Couch to 5K

This week I decided it was time to try a new fitness routine since I can't seem to stay motivated with anything else (aside from kayaking, but that's more leisure paddling than a workout).  I've always wanted to run, but the times I've tried I've not done well because I didn't pace myself and ended up with aching knees.  (I have a bad knee that generally gives me fits).

So as the weight I've lost over the last 8 months is creeping back, it's time to do something about it and get on a routine.  I started back on strict low-carb eating on Monday and started the Couch to 5K running program for beginners.  I purchased the $1.99 mobile app for my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with some of my Google+ credits I had hanging around.  I chose this one because it allows me to play my Pandora stream ( or any music I want ) and the app will break through the music to instruct you on when to walk and when to run.

Since the program starts off with just 30 minutes three days a week and I'm extremely new to even attempting to run, I decided to begin in my driveway.  I have a very long, mostly flat gravel driveway that I could easily run up and down to start out.  ( This part of the driveway also runs along the dog yard fence-line, so I had a couple of running buddies without having to put them on a leash to trip me up - they seemed to enjoy it, too! )

The first week of the program is a five minute walking warm up, then alternating jogging for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for 20 minutes, followed by another cool down of walking for five minutes. I technically started the program on Monday, but I only made it to the second iteration of jogging before I had to quit because my lower back was killing me.  I wasn't sure if it was where I was running, my shoes, or my general very much out of shape body rebelling against me.  So today I tried again with a different pair of shoes and voila - I made it through with zero back pain and zero stops. Yay me!  It's been raining non-stop here for almost a week, but I went out when it was just drizzling and it was actually quite nice!  I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and look forward to my second full day on Friday.  Hopefully I can keep this up - I'd love to do a 5K race one day and be able to run it instead of walk it.  I'll try to post updates here on occasion to track my progress.

Since I didn't get a full day in on Day 1 I decided to use that week as a trial warm-up week before my "official" C25K start.  So I officially started on July 13, 2015.


I had to quit during week three.  My knees just aren't handling it very well.  I will try again once I drop some weight.  :/

Day 1 - Driveway Run

Day 2 - Driveway Run (Logged wrong as Day 3)