Week 6

Wow, I can't believe I am in my sixth week of training in the Couch to 5k program!  It's amazing to me that I haven't been sore at all.  Here is what my intervals look like this week:

• Five minutes brisk walking
• Five minutes jogging
• Three minutes walking
• Five minutes jogging
• Three minutes walking
• Five minutes jogging
• 5-10 minutes of cool down. 

So technically I jog for 15 of the 21 minutes.  This Saturday I will run for 20 minutes straight. I'm a little nervous about that, but I know I'll be able to do it. 

As the days go by, a lot of my preconceived notions and assumptions about my body are melting away.  Those things I used to tell myself (too old, too out of shape, too much body pain, too much asthma) are all things I repeated so often that I had completely internalized them, to the point that my quality of life was beginning to become compromised.  There were so many "should/buts" around my physicality that I basically put working out on hold until things changed.  But things didn't change.  What had to change was my thought process and my way of thinking. 

If you have an injury or a medical reason not to work out, then absolutely you have to honor that and listen to your body and medical specialists.  But what if the medical specialists tell you that there's basically nothing wrong and that you are just "getting old"?  I felt myself sinking farther and farther into a place that I did not want to go, and so before I landed somewhere with no return flight, I needed to change my ticket.

Running isn't for everybody.  Heck, I'm not even sure it's for me.  But I do know that what I am getting out of it is far more valuable than the actual prize of running the 5K.  I'm getting my fit body back.  And after the race, when I can say "I DID IT!", I will know that there is a whole new world of activity waiting for me.