k. I'm liking it.  You walk for 1 minute run for 15 seconds.  It doesn't sound like much, but it's harder than I expected. When it was over, I felt really good.  I don't love running, but I love the way I feel when I at least attempt running regularly.

The story line is minor - it doesn't interfere much, and it plays your playlist between talks.  It might all make more sense if you watch The Walking Dead, but that's just a guess.  I tried two episodes of that show and would rather be eaten by zombies, or run, than sit through another.  Zombies are really not my thing.  Even so, this is interesting, simply in that it is different.  I've done the c25k so many times, I was ready for something different.
.
I used the accelometer, Dan used the GPS mode.  His recorded that he went 2.18 miles.  Mine says 6km - over 3 miles.   We weren't together the whole time, but I'm pretty certain his is closer to correct.  I switched mine to gps/miles for next time.  (The horses were out when I got up this morning,  so I was running late & didn't have time to look at the app settings before I left.)


Compared To The C25K Program:
Brisk five-minute warmup walk.
 Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.



Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight

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C25k Training With Zombie 5k


Disclaimer - I'm not a Zombie Junkie. Zombies really have no interest at all for me.  I'm not a Walking Dead Fan.  What I am is easily bored, and easily entertained.  This app makes running less boring.  It's a couch to 5k program, combining walking and running, working up to running a full 5k.  It's done to a story, but the story is intermittent - it will break into your playlist (or audiobook) to set the scene and tell you to run, or walk, or do some lunges... and then it will return to your playlist.  It's something different.

Then, once you complete this, there is a second app - Zombies Run. It's broken into seasons, with story lines you run to at your own pace.  Just like the 5k app, it breaks into your playlist at times to move the story along, but there are no cues for walking or running - merely some for speeding up if zombies are near.

Full confession - when I heard there was a Zombies Season 2 - I was excited for a new couch to 5k story line.   But most people do not redo a couch to 5k every spring and fall of every year.  Most people work up to running a 5k and then just run.  Huh.  Interesting concept.  LOL!    So  "season 2" (I missed the season 1 announcement, and now they are at season 6 I believe...) is simply a story line, not a run/walk coaching program.  

Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight

2019  Update - I have finished this program, at least twice.  What I have not done is finish blogging about it.  Since I appear to be addicted to couch to 5k programs, perhaps I'll do this one again this year...  It will be interesting to compare how I do at this age, versus how I did at a younger age...

About Me:
I'm a 41 (in 2014) year old farm wife in central PA.  I'm really overweight.  REALLY overweight.  
I have exercise induced asthma, and I too often forget to use my inhaler before I start out, and I never carry it with me.  I need to carry it with me.   (HA!  It wasn't asthma.  It was critically low iron. And it got so bad that I could barely walk up a hill, let alone run, for a couple of years.  All fixed now.)
I've done the C25k plan numerous times.  I've never been able to really run a 5k at the end of the program, ever.  
  I've jogged two 5ks.  I finished before they stopped timing, but just barely ahead of the walkers, both times.
Each Spring it's like completely starting over.  Last year I could jog the entire Canal path at just under 13 minutes a mile.  This year I can barely jog 10 feet when I started this program.
I use an android phone - a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (I've stuck with the brand - using a Note 9 now!) - to run this app.
I also run the Charity Miles app at the same time.  Check it out - it contributes 25 cents a mile for every mile you run or walk, and 10 cents a mile for every mile you bike, to your choice of charities.  I donate to Wounded Warriors.

I completely missed this - I found it at the end of week 2.  There is a background story, you should listen to it while going for a walk/jog before beginning this program.  



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