Couch to 5km....?

I decided today was the day to try to see if I can manage jogging. I've been wanting to try it for months but first I had to wait for my legs to stop being in pain all the time. Today it was finally time, I decided to bite the bullet and try to see if I could last longer than a slow jog across the street.

My timing was probably not the best as I decided to try the experimental jog after already spending the morning at the gym but I figured I wasn't going to last long so I may as well try when I was motivated. I downloaded a few running apps and laced up my sneakers, only for it to downpour as soon as I walked out the door. 

So I headed to the gym, which in hindsight, I think was a good way to start. Initally, I thought being outside would be easier as I wouldn't need to figure out treadmill speeds and could just go as I felt. But once trying it on the treadmill, it felt like a better system as it meant I couldn't sprint for the first few times (or jog quickly, in my case), and had to walk slowly during the 'walk' sessions. Being on a treadmill is also easier than outside so that also worked out in my favour.

I looked up a ton of 'Couch to 5Km' plans (also known as C25KM to the cool kids) and figured I should start slightly lower than they suggested for the run/walk segments for day 1. I started with 30 seconds jogging times with a minute and half walk (which is way shorter than every single walk to run plan) just to see if I could last 30 seconds.

I managed that for 10 minutes and upped it to jogging for one minute with two minute walking intervals (the time the plans start at) for another 10 minutes. My legs were somehow not dead after that so I decided to completely over-do it and managed a final 10 minutes with jogging for 45 seconds with 1 min and 15 seconds of walking breaks.

It felt amazing. Of course my legs were burning at the end but even that felt wonderful. It's still so wonderful to me that I'm capable of doing things like this that I just want to keep pushing my limits. I felt completely overwhelmed during the first 10 minute segment that I may have burst into tears of happiness. That really cinched my position as a cool kid at the gym.

So I guess I'm now going to try the whole "couch to 5km" plan. I found one app that I like that gives the "walk now" and "run now" alerts and can be set for custom run/walk times. I don't have a end date goal but seeing as most plans are for 6 or 9 weeks, I will probably be going for the longer time frame. I'll see if I can walk tomorrow and take it from there. I really don't want to overwhelm my knees and injure myself. If it ends up taking longer than 9 weeks, that's ok. Although I may sign up for a 5km in August just to give myself something fun to work toward. Yay jogging!