It's Official, I am W2D1 of Couch to 5k

OK - so this morning I woke up at 8am and was excited to roll out the door and try running to this podcast thing for the couch to 5k (C25k for short). If you want to know about the C25k program, here's the link:

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

I switched from the 'Sue's podcast' for week 2 to the NHS podcast for week 2. This was mostly because Sue's podcast had music like Ludacris and Kanye West and was a little outside of my musical taste. So I started the NHS podcast at my front door and off I went. I had decided to try week 2 day 1 (w2d1 for short) to see how I made out with it and assess if that's about where I'm at in this running thing.

So my outing went a little like this. First, I find it hard to know if I should wear a sweater or not with the unseasonable weather we have been having. So I wore one and set off on my 'brisk 5 minute warm-up walk' as the nice lady with the British accent told me. After this warm up this outing required 90 second runs followed by a 2 minute walk, and repeated several times. Just near the top of Tyler street the nice lady gave me a few tips on my running stride and gave me the 3 second countdown to run. The music content wasn't any kind of music I know, but it was a nice pop type and worked fine for me. So I started my first 90 second run. Do you know how long 90 seconds is???? LONG. I was wishing she would give me a time update (you know, like "15 seconds left"). Anyway, at some point which seemed to me more like two minutes than 90 seconds I stopped running. About 10 seconds later the nice lady said to stop running. I walked the 2 minutes and the nice lady said 'start running'. This time I managed the whole 90 seconds but I was definitely ready to stop running. During the 2 minute walk I had to get rid of my sweater so I dropped it on Janet's trailer so I wouldn't have to carry it the rest of the way.

'Start running!' Oh dear God, are you kidding me? Is it really time already? So as I'm running this 90 second stint I'm thinking maybe week 2 is a little advanced for me. I make it through and start my 2 minute walk. During this time the nice lady says "I know you are getting tired, but you are in the home stretch now". Oh - well this is good news, there must only be one 90 second run left.

When I start running this time, it's clear I am getting tired because during the first three stints I was actually running. In this fourth stint what I am doing can be loosely classified as a run but is probably more accurately described as a slow jog. Finally she says 'stop walking' and I am overjoyed that I have finished. During this next little walk, my muscles were so sore in my legs that I had to stop and sit down in front of the mailboxes on Wilson Road to do that yoga pose to stretch the muscles on my inner thighs. Then my butt was dirty so I imagine I looked great during my walk down the main drag of Highway 2, but at least those muscles weren't as sore anymore.

Before long my nice lady friend told me to start running and I was surprised but thought that this must be the last go around. So I ran the 90 seconds at my slow jogging crawl and enjoyed the two minute walk afterwards. And again...start running...BUT THIS IS THE LAST TIME. Thank God! Seriously, I'm not sure what kind of hell I have signed up for. I finish up the 90 seconds and do my '5 minute brisk cool down walk'. Then I am in front of the Hawco's house pushing myself up that last final hill so I play "Walk This Way" for the remaining walk home. I didn't get the exact time of my outing, but I think it was approximately 4.5km in approximately 37 minutes. I'm not really sure though.

I ran 9 minutes in total, if you can believe it. And my legs aren't actually sore anymore (although they may be tomorrow!)

So I am sticking with week 2 next outing and hopefully it will all seem a little easier. I am going out running shoe shopping this week. And I have learned a couple of more lessons:

1) Eat some little thing before you go out. When I don't eat I get this rush to my head when I first stop running and I feel like I might pass out. As long as I eat some little thing, this doesn't happen.

2) Mouth Open Bugs In. Mouth Closed Bugs Out. ;-)

If you are interested in the NHS podcasts, here is the link to the sponsoring site, but I downloaded them for free from the itunes store.

http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx