Couch to 5K

When I was actively training, and people got a grip on the distances involved, and got over their astonishment that anyone would willingly do this, many of them asked, "what's the hardest distance?

I always told them, couch to 5K. Why?

Because on the couch is not moving. Running 5K is movement. Lots of movement, and it takes time and dedication and determination to move so you can run 5 K at once and not collapse in a heap or injure yourself doing it.

Once you can do 5K, it's not so hard to move up to 10 K. It's just a bit more of the same, and typically doesn't demand a lot in the nutrition or hydration departments. From 10 to 21.1 is a jump, it's true. Some planning is needed to take care of nutrition and hydration, and you need to start thinking about the right gear. What worked for 5K and about a half hour to 45 minutes might not work for 21.1 K and what could be 2 to 3 hours. We need not get into the jump to 42.2 K here.

Both of those jumps are easier than the jump from motionless to motion. More of the same, with a bit more planning as the distances get longer. Our bodies are evolved to run, and many people find that with a bit of care, they come to love running, and want to go further. I certainly have. There's been lots of times my body has been chugging along without me needing to pay attention to it, and I've been thinking of whatever. What I'll write in my blog is very common, I've written so many blog posts during workouts that you wouldn't believe. Lots of the novel writing has happened during a run. Sometimes I've noodled through problems at work. Sometimes I've just let my brain idle in neutral, and often been astonished at the end of the run how far I went.

I was last actively running in April and May, kind of nursing some nagging injuries. I decided to stop running and biking seriously over the summer and keep swimming. Well, that last one is sort of ok. There's been some shoulder issues as well. This getting old makes life difficult sometimes.

When you're active it's easy to run into other active people. I knew a few people in the local triathlon community, and have become good friends with some of them. But I never really thought of myself as an athlete or a competitor. I strived for athletic for my age group, which is a different thing entirely. In fact, one of my major unfulfilled triathlon goals is to finish mid-pack.

One of my buddies did Ironman and is now thinking about her next goals. I keep telling her one doesn't escape the Ironman taint that easily, because I haven't entirely escaped it either. Both of us are thinking of the next things. I want to get back to running regularly, if not the distances involved before. 5K  a few times a week is fine. Trick is getting back there.

Today was the first day. 40 minutes of walk run, 4x 4 min easy easy run (7:30 pace mostly downhill) and 1 minute walk, with a good walk to warm up and cool down.

Remember what I said? I am essentially getting off the couch here. Active retirement starts today.

To keep my flower fans happy, here's some lilies. Some of them like me, a little battered and worse for wear, but still hanging in there.