Workout Wednesday

Yep, workout Wednesday. It's a thing now.

So I'm thinking each week I'll outline my workout plan for the following week, sharing sources if possible. If I haven't already done so in previous posts that week, I'll also tell you how the workouts went.

Since this is first week, the only thing I'll say about the past week is I tried to do some deliberate exercise here and there: some crunches, some jumping jacks, some push ups, etc.

Starting this week though, I'm going to have more clear cut goals, and I hope you will help keep me accountable.

First, I am going to do one of these workouts one time this week. I found this channel on youtube, as well as other exercise videos, and I figure I will try one. I'll tell you how it goes next week.

Also, I am officially doing the C25K again. For those of you who don't know it's the Couch to 5K, a workout designed to take you from sedentary to being able to run a 5K. I completed it in September, but I haven't really run since then since I was crazy busy planning my move to India, moving to India, then planning my marriage and as you know, I got married three weeks ago.

So since it's been months I'm going to just repeat it. Only, it will be different this time. Last time I did three weeks of "Pre-Couch to 5K" because I wasn't just sedentary, I am overweight as well and when I looked at the first week of the C25K I knew it wasn't realistic. So I took it slower and did those three warm up weeks. I recommend this highly for anyone who has considered the C25K but isn't even sure you can do week one. After my 3 weeks of prep, I eased into official week one, but I was very winded during my first week of prep so I know that if I had just tried to jump in I either would have quit, or worse been injured.

So anyway, this time I am skipping the three prepatory weeks because even though it's been some time, I did improve my overall fitness before and I don't think I've lost that and I think I can do the "normal" C25K week one.

Also, last time the only equipment I used was a watch (and a water bottle and shoes, if you want to count them.) This time I'm joining the masses and using an audio program. Most people download one of these into their MP3 and then they listen to music and it tells them when they need to change (you switch between walking and running.) I am using Buried Talents Band's Christian India Running Tracks.

There are two big reasons I didn't do this last time:

I didn't have an MP3 player.

I had been running along the road. We didn't have sidewalks, so I didn't feel it was safe to impair my hearing by listening to music since there are always crazy drivers.

Well here in India the drivers are even crazier, but I won't be running along the roads. There are a few parks within walking distance, and one has a track. It's not like a competitive track, and there are no distances marked, but it is an oval path that is obviously intended for exercise, especially as when I've gone there in the past there is always at least one person walking or running laps. I have done so myself, actually, but I just did one lap walking, one lap running and then went home.

I'm not actually sure how long the track is, as I said there is no distances marked, so I'll probably still be doing it for time, especially as that's how the music tracks are set up (hmm, I just realized those were the same words!) However, if I take the time to figure out roughly how long a lap is, I should be able to more accurately keep track of my progress.

Last time I know that I didn't actually run a 5K at the end, but I was running for 30 minutes straight and was happy with that. But since I'm starting from a fitter place, maybe this time I will actually end with running a 5K in thirty minutes... and if not, then still!

One more thing worth mentioning is I don't know how well this will go because, well, Indian summer is approaching. Which scares me greatly, as it will regularly be in the 110s during the heat of the day. That said, I obviously won't be running in the heat of the day. But if it's 115 in the afternoon, it could easily be 95 in the morning. So I hope I have it in me, but if not then I would rather quit than get heat stroke. I had heat exhaustion once, where I almost fainted while not at home. It was scary and I won't risk that... but I figure if I bring plenty of water and I only exercise during the early morning, I should be able to do it. And right now, it's not that hot so there is no excuse for me not to get it done this week!

One thing is that the heat is dry heat, which is honestly much more manageable. It is in the low 90s outside already, but it doesn't really feel hot. It doesn't feel cool either, but the 90s back home is far more suffocating, and the only difference would be this climate is drier.

So that's the plan for next week... I promise that next week's declaration of what I'm doing the upcoming week will be less long, I just had some one time explication of the C25K to go over. So hold me accountable: by next week I'll need to have done one of the workouts from that youtube channel and completed week one of the C25K!