How I Ran a 5k, the prequel

As I mentioned in my last post, I literally had never run a mile before this year. In school, I only did as much running as was required of me, and even then I cheated the system to do even less than that. During my senior year of college, I made a noble effort to start running, after noticing all the people jogging through my neighborhood and how happy they were. To be honest, I have no idea if they were actually happy, but they were attractive so therefore must have been happy. I decided to take it slow, and was going to run for a block, then walk for a block, and so on.

This lasted exactly half a block. And that was the extent of my running in the year 2005.

Fast forward to last year, when I heard about a wonderful program called "Couch to 5k". The idea of the program was to, in the matter of eight weeks, take someone who couldn't run around the block (or halfway down it) and turn them into someone who could run an entire 5k race, or a little over 3 miles. It did this by starting you off slow, jog for 1 minute, then walk for 90 seconds. Repeat for 20 minutes.

The best part of this plan, at least for me, was there was an app for it. I had an iPod touch and saw that there was an app that would keep track of where you were in the program and that it would give you audio cues during the workout to let you know when to speed up and to slow down. Also, you can listen to your own audio while using the app, which was added incentive.

So I used that app and after about five weeks I got to Week 3 of the program. For some reason I can't remember, that was the end of that. I'm sure it was just my feet hurting a little bit and me being a baby, but whatever it was, my ambitions to become a super runner were over.

Then this year, I tried the program again, and succeeded. But that, my friends, as well as how I met your mother, is a story for another time.

P.S. Couch to 5k really is a wonderful thing. Check it out: Cool Running | The Couch to 5k Running Plan