Thursday, July 30, 2009

Couch (Potato) to 5K

So Elizabeth and I have started a "Couch to 5K" program. This is a plan designed to get non-athletic types such as myself, out the door and running. If you know anything at all about me, you've probably already figured out that this was Elizabeth's idea...not mine. I've always considered running something one does only when being chased by a viscous animal.

This week's workout involves a brisk 5 minute walk, then alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for the next 20 minutes, then cooling down with 5 more minutes of slower walking.

We began yesterday, and right out of the blocks I knew I was in trouble. Elizabeth is "vertically challenged" just like me, however, she can walk faster than a person with legs twice as long. I was already puffing by the time we neared the end of our 5 minute warm-up walk. Well, I was pleasantly surprised by how "easily" (relatively speaking) I made it through the first 60 minute jog. But lest I become overconfident, the second jogging segment was more challenging, and by the third time I was pretty sure that Elizabeth had misread the the stopwatch forcing us to run at least twice as long as we were supposed to ... After that, I think I stopped "jogging" and instead I just leaned forward and walked faster. Probably not the best form, but ya' gotta start somewhere, right?

So, I will try to keep you posted on my progress over the next few weeks. Hopefully there will be lots to report.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like me when I first started! You can do it... I did!

mil10 said...

Good luck - please keep up posted on the progress.

Paisley said...

Sounds like a good program and something I might like to try myself. Only problem is I don't have anyone to walk/jog with and I don't usually do well or rather continue to do things like this when I'm by myself. Look forward to hearing about your progress.

Sturgmom said...

Good for you! I started awhile back, but quit when I lost my running partner. She started running at 5:30 AM (did you know there was such a thing?) and I was NOT about to add insult to injury by getting up at that hour. Anyway, WTG!

Jamie Mullins said...

That's awesome Denyse...you will be running a 5K before you know it!!

Paige said...

So I move and ya'll decide to start running..boo. Good luck with it...I am sure you will be doing that half marathon that E and I wimped out of before you know it:)