Couch to 5K

I love the idea of being a runner, and I have been in various points of becoming one for the past 10 years. I ran a half marathon in 2004, with my honey, and since I had trained up to around 9 miles, that is all I could muster. I painfully walked the remainder of the race, learning about the value of training correctly as I staggered in. Two babies later, I am determined to be a runner again. I am currently following a great 5K training plan, called "The Couch to 5K Running Plan". I have never followed it completely, trying to push ahead and go faster instead of letting my body adjust slowly. This time I am using the entire plan as a Personal Progress Project for the Knowledge value. ( I am working on Personal Progress as a Young Woman leader.) It will definitely take over 10 hours:-)

I am currently on week 4 of the training program. Today, after a 5 minute warm-up walk, I jogged 3 minutes, walked 90 seconds, jogged 5 minutes, walked 2 1/2 minutes, jogged 3 minutes, walked 90 seconds, and finished with a 5 minute jog. Each week brings more jogging, less walking, and I wasn't sure how today would go, jumping from 9 minutes of running last week, to 16 minutes this week. It went great. I felt good. I am running faster because of this training schedule. My philosophy before, on every race I have ever run, is to just slow down and go. I could probably run the entire 5K right now, with a 14 minute mile. But I am using my BOB and the bike computer my husband attached to it to monitor distance and speed, and I am pushing myself to run between a 10 and 11 minute mile. This is hard for me, but today I did it. And that is why I run. Because we can do hard things. Running is hard, and I can do it. Not always great, and not always far, but I can run.

May 15th is 5K race day. 32 minutes is the goal.