
Week one of my Couch to 5k training wrapped up this past Friday, and the report is: so far so good. Â Even though week one's training regimen wasn't at all intensive, I wasn't sure what to expect of my body's reaction to regular running. Â Here's the breakdown:
First of all, I was surprised I actually got up when the alarm went off at 7:00am. Â I don't think I've seen that hour since... well... maybe ever? But I did get up and ran my intervals, alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking, after a brief 5-minute warmup. Â Along with technology, another major motivator for me is music, so I was lucky enough to find the Indie Soup Runner podcast, chock full of pretentious indie rock music to make the run more enjoyable. Â This first morning run was powered by their Made in Canada mix, featuring Canadian artists like Metric, MSTRKRFT, and Broken Social Scene. Â The run took exactly half an hour, and almost woke me up enough to replace my usual morning coffee. Â Almost.

January joined me on ths morning of day 2 and we decided to take a run through the Walhalla ravine. Two mistakes here: Since we were running in a ravine, it stands to reason that at some point you have run back out of the ravine, which is entirely uphill. Add to that the torential downpour that started at the beginning of our climb, and you have a pretty tough run for a beginner.  Perhaps I was just delirious -- or maybe it was my Summerfest artist playlist -- but I actually found the run refreshing and wasn't much bothered by it.  We got back to the house completely soaked, but successful.

On day three, I decided to run the same route that I did the first morning to see if I was making any improvements. Â Maybe I was getting burned out on the same playlist, but this third day felt so much more difficult than even our "rain run" on day 2. Â Nevertheless, I stuck it out and actually finished up about 30 seconds faster than my Monday time.

This week, we crank things up a bit by alternating 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes walking. Â Thanks for all the encouragement I've gotten over the past week; It means a lot to have support to put up against my own doubts that I'll actually be able to finish this 9-week training plan. Look for another update next week, along with details on my first major running milestone: Running in an actual 5k.
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