Run, Jenny! Run!

I consider myself to be moderately fit. I'm not a couch potato: I try to stay as active as someone with a ten hour a day desk job reasonably can. Thanks to the 30-Day Shred I can do a mean girl-pushup. But even at my fittest, I could never run.

As evidence, let me tell you about running the mile.  Do they still do the Presidential Fitness Test in high school? Well, way back in my day we did.  You know, after our class on fire-making and cave wall drawing, we'd walk out past the dinosaurs to the field where we'd engage in a series of about ten different physical activities where we'd be timed and ranked against our classmates.  I mastered most of them: pushups, situps, the wall-sit.  I ruled those. And then there was the mile run. The standard for the run was fourteen minutes. For me, there was just no way.

In my case, it was the mile walk. Every year it started out with a run, or at least a half-hearted jog, but it quickly devolved into an angry, breathless, twenty-eight minute walk. And that was at my best.  Things haven't improved since then. I still can't run. Like, if I ran to the end of the block, that would be pretty incredible. I'd probably have to be on fire to make that happen.  This needs to change, and it is changing this week.

I am starting the Couch to 5K program. The program is designed to help non-runners build up the stamina to run by alternating walking and running under a regimented, thrice-weekly program.  I need to do it this way because I've never been able to build up stamina on my own.

To help me out, I've downloaded a neat app for my iPhone.  I can't fail if I have enough gadgets, right? 


So now that I've announced my intentions here, I'll be too embarrassed to admit defeat or slack or let the program fade away after a week. I''m making myself as accountable as I possibly can on this so that I'll have no choice but to keep up with it. So, blog readers, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and my friends and family: any time over the next nine weeks, please ask me how the Couch to 5K is going. I had better have an answer, and if I don't, feel free to rip the donut out of my sticky hands and shame me within an inch of my life.  I mean that.  I really want to do this.

My plan is to run Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights.  

So, now that I've said that, anyone else want to join my virtual running team?  I've had a few takers on Twitter so far, but the more the merrier (or is it, misery loves company?)  Come run with me!