It seems that lowering my blood pressure meds did the trick. I lowered my dosage starting on Tues evening (I take my pills each evening) and found that my blood pressure went up a bit (now up to 112/70) and my resting heart rate went down to 75 (from 91). My heart doesn't have to beat as many times since my blood pressure is a bit more normal. Yay. This is really a super double yay b/c the whole reason I needed to lower the dosage to begin with was because I am getting more fit and so my BP is naturally dropping. Perhaps one day, with many running days under my belt and probably weight lost in the process I will be able to wean off the meds entirely. A girl can dream.
Anyway, with the lower resting heart rate and more normal blood pressure, I was able to clear all 8 intervals without feeling dizzy/pukey. That was my mark of success for W1d2. It wasn't easy though in that I came down wrong on my leg off a curb and my knee is hurting, plus I really wasn't feeling the run this time- everything in me wanted to go home and watch tv. But I was a grown up and ran through all that anyway and made it. go me!
Sat I do W1D3 and while I was going to measure success as not being out of breath/able to hold a conversation per the podcast's guidance, I read in many c25k forums that lots and lots of people are still out of breath even in week3 so I not going to make that standard of perfection my success mark for w1d3. Instead, I'm just going to run it on sat, and assuming I finish all 8 intervals without feeling dizzy or pukey, mark that day off as well and then move on to w2d1 next Tues.
To recap, this means it will have taken me 2 weeks, or 6 runs to make it through W1. I'm 5'6", 219 pounds, never ran before this program, and generally not very athletic or coordinated or self-disciplined for that matter, so this is all very new and a great big step for me.
