Today I started something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I finally took the plunge and started Couch to 5K. I know it’s silly, I used to run marathons but to be honest I never really trained for them properly. Besides that was years (and years) ago!

Since I was starting again from scratch, it made sense to do it properly (rather than wing it like I did the first time round). I also have a fair bit of time these days thanks to a complete lack of commute, so I now have no excuses left as to why I can’t start running again.

For those of you who have never done Couch to 5K, it is a 9 week training program designed to get people from nothing to running continuously for 30 minutes (more details here: NHS C25K). Today’s run consisted of 5 mins brisk walking, 1 min of running followed by 90 mins of brisk walking repeated 8 times, then finishing with another 5 mins brisk walking.

To be honest, it was harder than I expected (given my previous ability) but it was good to be out again. I think my aerobic fitness will probably keep up with the running training as you are meant to progress slowly. I am slightly more concerned about my legs! My muscles feel old and tired and were not all that impressed at being made to run. Still I’m happy I finally made to past run 1 🙂 even if the trainer lady said ‘Congrats you ran for a total of 8 mins’ at the end of the run. Sounds a bit lame but everyone has to start somewhere and it was 8 mins more running than I’ve done for a very long time.

I can tell I will need to stretch tomorrow though (see above about old muscles) so rest day will involve some form of yoga. Then back for run 2 on Wednesday!