I'm a C25K Grad!

I've been 'MIA' for a few days, but just a lot of 'life' goin on I guess and this is my first opportunity to post. Chris has had a rough couple of days, poor kid...he had to miss the Homecoming Dance last night. He really didn't realize it until this morning, but he was so out of it yesterday that I'm sure it never crossed his mind. Let's just say, it bothered us more than him. He's been doing pretty well - seems to be on an 'every other weekend' cycle of seizure activity, and hopefully I'll hear from the neuro office tomorrow on a med increase, which I believe is in order at this point.

Also learned of the sudden loss of a close family friend Friday, and this week is going to be a little rough - especially for my husband. (It was his best friend's brother) These things are not easy for anyone of course...but I don't do well with wakes and funerals, mostly because I can't bear to see others in such deep pain and suffering such a loss. I can handle my own sadness in my own way, but to see others grieve is so hard and I never know quite what to say/do.

This is not meant to be a 'depressing' post though! (Just sharing the 'life' stuff really!)

With Chris down and out, I did not do my final C25K run yesterday, but I did do it this morning - WITH my new Garmin (yes!) AND I hit the road outside too, which was very cool! So I'm officially a C25K 'graduate' and feel really very very good about this accomplishment! My 'graduation' picture is posted to the left. So for anyone currently working through the C25K program, or thinking about it....trust me when I say, it is a very manageable program for beginners, and you will definitely see some results over 9 weeks. I am very pleased, and looking forward to moving on to One Hour Running now. For the next 3 weeks, the plan calls for 30 minute runs, 3X's a week. Which I am fine with sticking here for a bit, because I don't feel 'ready' to add more time yet.

So - a few thoughts on the Garmin....first of all, just a side story here....when my husband purchased it at Best Buy Wednesday evening, the clerk somehow ran his card FIVE TIMES. Yes, FIVE. Well if you use debit/credit cards, you know that the funds are immediately 'taken' from your bank account. In our case....the 'purchase' of FIVE Garmins in one day literally cleaned out our checking account! All was not 'corrected' until over night Friday - so let's just say, it was an interesting 48 hours on top of everything else going on around here! :-) But I lived to tell you about it, so all is well.

I found the Garmin user guide a little 'clunky' and 'brief' - especially with regard to downloading the software to the computer and installing drivers etc. I managed to fumble through it, but the user guide makes it seem MUCH more simple than it really was. I ended up downloading Garmin Connect AND some 'trainer' program - I'm not sure I need both or what, but I plan to use the Connect program for now. If any Garmin users can shed any clarification on this, do share! I couldn't tell if I got what I needed half the time...there were a lot of things like 'communicator plugin' and drivers etc. that were not mentioned in the user guide.

Once I got it all figured out on the computer (sort of), I hit the road, and as is typical for my outside runs, it was still tough compared to the treadmill. I took two 45 second walk breaks in 30 minutes. Breathing is an ISSUE for me outside. It was cool checking my heart rate and stuff, which averaged around 155 or so for the duration - I did get up to 162 (my max heart rate is 179). My pace was averaging something crazy like 17 minute miles, so I think I need to calibrate the foot pod. On the treadmill I was manually calculating somewhere around 12:30 - 14:00 miles. Not that it really matters right now, but it's a good gage to measure improvement.

I don't have any fun little charts or maps to display from my Garmin today - why? Because after I pressed 'Stop' at the end of the run, I didn't know I had to 'press and hold the lap/reset button to save your workout'. UGH, here I was at the computer almost 1/2 hour trying to figure out why my data wasn't transferring and here my History was 'empty'. Live and learn I guess! Now I know, right?

So my goal for the next 4 weeks is to run outside as much as possible, and try to improve the distance I cover in 30 minutes. My first 5K is on October 25th. I was going to do one on the 19th, but then I found this 'Great Pumpkin' type race along Lake Erie that seemed more fun, and it's a charity race for a couple of local organizations that I'm familiar with.

I got some gift cards for my birthday so had fun shopping at Target last night for some running clothes. I am not ready to brave running 'tights' yet ha ha, and opted for a little 'loser' fit running capri for fall running. Also got a fitness ball to use for my strength training - need to work the core a bit more!

Now I'm off to blow up the ball, which I hope will be be a little more simplistic then getting the Garmin up and running!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!