Couch to 5k

On Tuesday evening, after spending the afternoon in town trying to find the cheapest trainers around, I left the house and headed towards to park armed with the Couch to 5k Podcast loaded onto my iPod (it's not cool enough to be able to download apps onto it!), a bottle of water and two friends - Amy and Emma.

I was apprehensive to say the least, mostly because for the last God knows how many years I've been afraid of exercise. I was always the one in PE to be making up ridiculous excuses as to why I couldn't join in that week, or trying to tell myself that eating healthier would be the easiest way to lose weight. To be brutally honest, I'd do literally anything to avoid exercising.

Why? Because I was scared - scared of not being able to do it very well, scared of what I'd look like in gym clothes, scared of other people's opinions and what they might think. But after reading Helen's guest post earlier in the week, all those misconceptions escaped me - it was what I needed. I want to get fit, I want to lose weight and regular exercise is, for me, probably the best way to go about it.

So, as I was saying, we headed to the park and we completed the first part of the first week of Couch to 5k. I'm not going to say I found it easy because I didn't, far from it in fact, but we finished it. Towards the end of it I really struggled but I'm glad I didn't give in. I was so proud that we'd jogged/ran/walked 2.5 miles. My legs felt like jelly as we were walking home and when I woke up on Wednesday morning my right leg felt like a dead weight that I was just dragging behind me, but it was a case of mind of matter - it must have been doing some good for me to be able to feel it.

We had planned to head out on Thursday night but after a prolonged session (2 hours somehow turned into almost 9) in uni doing the final bits and pieces of one of our Final Major Projects, we decided against it so we're going to make up for it over the weekend and hopefully get into the full swing of it next week.

What I'm trying to get at here is that it is possible for anyone to have a go at this program, it's so easy to follow. Both the app and the Podcast tell you when to start running, when to start walking etc - it guides you through the whole time so all you literally do is follow the instructions.

If you ask anyone who knows me they'll all tell you that if I was the last person they'd expect to go running, seriously! The program also says that if you don't feel 'ready' to move onto the next week, then carry on as you are until you are. The fact that it's magically suited to just about anybody is the best thing about it.