Ah! It's been a week!

Sooo, I'm lame and haven't been updating like I should.. so here's the run-down..get it? Run?! hhahahhaha


I suck at running.. still. This is not going to change much for awhile. I switched shoes, tried decreasing the time I run, etc.. nothing seems to help. I walked some more last week (two miles outside and then one session inside) and it's going well. I'm walking at a 3.5 speed, for 1.5-2.0 miles 3 times a week...except I havent since Saturday. I had a bad cold and fever on Thursday, which made me miss zumba (I couldn't breathe let alone do aerobic dance) and took Friday off. I should have walked today, but our house guests are keeping me awake at night (or whenever I try to sleep) and I'm not thrilled about it...but that's another story.

This post's story comes from my dad. I was talking to him about training to run this 5K and he told me flat out-- "You're not a runner. No one in our family is!" and I was all "Pssffhhh whatev, Dad... I'm gonna show you!" and then BAM! Shin splints.. So I followed up on his "No runners in our family" claim. Turns out, not a single person in my family has ever excelled at running (Zac did one season of CC in middle school). Now, I'm not saying that most families are avid runners who spend their weeks training for marathons and all ran every event in high school track..I'm saying that no one in my family has ever been ABLE to run. Be it for medical reasons, or they just find it boring..no one does it.

Then I started to think about when I was little and I tried running, but always complained that it hurt. I can remember being in elementary school and when we had to run, I always had to stop and "tie my shoes" because my legs started to burn. I just thought it was because I never ran, like all of my friends and didn't think twice. Now, I wasn't a couch potato either,  I was always at the beach or in my dad's pool swimming. Zac and I would BEG our mom to take us to the beach and we'd spend the entire day there. I was the first of all my friends to pass the swimming test, and even choreographed a swim dance to a BSB song when I was in middle school. Heck, I even broke my ankle in a hot tub (okay, so I jumped in it on a dare and busted it on the cement step..did I mention this happened at a Hotel?hah)

Our family are swimmers, so says my dad. We all have this canny need to be in the water at a really young age and  LOVE it. Ask anyone in my family, my nick-name when I was little was Shamu (I hope because I loved taking baths and swimming, not because i was a chunker..haha). So, I never ran....I always swam.

Now don't confuse this story for an excuse--it's not that. I'm just slowly realizing WHY running seems to be so hard for me, when Zumba, which I burn way more calories at per hour, is extremely easy for me to do. It's simply because I have zero experience with running. I don't know how to breathe, how to make my stride work well for me, or even how my feet are supposed to hit the ground!
Just as an example about how truly clueless I am when it comes to running, while Brandon was watching me run, he said "What are you doing with your feet?!" and I looked down.. I run with my feet turned out--like I'm in dance class or color guard. This is also how I walk (which my mom has commented on before). My feet naturally go to turned out position if I'm walking, running, or just standing somewhere. Apparently, this is something I shouldn't be doing while running, Who knew?!

With all this in mind, I'm going to hit the books (errr, internet..) and do some research about how I should and shouldn't run.

This is just a speed bump--I will be a runner (at least by my definition) by Thanksgiving.


p.s.--Brandon is doing really really well..I'll try to get him to update!

And We've Hit a Speed Bump....

Today Brandon went on to week 2.. he's doing really really well, and I'm really happy that he's be able to stick with with for over a week--that's amazing for us!

As for me-- well, I have some kickin' shin splints. Awesome, right? So, I've been walking instead of running and I'm planning to just keep walking faster and faster until I can build up my tolerance for running. Right now, I'm walking 3 miles at 3.4mph. That's pretty decent for walking, but I'm really hoping to be able to run at least 1.5 miles of the 5k. If I do that, I should be able to finish the 5k between 40-50 minutes..not the 30 I was aiming for. I'm bummed, but I don't want to hurt myself. I'm still going to try to get running again, but I'm going to take it slow, and since walking doesn't hurt (not even speed walking), I'm going to keep that up! My new goal is to keep a 4.5 pace walking for 3 miles! Plus, I'm still doing ZUMBA! 2 times a week..might add another day.

Next Up: Brandon will talk about running for him and I'll give you an update for walking!

Saturday the 18th update

This was the third (and final) work out for the first week.

Brandon = 5walk+[(1run+1.5walk)*8]+5walk
Ended up being 2 miles total in 30 minutes... once all the walks get turned into runs (at 6.3mph) it'll be a 10 minute mile pace for the 5k.

Allison = 5walk+1run+injury.  Allison got a sharp pain from the top of her foot to halfway up her shin.  Not sure what it is.  We'll try to add an extra walk tomorrow, and see how it is.

So far the first week has been (mostly) a success.  Starting Monday-Wednesday-Friday next week.  No basketball next week, but Zumba for Allison on Tuesday and Thursday

Zumba!

