A Couch-to-5k update, in which I find new and interesting ways to injure myself

I’m now in my second round of the 1st week of Couch-to-5k, and I’m putting it on hiatus, effective immediately.

This week, I ran Sunday, Monday, and today, which may have been a little too ambitious, in retrospect. The Sunday-Monday schedule is the part that really messed me up, as is evidenced by the following stats:

Sunday
Total Time: 30:35
Total distance: 2.055 mi

Monday
Total Time: 30:17
Shortest Lap: 7:01
Longest Lap: 7:59
Average Lap: 7:34

Lap 1: 7:59
Lap 2: 7:01
Lap 3: 7:27
Lap 4: 7:50

Yes, Monday was faster than Sunday, but it was a bit shorter and hurt quite a bit more. Ankles, knees, arches, hips…every muscle and joint below my waist was screaming in protest and my legs felt like lead. If you compare it to the stats for Friday (when I was last on that track), it’s even more pathetic…especially when you consider that I had 5 additional minutes of run intervals on Monday. I think that in addition to the consecutive days, the decrease in performance was also because of the increased temperature (mid-80s at noon, v. mid-70s at 11:00 on Friday, or at 6:30 pm on Sunday) and the wear and tear of the pavement run the day before. Or not. But whatever the cause, I sure did suck up the place on Monday. Today was even worse:

Total Time: 32:53
Shortest Lap: 7:08
Longest Lap: 9:10
Average Lap: 8:13

Lap 1: 8:05
Lap 2: 7:08
Lap 3: 8:28
Lap 4: 9:10

As you may have guessed from the lap times, I stopped the running intervals in lap 3 and spent the remaining 2 laps trying to walk off pain. I’m pretty sure my left Achilles tendon in injured, or at least strained past the point where it would be prudent to continue running. The right one isn’t in such hot shape either, and both feel fairly swollen. My right knee is also unhappy, but that was really the least of my worries. I expected that…this Achilles thing was a-killing me. (Hee…I am so sorry, the pun was irresistible.)

As I was thinking about what might be causing this new pain, a couple options came to mind. The most obvious is that I weigh about 20 lbs more now than I did the last time I seriously tried running. Secondly, my all-cycling, all the time exercise regimen hasn’t done much to stretch or limber that tendon…in fact, it probably contributes to shortening, since most of my pedaling is in a flat-foot or toe-down position. Also, I’m sure my running form is total crap, since I haven’t been devoting any concentration at all to posture or gait…I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to die. And finally, I think that my casual shoes are partly to blame. In the past 6 months, I’ve gradually gone from wearing 2-inch heels nearly every day to wearing primarily flats. So my heel is closer to the ground on a regular basis, which has been stretching that tendon more than it’s used to, and then the running just completely stressed it out. Whether wearing heels for several years or the move to flats is the problem, I don’t honestly know. I don’t know if it’s a factor at all, actually…I just know that my damn heel/ankle area hurts to the point where I couldn’t run on it at all this afternoon, and have barely been able to walk since then.

Whatever the cause, my new running plan is to stop running--for now, at least. I’ve got over 19 weeks until the duathlon, which is still plenty of time. If I figure I’ll need 9-10 weeks of training in order to run two 2-mile segments, then I have an additional 9-10 weeks beforehand to get my body ready for that training. This will take three things:

1. Significant weight loss.
2. Daily walking.
3. Some kind of flexibility training.

Hopefully, #2 & #3 will contribute to #1, but I need to really crack down on my diet also. Food has always been my weakness, and I haven’t really made any significant progress in that arena recently. I’m eating less than I was last month, but not by much. My danger zone is still between 3:00 and 11:00 pm. That’s where my calorie count goes to hell every single day, no matter how carefully I plan before that. It’s partly a willpower issue, partly a blood sugar issue, partly an emotional eating issue…and does it really matter at this point? Examining the root causes of my inability to put down the donut (or candy, or chips…) in the afternoon hasn’t done shit to keep me from picking it up in the first place.

I am so, so tired of being all talk. Four years I’ve been doing this, and I’m still flirting with the 200-lb mark. It’s not as if I don’t know how to lose weight—I’ve done it before. It’s not as if I don’t want to. I just keep rationalizing and making light of things, turning every negative step into some sort of positive, starting over every single day, until I can justify any stupid choice I make.

The line between holding myself accountable and beating myself up isn’t as fine as I pretend it is, and I need to quit avoiding the first one’s territory to avoid accidentally stepping in the other’s. The “fiddle dee dee, tomorrow is another day” method I’ve adopted over the past year may have kept me from completely hating myself as I’ve gotten fatter, but it’s also kept me the same unhappy size. Now I can’t run for 60 seconds at a time without straining myself, and that sucks. Also, it’s entirely my fault, and it’s time to actually start doing something about my food choices and calorie counts, instead of just talking about them. Even when I’m tired, even when I’m frustrated, even when I’m feeling lazy, I need to do the right thing anyway. There will come a day when I don’t need to think about every single morsel that goes into my mouth, but today is not that day. Tomorrow ain’t looking too good either.

Hey Joy,

Just wanted to let you know I'm definitely in the same boat. i know how to do this, but for some reason I'm just all talk and I don't have a whole lot to show for all the knowledge I have. Maybe one of these days...