Couch to 10k

One of the things on my 30-during-30 list is to run the Bolder Boulder.  A few of us gals are going to run it.  It's the largest non-marathon road race in the world, which just happens to be in our home town on Memorial Day.  It's a 10k race and people come from all over the world to run in it.  Now, I am not a runner.  I played soccer in high school and remember during my prime athletic shape, my fastest mile was only 7 minutes.  I attended daily aerobics classes in college, and used the elliptical machine daily in graduate school.  Since becoming a professor three years ago, though, I work a solid 8 hours a day with occasional 14 hour days thrown in there, commute an hour to work and another hour home, and just haven't figured out how to fit cardio into my life besides my short walk to work from the bus (1 mile a day?).  I've been good at trying to keep up with Dave on hikes, backpacking trips, and skiing, but my body seems to be slowly drifting into an unhealthy state.  I spend more time gasping for air during these activities than I care to admit.

I guess I don't get overweight like some people.  I can't eat a lot of the things that most people get chubby from like beer, pizza, white bread, cookies, baked goods in general.  In fact, if I did eat these things, I'd get diarrhea from the gluten and probably loose weight (but risk small intestine cancer, a foggy brain, and really painful stomach aches).  I'm very careful about what I'll buy at the grocery store so I'm not tempted.  You see the extent of my sweets and carbs on this blog and usually I am making them for get-togethers. So, the scale has never been my enemy.

The mirror, however, is a new enemy.  Even though I don't gain weight, I do loose muscle and gain flab like no other!  At 30 years old, there's no excuse for this!  I should look the best I ever have/will in life!  Of course I also want to be healthy!  From my celiac (leaky gut) and another health problem I have, I have high cholesterol.  I think it's time to take my health back into my own hands! 

This is my before picture.  ;)

With the encouragement of a few friends who are doing this with me, I started a Couch to 10k program that builds you to running/jogging a 10k in 13 weeks.  I've got 12 weeks, so I skipped week one on the list.  As I started the workout, I thought to myself, "I'm not a couch potato, this will be so easy!"  The workout was just right, though.  I wouldn't have wanted a bigger work out for my first day with 30mph gusts in my face on my return trip.  I also live on a huge ridge, so I have two choices:  1.  run downhill on sidewalks for the first half of my work out, then run uphill for the last half or 2.  Trail run up hill for the first half and trail run down hill on the return trip.  Neither of these are ideal, but I'll probably do a little of each depending on trail conditions during our wet season, which starts soon.  (And by wet, I mean 2 feet of snow at a time.)  Also, the trails are jam packed on weekends with hikers, dogs, and dog poop.  I'll stick to the sidewalk on Sundays.

Below is the training schedule.  I imagine inserting a 4th or 5th run during weeks with cooperating weather.  I bought a $5.00 app for my ipod touch called Run 10k, which will tell me when to run, when to walk, by coming in over my workout music and telling me what to do.  I'm also working on figuring out my Nike + system so I can see how many miles I'm actually covering during these timed runs.

Who wants to join me on this challenge?  (Friends--I can't house you that weekend, though, because Dave is hosting a bachelor party!  Maybe there's a 10k in your area?)  I have to admit, I'm one workout down and I feel as energetic as I did when I was 18! 

I started with workout 2.1 today, which was a 51 minute workout:  run 1, walk 4, 9 times.