My friend Shanni posted a comment asking me the following questions so I figured I would answer via a blog post rather than a comment.
"Cath, how did you start running? Did you just wake up one day and run? Did you start walking first? Is David a runner?"
Starting with the last question first: David is not a runner, though he's thinking about starting.
I started running because my sister-in-law Milissa (who is an awesome person and great friend, by the way) started doing a couch to 5k program from coolrunning.com and she encouraged me to try it, too. We thought it would be fun to run a 5k race together. The couch to 5k program is a good way to ease into running, since it starts out with mostly walking and progressively increases the running until you're running 30 minutes at a time.
Unfortunately, Milissa found she had a torn meniscus so she wasn't able to do the 5k. She's had surgery to fix it now, so when she's recovered and gets back into running we will be doing a 5k together, hopefully in December.
So no, I didn't just wake up one day and run. I was already exercising regularly in my quest for weight loss and when Milissa suggested couch to 5k, I figured running would be a great way to amp up the calorie burn. (I was right about that - my eight mile run today burned over 1,000 calories.)
After I started running, I decided to challenge myself and do something good at the same time by joining Team in Training. So now I'm very motivated to run because many friends have donated money to support me and there's no way I'm going to let them down.
I realize that I am fundamentally lazy so once this half marathon is over, I'm going to sign up for another race of some sort so I'm always training for something.
Shanni - I highly recommend couch to 5k. How about if you do it and then let's plan to run a 5k together some time? I am happily willing to drive to your part of the state to race alongside you any time!
2 comments:
Wow. I will have to check into it. There aren't any gyms here to run at though my sister does have a treadmill I could see about. With my work hours and the kids I would have to really run in the dark and I'm not sure I'm up for that. Let me check into that site though and do some reading. I've gained back all of the weight I had lost. I would like to blame my sprained ankle, but that is only part of it. Unfortunately the ankle is still bothering me so that is a consideration. Off to check out that site though. Thanks so much Cathy. You are truly an amazing friend.
Shanni - I forgot about your ankle! If it's still bothering you then you do need to be careful. I would hate it if you started running and made your ankle worse. You should check with the doctor to make sure it's okay for you to run.
I hear you about not wanting to run in the dark. I don't like that, either. I hope you'll be able to use Lisa's treadmill if you start running.
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