AuburnChick's Adventures

That’s what my legs have been crying since yesterday.

Meghan, hostess of the Stitch-It Podcast, started a Couch to 5k thread on Ravelry.  I’ve been perusing it, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Someone there posted that Podrunner has music that follows this Couch to 5k training program, a nine-week training regimen.

Interest piqued, I googled.  You can find the site here.  The Podrunner has mixes for 5k, 8k, and 10k training programs.

You can also find the Podrunner podcast on iTunes.

Now, don’t be thinking that I’m planning on running a 5k.  AuburnChick is not that coordinated.  I can hardly walk across a room without tripping.

What I like about training for a 5k is the fact that I’m building endurance and stamina, and I’m challenging myself in the process.

I downloaded all nine-weeks worth of music and loaded them on my phone, which serves as my mp3 player.

After dropping Rooster off at Band Camp, I headed out.

The first few minutes were fine.  Heck, I can walk with the best of them.  The music, I’ll admit, is not my favorite.  It’s some sort of electric mix.  Whatever, I figured.  I can tolerate it for 29 minutes.

I listened to the introduction and then walked to the five-minute warm-up.

And then…

The sound…

The sound that indicates it is now time to run…

Oh

My

Goodness.

You run for one minute and walk for a longer period of time.  And that’s how you get through your three miles.

The first few running phases were okay.

It grew old.

Very quickly.

I cannot tell you how much I dreaded THE SOUND.

“Oh crap,” was the only thing I said.

Imagine me…walking for three minutes, hearing that sound, and uttering those words.

Over, and over, and over.

The rare exception was when I told myself, “C’mon Nathalie.  You can do it.  It’s only 60 seconds.”  The music got a bit on my nerves.  I suspect it was about the time I almost puked in the street.  But no, I didn’t stop.

By the time I got back to the garage, my legs were spent.

When I walked into the house, Chicky took one look at me and asked just how out-of-shape I was…if walking did that to me.

She didn’t know I’d actually run part of the way.

I cooled down, did a bit of upper body work with weights, and rewarded myself with a shower.

That was Day 1.

Today I allowed myself a rest from the Podrunner plan.  You’re supposed to train for three days and rest in-between.

I still wanted to get in some cardio, so I pulled my bike off of the rack in the garage.

Poor bike.  I’ve had it for ten years or so.  The Mr. and I spent a pretty penny on our bikes, and we had fun when we lived in South Florida.  There are sidewalks everywhere, making it a safe place to ride with the family.

Since moving up to no-man’s land, we have hardly used them.

I decided that riding my bike would be a lot easier than walking, and it would be a nice change of pace.

Yeah, right.

I got halfway down my street before the burn started.

My quads screamed for mercy.

Prior to climbing on the bike, I had formed a grand plan of riding around the neighborhood twice.  It’s roughly 2.8 miles one time around.  How great would it be to say I rode 5.6 miles?!

My legs laughed at me as I huffed and puffed and pedaled my way around each cul-de-sac.  I took the long way, not wanting to give in to defeat.

When at last I arrived home, I almost couldn’t get off of the bike.

That’s how sore I was.

A couple of glasses of water later, I finished off my workout by going through the five leg exercises here.  I had to focus on the how-to’s, so I put the computer on the floor for one of the exercises…

My poor body.  Muscles that were existing happily in hibernation land have been awakened, and boy are they grumpy.

I, for one, am thrilled.  Once I manage to cool off after each workout, I have a high that you can’t get from many things (chocolate included).  I feel good knowing that I’m doing something…anything…for my body.

Things like music can be tweaked.  I found a site that has Christian Indie tracks set to the same 5k program.  You can find it here.  The exercises can be tweaked, both to keep things interesting and to dump what doesn’t work for my body.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading out for the second day of 5k running.  If you see a crazed lady adorned in running attire muttering to herself, that will probably be me.

Have mercy…don’t honk.  Just pray.  😀

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: couch to 5k, exercise, podrunner, stitch it | 1 Comment »