RunningAHEAD - Topic: Why Did You Start C25K?

PolePole

posted: 7/15/2008 at 3:48 PM

Great question Meg! In short: it was one of the few things that I had wanted to do, but had failed at repeatedly. Beginning running programs that started with "run 10 minutes at an easy pace" were completely unrealistic for me. Plus, I look at where I'd like to be 10 years from now, and the non-running path doesn't get me there. I educate others on the evils of lifestyle-induced diseases....it is definitely a case of taking a dose of my own medicine. Oh, and I was bored with my professional and some of my personal life, so it was time to mix things up a little bit. The antidote here was a 5k....to be followed by many more, hopefully. Plus, I too, want to shop in a "regular" store. And I'm getting there...

CanadianMeg

#RunEveryDay

posted: 7/30/2008 at 11:02 PM

Any of our newer runners want to chime in on this one? Wink

Half Fanatic #9292.

Game Admin for RA Running Game 2023.

all4mineagain

posted: 7/30/2008 at 11:30 PM

I started after watching Nova on PBS. It was a show about training ordinary people like us to run the Boston Marathon in 9 months. For some reason it really motivated me. I don't have any plans to run a marathon, but I like thinking of myself as having endurance and being stubborn enough to not give up. And after a month off for a knee injury, another week off for a back injury, and then a week off for being on call at work, I finally made it! I ran 3.1 miles tonight!

Squeaky

Jazz hands!

posted: 7/30/2008 at 11:33 PM
modified: 7/30/2008 at 11:35 PM

Quote from mimi73 on 7/9/2008 at 11:06 AM:

When I graduated from college and couldn't afford the classes, I needed something for exercise.

Same here, basically. I took capoeira and kickboxing in college, but they're $$$ in the real world. I'd never been remotely in shape before college, discovered I liked it, and running was the cheapest and easiest way of staying active. Plus, it's fun to tell people who knew me in high school how many miles I ran that day. MTA: Running also requires zero hand eye coordination, which works out beautifully, because that's how much I have.

run run run AHHHHHH run run run

CanadianMeg

#RunEveryDay

posted: 7/31/2008 at 12:41 AM

Quote from all4mineagain on 7/30/2008 at 11:30 PM:

And after a month off for a knee injury, another week off for a back injury, and then a week off for being on call at work, I finally made it! I ran 3.1 miles tonight!

WohooO! That's awesome! You won't forget hitting it the first time. Cool

Half Fanatic #9292.

Game Admin for RA Running Game 2023.

Jennicap

Ex-Smoker turned Runner!

posted: 7/31/2008 at 12:01 PM

I was a running all through middle and high school and into college. I stopped b/c life got in the way. I had been peaking at the couch to 5K program for years I bet and finally when I quit smoking and gained nearly 35lbs I knew I had to do something.

-Jen
2010 Goals! Get back into running after having my son miles miles miles!

MichelleD

posted: 8/10/2008 at 8:54 PM

Because I have been overweight all my life...since I was a young child. In school, I did well academically, so no one cared what I did physically. My senior year of high school, I started running a bit (maybe a mile or so a day eventually), but then I moved to Pennsylvania in the winter and couldn't breathe the cold air to keep running. Now, it's 10 years after high school. I weigh less now than I did when I graduated (after gaining quite a bit and losing it), but it's still far, far too much!!!! I love the way running makes me feel, and when I started C25K a few months ago, I was at a very high stress level and couldn't have handled it without running. C25K makes becoming a runner so do-able (especially with the podcasts...I only have to do what the voice in my head tells me to do Smile

).

Ann-V

posted: 8/11/2008 at 7:24 AM
modified: 8/11/2008 at 7:24 AM

I started running (two years ago) a couple of weeks after I joined Sparkpeople, which I joined to loose a few kilograms... My goal when joining sparkpeople was not to start moving, to come in a better shape, just to go down from 55 to 51 kg. But those few weeks of 'sparkling' made me curious how it would be to run... and so I decided to get me a decent pair of running shoes, and to start running... And I ran... I ran very consistently, with only a little hick-up after a knee-injury (due to falling while skiing). And last summer, when we where hiking in the Swiss mountains, I felt great. I always had the courage and the endurance to do long hikes while in the mountains, but this time, I also had the shape to even enjoy those hikes more. But after returning to Belgium... I went of the trail ( Wink

)... I restarted a few months later, but only for a few months. But at that time I really didn't feel very.... Tssssssjj.... Don't know how to say in English... I needed some goal, something to motivate me, but that lacked... So I didn't run for more than half a year, and I saw my weight creeping higher and higher... slowly... but when I reached 55 kg again, I new something should happen. I started snacking a little less, refusing my rewarding glass of wine after a long working day... and slowly, the mind to run returned... And here I am... after having ran during that one year, I think I already did more sports in the second half of my life than in the first, but now I wil do even better. I hope to run a 5K somewhere in october, running an hour by New Year, and maybe, next year in september the half marathon in Eindhoven, the Dutch town where I work??? (The Brussels 20K in may is probably too soon)

Running in Belgium
Ann

cmercer29

posted: 8/19/2008 at 12:55 PM

I started C25K so that I will take it slow enough this time to not burn out quickly and then be inactive for several months again. I'm always starting an exercise kick for a week, a month, or two or three, then not sticking with it. The result over the years is that I'm mostly sedentary and I'm in terrible cardio-vascular shape (which at 30 years old I have got to change for good, if I want to be healthy later in life)! I'm only in week 3 of C25K, but I can already tell that building gradually is going to be way better for sticking with it this time - mentally and physically. Smile

A friend invited me to do the Nike Women's Marathon in October of 2009, so I have to be able to stick with it this time if I want to go the whole 26.2 miles (did a couple of half marathons 5 years ago, but never a whole marathon)...

Goals: 1. Finish One Hour Runner Program 2. Train for and run a 10K in late winter 3. Run a half in late spring 4. Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, Oct 2009

CanadianMeg

#RunEveryDay

posted: 8/29/2008 at 7:15 PM

You know, it's nice to go back and just read through this sometimes. Such positives! Any of our new runners care to add theirs?

Half Fanatic #9292.

Game Admin for RA Running Game 2023.

orangetulipgrl

posted: 8/30/2008 at 7:55 AM

I'm starting the C25K on Monday, 9/1. I'm pretty sure that I had heard about it before (the logo of the little couch potato guy with the remote was very familiar), but I never thought I'd be able to stick with it for all those weeks without losing interest. Things have since changed. Last week someone mentioned it to me after I told her that I'd like to do more on my treadmill than just walking, but that running wasn't working out each time I'd tried it. I just started out too big before, and the C25K program offers the progression I need to believe that I, too, can do this. The doubts about being able to stick with it went away once I started reading about running and seeing how many people got involved and love it. I feel like I'll be one of those people who can say they got hooked on running, and it's something I can call my own.

Blogging my progress on the C25K - Finished C25K!

Couch to 5K and One Hour Runners

Why Did You Start C25K? (Read 352 times)