Anyone that knew me from school will be laughing right now, I just know it. Reason being, when I was in school I was the Queen of Excuses when I came to exercise, especially running. I was seriously bad at it, and I loathed it. Dragging my overweight arse around the school playing field was not my idea of fun. However, as I've gotten older I'm starting to see the appeal over other types of exercise. It's one of those things that you can do wherever, whenever, even if you're on holiday, you don't need to join a gym, it doesn't involve hand-eye coordination, I could go on... So, I went and downloaded the Couch25k android app, dug out some trainers, and got on it like sonic with Iowa-Girl, Monica. I am now at the end of week one, and thought I'd share a little update with you guys about how I'm getting on. Week One | Day One They start you off with a 5min warm up walk, then 8 intervals of 90seconds running, 90seconds walking, followed by another 5min walk to cool down. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? At the end of this one I.wanted.to.die. Detention with Professor Umbridge would have been preferable to how I felt that day. Me oh my, was I unfit, and gasping for breath, and red in the face for a good hour afterwards. We didn't finish it, I think we got to about run number five before calling it a day. Same plan again, you do three runs a week and the programme changes each week. The run went so, so much better. It wasn't until run number three that I really started to feel it, and I felt pretty good afterwards. This time we reached run seven I believe, before we found ourselves close to the flat and kettle, so we left it there once again. Note to self: Buy decent running shoes! I was running in Sketchers, and I'm pretty sure I nearly broke every bone in my feet. Okay, maybe not quite - but my god were my feet aching! Although it turned out to be nothing a good soak in the bath wouldn't sort out. Week One | Day Three Today, we finally completed the entire programme, yay! We actually did this without even realising, as we were pretty shocked when the app started telling us to cool down. We must have miscounted a run somewhere. I think, if I'd been trying to go this alone, I really would have given up after day one, possibly day two - but by now, I can see this becoming a permanent part of my routine. Monica and I have decided to enter into a few runs next year as motivation to keep going over the winter months. March | 5k St David's Day Race, Carmarthen June | 10k Race for Life, Carmarthen October | Lloyds TSB Half Marathon, Cardiff Thoughts on starting running:
- There is no such thing as being too unfit to run. Even if you can only manage to run ten paces at a time, do it. Little and often is the way, and you'll be amazed at how quickly you get better.
- Get decent running shoes! This is one investment you just cannot skip. You can wear whatever you want to run, just get proper footwear and save yourself all the foot, leg, back, shoulder and muscle ache. Just get proper shoes, m'kay?!
- Find yourself a running buddy. This will make things so much easier, just try to make sure it's someone that you know will help motivate you, rather than persuade you to stop as you jog past Costa Coffee.
- Have a goal. Just running for the sake of it will get lame pretty soon. Once you're fitter and find running easy, you may just enjoy running as a bit of you-time. When starting out however, having a visible goal which scares you slightly, will help you stay on track. Hey, I've gone running three times, and I'm planning to do a half marathon - if that isn't a crazy goal, I don't know what is.
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