My Goal: Couch to 5K

For those of you who know me and for those of you just starting to get to know me through what I disclose in my blog, I am not a runner.  I like to cook, eat, drink, shop (splurge), indulge, and over-indulge.  One thing I hate: exercise.  Not that I hate being active, but it interferes with what little down time I have to sit in front of the boob tube, read a good book, enjoy a glass of wine and a bubble bath, and other such indulgences.

Don't get me wrong, I never REGRET a good workout.  My workouts just tend to be few and far between, like walking for 30 minutes on my lunch break at work when it's nice out (nice meaning not too hot, I don't want to sweat, and not too cold, because then after exerting myself in the cold air, when I come back inside to the heat to work, I sweat).

For these reasons, when my husband ran 14 miles this weekend as part of a relay in a marathon and my step-mother ran 12 and I was surrounded by 13,000 runners, I was inspired to get active and stop sitting on my ever-growing ass.  I have been careful to exercise and not hurt my knees, because they hurt me every day.  Finally I had them checked out.  Turns out it is typical for young females to have knee caps that slide side to side instead of staying in alignment when one moves about.  This sliding causes pain during activities but I found out it is best to strengthen my knees and the surrounding muscles, ligaments, and tendons in order to ease the pain.  Therefore, I am no longer treating my knees gingerly when exercising.

My step-mom was essentially the same way as me prior to running marathons, meaning she did not exercise much.  However, she told me there is a program called "Couch to 5K" for couch potatoes who have never ran before.  DING DING DING!  Bells started going off for me.  That's what I need!

I came home from the marathon and the first thing I did was research the program.  The focus is on easing into the program, not trying to push yourself too hard because then you turn yourself off to running and working out.  However, it says that if you follow the program you will be running over 3 miles in about 8 weeks. We will see.

My first day on the program was yesterday.  It requires that you do the program 3 times a week (I have chosen Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  I am going to strength-train on Tuesdays and Thursdays to keep myself in the habit of going to the gym/working out every day, because habit is what I really need.

The first week, the program tells you to walk on the treadmill at a brisk pace (for me 3.8).  Then you alternate jogging for 60 seconds (I do this at 5.5) and then walking briskly for a minute and a half, for a total of 20 minutes.  In all, you end up walking for 17 minutes and jogging for 8.  It actually felt really good!  My first day in the gym I could not stop smiling, thinking of how good I felt, how I was not panting or out of breath, I was enjoying the music on my IPOD and dreaming of finally working my way down a few pounds.

That was yesterday. Today I went back to the gym after work and worked out my arms and legs for 30 minutes.  Tomorrow morning I plan to get up before work and hit the gym for some more walking/jogging.

Any advice/words of wisdom/words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated!