You may be shocked to read this, but being a systems analyst by day and a blogger by night lends itself to a pretty sedentary lifestyle. Since both my profession and my hobby involve a lot of sitting on my butt banging on a keyboard, over time this once-moderately-athletic physique has turned to mush.
Thankfully, here in town a pretty amazing group of people, the Nolensville Running Club, have volunteered their time and effort to help me (and a couple hundred of my neighbors) get moving and on my way to a healthier 2014. This week they launched their second annual Couch to 5K program, aimed at getting the horizontally-inclined on the road to completing a 5K run, specifically the Change for a Chance 5K taking place on June 14th in Nolensville.
The basic idea is that over the next several weeks, we’ll meet regularly with mentors, coaches and our fellow aspiring joggers to gradually build up to the point where we can finish that 5K race, which will be a first for many of us, including me.
First Step – the Time Trial
So with my new Fitbit on my wrist and my Nashville Predators Zigs on my feet, I showed up Thursday evening at Nolensville Elementary School with Amy and our 12-year-old twins to start our Couch-to-5K program. Amy went through it last year and ran her first 5K, so I’m going to see if I can follow in her footsteps this time around.
For starters, we went on a 1/2-mile jog around the school, recording our time to get a basic idea of which group we should start our training with: walkers, a 1-minute run/1-minute walk group, 2-minute run/1-minute walk, etc. all the way up to the full-time runners.
What I expected was to huff & puff my way for a few minutes, hoping not to make a fool of myself, as I’ve never been any kind of runner.
What surprised me, however, was the cadre of cheerleaders who lined the route, yelling and clapping and providing the encouragement which kept me chugging away. My goal during that initial run was to at least keeping jogging the entire distance, not breaking into a walk, and thanks in large part to those high-fives, I made it, a good half-minute or more behind my kids, but at least in one piece.
All I know is that once I caught my breath and chugged a couple cups of water, I felt great. The rest of the night, it was hard to sit still, and for now, I’m looking forward to our first real training session on Monday. I’m sure there will be tough days ahead and times when I know I should run but really don’t want to, but I’ll worry about those challenges when they come.
For now, our family’s C25K journey is off to a great start, and I look forward to where we’re headed, one slow jog at a time!
Hey Dirk! Came across this after reading your farewell blog from OTF. I am planning on starting this couch-to-5k next week, too. I was wondering how it’s going since you’re a few weeks ahead of me.
Thanks Bill! The Couch to 5K group is great, I’ve never done anything like this before but am having a fantastic time with it. There are groups for all different fitness levels, so I’m sure you’ll find a perfect fit in there somewhere. The important part is just showing up and participating!