My Journey from the Couch to a 5K

Week One consists of a 5 minute brisk walk, followed by 20 minutes of alternating between 60 seconds of jogging, and 90 seconds of walking.  After 20 minutes, you walk for another 5 minutes and then you’re done!  Repeat this 3 days this week, allowing at least a day of rest in between each training session.

Whew.  Day One was a killer.  I decided to go to the local park and run on the track.  The Little League was practicing and my first thought was, “Get back in your car.  Turn around.  Go home.  No one wants to see your big butt running around this track.”  But I ignored that little annoying voice.  I put my mp3 player on and took off down the trail.  It’s a nice open trail.  I am not sure how long it is but I would guess probably a little over a mile long and it goes back into the woods. 

I walked 5 minutes and kept looking at my watch waiting for the bell on my mp3 player to ring and tell me that it was time to start jogging.  (My dear, dear hubby took some of my favorite ‘work out’ songs and added sound effects to it so that I would know when to run and when to walk.  ”Run” is a bell ringing and “Walk” is a buzzer.)  The bell rang just as I was going up an incline in the road.  So I took off.  The first minute flew by and before I knew it, it was time to walk again.

I repeated that 3 times.  By the time the fourth run came around, my chest was burning.  My neck was throbbing like crazy and I just physically could not do the fourth run.  I completed almost all of the rest of the runs although I had to quit half way through the last one. 

I completed the 5 minute cool down walk and returned to my van.  My legs were weak and I was literally shaky.  I thought to myself, geez, am I really this out of shape?  Umm . . . yes.  That answer is yes.   

I know it will get easier.  But boy, that was tough!  Today my thighs are heavy and my ankles are really sore (I blame that on my shoes) but I sure did sleep well last night!  So this weekend I plan to invest in some new shoes that are for running and running only.  My sis-in-law gave me some pointers on finding new shoes.  I plan to go out again tomorrow.  My training days are going to be Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday. 

And my first week’s playlist, if you are interested, included:

Don’t Lie—Black Eyed Peas
Fergalicious—Fergie
London Bridge—Fergie
Let Me Blow Your Mind—Eve featuring Gwen Stefani
Stronger—Kanye West
The Thanks I Get—Wilco  

Not typically ‘my style’ of music (except for Wilco!) but the fast pace of the songs was perfect. 

Happy Running!