W1D1

This morning I started my official Couch to 5K training with Week 1, Day 1-- & I had a blast!  Who saw that one coming?  Not I, said the red-faced Sara.

W1D1 is 1 minute of running followed by 90 seconds of walking with a 5 minute warm-up & cool-down.  Do-able!

Key to my success/enjoyment was a C25K app that overlays your running & walking intervals with your music.  I'm such a rule monger that I needed a way to know that I was doing the right intervals or I would use inaccuracy as an excuse to quit.  Last night I laid out my gear & made my inaugural playlist--& what a playlist it was.  It was a thing of beauty.  As though I had planned it, Bon Jovi was wailing "It's My Liiiiiiiife..." exactly at the beginning of my first running interval, ACDC was screeching "you've been...THUNDERSTRUCK" exactly at my halfway point, Cee Lo was urging me to "forget yooou" exactly when I turned the corner onto a busy street & became acutely self-conscious, & there was Michael exactly at the beginning of my cool-down crooning "I'm starting with the man in the mirr-rah, oh, yeah."  I'm getting chills just thinking about it...or maybe I'm getting chills because I'm still sitting here in my damp running clothes, writing when I should probably be showering & investigating a date with the washing machine.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fitness level is decidedly above "couch."  A couple of times I was tempted to run longer than my appointed times, but decided to work the program as is & see what happens.  The last thing I want is to hurt myself & then give up.

On the list of things that were NOT surprising: yes, I got lost running in my own neighborhood & ended up running along a busy street that I would have sworn was no where near me.  The only thing worse than my ability to control binge eating is my sense of direction.  The upside of my wrong turn was that I got to run past "my" little cemetery & that made me happy.  There's something about a cemetery that I just love.  I don't know if it's the headstones, the quiet or the deceased, but it was really nice to run & celebrate life with my favorite unknown dead.

I was crying during the first run & crying again when Dave found me sitting on the step at the end.  I'm just so grateful for how far I have come & so excited for what it means for my family.  At 5:57 on a Sunday morning, I went for a run.  At 6:30, my husband took his bike out to do a brick workout.  It's not a big deal or an event, it's just my new life.