Couch-to-5K Category Archives - ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery https://www.shaolintiger.com/category/fitness/couch-to-5k-fitness/ Craft Beer, Travel, Children & Much More. Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:04:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 Resuming My Couch To 5k Training – Learning To Run https://www.shaolintiger.com/2016/11/21/resuming-my-couch-to-5k-training-learning-to-run/ Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:11:07 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=34402 I started this journey way back in 2013 with my Couch to 5k training and my dusty treadmill and unfortunately this category on my blog has remained lonely with only 2 posts in it for the past 3 years. But now I’m eating well with WildFit, I feel great and have loads of energy, plus […]

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I started this journey way back in 2013 with my Couch to 5k training and my dusty treadmill and unfortunately this category on my blog has remained lonely with only 2 posts in it for the past 3 years.

But now I’m eating well with WildFit, I feel great and have loads of energy, plus I’m way better at committing to things now – I decided to take it up again.

I think last time I only documented the first workout of week 1 and probably didn’t manage to get much further than that: Couch-to-5k – Week 1 Workout 1 Conquered!.

This time though, I WILL FINISH IT! No promises I’ll actually be able to run 5 kilometres at the end, but I’ll give it a damn good go.

So yah, I started again. Started with walking at 3.2 mph and jogging at 5.2 mph – not too bad. Got a good sweat on and heart rate maxed out (my Fitbit Charge 2 arrived just in time!).

Resuming My Couch To 5k Training

It’s a good work-out, nicely paced and with 3.2/5.2 mph I find it very manageable to complete. The first week has you going about 2.6km in 28 minutes.

Fitbit Charge 2 - Couch to 5k

I’ve actually complete 3 weeks of the program now and am starting my 4th (tomorrow night will be Week 4 – Day 1) and I haven’t missed a single session yet, plus I’ve completed them all.

My speed is up as well, now I’m doing 3.4 mph for the brisk walk and 5.4 mph for the jogging sections (the past week had 2x 3 minute jogs – which was pretty intense).

Couch to 5K Training

It’ll be interesting to see what the coming week brings, I can definitely feel the difference in my cardiovascular fitness, stamina and ability to run. It helps a lot of Badminton (which I try to play at least twice a week) – and burns insane calories (1500-2000 in a 2 hour session).

Definitely getting thinner, fitter and healthier every day!

Get a great book to help here: 5K Training For Beginners: From Couch To 5K Runner In 8 Weeks Or Less

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Couch-to-5k – Week 1 Workout 1 Conquered! https://www.shaolintiger.com/2013/06/14/couch-to-5k-week-1-workout-1-conquered/ Fri, 14 Jun 2013 01:45:53 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=33478 So I didn’t count my first try, because I only got half way through (I did about 1.04 miles in about 16 minutes and then collapsed). I had my rest day, as I should, then today I retried the first workout with new, more reasonable speeds. After some reading, a jog should be quite slow, […]

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So I didn’t count my first try, because I only got half way through (I did about 1.04 miles in about 16 minutes and then collapsed).

I had my rest day, as I should, then today I retried the first workout with new, more reasonable speeds. After some reading, a jog should be quite slow, you should be able to hold a reasonable conversation and drink water when you are jogging.

If not, you are probably going too fast, or actually running. That’s what happened to me on the first day, I had my brisk walk at 3.5mph and my jog at 7mph – which is actually pretty fast (almost an 8 minute mile, way too fast for a beginner).

So I went down to 3.5mph for my 5 minute brisk walk warm-up, 3mph for my walking intervals and 5mph for my jogging intervals. It was still a good workout, but I didn’t collapse and I made it all the way through.

I even used the first minute of my cooldown to do a quick 1 minute 7mph run 🙂

Couch-to-5k Week 1 Workout 1

Not too bad, ended up at 1.84 miles in 30 minutes 🙂 That’s approximately a 16 minute mile overall, and a 12 minute mile for the running sections (far more reasonable) and would have me doing a 5km run in about 50 minutes (that’s more walking than running though). Onwards and upwards!

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Couch-to-5k & A Treadmill & Me https://www.shaolintiger.com/2013/06/11/couch-to-5k-a-treadmill-me/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2013/06/11/couch-to-5k-a-treadmill-me/#comments Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:56:50 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=33461 So we’ve had a plan to get a treadmill since we bought this house, we even allocated a space for it on the upstairs landing and had a plug point put in the floor – especially for the treadmill. But due to the house, the renovation, then the wedding – we had no budget to […]

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So we’ve had a plan to get a treadmill since we bought this house, we even allocated a space for it on the upstairs landing and had a plug point put in the floor – especially for the treadmill. But due to the house, the renovation, then the wedding – we had no budget to actually buy the treadmill..

So the poor lonely power socket has been gathering dust for the past 2 years, and has only been used for steaming clothes, ironing and vacuuming. But a week or so ago, we were at 1-Utama to watch a movie and we happened to see the treadmill we’ve been looking at (actually a newer model) on sale at a pretty good price.

There’s not a whole lot of treadmills available for sale in Malaysia (fitness, what?) so we have limited choices, we ended up getting a NordicTrack T8.0, which honestly doesn’t have great reviews. But it feels comfortable and has decent features (28 workouts, mp3 line in, fan, incline etc).

Last week we had it delivered and set up 🙂

NordicTrack T8.0

And honestly I had no idea where to get started, so I did some googling (as per usual). After some reading I came across this program called Couch-to-5k, which seems ideal for me.

I’m not terribly unfit, as I walk my dog about 1.6km twice a day – but I’m not terribly active either and I certainly can’t sustain a decent running past a few minutes without collapsing. I do spend far too much time sitting in front of the computer.

Too many people have been turned off of running simply by trying to start off too fast. Their bodies rebel, and they wind up miserable, wondering why anyone would possibly want to do this to themselves.

You should ease into your running program gradually. In fact, the beginners’ program we outline here is less of a running regimen than a walking and jogging program. The idea is to transform you from couch potato to runner, getting you running three miles (or 5K) on a regular basis in just two months.

Sounds reasonable to me. So I grabbed the Android app here for US$2.99 and today I took it for a spin.

I collapsed after about a mile (15 minutes) of alternate jogging/walking. After some post work-out research, it seems my jogging speed is too fast for a beginner and I won’t be able to sustain the workout. I was walking at 3-3.5mph and jogging at 7mph, it seems like I need to slow it down a bit to maybe 2.5mph for walking and 4.5-5mph for jogging.

Perhaps I’ll be able to complete the entire 20 minutes then. But one thing is for sure, after spending the damn money on the Treadmill I am going to be able to run 5k continuously – and hopefully lose some weight in the process 🙂

I plan to do a real 5k race when I’m ready, the program should take around 8 weeks but I might take a little longer, there’s no shame in repeating days/weeks.

Here’s to fitness!

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