Week 2 of Couch-to-5k is complete, and I'm still on board. In fact, despite this being a 3-times-a-week program, I've been getting up at 7:00 on the "off days" and going for a mile-and-a-half walk just to make sure I keep active. There are a few topics I wanted to cover over the course of my training, and it seems like this is a good time to bring up the subject of food and dietary changes.
Up until now, I haven't really changed much as far as my meal planning goes. We're don't have horrible eating habits or anything, we're mostly just lazy. As a result, we fairly consitently order pizza and get carry-out several times a week, skip breakfast when we're running late and, in my case, go through soda as if it were water. That was all fine and well for the first two weeks of this training, but I don't think it's going to fly much longer. Meals this week consisted of pizza, mexican (twice) plus Chipotle. And while it was all delicious, it left me sluggish and tired the next morning. This has to stop.
I'm not going to make any stupid promises like going vegan, swearing off carbs, or only eating cabbage, but I think I can commit to a few things that will help get me going in the right direction:
Eating breakfast. This is the silliest one, because I love breakfast. I would eat it three times a day if I could. But I always find myself so stressed out in the morning about getting to work on time that I somehow become convinced that I don't have the 3 minutes it takes to mix up some yogurt or the 7 minutes it takes to make an omelette. No more. I'm eating breakfast from now on.
More snacks. January started encouraging me to do this last week, and it does help curb my appetite for other meals. Grapes and milk mid-morning. Nuts and raisins mid-afternoon. I'm doing it.
Red meat twice a week. I love me some steak, but I probably eat too much of it. I'm starting with reducing it two twice a week, so how hard that is, and then see if I can decrease it further after that.
Water. I've gotta get a big old jug of water at my desk to keep hydrated.
Done by 9pm. No food after 9. Period.
Now, on with the week's running recap.
Week 2, Day 1: Uphill Battle
I really enjoyed last week's run through the Walhalla ravine, so I thought I'd take the same route again for the first run of the week. I neglected to remember the constant, gradual climb after the initial descent and found myself struggling pretty quickly. I did stick with the intervals though, except for one 30-second running segment after a particularly grueling walk out of the ravine.
Week 2, Day 2: Faster
Learning my lesson from Monday, I decided to stick to the surface streets and I'm glad I did. I was able to run much cleaner intervals during this run and maintainer a higher average speed. Still exhausting, but the run just felt better.
Week 2, Day 3: Consistent
Running the same route as Wednesday, the run actually turned out to mirror that run almost exactly on the stats. It was also my first run after school was back in session, so traffic was much busier getting the kids to class on time. On another encouraging note, I happened to hit the toughest part of the route -- a 20-foot climb in elevation -- at the beginning of a running interval and I was able to maintain speed and complete the interval. A definite improvement even from Monday!
Next week's schedule looks like a pretty short run, but it really cranks up the distance I'm running in a single go. After a 5 minute walk, I go into a 90 second run, 90 seconds of walking, three minutes of running, and then three minutes of walking. That's right, I have to run for THREE. FULL. MINUTES.
Wish me luck.