Let's Try This Again

A few months ago (Nov 9, 2009 to be exact) I decided that it would be good for me, health wise, to become a runner. I have exercise and allergy induced asthma and had heard and read that running can be beneficial for asthmatics as long as the asthma is properly controlled. I had never really run before and knew it wouldn't be easy to just step outside of my door and take off running down the street.

Since I'm not used to such strenuous physical activity I needed to begin running gradually. I searched the internet for beginning running tips and came across a website that talked about a program called C25K. This is an acronym for Couch to 5K. It’s a running program that helps couch potataoes (that's me) run for 30 minutes straight, enough time for the average person to run a 5K race. Wow, that's just what I was looking for, a running program that starts slow and builds up gradually!Here’s the link to the website:

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Since it was November and cold outside, I began the C25K program on my treadmill in the basement. I was pretty impressed with how well I was doing after the first week. Unfortunately, I got off track a little into the second week so I started the program over. Then, after completing the second week of training, I got bronchitis and had to stop altogether.

Now the bronchitis is pretty much gone and I'm trying to get myself motivated to begin training again. I decided to join a local running club and started searching for blogs that have anything to do with running. I came across a blog from a woman that also has asthma and is running races! Now that’s the kind of inspiration that prompted me to check the race calendar of the running club.

There was a race scheduled for today called the Chiller Challenge that’s free to the club members. I've never run in a race before and feel intimidated just thinking about it so I decided to go watch how it all works and hopefully meet some of the people and get myself psyched up to begin the C25K running program again.

Well, it worked! I met a few new people, saw a few people I already knew but didn’t know they were runners and saw how an organized race works. It was very interesting and very motivating. Now I think I’ll go dust off my treadmill again, put on my headphones and start Week One, Day One (W1D1) of the C25K running program again.

Wish me luck!