C25K Update - 30% complete

Well, I am officially done the first 8 C25K workouts using the 5K Runner app, and I am still alive, with two functioning knees.  That's much better than I thought I would be doing, frankly.  I will take that as a win, thank you very much.

As a child I always ran (when pursued by wolves or some other predator) in a galumphing, ungainly, frankly thudding manner.  No gazelle, me.  As an adult I never had occasion to run for my life, what with wolves and other predators being scarce in the big city, and it certainly never occurred to me to run for fun.  Have you ever looked at the typical runner's face?  It does not scream "I am having fun".  Mostly, it just looks like they are in pain, or trying to work out some complex math problem in their head.  No thank you.

But I have recently signed up for something that would require me to run 5K, so it was important for me to gentle myself into this running thing.  Everyone recommended C25K as a good program for the rank beginner, and I have to say that so far, I have been <whispers> enjoying it more than I expected </end whispers>.

What's that?  I am having fun running?  Nooooot exactly.  But I am not hating it.  And I feel absolutely amazing when I stop running, which may be the entire point of this runner's high that I keep hearing about. 

I am also impressed with this 5K Runner app, which, like most of these C25K programs, works up the increments in stages that are challenging, but manageable.  I am not looking forward to some of those later sessions when I will have to be running 20 and 30 minutes at a stretch, but I am hopeful from my experience so far that I will be able to do it when the time comes.  The intervals appear to be chosen specifically to gradually increase the running time in manageable pieces - - at least until weeks 7 and 8 when it's just "run the whole time, sucka!". 

I still have to hold onto the treadmill when I run, and I am sure I sound like some kind of brontosaurus thundering across the plain, but each day I am more comfortable with the physics of running, and I am getting (gradually) used to the idea of running, which is a big part of the whole program.  Eventually I may even run like a big girl, arms pumping like I see people do on the street.  Not yet.  Perhaps when I have finished 60% of the program.

And it does feel kind of good to actually run in my running shoes, rather than merely use the elliptical.   It is also doing wonders for my mileage, which means I will have to replace said shoes earlier than my last pair.  It's worth it, if at the end I can hold my own against a 5K run.