Well, I went for it. Early this morning I did my very first walk/run outside. It was not perhaps the best day weather-wise to move out of my comfort zone of a gym treadmill, but it was an eye-opener to say the very least!
A couple of days ago a new runner friend (Stephan) told me about the Budd Coates 5K Program. It's basically the Couch To 5K deal, only you train for four days of the week instead of three. Some may think me crazy, but I actually prefer doing four days. I'm just anal enough that I feel 'lazy' if I'm doing a three day week and take more days 'off' than what I'm working out.
So I decided to start over at the very beginning. (A very good place to start, so sayeth Maria VonTrapp! *Haha! Groan*) I probably could have skipped to the 2nd week, but when it's all said and done, I want to be able to say that I've finished a 'full' program. I had originally planned to do my regular treadmill thing and was actually looking forward to it, but couldn't sleep this morning, so I decided to go for it- new program, new environment.
This morning was 40 degrees, drizzly and kinda windy. (Yup. Real smart, newbie.) I suited up in sweats and mittens and headed out as soon as it was light. After a five minute walking warm-up, I moved into the intervals of Week 1: 2 min running followed by 4 min of walking (repeated 5x). To say I had somehow not prepared myself mentally for the change in terrain and weather would be an understatement. The first two minutes of running were brutal with a capital bru! My mind: "I have four MORE of these to go?! Man, it's cold out here! This wind stuff hurts my lungs! Whoa, that worm was HUGE, it looks like a family of worms glued themselves together and said "Come on gang, let's slither to town as a team!""
Well, all drama aside, I managed to get through all five intervals. I won't lie, I strategically maneuvered myself to level streets during the running and I was by no means fast. (Not that it was the goal or anything!) And though it wasn't, a lot of the running felt like it was *this shy* of being considered walking. At one particular point when I thought I was going to keel over, my music switched to an awesome techno version of 'O Fortuna' from Carmina Burana. I normally love this track because it's placed in my mix at a point where I'm usually feeling really strong. (Ahem, when I'm on a treadmill.) Today it just mocked me, as did Michael Jackson. "You wanna be startin' something? You got to be startin' something! You wanna be? You gotta be!" etc etc etc.
Riiiiiight, MJ.
Well, not yet anyway. :)
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