Couch to 19k

Several people I know are starting the Couch-to-5K® Running Plan. Unfortunately due to an injury I got in pre-k I am not allowed to run. :( So instead I have modified the plan for my stationary bike! My bike has 5 pre-set programs of increasing difficulty. They are all 30 minutes long but have different resistance levels, mimicking increasingly more difficult hilly landscapes. For example the first program starts off at resistance 1 and slowly builds up to resistance 6 over 15 minutes, then immediately goes down to R3 for 2 or 3 minutes. After that it climbs back up to R6 over 5-6 minutes, and then gradually decreases to R1 over the remaining 5-6 minutes. So P1 has two moderately high hills. P2 has three hills, one lower than P1's (like 4 resistance or something), one the same as P1's, and one higher than P1's (I think it gets up to R8). For the remaining programs sometimes the hills get closer together, sometimes they get higher, sometimes its both. My primary goal is to be able to do P5 twice in a row by our cruise in December. Yes, I know this is nothing like C25K, but it's what inspired me and that's what counts. =P

My secondary goal is to be able to bike 19k (or a little less than 12 miles) in half an hour on a low resistance. And how did I come to this number, you ask? Well I was trying to figure out what the equivalent of running 5k is for cycling. From what I understand a century = a marathon, so that is what I went off. A marathon is 26 miles and 5k is 3 miles. 3 goes into 26 8.6 times. A century is 100 miles. 100 divided by 8.6 equals 11.6. 11.6 miles is 18.7k. I rounded up to 19 just for fun. (Look Mommy, I did math and no one even made me!) Hopefully by building up my endurance through my above plan I will be able to make this goal. Right now I can only do about 6 miles lol.

Since C25K is broken up into weeks (9) I figured I should break mine up into weeks as well. Mine is 10 weeks because I can't do an hour yet, so I am starting off with only 30 minutes. If everything goes to plan I should finish mid-October, but everyone knows that doesn't happen which is why I've given myself till December 13th. I will be trying to do this 3-5 days a week, because otherwise I won't have improved enough to move on I don't think.

Week 1: Program 1 (started 8-8-10)

Week 2: Program 1 twice

Week 3: Program 2, Program 1

Week 4: Program 2 twice

Week 5: Program 3, Program 2

Week 6: Program 3 twice

Week 7: Program 4, Program 3

Week 8: Program 4 twice

Week 9: Program 5, Program 4

Week 10: Program 5 twice