My journal about my week 2 with the couch to 5k program – a training schedule designed to help you work up gradually to running a 5k marathon. You can read my notes on week 1 here. These are my two week results including feeling more energetic and how I am keeping motivated.

You can read my week 1 plan and goal here.

Week two went as well as week 1 for me. One difference I’ve noticed is I have had a few nights where I wake up at 3am and can’t get back to sleep.

Overall, I feel like I am sleeping lighter. So, my normally groggy mornings are still groggy. But I am hoping once I get into the full 5k mode, I will not have this problem.

My wife reports she is feeling better physically. But that the increase in running time wasn’t as easy for her as it was me.

I normally wear Vibram 5 fingers for jogging and walking. But due to the cold I put on running shoes one day. This made my run much more difficult.

My wife usually opts for running shoes. On the days she wears Vibrams, she keeps a better pace. Which makes me wonder if running shoes actually hurt performance long term. They certainly do for me at least in the early stages.

Motivation has remained. Though, some days I am just plain exhausted. Luckily, it hasn’t been enough to throw us off track.

Taking our time

Toward the end of week 2 we weren’t feeling as gung ho as in the beginning. This is natural. So what I said is we’re just going to go at our own pace. We don’t need to rush or strain. We can extend the week two plan into week 3.

Who cares how long it takes if we reach the same destination?

So we ended up running the week 2 plan 5 times instead of 3 with rest days in between. So the actual week 2 plan took us almost 2 weeks.

On to week 3….

Think you are walking enough to keep fit? Recent studies may surprise you. They certainly raised my eyebrows.

It’s a great time to be alive.

With technology advances things as simple as counting steps can become automatic and give you instant feedback.

My son showed me his latest Nintendo DS toy called Nintendo Personal trainer walking. It includes a pedometer you wear all day. Then you sync with the nintendo for tracking In it are charts, games, suggestions and feedback for improvement.

I was fascinated to see all the features – designed especially for kids. But at one point he asked “how many steps should kids take each day?”. Ahh. Good question. So I looked it up and stumbled on some fascinating numbers.

According to new pedometer steps recommendations from Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke, 10,000 steps is the ideal number. 5,000 or less means you are leading a ‘seditary’ lifestyle. And 12,500 being optimum.

Woah! My son’s meager 4,000 steps per day average in the last week was a wake up call for both of us. I’ve never thought of him as being ‘seditary’, but even he feels he needs more exercise – even before we looked up the numbers.

I’ve never tracked my own steps, but average 6-7 miles per week of extra steps due to excercise. I’ve done that consistently for over 20 years.

But maybe it’s time I track them because even with additional mileage I may be well under the 12,500 optimum.

Like the old saying goes; You don’t know what you don’t know until you know it…

– Brad Isaac

Over the past holiday, my wife and I both felt the Spirit though we ate a little bit too much and exercised a little bit to little.

So we decided something had to be done.

Together we talked about doing the couch to 5K running plan. Which is a “get up and go” start running plan for new runners.  I always read good things about it, so maybe now would be a good time to give it a try.

Both my wife and I are in pretty good shape already. We’ve walked consistently – three or more times a week for years.  And normally eat an above average diet in terms of vegetables, etc.   But this past Thanksgiving and Christmas, we got into trouble.

Couch to 5k week 1

Our first day out was mostly fun, but cold. Like most of the United States we are in one of the coldest winters we’ve had in a long time. So getting out in jogging is extra pain during this time.

The one of the advantages of running is you warm up rather quickly – and burn more calories – or so I’m told.

The first week was very simple. You warm up for five minutes run for one minute take a break for a minute and a half.  Do this for 8 intervals  then you’re done with the day.   You then do this 3 days the first week, being sure to skip at least 1 day in between in order to rest.

You gotta love that it’s only 25 minutes including the warm up.  Some of our past walking took up to an hour, which is hard to fit into a busy schedule.

We found this to be very easy on the first week. On the third day of week one, however, my wife had some issues with pain in her ankles so we decided to extend the first week activities into week 2.

Couch to 5k Week 2

We are currently on week two.  So far so good.

At the end of this project we are wanting to run a 5K marathon. Whether we win or lose, the goal is to run a 5K. I think we’ll get there pretty easily based on the first few days. So why don’t you follow our progress – I will be posting as we go through it.  Subscribe to our RSS feed so that you can see if this plan is right for you!

Now it’s your turn. What are your thoughts on the couch to 5k plan?  If you have experience with the couch to 5k running plan, please post your experiences below.