Potato to 5k in Five Weeks

If you read my last post, you learned that I have slowly lost 54 pounds. Well, just a few weeks ago I decided to start the Couch to 5k running program. It trains you to go from a couch potato to running a 5k (3.1 miles) in 9 weeks.

Prior to starting the program, I improved my cardio stamina by using my elliptical machine for an hour three to four days a week for one month. That paid off. I went from not running at all to running a 5k in just over five weeks. If you are familiar with the program at all, you know week five plays a nasty, yet glorious trick on you. You begin week five by jogging for five minutes, then walking, then jogging five minutes again, etc., but by the end of week five the program jumps to twenty minutes of non-stop jogging! No more intervals of jogging and walking. Well, I figured, since I ran for twenty minutes and lived to tell about it, I might as well skip all the rest of the training weeks and go for the full 5k. It worked!

Tonight I ran around a local park with a registered 5k trail. I ran (well...jogged) the whole 3.1 miles without stopping. It was hard. It was brutal. I really wanted to stop several times. The trail has lots of unwelcome hills but plenty of people and things to look at to help pass the time.

And, since I promised a current photo, here is the picture my hubby took of me tonight as I finished my first 5k. If you haven't read my last post, go look at my "before" picture to see how much I've changed during my healthy transformation. I'd still like to lose eight more pounds so I can weigh what I did when I got married, but I'm not really hung up on the number on the scale. I just enjoy being healthy and am thrilled to be fit enough to complete a 5k.