I've mentioned Zumba! more than once in every post so far. If you've never heard of it, Zumba is a latin-inspired workout that is pretty much crazy dancing to fast songs. The result? Lots of sweating and an hour of working out that seems like 15 minutes. I am no exaggerating when I say that when I leave this class, I am soaked with sweat. Tuesday I went to a new class at the Salter Community Center in Royal Oak. It was in a small studio with no mirrors (only downside) and the class had about 20 people in it of all ages!

We all filled out some paperwork and then we were off! The workout starts with some basic steps to a medium paced song. Followed by another warm up, and then some fast paced songs. The best thing about Zumba!? Almost all people can pick up the steps immediately. There is little stopping for instruction, which means you're constantly moving (although there is time in-between songs to grab some water or a towel!) Some routines are to pop songs like, "Single Ladies" or "Candy Man" and then there are more with Latin or Bali-wood styles.

Like I mentioned before, you sweat..A LOT.. during this workout. And I know I'm sweat prone, but EVERYONE sweats. Let's put it this way, I was going to pick up dinner from Subway after class, but I had to come home and literally peel the clothes off of me and take a shower before I was going ANYWHERE!

I have another session tonight...and then again on Monday. If anyone ever wants to join me, let me know!!

Next Up: Week One -- Day Two!

Week One: Day One

Our First Run.....was hard!

Our goal is to run in the Stuffing Strut on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit before the Parade. To do this, we're going to have to be training hard, and make sure we stay strict with it...because we both have bad habits of getting really into something (see: every diet we've ever been on) and then quitting soon after.

So, our first run was yesterday before I went to ZUMBA! Our first decision was where to run..we have a treadmill and we also live in a neighborhood with sidewalks. Since it's super nice out right now, we're going to do it together, outside.

The second speed-bump was how we were going to time the 5 minutes and the alternating 60/90 seconds. Well, thank you Apple for creating a handy dandy iphone and random Mr. App maker for make a C25K application! This application is awesome. It not only alerts you when to run and walk, but it allows you to add your own music from your iphone/itunes to run with. Super user friendly..

So we were off--walking is easy. I mean, most people can walk somewhat briskly for 5 minutes without any problem. Then the "DING-DING-DING..RUN!" prompt went off...and well, we ran and then it told us to walk..so we walked. We repeated that time after time.. until....I stepped in a hole in the grass when we were running in the community center lot and rolled my ankle. I was okay.. but I needed a few minutes to stretch it out before i could run again.. so I just walked,fast, all the way home. Turns out I only missed one running session, so I'm pretty happy with myself for almost completing it! Brandon did a really good job the whole time, basketball surely helps him with that.

After we got home, we stretched a bit and drank some water..then Brandon made fun of me for running so slow. I think I might have a "problem" with my stride. Since I've never ran for anything, I take a really short stride that ends up looking like I'm running in place (or so Brandon says!) I think it may be because of all my history with dance classes/marching/winterguard/and step aerobics and ZUMBA..generally, none of those sports/classes have you taking fast paces from one place to another with long strides..and Marching Band..that's a 22inch stride at all times..I'm pretty postitive that about the length of stride that I use when running, too! haha

Since you only run 3 days a week, today is an off day. I'm pretty sore today, but I'm attributing that to ZUMBA! Tomorrow is another day of ZUMBA! and Day 2 of C25K. I'll let you know how it goes!

Next up: a shout out to ZUMBA! My favorite workout, ever. 

The Couch to 5k Program!

Brandon and I have both decided to start a workout regimen that includes Basketball twice a week for him, and ZUMBA! three times a week for me; but we wanted something that we could also do together! He doesn't like group classes, and I don't like group sports, so after talking to Amanda about an idea to get Brandon's entire family together to do a 5k, I started doing some research.

First, some background. I do NOT run. I'm not good at it...I'm slow..have bad-ish ankles, and hate the sun. I like the way it makes me feel, but I'd rather walk for 3 miles, and take 45 minutes than run for 30! So, I knew that if I was going to have any chance at sticking with this, I was going to need a program that eased me into it. Brandon wasn't too keen on the idea at first, but once I showed him the program, he got into it an even made a pod-cast for our first workout (but we ended up using the iphone app instead..more about that later).


So, the actual program...Essentially, you start with a 5 minute warm up, run for 60 seconds, walk for 90, repeat the 60/90 part for 20 minutes, and then walk for another 5 minutes to cool down. As the 9 week program progresses, you add more time running, and more time walking, then more time running, less time walking, etc, until you're running for a full 3.1 miles. There are two ways you can measure your success...either by time or by distance. Since I'm a slow runner, I am going by distance, and since Brandon is a fast runner, he's going by time. So even though we're doing this together, most of the time I'm going to be chasing him..which is actually a great motivator for me!

If you're interested to check out the plan some more, or want to join us in doing this, here's the link to the program we're trying.

The Couch to 5K Program


 Next up: Our first run.. ah!