dthogue
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2002
Welcome - here I will journal about my journey from being a overweight Pumpkin to a glistening princess whose ultimate goal is to "run down the middle of Main Street!"
A little bit about myself - my name is Tammy, I am 42, married to DH, Doug, for 22 years, have 3 wonderful DD's, Kristen 21, college junior, Kaitlyn, 19, college freshman and Brenna, 12, 7th grade. I work full time and really the only hobby I have is scrapbooking and I don't do that too often.
I started weight watchers on 12/4/10 and as of today have lost 37 pounds, with the goal of losing about 52 more.
In effort to aid my weight loss, I started the Couch to 5K program on December 15, 2010 and faithfully continued with the program 3 days a week and I graduated the program on March 27, 2011. It was amazing that when I started the program I had trouble running 30 seconds and at the end of the program I was able to run, all be it slowly, for 30 minutes.
Now, I'm not quite sure when I came up with the idea to run in the Princess 1/2 marathon, but I did and it has stuck. I assume it was somewhere around the time that the 2010 Princess was held as the wonder people for these boards came back and started posting their reports and utube videos, that I thought "yeah, maybe this something I could do."
Before reading their reports, I envisioned what a "runner" should look like and it was not ME! Seriously, I'm way overweight and not the least athletic - there is no way that I can run 13.1 miles and maintain a 16 minute mile. I never knew about run/walk intervals and that you don't need to be a stellar athlete to compete. I didn't realize that there are people out there who are going through the same things I am and they participated and finished. So after watching so many youtube videos, I started doing some research, reading the DISboards and asking questions. A light went off in my head - I already starting my training, all I needed to do was continue. I printed off Jeff Galloway's 21 week training plan to a 1/2 marathon. I made up my mind, I can do this, I WILL do it and my I recruited my middle DD to run with me. She is a soccer player and ran cross country in school - she was excited to do this with me.
So let the training continue...after I completed the C25K, I ran my first and 2nd 5k runs - my youngest DD ran with me and we had a great time. I started with Galloway's program and am currently on week 5. I am up to running 35 minutes straight on my weekday runs, then I do 2/1 intervals to get to 3.5 miles. I do my longer runs on Sunday and my longest run to date has been 5 miles. 5 miles, did I just say that - yes Virginia, 5 miles, with 2/1 intervals. Wow, that just amazes.
I am still toying with exactly how to run, how far, how fast, do intervals, don't do intervals and that kind of thing. So basically I am a work in progress... each run is a new experience for me and I seem to learn something new all the time.
I hope you come along for the ride - I will be posting about my weight loss experience which goes hand in hand with my running experiences - should be an interesting ride. I started this journal so I can be held accountable and so I can post my triumphs - hope you enjoy!
A little bit about myself - my name is Tammy, I am 42, married to DH, Doug, for 22 years, have 3 wonderful DD's, Kristen 21, college junior, Kaitlyn, 19, college freshman and Brenna, 12, 7th grade. I work full time and really the only hobby I have is scrapbooking and I don't do that too often.
I started weight watchers on 12/4/10 and as of today have lost 37 pounds, with the goal of losing about 52 more.
In effort to aid my weight loss, I started the Couch to 5K program on December 15, 2010 and faithfully continued with the program 3 days a week and I graduated the program on March 27, 2011. It was amazing that when I started the program I had trouble running 30 seconds and at the end of the program I was able to run, all be it slowly, for 30 minutes.
Now, I'm not quite sure when I came up with the idea to run in the Princess 1/2 marathon, but I did and it has stuck. I assume it was somewhere around the time that the 2010 Princess was held as the wonder people for these boards came back and started posting their reports and utube videos, that I thought "yeah, maybe this something I could do."
Before reading their reports, I envisioned what a "runner" should look like and it was not ME! Seriously, I'm way overweight and not the least athletic - there is no way that I can run 13.1 miles and maintain a 16 minute mile. I never knew about run/walk intervals and that you don't need to be a stellar athlete to compete. I didn't realize that there are people out there who are going through the same things I am and they participated and finished. So after watching so many youtube videos, I started doing some research, reading the DISboards and asking questions. A light went off in my head - I already starting my training, all I needed to do was continue. I printed off Jeff Galloway's 21 week training plan to a 1/2 marathon. I made up my mind, I can do this, I WILL do it and my I recruited my middle DD to run with me. She is a soccer player and ran cross country in school - she was excited to do this with me.
So let the training continue...after I completed the C25K, I ran my first and 2nd 5k runs - my youngest DD ran with me and we had a great time. I started with Galloway's program and am currently on week 5. I am up to running 35 minutes straight on my weekday runs, then I do 2/1 intervals to get to 3.5 miles. I do my longer runs on Sunday and my longest run to date has been 5 miles. 5 miles, did I just say that - yes Virginia, 5 miles, with 2/1 intervals. Wow, that just amazes.
I am still toying with exactly how to run, how far, how fast, do intervals, don't do intervals and that kind of thing. So basically I am a work in progress... each run is a new experience for me and I seem to learn something new all the time.
I hope you come along for the ride - I will be posting about my weight loss experience which goes hand in hand with my running experiences - should be an interesting ride. I started this journal so I can be held accountable and so I can post my triumphs - hope you enjoy!
It sounds like you have a great plan. You're story reminds me a lot of my own. I started with C25K also as a complete non-runner and non-athelete and I followed the Galloway plan (sort of) to the January 1/2 this past year. I'm looking forward to following along with your story. 
and my butt hurts this morning! Maybe it was just because I was new to it and need to build up my endurance.
